Operations Specialist

ABOUT YLABS

YLabs is a leading global design and research organization designing technologies that amplify youth power, agency, and opportunity. Founded in 2014 at the Harvard Innovation Lab, YLabs partners with young people to co-create inclusive digital products and services that improve their lives. Our design process opens spaces where young people’s ideas can become a reality – where they are the architects of the solutions to their most pressing challenges.

YLabs multidisciplinary team delivers youth-driven innovation and impact at scale. Our team combines expertise in youth-driven design with adolescent health, climate, livelihoods, digital product design, behavioral science, and epidemiology. Based in Rwanda and the USA, we’ve worked in 18 countries to date on projects spanning three focus areas: optimum health and wellness, improved economic opportunity, and increased climate resilience.

Find out more about our projects here:

JOB SUMMARY

YLabs is growing its People Operations department and the organization as a whole, and we are looking for an independent, people-centered Operations Specialist to help build and run the systems that enable our team to do their best work.

This is a hands-on role for someone who enjoys getting into the weeds, spotting what is missing, figuring out how to make things work better, and taking ownership from start to finish. You will manage the day-to-day execution of people operations, recruiting, onboarding and offboarding, HRIS administration, systems access, vendors, equipment, and employee experience, while also helping shape how these processes work as YLabs grows.

We are looking for someone who is excited by the opportunity to build, not simply maintain. You will have clear direction and support from the Deputy Director, People Operations, but you will also be trusted to use your judgment, take initiative, and run with ideas. If you see a problem and instinctively start thinking about how to solve it, enjoy creating systems that make people's lives easier, and care deeply about the experience of your teammates, you will thrive in this role.

This role is particularly well-suited to a strong Operations Specialist, Senior Operations Associate, or People Operations professional ready to take the next step. You do not need to have managed a People Operations function before. We care more about your ability to learn quickly, take ownership, build trust, and make things happen.

YOU WILL:

• Own the day-to-day People Operations experience: You will be the person teammates can rely on to make the practical parts of working at YLabs work well. You will manage onboarding and offboarding, employee requests, benefits administration, personnel records, and other people operations needs, while looking for ways to make the experience simpler, more responsive, and more human.

• Make great hiring happen: You will own the execution of recruitment for individual-contributor and coordinator-level roles, from sourcing and screening through interviews, candidate communication, and offers. You will help candidates experience YLabs at its best, keep hiring processes moving, and bring good judgment to the many details that make the difference between a good and a frustrating recruitment experience.

• Build the systems that help YLabs scale: You will actively identify what is not working, figure out why, and make it better. This could mean creating a new onboarding process, improving how we manage equipment, simplifying a staff request workflow, strengthening our HRIS practices, or building a system where one does not yet exist. You will turn ideas into practical processes, tools, and ways of working that make life easier for teammates and create greater consistency as we grow.

• Be the person who makes things happen: This is a role for someone who does not wait for a perfect set of instructions. You will take ownership of problems and initiatives, work out what needs to happen, bring others in when needed, and see things through to completion. You will have the autonomy to make decisions within your remit and the judgment to know when something needs to be escalated.

• Create a great employee experience: You will help shape how it feels to work at YLabs. You will build relationships across a distributed team, listen to what teammates need, support staff wellness and connection, organise team events and our annual retreat, and use feedback and pulse survey data to identify opportunities to improve how we work together. You will bring curiosity, empathy, and a genuine interest in people to the role.

• Keep the operational machinery running: You will own the practical systems that sit behind a distributed organisation, including Google Workspace and other software access, equipment and supplies, vendor relationships, contracts, documentation, and compliance records. You will not just keep these systems running, but continuously look for ways to make them more efficient, reliable, and user-friendly.

• Partner closely with the Deputy Director, People Operations: You will work closely with the Deputy Director to turn People Operations priorities into action. You will bring what you are seeing on the ground, surface issues and opportunities early, and help translate bigger ideas into practical execution. Over time, you will have increasing opportunity to shape how the function operates and take on new areas of ownership as YLabs grows.

You will thrive in this role if

• You can hold multiple priorities in your head and still move each one forward with discipline

• You care deeply about people and believe good operations should make people's working lives easier, clearer, and better.

• You like building systems that make work easier for others, and fixing them when they break

• You see operations as more than administration: you see it as creating the conditions for people and the organisation to do their best work.

• You take ownership seriously and feel accountable for closing loops and delivering results.

QUALIFICATIONS

• Operations experience: 3–6 years of experience in operations, people operations, HR, administration, or a related field. Experience in an NGO, research institute, social impact organisation, or distributed/multi-country organisation is a plus.

• Strong execution: You are highly organised, comfortable managing multiple priorities, and take responsibility for closing loops. You don't need someone checking in to make sure things get done.

• A builder's mindset: You notice gaps, ask good questions, and are excited to create or improve systems rather than simply follow existing processes. You are comfortable working in an environment where not everything has been figured out yet.

• People-centered judgment: You care deeply about how people experience an organisation. You build strong relationships, communicate thoughtfully, and can handle sensitive or difficult situations with discretion and empathy.

• Recruiting experience: You have experience supporting or managing recruitment processes, including sourcing, screening, interview coordination, candidate communication, and offer logistics.

• Autonomy and judgment: You are comfortable figuring things out independently, knowing when to make a decision yourself, and knowing when to ask for guidance.

• Strong communication: You communicate clearly and professionally, both verbally and in writing.

• Curiosity and initiative: You are willing to challenge the way things are done, think creatively about solutions, and try something new when the existing approach isn't working.

DESIRABLE:

• Experience supporting a distributed, multi-country team.

• Experience managing vendor or contract relationships.

• Experience with an HRIS such as BambooHR.

• Experience working in a growing or evolving organisation where processes are still being built.

JOB TYPE

This is a full-time position based in Africa. With an anticipated start date i