People Systems & Automation Specialist

Relay is a digital banking platform that gives self-made business owners the tools and know-how to be great with money—bringing clarity, confidence, and control to every dollar earned, so they can turn hard work into lasting success. We do this by replacing financial guesswork with real visibility, transforming cash flow from a constant source of stress into a clear signal owners can use to run stronger, more resilient businesses.

Our People Team exists to build Relay into a company high-performing, ambitious people actively choose and a place where they do career-defining work.

We are hiring a People Systems & Automation Specialist to build the technical infrastructure that makes that possible at scale.

This is a 12-month contract. The mandate is clear: automate the automatable, streamline the rest, and leave the People team operating at a fundamentally different level of efficiency. If there is still meaningful work to do at the end of the year, we can consider contract extension or potentially a conversion to full time.

The Problem Statement

Right now, our People tech stack is fragmented. Data lives in multiple systems with limited connectivity, manual handoffs fill the gaps, and there is no single source of truth for People data. That is the problem this role exists to solve. Not by adding process, but by eliminating it.

The primary areas of ownership in this role include, but are not limited to:

Process Mapping & Automation Strategy

• Map every People process end-to-end: Onboarding, offboarding, employee changes, benefits enrollment, performance cycles, etc, and document the current state with clear eyes.

• Identify what can be fully automated, what needs a human in the loop/lead and why, and what is manual today only because no one has built the solution yet.

• Build a prioritized automation roadmap and own delivery against it.

• Evaluate workflow automation and integration platforms, make a recommendation on what our team should adopt to best achieve our goals, and implement it.

Systems Integration & Infrastructure

• Own our full People tech stack: HRIS, ATS, onboarding, employee experience, and benefits tools with a mandate to make them work together. Our current tech stack contains: Rippling, Gusto, Ashby, CultureAmp, Notion, Google Suite, Claude, ChatGPT, Jira, and various benefits/insurance provider platforms.

• Build and maintain integrations between systems using native connectors, automation tooling, and lightweight custom solutions where gaps exist.

• Partner with IT to understand existing tools, surface underutilized capability, and ensure the People team can use what we have before we add anything new to our stack.

• Bring People data into a data visualization tool (Snowflake or similar) so the team has a reliable, queryable data layer, and help build the integrations that get clean and correct data there automatically.

• Own documentation on system configurations, integrations, and decisions (via Notion) so nothing lives only in your head.

AI-Powered Workflows

• Use AI tools actively and practically. Not as a novelty, but to automate recurring workflows, reduce manual reporting, and surface insights without human intervention.

• Identify where AI can replace manual judgment in low-stakes, high-frequency People tasks and build those workflows.

• Stay close to what is new in HR/People tech and AI tooling and experiment quickly.

Data, Reporting & Analysis

• Build and maintain a single source of truth for People data: headcount, attrition, compensation, engagement, and hiring metrics, and keep it accurate.

• Build self-serve dashboards that give People Business Partners and leadership real-time visibility without coming to you for every pull.

• Solve the data extraction problem for tools like CultureAmp. Figure out how to get that data into your reporting infrastructure reliably and automatically.

• Once the data layer is clean, use it. Run analyses, surface trends, flag risks, and translate findings into concrete recommendations the team can act on.

• Prepare ad hoc analyses and reporting for board materials and executive updates in partnership with People leadership.

Vendor & Stack Management

• Own People tech vendor relationships – renewals, escalations, utilization tracking, and contract management.

• Lead structured evaluations when new tooling is needed, with clear criteria and a data-backed recommendation.

• Track ROI on People tech investments and flag what is not earning its cost.

You’re a strong fit for this role if the following are true:

• You have 2-4 years of hands-on experience owning and improving systems and tooling, and more recently with AI's advancements, you have shipped automations that other people now depend on. The specific tools matter less than the depth of your experience and your ability to transfer it to whatever stack Relay adopts.

