People Programs Specialist
People & HR · Full-time
San Francisco, CA, USA
About Mercor
Mercor's mission is to organize human intelligence to power the AI economy. We're a leading AI data company, building the layer between human expertise and frontier models. Millions of domain experts on the platform are paid over $4 million per day to train frontier AI models. Mercor's APEX benchmark family measures AI's real-world impact on professional work. Mercor Enterprise brings this same infrastructure to Fortune 500 companies: helping companies capture how their best people actually work, translating that expertise directly back into agents.
Mercor is creating a new category of work where expertise powers AI advancement. Achieving this requires an ambitious, fast-paced and deeply committed team. You’ll work alongside researchers, operators, and AI companies at the forefront of shaping the systems that are redefining society. Mercor is a profitable Series C company valued at $10 billion. We work in-person five days a week in our San Francisco, NYC, or London offices.
The role
Mercor is growing at a pace few companies ever reach. We're bringing in new employees every week, many of our managers are leading teams for the first time, and the programs that support our people need to keep up.
We're looking for a People Programs Specialist who can make that happen.
You'll help run the programs that shape how employees join Mercor, how managers lead, how people develop and how we support employees throughout their time here. This is a role that combines program delivery, People operations, compliance and automation. You'll be just as comfortable facilitating a room of new managers as you are getting into an HR system, troubleshooting an onboarding issue or building a workflow that eliminates repetitive work.
You'll work directly with the Head of People and People Leads to shape priorities and improve programs, then take ownership of executing them. We want someone who can identify what needs to be done, bring ideas for making it better and follow through without needing constant direction.
There's plenty to build, and the scope will evolve as Mercor grows. You'll need to be comfortable working across different parts of People, learning quickly and taking on new challenges as they emerge.
What you'll do
Manager enablement and employee development
Many of Mercor's managers are leading people for the first time. You'll help give them the skills, tools and support to do it well.
Own the delivery of new manager onboarding and ongoing manager development programs, including scheduling, facilitation, communications and follow-up.
Facilitate training sessions on feedback, performance management, employee development and Mercor's management practices.
Partner with managers and People leadership to identify employee skill gaps and coordinate targeted upskilling opportunities.
Gather feedback from participants, track whether programs are working and make improvements to content and delivery.
Build repeatable training resources and tools that managers can use as their teams grow.
People programs and employee experience
You'll turn People priorities into programs that run reliably and produce measurable results.
Execute recurring People programs, including employee engagement surveys, feedback initiatives and development programs, from planning through delivery and reporting.
Coordinate communications, timelines and stakeholders so programs launch on time and employees understand what they need to do.
Track participation, adoption and outcomes, identify what isn't working and recommend changes.
Maintain clear, accessible employee resources, People policies and process documentation.
Help implement policies consistently, working with People leadership and relevant partners when questions or exceptions arise.
Employee lifecycle and onboarding
A strong employee experience starts with getting the operational details right. You'll help ensure employees can join, move within and leave Mercor through processes that are accurate, compliant and well coordinated.
Run end-to-end onboarding operations, from signed offer through an employee's first weeks, including background checks, I-9 verification, HRIS and payroll setup, benefits enrollment, equipment, systems access and orientation.
Coordinate closely with Talent, IT, Payroll and hiring managers to ensure employees are ready for their first day.
Facilitate onboarding sessions and continuously improve the new-hire experience.
Execute employee lifecycle changes, including role changes, team transfers, manager changes and offboarding, ensuring systems, documentation and relevant stakeholders stay aligned.
Coordinate immigration cases with outside counsel, tracking documentation, employee communications and deadlines.
Identify recurring onboarding and lifecycle issues and fix the processes behind them, rather than repeatedly solving the same problems.
People operations and compliance
Strong People programs depend on accurate systems, reliable processes and a solid understanding of employment requirements. Compliance isn't separate from employee experience. It's part of delivering it well.
Maintain accurate employee data, documentation and records across Mercor's People systems.
Own or support HRIS workflows and system administration for assigned People programs and lifecycle processes.
Ensure onboarding, employee changes and offboarding follow applicable compliance requirements, including I-9 verification and relevant multi-state employment obligations.
Track compliance deadlines and requirements within your scope, identify risks early and coordinate with Legal, Finance and other partners to resolve them.
Support internal and external audits by preparing records, validating data and addressing findings.
Assist with regulatory reporting, including EEO-1 and California pay data reporting, in partnership with People leadership, Legal and Finance.
Automation and continuous improvement
Mercor is an AI company. We expect our People team to use technology to work smarter, not just manage more manual processes as we grow.
Build and maintain automated workflows that reduce repetitive work, improve accuracy and make employee processes easier to navigate.
Use AI and no-code tools to create lightweight internal tools, improve communications and simplify People operations.
Identify opportunities to connect systems, improve handoffs and prevent errors before they affect employees.
Take ideas from problem identification through working solutions, testing them with users and improving them based on feedback.
Measure the impact of improvements, including time saved, errors reduced and better experiences for employees and managers.
What we're looking for
People programs and operational experience
3+ years of hands-on experience in People programs, People operations or a similar role, ideally in a high-growth technology company.
Experience owning and executing People programs, not just contributing to them. You can explain what you built, what you personally managed and how you measured success.
Experience delivering employee training, manager enablement or learning programs, including facilitating sessions yourself.
Experience managing recurring programs and operational processes with multiple stakeholders, deadlines and dependencies.
Systems, compliance and automation
Working knowledge of the US employee lifecycle, including onboarding, I-9 requirements, multi-state considerations, employee changes and offboarding.
Hands-on experience administering HR systems, maintaining employee data and managing operational workflows.
Experience building automations or lightweight internal tools using AI, no-code or low-code platforms (such as Cursor, Retool or Zapier). We're looking for someone who has actually built things, not just identified opportunities to automate.
Experience maintaining compliance documentation, supporting audits or coordinating regulatory requirements.
Comfort working with Legal, Payroll, IT and outside providers to resolve operational issues.
How you work
You're confident facilitating groups, from welcoming a cohort of new hires to running a training session for managers.
You write clearly and practically. You can explain a policy, document a process and make complicated information easy for employees to understand.
You're detail-oriented and discreet with employee information, compliance requirements and time-sensitive processes.
You take ownership, anticipate problems and follow through without needing reminders.
You bring urgency without sacrificing accuracy, and you know when something needs to be escalated.
You're comfortable switching between running a program, solving an operational problem and building something new, even when the process isn't fully defined yet.
You look for ways to simplify and automate work rather than accepting repetitive manual processes.
Nice to haves
Experience enabling first-time managers in a rapidly scaling organization.
Experience with Rippling and employee service desk or ticketing tools.
Exposure to immigration coordination, international employees or employer-of-record arrangements.
Experience supporting EEO-1, California pay data reporting or other employment compliance reporting.
Why join Mercor
Build programs that matter. Your work will directly influence how managers lead, how employees develop and how people experience Mercor as we scale.
Work close to the decisions. You'll partner directly with the Head of People and collaborate with teams across the company. You'll have visibility into what the business needs and the opportunity to help shape how we respond.
Do more than maintain existing processes. There is real room to build, automate and improve how People operates. You'll be trusted to bring ideas, try solutions and own the results.
Grow with the company. As Mercor scales, the complexity and reach of our People programs will grow too. This is an opportunity to develop broad experience across People programs, operations, systems and employee development.