People Operations Generalist

About the role

UFORCE exists to make aggression unaffordable. Founded in Ukraine and headquartered in London, UFORCE is a defence-technology company with operations across Europe, the United States and Asia. UFORCE builds uncrewed vessels, ground robotics and aircraft, autonomy software, and the command-and-control layer that operates them together. Each platform is deployable on its own, and stronger as part of the system. Its product lines include the MAGURA family of uncrewed surface vessels, the NEMESIS family of strike platforms, the LIUT family of ground robotic platforms, and counter-UAS systems. ABOUT THE ROLE UFORCE is standing up its first US manufacturing site, and we're looking for an People Operations Generalist to be the people ops engine behind it. You'll own payroll for the site — hourly and salaried — end to end: accurate, on time, and audit-ready. Around that sits everything a new site needs day to day: onboarding, compliance reporting, benefits coordination, training, and being the person employees come to with HR and payroll questions. You won't be building this from nothing. The global People team has built the policies, guidelines and procedures and will stand up the HRIS, and you'll have a Senior Payroll Specialist alongside you for setup and the complex items. Your job is to make it all work on the ground — and to land global people cycles locally with managers who have a production line to run. The role is based in Virginia or South Carolina, hybrid, with regular time on-site at the manufacturing facility. It's broad, hands-on ownership with direct visibility to leadership and a real hand in the site's launch. WHAT YOU'LL DO - Complete payroll and timekeeping setup for the site — payroll tool configuration, timekeeping system, UI registration and tax liabilities — with our Senior Payroll Specialist, validated before the first employee is paid. - Independently run accurate, on-time payroll for hourly and salaried employees, including overtime, shift differentials and off-cycle corrections. - Prepare payroll reporting on cadence, keep payroll operations documented, and support Finance through audit. - Own recurring compliance reporting and filings: payroll tax, wage and hour, I-9 and E-Verify, exempt vs. non-exempt classification, labor-law postings and record retention. - Run onboarding end to end in the HRIS — paperwork, verification, benefits enrollment, training assignment and orientation — for both hourly and salaried hires. - Maintain the HRIS and personnel files as an accurate, compliant, audit-ready system of record. - Coordinate benefits vendors and brokers on enrollment, eligibility, open enrollment, renewal and ACA reporting, and flag where the offer isn't landing for the hourly population. - Manage training assignments and track completion. - Act as the day-to-day point of contact for employee HR and payroll queries at the site, against clear service standards. - Land global people cycles locally — performance and probation reviews, engagement survey, people comms — briefing managers, running local logistics, chasing completion and feeding issues back to global People. REQUIRED SKILLS - Independent, end-to-end ownership of US payroll for both hourly and salaried employees, including timekeeping, overtime and corrections. - Strong US employment compliance and reporting: federal and state filings, wage and hour, I-9, exempt vs. non-exempt classification and record-keeping. - Hands-on HRIS administration (Rippling, ADP, Paylocity, BambooHR, UKG, Workday or similar), with responsibility for data integrity and audit-readiness. - Experience standing up HR at a new or greenfield US site, or transitioning a company off a PEO into in-house payroll and HR. - Manufacturing, plant, warehouse or other industrial HR experience with a significant hourly population — ideally in cleared-facility or defense manufacturing. - Comfort operating as the sole on-site HR person: self-directed, organized under ambiguity, leaves clean and auditable records. NICE TO HAVE - Federal contractor environment: E-Verify, OFCCP, or export-control-adjacent HR experience. - Direct experience registering and running payroll and tax in multiple states. - Benefits administration depth: open enrollment, carrier and broker coordination, ACA. - LMS or training program administration. - Experience delivering centrally designed people processes with frontline managers. - SHRM-CP / SHRM-SCP, PHR / SPHR, FPC or CPP certification. The nature of combat has changed. Tomorrow’s battlefield success depends on autonomy, speed, and adaptability. And UFORCE is ready. Are You?