People Operations Specialist

People Operations Specialist - Onboarding

About Kikoff

Kikoff is a profitable fintech unicorn on a mission to help millions of Americans build credit and financial independence. Having grown from 10 to 150+ employees over the past four years, we're scaling rapidly while maintaining our culture of excellence and intensity. We believe in moving fast, raising the bar, and drinking from the firehose - and we need someone who can ensure every new hire is ready to thrive in this environment from day one.

The Opportunity

We're looking for a People Operations Specialist to own and revolutionize our onboarding experience. You'll be responsible for transforming high-potential candidates into fully ramped Kikoff team members, managing multiple cohorts per week through an intensive onboarding program. This is a high-visibility role reporting directly to our Chief of Staff/VP of HR, with clear paths to HRBP or People program management leadership.

This isn't your typical warm-and-fuzzy HR role. You'll be equal parts operational executor, cultural ambassador, and accountability driver - ensuring new hires are welcomed warmly while being pushed to ramp faster than they thought possible.

What You'll Own

Pre-Boarding Operations (25%)

• Coordinate end-to-end visa and immigration processes for international employees
• Manage background check processes to ensure on-time starts
• Temporarily own IT systems and equipment coordination (until IT Manager hire)
• Track and resolve any pre-boarding blockers that could delay start dates
  
  

Onboarding Program Execution (50%)

• Design and execute cohort-based onboarding for new hires weekly
• Coordinate and schedule cross-functional programming, ensuring all departments deliver their components
• Create an intense yet welcoming experience that reinforces our hard-charging culture
• Maintain energy and momentum throughout the onboarding journey
• Ensure seamless logistics from day 1 through 90-day milestone
  
  

Program Innovation & Improvement (25%)

• Partner with leadership to continuously iterate on onboarding programming
• Define and track success metrics including time-to-productivity, new hire NPS, and manager satisfaction
• Identify bottlenecks and implement data-driven improvements
• Push departments to develop role-specific onboarding tracks
• Collaborate with our People Analytics & Insights Strategist to measure program effectiveness
  
  

What Success Looks Like

• Onboarding runs smoothly without executive involvement in logistics
• New hires consistently rate their onboarding experience 4.5+ out of 5
• Managers report new hires are productive 20% faster than baseline
• Successful experiments and iterations launched monthly
• Zero delays or mishaps in pre-boarding logistics
• Other functions proactively engage in delivering their onboarding components
  
  

You'll Thrive in This Role If You

• Live for operational excellence: You're naturally organized, detail-obsessed, and nothing falls through the cracks on your watch
• Influence without authority: You've successfully coordinated complex projects across multiple stakeholders who don't report to you
• Balance warmth with intensity: You can make someone feel welcomed while pushing them to perform at their highest level
• Think in systems and data: You don't measure success by "feelings" but by metrics, trends, and quantifiable improvements
• Learn and iterate quickly: You're comfortable with ambiguity and see every week as a chance to make onboarding better
• Communicate with precision: You can create clear, thoughtful content and facilitate engaging programming
  
  

Experience We're Looking For

• 1-2+ years of experience in operations, HR, consulting, or program management (exceptional high-slope candidates with less experience will be considered)
• Track record of managing complex, multi-stakeholder processes
• Experience in high-growth tech companies or fast-paced consulting environments preferred
• Data analysis skills and comfort with metrics-driven decision making
• Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience
• Bonus: Experience with visa/immigration processes or HRIS systems