Operations & HR Manager
ABOUT THE ROLE
Vital Energy is seeking an exceptional, experienced, hands-on Operations & HR Manager to lead the team and systems that support our employees and day-to-day business operations.
This position manages the operations support team, including reception, administrative support, systems and IT coordination, and human resources support. The manager will establish priorities, improve processes, develop employees, maintain accountability, and ensure departments receive consistent and timely support.
This is a working-manager position that requires a balance of leadership and hands-on execution. The successful candidate must be comfortable delegating and developing the team while stepping in to perform essential work during high-volume periods, staffing gaps, urgent situations, or organizational changes.
As Vital Energy grows, this manager will assess workload and staffing needs, recommend additional resources, define new roles, and build an operations support structure that can scale with the business.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
Team Leadership and Operational Support
- Lead, supervise, and develop the reception, administrative, systems/IT support, and HR support team.
- Establish clear responsibilities, priorities, performance expectations, and service standards.
- Assign and monitor daily work, recurring responsibilities, projects, and internal support requests.
- Conduct regular team meetings, individual check-ins, performance reviews, and coaching.
- Balance workloads and maintain appropriate backup coverage and cross-training.
- Address performance, communication, and accountability concerns promptly and constructively.
- Provide hands-on assistance and coverage when workload, staffing, or business needs require it.
- Handle sensitive, complex, confidential, or escalated matters that should not be delegated.
- Build a responsive, organized, and service-oriented support culture.
- Evaluate staffing capacity and recommend hiring, restructuring, outsourcing, or reassignment of responsibilities.
- Recruit, onboard, train, and develop new operations support team members as the company grows.
Business Operations and Administration
- Manage and improve day-to-day office and internal business operations.
- Develop, document, implement, and maintain policies, procedures, workflows, and approval processes.
- Identify recurring issues, bottlenecks, and operational risks and implement practical solutions.
- Coordinate cross-department projects, priorities, deadlines, and follow-up.
- Maintain systems for tracking open requests, recurring responsibilities, compliance items, and action items.
- Oversee reception, office administration, facilities, supplies, equipment, and service providers.
- Maintain organized company records, templates, forms, and shared resources.
- Support departmental budgets, purchasing, vendor relationships, and expense oversight.
- Prepare reports, meeting materials, performance updates, and operational recommendations for leadership.
- Support executive leadership with special projects and changing business priorities.
Human Resources and Employee Support
- Coordinate recruiting, job postings, candidate screening, interviews, offers, and pre-employment requirements.
- Manage employee onboarding, orientation, documentation, required training, and systems-access coordination, and offboarding.
- Maintain complete, accurate, and confidential employee records.
- Coordinate compensation updates, promotions, leaves, employee-status changes, and offboarding.
- Support payroll administration, timekeeping, benefits enrollment, and employee-information changes.
- Maintain job descriptions, organizational charts, HR forms, company policies, and the employee handbook.
- Coordinate performance reviews, employee goals, manager follow-up, and required training.
- Support managers with coaching, corrective-action documentation, and performance-improvement plans.
- Serve as an approachable and trusted resource for employee questions and workplace concerns.
- Support consistent and respectful resolution of employee-relations matters.
- Track recruiting, staffing, turnover, attendance, training, certifications, and performance-management activities.
- Coordinate workers’ compensation reporting and return-to-work documentation.
- Engage qualified HR or legal professionals when specialized guidance is required.
Systems and IT Coordination
- Oversee Systems and IT support team, both internal and external, for company software, hardware, user accounts, devices, licenses, and access permissions.
- Ensure employee access is established, changed, and removed promptly.
- Maintain accurate records of systems, users, access levels, licenses, and company-issued equipment.
- Coordinate user training and support successful adoption of new systems and processes.
- Coordinate equipment setup, troubleshooting, repairs, and technical support.
- Manage relationships with outside IT, software, cybersecurity, and systems providers.
- Prioritize system requests, improvements, and implementations based on business needs.
- Maintain appropriate approval, security, documentation, and access-control procedures.
- Evaluate whether current technology and support resources meet the company’s needs.
Organizational Development and Growth
- Partner with department leaders to identify operational, staffing, training, and resource needs.
- Improve communication, service delivery, and handoffs between departments.
- Help managers establish clear expectations, responsibilities, and accountability.
- Train employees and managers on company policies, procedures, and business systems.
- Assess the operations support team’s capacity, skills, workload, and future needs.
- Develop recommendations for adding or modifying team positions.
- Create job responsibilities, performance standards, and training plans for new roles.
- Build scalable processes and team structures that support company growth.
- Determine when specialized functions should be handled internally or through outside providers.
- Maintain appropriate confidentiality regarding employee, payroll, financial, systems, and company information.
QUALIFICATIONS
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Five or more years of progressive experience in operations, human resources, office management, or a related business-support function.
- Two or more years of direct employee-supervision or team-leadership experience.
- Demonstrated ability to manage a multidisciplinary administrative or operations support team.
- Experience with recruiting, onboarding, employee records, performance management, and HR administration.
- Experience developing and implementing policies, procedures, and operational workflows.
- Working knowledge of California employment practices and employee-record requirements.
- Experience coordinating business systems, software access, IT support, or outside technology providers.
- Ability to lead and delegate effectively while remaining willing to perform hands-on work.
- Strong organizational, communication, problem-solving, and follow-through skills.
- Ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-moving environment.
- Sound judgment and discretion when handling confidential or sensitive matters.
- Experience with Google Workspace, HR, payroll, CRM, project-management, business-management and finance platforms.
- Bachelor’s degree in human resources, business administration, operations management, or a related field preferred.
- PHR, SHRM-CP, or a similar HR credential is a plus.
- Experience in solar, construction, electrical contracting, home services, or another field-based business is strongly preferred.
- Can build processes and teams that support continued organizational growth.
COMPENSATION & GROWTH OPPORTUNITIES
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Great pay with range dependent on experience. Benefits include unlimited PTO, holidays and sick leave, professional development assistance, employee discounts, and referral programs.
- Great opportunity for growth and advancement. We believe in nurturing and promoting from within, whenever possible.
- Friendly, down to earth and deeply collaborative work environment in our beautiful offices in central Sebastopol.
- Full Time, Salary Position (8am-5pm) with flexibility for some remote. We support living wages and a healthy work/life balance.
- Base compensation: $85,000–$105,000 Annually
ABOUT US
Vital Energy is a Sonoma County based solar energy provider for over 30 years, serving residential and commercial customers. Our work includes solar energy, battery storage, generators, service and maintenance, microgrids, and advanced energy and resiliency solutions.
We value integrity, collaboration, accountability, practical problem-solving, and respectful communication. We are looking for a dependable operational leader who can support our employees, develop our internal support team, and help us build an organized and sustainable company.
We believe in serving, supporting and empowering our team, our customers, and our community with a focus on providing holistic and sustainable energy solutions for all. We look forward to hearing from you!
AWARDS & ACCOLADES
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Best of the Bay - SF Gate
- Best of North Bay - Bohemian
- Best Place to Work - North Bay Business Journal
- Our Mission: https://youtu.be/I_J8GQB22fw?si=Kuuiz6BjQsjezLro
- One of our beautiful partnerships: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5tM2069zzE
