HRIS Specialist

Job Description

Term:               Full-time, salaried

Pay:                  $90,000–$100,000 annually, depending on location and experience, plus health insurance, paid time off, and other benefits. Los Angeles-based candidates: $90,000–$95,000. San Francisco-based candidates: $100,000.

Location:          Los Angeles, CA or San Francisco, CA

Reports To:       Chief Administrative Officer. Upon hire of the HRIS Director, this position will report to that role.

Organization Description:

Urban Alchemy hires individuals who were once incarcerated and trains them to transform people and places through love and respect. We provide services that heal communities challenged by the intersection of extreme poverty, mental illness, addiction, and homelessness. When individuals are suffering in our public spaces, Urban Alchemy offers solutions. When a neighborhood, street, or intersection earns a reputation as a place to avoid, we turn it around. Urban Alchemy staff, known as Practitioners, create a peaceful and supportive presence, helping our communities rebuild a sense of pride one person at a time. Urban Alchemy is a nonprofit organization founded in 2018. We quickly grew from a small program in San Francisco to a thriving social enterprise with over 1,000 staff. We currently operate in California, Alabama, Colorado, Georgia, New Mexico, and Oregon. Over 95% of Urban Alchemy employees, including leadership, experienced incarceration and/or homelessness. For more information visit our website.

Position Summary:

The HRIS Specialist owns Urban Alchemy's HRIS function at the operational level. This is a high-volume, high-stakes role in a fast-paced, fast-changing environment. Urban Alchemy is actively expanding, standing up new worksites, onboarding large cohorts of staff, and operating under litigation-driven reporting obligations that require accurate, timely, and analytically rigorous data output. The HRIS Specialist is the person who makes all of that work.

Paycom is Urban Alchemy's HRIS platform and the operational backbone of HR, payroll, benefits, talent management, and time management. The HRIS Specialist is the subject matter expert and primary administrator for the system. That means building and maintaining configuration as the organization grows, running and delivering complex reports for HR and Operations leadership, and ensuring that the data the organization relies on is accurate, complete, and secure.

This role is not a support desk. It is a systems ownership role with a service orientation. The HRIS Specialist resolves escalated system issues, builds end user capability across a workforce that includes many staff members who are not comfortable with technology, and partners across HR functions to make sure workflows are correctly reflected in the system. They move with urgency, communicate clearly, and hold a high standard for data integrity because the cost of getting it wrong is real.

This work requires independent judgment, strong analytical ability, and genuine patience with people who are learning. The HRIS Specialist is often the bridge between a system's capabilities and an end user's confidence. That bridge has to hold.

Position Duties and Responsibilities:

HRIS is infrastructure work. Every report pulled for litigation, every new worksite configured in Paycom, every user who cannot log in, every payroll data discrepancy investigated: all of it has downstream consequences for employees, Operations, and the organization's legal and financial standing. The HRIS Specialist is expected to hold that weight and execute with precision regardless of volume, pace, or competing demands.

This is also a service role. Urban Alchemy employs a large, diverse workforce. Many Practitioners and Operations staff are not experienced technology users. The HRIS Specialist meets people where they are, without condescension, and builds their confidence in the system alongside solving their immediate problem.

Systems Administration and Data Integrity

• Administer and maintain Paycom across all functional modules, including HR, Payroll, Applicant Tracking, Time Management, Benefits, Talent Management, Reporting, and additional modules as utilized by the organization
• Configure and stand up new worksites in Paycom as Urban Alchemy expands into new locations; own this process from setup through validation and go-live support
• Define and enforce data integrity standards across employee records, payroll data, and system configurations; identify and correct errors proactively
• Conduct regular HRIS audits to ensure accuracy and compliance with established workflows for onboarding, status changes, and terminations
• Partner with HR, Systems, and IT on system upgrades, enhancements, and integrations; serve as the HR-side subject matter expert in those projects
• Maintain system documentation including configuration records, process procedures, user guides, and training materials; keep documentation current as the system and workflows evolve
• Ensure compliance with data privacy and security regulations in all HRIS administration activities

Reporting and Analytics

• Run and deliver reports as requested by HR, Payroll, Operations, and executive leadership; translate data output into clear, usable summaries that meet the requirements of the request
• Maintain and develop HR dashboards that support data-driven decision-making across HR functions
• Manage Urban Alchemy's litigation-related reporting obligations from an HRIS perspective; produce accurate, defensible data in response to legal and compliance reporting requests with urgency and precision
• Identify trends in workforce data and surface them with recommendations to HR leadership
• Apply strong analytical skills, including pivot tables and lookup functions, to manage and analyze large, complex datasets

