HR Manager / Office Manager

A start-up aerospace client is currently seeking a Full-Time Human Resources Manager / Office Manager for their Herndon, Virginia location. This position will own the people and workplace functions that allow the company to scale. This is the company's first dedicated HR and office role. Today these functions are distributed across the leadership team and supported by outside providers; this position consolidates them under a single owner. You will build the HR infrastructure to include hiring, onboarding, benefits, records, compliance, and performance cycle administration and support our growth toward 30+ employees, while running the day-to-day operation of a growing engineering office and lab facility.

The role is deliberately broad. You will spend part of your week as an HR generalist and part of it making the office work: coordinating vendors and the landlord, receiving hardware, badging new hires, and setting up the all-hands. If you want a narrow, well-defined lane, this is not the role. If you want to be the person who builds the function and then leads it as the company grows, it is.

Responsibilities:

• Own the full employee lifecycle: requisition intake, recruiting coordination, offers, onboarding, changes, and offboarding — with clean documentation at every step.
  


• Run recruiting operations end to end: manage the applicant tracking system and job postings, keep hiring managers moving, schedule interviews and panels, own candidate experience and communication, and administer the employee referral program.
  


• Administer payroll, benefits, and leave: semi-monthly payroll, medical/dental/vision, 401(k), open enrollment, PTO tracking, FMLA and other leave, workers’ compensation, and COBRA — serving as the primary employee point of contact for all of it.
  


• Own HR compliance and records: employee handbook and policy maintenance, I-9/E-Verify, FLSA classification, EEO and OSHA reporting, personnel file integrity, and new state registrations as we hire outside Virginia.
  


• Administer the performance and compensation cycle: manage the objective-setting and review calendar, collect and format review materials, maintain the compensation and job-level framework, and support equity grant documentation and employee equity education.
  


• Own the office and facility: landlord and vendor coordination, tenant improvement and move logistics, access control and badging, conference and lab space readiness, supplies, shipping and receiving, and safety and emergency procedures.
  


• Plan and run company events: all-hands meetings, offsites, recruiting events, team socials, and holiday functions — including budget, logistics, and follow-through.
  


• Build and maintain the systems and process documentation behind all of the above, so the function scales with headcount rather than with your hours.
  


• Be a visible steward of culture as we grow — the person new employees trust, and the one who tells leadership the truth about how the team is doing.
  

Requirements

• 5–10+ years of combined human resources generalist and office or workplace management experience, including time at a company under 100 employees where you were the function rather than part of a department.
  


• Hands-on ownership of payroll and benefits administration, whether through a PEO, a broker, or direct carrier relationships.
  


• Working knowledge of federal and Virginia employment law, with practical judgment on classification, leave, accommodation, and documentation and the instinct to know when to escalate to counsel.
  


• Demonstrated discretion handling compensation, personnel, medical, and investigative information.
  


• Strong process and systems instinct: the ability to stand up a repeatable practice from nothing, document it, and improve it.
  


• Ability to operate autonomously in a fast-paced startup environment, prioritize independently across HR and facilities demands, and drive tasks to completion without being managed.
  


• Excellent professional and interpersonal communication skills, both verbal and written.
  


• On-site presence at our Herndon, Virginia office, with the flexibility that a physical facility and an in-person team require.
  


• U.S. Person status as defined under ITAR (22 CFR § 120.62), given TrustPoint’s export-controlled work and the personnel records this role administers.
  

Desired:

• Experience at a venture-backed startup through a scaling phase with roughly 15 to 50 employees, including the transition from informal practices to real infrastructure.
  


• Experience in aerospace, defense, or government contracting, including familiarity with government-contract timekeeping expectations, SBIR/STTR-funded work, or supporting cleared personnel and facilities.
  


• SHRM-CP/SHRM-SCP or PHR/SPHR certification.
  


• Experience with equity administration platforms (e.g., Carta) and explaining stock options to employees clearly and accurately.
  


• Experience supporting technical recruiting for engineering, RF, software, or spacecraft roles, including sourcing support and offer negotiation.
  


• Office build-out, expansion, or relocation project experience, including working with landlords, general contractors, and furniture and AV vendors.