HR Operations Specialist

At Loka, our teams have helped clients advance the world's #1 AI reading tutor, eliminate $1B in food waste and develop novel drugs for fighting cancer. To cap it off, at the end of 2024 Loka was recognized by AWS as Innovation Partner of the Year, outshining 150,000 partners for the title. And we did it all while working remotely and enjoying every other Friday off 😎.

The Role

Be the operational backbone of HX Ops in Western Europe: reliable, compliant and impact-aware, executing the standards the HX Ops team sets, and owning the judgment calls day to day. You'll be one of the first points of contact for HX requests in the region, balancing urgency, employee impact, risk and cost while keeping Loka's global HX Ops standards and local legal realities in sync. This is a role for someone who wants real end-to-end ownership, not a queue to work through in order. This is a hybrid role, requiring 2 days per week in our Portugal office.

Key Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end HX Operations for Western Europe: onboarding, offboarding, contracts, local legal compliance, payroll coordination, benefits administration and vendor relationships.
• Act as one of the first points of contact for HX requests in the region, triaging and resolving based on urgency, employee impact, risk and cost, escalating complex or high-risk cases to the HX Operations Manager.
• Coordinate payroll inputs, expenses and benefits administration with Finance and local providers, with full accountability for accuracy and deadlines.
• Manage raises, promotions and other salary-related administrative processes with precision and confidentiality.
• Run the Lisbon office day to day, from space, supplies, and equipment logistics to vendor relationships and invoicing, while shaping a welcoming culture and environment that makes it a place people want to be.
• Own vendor and contract relationships for your region, including benefits providers, local vendors and other regional suppliers.
• Ensure local legal and compliance accuracy while aligning with Loka's global HX Ops standards, flagging where local requirements need to override global consistency.
• Identify process gaps, bottlenecks and manual work in your region, and propose and help build fixes such as documentation, workflow changes and automation.
• Support internal programs and employee experience initiatives in your region as needed.

Qualifications

Must-Haves

• 3-5 years in HR Operations, People Operations or HR Generalist roles with real end-to-end ownership of operational processes, not purely administrative support.
• Hands-on experience with payroll coordination, benefits administration, contracts and compliance in at least one country.
• Demonstrated ability to prioritize and make judgment calls based on urgency, employee impact, risk and cost, this is not a "work the queue in order" role.
• Experience operating in a service-oriented, internal-customer-facing HR or People function.
• Comfortable working autonomously in a remote-first, globally distributed organization.

Strongly Preferred

• Experience operating across more than one country, or in a multi-country HR Ops setup.
• Working knowledge of Portuguese labor law and compliance; familiarity with labor laws in other countries is a plus.
• Process and systems mindset, with experience improving workflows, documentation, automation or HR tooling.
• Background in a fast-growing or scaling organization.
• Regular collaboration with Finance and/or Legal.
• AI proficiency, with comfort using AI tools to streamline HR Ops workflows, documentation and reporting.

Additional Requirements

• Excellent English: As a global team, we work entirely in English for meetings, customer calls and business communications.
• CV written in English.

Personality Profile

• Curious: You're eager to learn and grow among a cutting-edge tech team.
• Autonomous and positive: You excel in a fully remote, globally distributed workplace.
• Team player: You enjoy collaboration.
• Adaptable: You operate with a startup mindset and move at a startup pace.
• Trustworthy: You handle confidential and sensitive information with judgment and discretion.

Benefits

• Every other Friday off (26 extra days off a year)
• Remote and flexible
• Explore and Travel programs (three months work abroad)
• Paid sick days and local holidays
• Access to LokaLabs™, our internal research and development program
• Fitness subscription
• Mental wellness programs
• Defined career path
• Business English classes

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