People Operations Manager

The Company

MaverickX is engineering the future of chemistry for natural resource extraction. We are intensely focused on bringing economic value to our customers, shareholders, and employees—while solving pressing resource challenges facing the United States and the world.

The Team

People Operations at MaverickX is building the engine that powers everything else. As our first dedicated hire in this function, you'll shape how we attract, onboard, and retain the scientists, engineers, operators, and commercial talent needed to scale from R&D to full commercialization. You'll work directly with leadership across every department to build the team that builds the company.

The Role

We're looking for a People Operations Manager who moves fast and owns outcomes. Recruiting is 60–70% of the job—you'll run full-cycle hiring across R&D, manufacturing, field operations, and commercial functions, building pipelines and processes from scratch. The rest of your time goes to HR fundamentals: onboarding, compliance, benefits coordination, and partnering with department leads on safety training and accountability. This is a hands-on execution role for someone who thrives in ambiguity, brings structure to chaos, and understands that great companies are built one great hire at a time.

Responsibilities

• Recruiting Own full-cycle recruiting for all roles (R&D, manufacturing, field, sales, BD, operations). Build job descriptions, scorecards, sourcing channels, and interview processes. Manage candidate pipelines, scheduling, references, and offer processes. Maintain ATS and hiring metrics; drive process improvements. Build talent bench for future growth (oilfield techs, scientists, ops, sales)
• People Operations & HR Own onboarding and offboarding workflows. Manage employee files, benefits administration, and HR compliance (via Gusto). Maintain org charts, job levels, compensation bands, and role definitions. Support performance review cycles and manager consistency. Help define culture and internal communication norms. Coordinate with Finance on payroll changes and role approvals
• Safety & Compliance Coordinate and track all required safety training for lab, manufacturing, and field personnel. Ensure team members follow internal safety protocols, PPE requirements, and site-specific procedures. Facilitate onboarding safety orientation and certify completion of required modules. Support lab and facility leads in maintaining compliance with OSHA, local permitting, hazard communication, and internal SOPs. Conduct periodic walk-throughs with R&D and Manufacturing to ensure procedures are being followed. Assist with incident reporting, follow-up actions, and documentation. Partner with leaders to improve safety culture, ensure accountability, and close gaps
  
  
  

Qualifications

• 3–7 years of experience in HR, People Operations, recruiting, or a similar role.
• Proven experience managing full-cycle recruiting across multiple functions.
• Strong understanding of HR compliance, onboarding/offboarding, and employment best practices.
• Experience implementing and managing HR systems (Gusto, ATS, org chart tools)
• Ability to build processes from scratch and execute in a fast-moving, high-growth environment.
• Excellent organization, follow-through, and attention to detail.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills; ability to work with confidential information.
• Demonstrated ability to coordinate across teams (R&D, manufacturing, sales, operations)
  
  
  

Preferred Skills And Experiences

• Experience recruiting technical or operational roles (lab, manufacturing, oilfield, engineering). Strongly preferred but not required.
• Prior exposure to safety, environmental, or regulatory compliance programs (OSHA, PPE, chemical handling, SDS, permitting)
• Experience supporting laboratory environments, chemical handling, or manufacturing operations.
• Familiarity with safety management systems, incident reporting, and training documentation.
• Experience in a startup or high-growth environment building HR processes from zero.
• Comfortable working in-person across R&D labs, production facilities, and field operations.
• Experience with compensation benchmarking, job leveling, or performance management cycles