People Operations Generalist
Nominal
Operations, People & HR
New York, NY, USA
Posted on Aug 2, 2025
About Nominal
Nominal is building the software infrastructure powering the world’s most advanced hardware systems — from spacecraft and autonomous vehicles to next-generation industrial machines. Our platform ingests high-rate telemetry, validates complex autonomy software in real time, and enables engineers to iterate faster without sacrificing safety or precision. We’re a small, fast-moving team of engineers and operators who own problems end-to-end, work across disciplines, and thrive on challenges at the intersection of hardware and software.
As a dual-use platform, we serve top-tier commercial and defense customers, including the U.S. Navy, United States Air Force, Shield AI, and Anduril. We’re backed by Sequoia, General Catalyst, Founders Fund, Lux Capital, and Lightspeed Ventures. Our team draws experience from SpaceX, Palantir, Anduril, Applied Intuition, and other leading companies — united by a common mission: enabling hardware engineers to push the boundaries of advanced technology with speed, safety, and precision.
As a People Operations Generalist at Nominal, you will own and elevate core HR operations across the employee lifecycle. You’ll be a critical partner to teams across Nominal, ensuring that our internal people systems and experiences are as thoughtful and high-performing as the customers we support. You will play a critical role in people system ownership, resolution of employee issues, and facilitation of a frictionless employee experience. If you thrive in a fast-paced environment and love building and refining people systems, we'd love to meet you!
🔎 What You'll Do
- Own and manage our HRIS (Rippling) and people systems (Notion), ensuring accurate, up-to-date employee data and smooth day-to-day operations
- Serve as the go-to resource for employees on HR policies, benefits, and general inquiries
- Coordinate end-to-end onboarding and offboarding processes, partnering with cross-functional stakeholders like IT, Talent, and Payroll
- Process employee lifecycle changes, including promotions, compensation adjustments, and leaves of absence
- Maintain compliance with federal, state, and local employment laws, including EEO, ACA, and workers’ comp reporting
- Help administer payroll inputs and partner closely with our Finance team and PEO provider to ensure timely and accurate execution
- Track and report on key people metrics and support internal audits as needed
- Contribute to building and refining scalable programs around performance, engagement, inclusion, and manager training
- Support the broader People team with special projects as they arise—no task is too small
🔑 We're looking for someone with:
- 2-5 years of experience in People Operations, HR Generalist, or equivalent roles in a high-growth startup environment
- Confident navigating multi-state employment laws and working with distributed teams
- Hands-on experience with HR systems (HRIS, ATS, PEO platforms) and comfortable managing systems administration
- Excellent attention to detail, organization, and follow-through—you take pride in running a tight ship
- Discretion - you know how to maintain confidentiality but also recognize what needs to be escalated
- Empathetic, approachable, and energized by creating a frictionless employee experience
- Promote Clarity - Clear and thoughtful communicator, especially with a distributed team
- Comfortable wearing many hats and stepping into ambiguity
- Ability and interest in working from the NYC office 5 days/week
- Bonus: Experience working with these specific tools - Rippling, Notion, Navan, Ramp, GSuite, and Slack
🌟 Why You'll Love It Here
- 100% coverage of medical, dental, and vision insurance
- Unlimited PTO and generous parental leave
- Company retreats and regular social events
- High trust, low ego culture—where people genuinely care about doing great work together
All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or national origin.
ITAR Requirements
To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, applicant must be a (i) U.S. citizen or national, (ii) U.S. lawful, permanent resident (aka green card holder), (iii) Refugee under 8 U.S.C. § 1157, or (iv) Asylee under 8 U.S.C. § 1158, or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. Learn more about the ITAR here.