HR Manager, People Operations & Talent

WATT is seeking a hands-on HR Manager to help build the people infrastructure required to support our next stage of growth. This role is ideal for an HR professional who has worked in a small or scaling company and is comfortable balancing day-to-day HR execution with the creation of formal programs, policies, and processes.

The HR Manager will own recruiting, onboarding, training coordination, employee relations, performance management, HR compliance, and core people operations. This person will work closely with leadership and managers to support a growing manufacturing and technical workforce while helping WATT build HR systems that can scale as the company grows.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead recruiting efforts for manufacturing, technical, engineering, operations, and administrative roles.
• Partner with hiring managers to create job descriptions, interview plans, scorecards, and structured hiring processes.
• Manage onboarding for new employees, including offer letters, documentation, orientation, training assignments, and early performance check-ins.
• Develop and maintain role-based training programs, training matrices, and completion tracking.
• Support the creation and rollout of performance review programs, including 30/60/90-day plans, goal setting, manager feedback tools, and annual or semiannual reviews.
• Coach managers on employee relations, performance documentation, corrective action, and termination processes.
• Maintain HR policies, employee handbook updates, personnel files, I-9 documentation, and other compliance-related records.
• Support wage and hour compliance, exempt/non-exempt classification, leave administration, and other federal and state employment requirements.
• Help implement and improve HR systems, including timekeeping, scheduling, vacation tracking, employee communications, and HR reporting.
• Support compensation planning, job leveling, bonus programs, and scalable HR processes as the company grows.
• Partner with leadership, finance, and legal advisors to build HR practices suitable for a company that may pursue public-company readiness in the future.
• Ideal Experience5–10 years of progressive HR experience, preferably in a small or scaling company.
• Experience recruiting for manufacturing, technical, engineering, or operations roles.
• Direct experience building or improving onboarding, training, and performance management programs.
• Strong knowledge of federal and state employment law requirements.
• Experience with employee relations, manager coaching, performance documentation, and HR compliance.
• Comfortable working in a hands-on environment where HR processes are still being built.
• Experience in manufacturing, energy, hardware, industrial technology, aerospace, defense, or another operationally complex environment preferred.
• Experience with HRIS, timekeeping, scheduling, or employee communication platforms preferred.

Exposure to compensation planning, job leveling, equity compensation is a plus.

Candidate Profile

The right candidate is practical, organized, credible with managers, and comfortable creating structure without slowing the business down. This person should be able to recruit employees, support managers, protect the company legally, and build HR programs that scale with the organization.