HR Associate, People Operations

We're hiring an HR Associate to help run the systems and operational side of People Operations at CEA. You'll own the processes that move people into, through, and out of the organisation: onboarding, contracts, expenses, payroll inputs, state and city tax filings, and the HR systems that connect them. You'll have real ownership of how these processes work, and the role includes projects to improve them with automation and AI. This position reports to Keighly Baron, HR Manager.

About CEA

The Centre for Effective Altruism (CEA) stewards the movement of people putting effective altruism principles into practice to solve the world's most pressing problems. We're working to build a flourishing future by applying evidence, reason, and compassion to challenges like global poverty, animal suffering, and existential risks.

Our work centers on growing and supporting a global community of people who rigorously analyze where they can do the most good and take action on those insights. Current strategic priorities include increasing understanding of effective altruism and its principles, growing the number of people who are motivated by EA principles to take significant action to address pressing problems, and diversifying funding sources for high-impact work.

We had significant success in 2025, building momentum within CEA. Our headcount grew from 42 to 66 core staff. Program participation (e.g., events, courses, groups) grew by 20-25% year over year. We merged with EA Funds and are rapidly scaling up our capacity for grantmaking and associated fundraising.

In 2026, we've maintained ambitious momentum while building the foundations for a step-change in the wider EA ecosystem's growth trajectory from 2027 onwards.

About the People Operations team

People Operations at CEA is a small team that handles the full employee lifecycle for a distributed, international staff. The team covers compensation and benchmarking, international employment compliance, payroll and benefits administration, onboarding, employee relations, and policy. You'll work most closely with the HR Manager and the People Operations Specialist, and with colleagues in Business Operations, Finance, and Legal.

About the role

You'll take over a set of operational responsibilities that are currently spread across the team. You'll also own projects: rebuilding the onboarding and offboarding workflow, building an HR metrics dashboard and a compliance calendar, and using AI to speed up drafting and routine requests.

We expect the role to be roughly half operations, a quarter systems and process projects, and a quarter onboarding, handbook, and employee experience. Early on you'll work with review before anything goes out (contracts, tax filings, payroll inputs). As you continue to onboard, that review loosens, and after probation you will move to fully owning payroll.

Key responsibilities

Operations

Prepare and track state and city tax registrations and filings, including annual benefit reporting. Work with Business Operations to escalate filing notices to Gusto.
Process expense reimbursements in Expensify for the US and UK, including routing reports to the correct approver when needed, and handle Deel expense approvals. Process UK taxable expenses through payroll.
Administer contracts for staff, contractors, and EOR team members. This covers generating agreements from approved templates, routing them through DocuSign, and filing them. Run the contractor onboarding process, including UK right-to-work checks where needed, invoicing instructions, and point-of-contact guidance.
Coordinate pre-clearance checks: run the process, collect documents, and track status against criteria set by the HR Manager.
Collect and validate payroll inputs for the US, UK, and Deel before the People Operations Specialist runs and approves payroll. After probation, take on full ownership of the process.
Provide first-line benefits administration, including enrolments, changes, and employee questions.
Run offboarding logistics, including removing access from systems and coordinating equipment returns with Business Operations.
Keep HRIS data accurate in Humaans, run reports on request, and reconcile accruals between Gusto, Deel, and Humaans.
Produce monthly HR and Finance reporting.
Send NDAs for work trials and set up email and Slack access for work-trial candidates and contractors.

Onboarding and employee experience

Run onboarding end to end: offer letter, I-9 (US) and right-to-work and DBS (UK) checks, welcome emails, first-day calls, manager communication, and the HR and manager checklists in Asana and Humaans.
Set up new joiners in our systems: Gusto, Ethena, 1Password, email and Google Groups, Slack, and Polly. Match new joiners with buddies.
Collect onboarding feedback and use it to improve the process.