• You are genuinely data-minded: you can pull, clean, model, and present data without someone checking your work, and you find patterns that other people miss.

• You are comfortable working with People technology at a configuration and integration level. You know where to look when something breaks, you form a view on what to do about it, and you act on it.

• You are curious about the technical layer underneath the tools you use. You may not have built custom integrations from scratch yet, but you would learn what you needed to if the problem required it and you would find that interesting!

• You care about employee experience and understand that the quality of the operational layer is what shapes how people actually feel about working somewhere.

What this role is not:

• This is not a role for someone who prefers to work within existing systems rather than redesign them. If your instinct is to document the workaround rather than eliminate the problem, this is not the right fit.

• This is not a role for someone who needs a fully defined mandate before they can move. The scope will evolve and you will be expected to drive it.

You can check out the draft 30-60-90 day plan for this role here on our Candidate Hub.

Stage 1: A 20-30 minute introductory video call with the hiring manager

Stage 2: A 45-60 minute behavioural & situational interview with the hiring manager

Stage 3: A take home case study assignment and a 60 minute presentation and discussion to a few members of the People Team

Stage 4: A 30-45 minute Google Meets video call with a member of our leadership team

We believe Relayers should feel rewarded for the impact they have on our mission and growth. Compensation follows impact. As impact increases, compensation grows, and we do not limit compensation changes to a once-a-year review cycle.

The annual salary range for this role is $80,750 - $109,250 CAD. For candidates who demonstrate full readiness for the defined scope of the role, the typical annual starting salary is $95,000 CAD. We may also consider levelling this role up for someone more senior into their career. In this case, the typical starting annual salary could be up to $115,000 CAD.

Offers below this point reflect candidates we believe can grow into the full scope of the role with support and development. Offers above this point reflect impact that meaningfully exceeds the role’s defined expectations or an expanded scope from day one.

We encourage you to have a conversation with your recruiter and ask questions about compensation throughout the hiring process. For more information on our compensation philosophy and perks and benefits, visit our Candidate Hub.

Why Relay Might Be the Perfect Fit For You

• You push relentlessly for reinvention: You’re built to constantly ask, “How can this be better?” Change excites you and you drive it. 

• You crave autonomy: We trust our team with big challenges and the freedom to solve them. If you’re someone who takes initiative, is comfortable taking risks, and seeks input when needed, you’ll find the freedom here empowering.

• You own your work: You take pride in your work, follow through on commitments, and feel a deep sense of responsibility for outcomes, not just tasks.

• You treat comfort as a red flag: You seek growth. When things feel too comfortable, you lean into change. You’re excited about  stepping into the unknown and navigating new terrain to create something better alongside your team. 

• You care about impact, not noise: You care deeply about the substance of your work. You measure success by results, not recognition and you let your work speak for itself. 

• You’re energized by complexity and ambiguity: You enjoy tackling problems that don’t come with a playbook. You’re comfortable building from scratch, iterating as you go, and collaborating to shape the best path forward.

• You seek out feedback: We value directness, clarity, and respect. We believe honesty fuels great work and career growth. You see feedback as a tool for learning and improvement, and you know that open, honest dialogue is key to achieving the best results — together.

• You’re here for more than a job: At Relay, everything we do is in service of our mission to help small businesses thrive. To drive impact and have purpose here, that mission must matter to you too.

What’s Important to Us

Research shows that women-identifying and other marginalized individuals often apply only if they meet 100% of the qualifications. But no one is a perfect match on paper. If this role excites you, we’d love to hear from you and figure out together if it’s a great fit.

At Relay, we believe that diversity is key to building high-performing teams, and creating an inclusive work environment is our priority. We are an equal opportunity employer and welcome people of diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and skills.

We will work with applicants to provide accommodations at any stage of the hiring process. If you require accommodations during the interview process, please email your Talent Partner, and we will work with you to meet your needs.

Disclaimer: For compliance reasons, all offers of employment at Relay are conditional upon a successful background check & employment verification through Certn.