HR Operations Specialist

Who are we

At Frontiers, our purpose is simple and ambitious: to make all science open.

We believe open research empowers the global scientific community to accelerate discovery and develop the solutions needed for healthy lives on a healthy planet.

We are one of the world’s largest and most influential open-access research publishers. Every article we publish is peer-reviewed and quality-certified, ensuring rigorous science is freely accessible to everyone, everywhere. To date, Frontiers research has been viewed over 4 billion times, demonstrating the real-world impact of science without barriers.

Joining Frontiers means being part of a global, mission-driven organization at the intersection of science, technology, and innovation — working alongside passionate colleagues who care deeply about advancing knowledge for the benefit of society.

If you’d like to learn more about our impact and culture, explore:
Our Annual Reports: www.frontiersin.org/about/annual-reports
Our mission in action: www.youtube.com/watch?v=87ejFfnQzko

The role:  

We are seeking a detail-oriented and collaborative HR professional to join our team as an HR Operations Specialist. This role supports HR processes across the employee lifecycle, ensuring compliance and consistency across multiple countries. It combines operational excellence with cross-functional coordination, covering onboarding, offboarding, internal movement, documentation, HR systems. 

Key responsibilities:  

• Provide guidance to our Frontons by responding to questions specific to country knowledge legislation practices from employees and managers relating to HR guidelines, processes and systems. 

• Coordinate HR processes throughout the employee lifecycle across multiple countries, ensuring consistency and compliance. 

• Maintain and update HR systems (e.g., Workday and others as required), ensuring data integrity and timely communication with HR teams. 

• Manage onboarding activities for new hires, including compliance with legal requirements (health and safety, medical checks, right-to-work verification) and delivery of the People Operations team presentation. 

• Prepare and issue employment documentation such as contracts, contractual amendments, and leave of absence letters, working closely with Payroll to ensure all dates are accurate and correctly recorded. 

• Support visa-related processes by preparing and coordinating basic documentation with relevant teams as required. 

• Produce and maintain regular HR reports, including weekly and monthly metrics, ensuring accuracy and timely distribution. 

• Coordinate with Payroll to finalize employee documentation for payroll cycles, ensuring accuracy, resolving discrepancies, and maintaining accountability. 

• Collaborate across HR and other departments on internal audits, process improvements, and project work, contributing to the continuous enhancement of HR operations. 

• 2 years of experience in HR operations, HR administration, or a similar role. 

• Experience with leave tracking, HRIS (Workday is a plus), payroll inputs and onboarding/offboarding processes. 

• Experience with process automation, maintaining data integrity, and optimizing HR systems to build efficient, compliant, and a user-friendly experience. 

• Strong administrative and data management skills: maintaining employee records, contracts, documentation. 

• Knowledge of relevant labour laws and compliance regulations in different countries is a plus. 

• Excellent use of Microsoft Office tools, especially Excel for reporting. 

• Strong organizational ability: multi-tasking, prioritizing, attention to detail. 

• Excellent communication skills (both written and verbal). 

• Problem-solving aptitude and analytical mindset. 

• Comfortable working in a fast-paced, remote-friendly environment with distributed teams. 

• Extra wellbeing days on top of your annual leave allowance
• Up to 3 paid volunteering days each year
• 24/7 confidential Employee Assistance Programme - wellbeing, mental health, legal & financial support
• Learning & development support via the Frontiers Learning Hub
• A locally relevant benefits package aligned to your country - e.g. healthcare and pension/retirement provision, where applicable
• Collaboration-led, office-first culture - we prioritise in-person teamwork, with role-appropriate adjustments when needed, in line with company policy
• International teams - a diverse, global culture and a strong peer-learning environment

Equal opportunity statement

Frontiers actively embraces diversity and is a safe and welcoming workplace. Recruitment is free from discrimination – including based on race, national or ethnic origin, age, religion, disability, sex, gender identity or sexual orientation. With employees from more than 50 different nations, our diversity creates vibrant teams and constantly challenges us to appreciate multiple perspectives.