End User Support and Training

• Serve as the primary resource for internal Paycom users across HR, Payroll, and Operations; resolve access issues, troubleshoot system errors, and respond to help desk inquiries with urgency and a high standard of customer service
• Deliver end user training for Paycom across all functional modules; communicate system functionality clearly and practically to users with widely varying levels of technical comfort
• Build end user capability, not just solve immediate problems; the HRIS Specialist leaves every training interaction with the user more confident than when they started
• Partner with HR leadership to identify recurring support needs and address them through proactive training, documentation, or system improvements
• Stay current on Paycom product updates and translate relevant changes into user-facing guidance

General

• Follow all safety procedures and ensure compliance with OSHA, state, local, and Urban Alchemy policies
• Attend orientation and complete all required training mandated by the organization or funders
• Wear designated Urban Alchemy uniform and ID badge at all times; HR staff are held to the same uniform standard as Practitioners
• Perform additional duties as assigned by supervisor

Position Requirements:

Technical Requirements

• 3 years of proven experience in HRIS administration or a closely related HR/IT role
• Deep functional knowledge of Paycom strongly preferred; equivalent experience in Workday, SAP SuccessFactors, Oracle HCM, or a comparable enterprise HRIS is acceptable
• Strong proficiency in HR reporting and analytics; expert-level skill in pivot tables and VLOOKUP/HLOOKUP functions required
• Strong understanding of HR and payroll processes and how they are reflected in HRIS configuration and data
• Familiarity with data privacy regulations, including requirements applicable to employee data
• Experience supporting new system configurations, system buildouts, or site standup processes preferred
• Proficiency in Google Workspace and Microsoft Office
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills; ability to communicate clearly with users at all technical levels and with HR, Operations, and executive stakeholders
• Bachelor's degree in Human Resources, Information Technology, Computer Science, or a related field strongly preferred

Character and Judgment

• You move with urgency. High-volume environments do not wait. You triage quickly, respond promptly, and do not let requests sit unanswered. You understand that a report not delivered, an access issue not resolved, or a data error not caught on time has real consequences for real people.
• You own your work. You know the status of every open item, you do not wait to be told what comes next, and you close the loop without being asked.
• You hold a high standard for accuracy. Data errors are not minor inconveniences. They affect payroll, compliance, litigation, and the employees who depend on HR to get it right. You check your work, and then you check it again.
• You communicate clearly and completely. When a report is delivered, you explain what it shows and how it meets the request. When a system issue cannot be resolved immediately, you say so, with a timeline. Silence is never the answer.
• You have genuine patience with people who are not comfortable with technology. A significant portion of Urban Alchemy's workforce is navigating systems they did not grow up using. That is not a problem to manage around. It is part of the job, and you approach it without judgment.
• You are a disciplined executor. Urban Alchemy has built the infrastructure: the playbooks, the workflows, the processes. Your value is in following them rigorously and completely, not in reinventing them. The system exists to protect everyone. Respecting it is part of the job.
• You exercise sound, independent judgment. You know when something is within your lane to resolve and when it requires escalation. You do not sit on problems.
• You are comfortable with ambiguity and change. Urban Alchemy is a growing organization. What exists today will change. New worksites, new requirements, new functionality. You adapt without losing your grounding or your accuracy.
• You spot patterns and bring recommendations. When the same issue surfaces repeatedly, you do not just solve it again. You surface it and propose a fix.
• You ask before you miss. If you are stuck, overwhelmed, or need more time, you say so early, not after a deadline has passed.

General

• Must be able to work compassionately and respectfully with people from all backgrounds
• Must be prepared to engage with individuals navigating poverty, mental health challenges, addiction, and/or homelessness
• Must be able to pass and maintain background clearance in accordance with Urban Alchemy policy
• Lived experience with incarceration and/or homelessness preferred

Physical Requirements:

• Sitting: 7 hours
• Standing: 1 hours
• Walking: 1 hours
• Bending at waist: less than 1 hour per day

Work Environment:

• Work is typically performed in a standard office setting
• May involve occasional exposure to moderate noise levels from office equipment and open-plan conversation

In-Office Requirement:

• This position requires in-office presence four days per week, with one day remote
• In-office presence reflects Urban Alchemy's culture of collaboration and accessibility

Travel Requirement:

• Occasional travel to other Urban Alchemy regional sites may be requested on an as-needed basis to provide operational support
• Must be able to travel by car or plane

Statement of Non-discrimination:

Urban Alchemy shares a special bond with society’s most vulnerable because we see ourselves in their struggle. When doing our work, we recognize the humanity in those who are struggling and treat them how we once wished others had treated us. People who have been incarcerated, experienced homelessness and/or come from marginalized communities are strongly encouraged to apply because we believe they have unique skills and abilities to engage with people who are struggling. Urban Alchemy provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local laws. Urban Alchemy prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type.

How to Apply:

If you have questions, please email hr@urban-alchemy.us and indicate the position you are interested in. You can apply for this position by visiting: https://www.paycomonline.net.

Salary : $90,000 - $100,000