Senior People Ops Manager

Max Retail empowers independent retailers and brands to reach hundreds of millions of consumers through technology that makes multichannel selling as easy as “click, click, sold.” The platform connects sellers to leading online marketplaces, automating listings, pricing, and fulfillment. By helping businesses move inventory faster and more profitably, Max Retail fuels a more circular, sustainable retail economy. 

Max Retail is a fast-scaling e-commerce retailer building the people infrastructure to match our ambitions. We are looking for a People Ops Manager who has done this before - someone who walks in, earns trust fast, and builds the systems, programs, and culture that let our team grow without breaking. This is not a maintain-and-report role - it is a build-and-lead role. You will own People Ops end-to-end: from designing career frameworks and running performance cycles to launching our L&D program and coaching managers who have never had real HR support. When you are done, every team member has a growth plan, every manager has the tools to lead, and Max Retail has a People function it can scale on.

What You’ll Do

• Builder First: You don't wait for a playbook - you write it. You have built HR infrastructure from scratch and know what order to do things in.

• L&D Champion: You believe that learning is a business lever, not an HR checkbox. You have designed programs that actually changed how people work.

• Trusted Partner: Employees bring you their real concerns. Leaders bring you their honest problems. You hold both with discretion and zero drama.

• Systems Thinker: You see the process behind every problem. You build things that outlast your involvement.

• Coach, Not Enforcer: You build manager capability through relationships and real conversations - not compliance checklists.

• High EQ, High Output: You can hold space for a sensitive employee conversation in the morning and present a talent framework to leadership in the afternoon.

 Who You Are:

• 5–8+ years in People Ops, HR Business Partner, or a closely comparable role, ideally inside a high-growth startup or e-commerce environment

• Proven track record building HR infrastructure from scratch: career ladders, review cycles, L&D programs, and HR policies

• Demonstrated experience designing and running Learning & Development initiatives - not just coordinating training

• Comfortable operating as the only People Ops presence in the room and making the call when there is no precedent

• Lattice-Fluent: You have been in the tool, not just heard of it. You can diagnose what is broken and fix it.

• HR infrastructure design: career ladders, performance frameworks, policy documentation

• Learning & Development: curriculum design, program management, manager enablement, vendor or platform evaluation

• Lattice administration and optimization: review cycles, 360s, goal tracking

• Employee relations: discretion, neutrality, and sound judgment in sensitive situations

• Manager coaching and facilitation: building capability through relationships

• PEO familiarity: onboarding, offboarding, and compliance workflows (Justworks or similar)

• HR systems audit and tooling evaluation: diagnose what exists, build what doesn't, optimize for scale

• Executive reporting: translating People Ops data into ROI-focused insights for leadership

Nice-to-Haves

• Experience partnering directly with a founder or small leadership team who previously owned people functions themselves

• Background in e-commerce, retail tech, or similarly fast-moving consumer businesses

• Prior fractional, embedded, or consulting experience — you know how to operate with authority inside someone else's org