Handbook and knowledge base

Maintain the staff handbook in Notion: formatting, version control, routing pages to reviewers, tracking sign-off, and keeping benefits and policy details accurate.
Write and maintain onboarding and manager documentation, and keep Notion tidy by clearing defunct pages and assigning page owners.
Update the website team page when people join, leave, or change roles.

Systems and process projects

Build AI workflows for contract drafting, an internal HR FAQ, and role updates.
Build an HR metrics dashboard covering headcount, turnover, and internal mobility.
Build a compliance calendar of recurring deadlines across jurisdictions. State and city filing dates will be the first entries.
Be the day-to-day contact for Humaans, including onboarding workflows, work anniversary and birthday automations, annual public holiday updates, and the quarterly call with our customer success manager.
Maintain Polly (adding and removing team members and updating reporting lines).

What the first 90 days look like

30 days: Complete onboarding and shadow each core process. Take over expense processing and system setup for new joiners.
60 days: Own onboarding and offboarding logistics, contract administration (with review), and payroll input collection. Complete your first full state and city tax filing cycle alongside the People Operations Specialist. Start the compliance calendar.
90 days: Run the monthly HR and Finance reporting. Take on the first process improvement project and present a plan for it.

What we're looking for

At a minimum, we want a candidate who has:

Operations experience. 2+ years of experience in operations, HR operations, people operations, or a similar role. You can run a process reliably, meet deadlines, and spot when something looks wrong.
Attention to detail. You'll handle payroll inputs, tax filings, and employee records, where errors cost money or create compliance risk.
Comfort with systems. You learn new tools quickly and have worked with HRIS, payroll, or similar platforms. Experience with tools like Humaans, Gusto, Deel, Expensify, Asana, Notion, Airtable, or DocuSign is helpful but not required.
Interest in HR. You have a basic understanding of HR and want to learn employment compliance, benefits, and payroll, and are excited to continue developing.
Skill with AI tools. You use AI in your own work and are interested in building workflows that save the team time.
Willingness to do administrative work. A large part of the job is clerical, and you're excited to do it well and look for ways to automate it.
Clear written communication. You'll write documentation, emails to new hires, and handbook content.
Commitment to CEA's mission. You're interested in effective altruism and the work CEA does.

It will be valuable if you also have:

Experience with US or UK employment processes such as I-9 verification, right-to-work checks, or payroll
Experience building automations or workflows (for example in Airtable, Zapier, or Notion)
Experience working in a remote or international team
Experience in a nonprofit or startup

We recognise we may not find someone who fits all of these criteria, and we encourage you to apply even if you aren't sure you're fully qualified.

Other information

This is a full-time, remote position. We prefer applicants who are able to work in time zones between US Pacific Time and GMT. We have an office in Oxford, UK, that you would have access to.

Start date: December 2026, with some flexibility for the right candidate

Reports to: Keighly Baron, HR Manager

Compensation:

US: For this role we offer a base salary of $79,200 - $90,000 and a 10% unconditional 401k contribution.
Other locations: For candidates outside the US, base salary is converted to local currency using a fixed exchange rate, and total compensation is adjusted based on the cost of employment and fixed local benefit costs to create an equivalent package.
Benefits globally include private health insurance, flexible work hours, a $6,000 annual professional development allowance, a $6,000 mental health support allowance, extended parental leave, ergonomic equipment, 25 days of paid vacation, and more.

This role may involve travel. There are likely 2-3 trips a year to attend team retreats and other events.

We want a team with a range of backgrounds and experiences and encourage people from all of them to apply. We especially encourage applications from self-identified women and people of colour who are excited about contributing to our mission. The Centre for Effective Altruism is an equal opportunity employer. If you need assistance or an accommodation due to a disability, or have any other questions about applying, please contact jobs@centreforeffectivealtruism.org.

CEA participates in E-Verify+ for US employees.

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Evaluation plan

We expect the interview process to include the following steps (subject to change):

Application
Screening Call
Initial Interview
Paid work test
Final interview
Reference checks

Centre for Effective Altruism

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