People Operations · HRBP · PHR-Certified · Career Coaching · AI Fluency Leader · Orange County, CA / Remote

People operations, run end-to-end.

Senior People Operations Management · HR Business Partner · PHR-Certified · Career Coach · AI Fluency Leader

I run the full employee lifecycle: compliance, benefits, leave, performance, and payroll inputs. Then I rebuild those processes with AI and automation so People teams move faster and carry less risk. I also lead AI fluency adoption for People teams, coach professionals through career moves from the hiring side of the desk, and take on fractional and project engagements.

15+
years in People Ops
50
U.S. states compliance
16K
largest org supported
Portrait of Carol Vilchez-Smith
PHR
CERTIFIED

People Operations · HRBP
Carol Vilchez-Smith, PHR

What I do

Four areas I own.

Full-time, part-time, fractional, or on a project, this is the work I build and run.

Employee lifecycle operations & HR business partner

Onboarding through offboarding across corporate, retail, fulfillment, and international PEO teams. I partner with executives and managers on performance review strategy and build the cycle in Lattice and Paylocity. I coach managers through performance conversations, PIPs, and separations, and prep them before the meeting.

OnboardingPerformance cyclesEmployee relationsPIPsOffboarding

Compliance, risk & governance

Compliance across all U.S. states, FLSA reviews, I-9 / E-Verify, EEO-1 and CA Pay Data Reporting, workers' comp, immigration, and audit-ready documentation.

All U.S. statesI-9 / E-VerifyFederal & state reportingAudit readiness

Benefits, leave & payroll processing

Open Enrollment configuration and rollout support, 401(k) deferrals and loans processing, HSA and HDHP true-ups, and FMLA, CFRA, PDL, and ADA leave management. Plus timely regular and off-cycle payroll processing.

Open EnrollmentLOA programs401(k)Payroll SOPs

AI-enabled operations

AI-forward People Ops leader. I built a Benefits Admin bot for premium clawbacks, Zapier feeds that post LOA status to Slack, Monday.com boards for onboarding and immigration, and ATS-to-HRIS data flows on Claude and custom GPTs.

ClaudeCustom GPTsZapierMonday.com

POP Performance Group

Career coaching, from the hiring side of the desk.

I've screened thousands of applications as the person doing the hiring. I know what gets a resume pulled from the pile and what gets it filtered out before a human opens it. Through POP Performance Group, I rebuild yours so it clears both.

  • Resume + LinkedIn rewrite, done in two weeks$375
  • Audit only, if you'd rather do the writing$75/hr
  • Interview prep & company research add-on$99/cycle
  • Claude Cowork setup for your job search$129
"I had so much anxiety rewriting my resume after being at a company for over 7 years. Carol talked me through each role and made it easy to extract the information from me so that my resume had more substance. I went into my job search feeling more confident!"
— Aubrey Castro, Customer Experience Quality Analyst, Luxury Retail

Kind words

What it's like to work with me.

From managers, peers, and partners across Babylist, United Sports Brands, and beyond.

Carol and coworkers laughing together in a photo booth
Carol and four teammates in pink headbands on a beach volleyball court

Let's talk

Book a conversation.

Hiring for a People Ops role, or need project help with leave programs, compliance, an HR-ops rebuild, AI workflows, or career coaching? Pick a time that works for you.

Book a time

Thirty minutes, on Google Calendar. Pick any open slot and you'll get the invite right away.

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