People operations, run end to end.
Senior People Operations Management · HR Business Partner · PHR Certified
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.
CERTIFIED
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Fifteen years running People Operations across tech, retail, hospitality and manufacturing.
I run the full employee lifecycle for companies of every size, from 50 employees to 16,000, across all U.S. states. The repetitive parts, I automate.
I've spent the past fifteen years in consumer tech, DTC commerce, manufacturing, and distribution. I take on the work most People teams dread: compliance across all U.S. states, FMLA and ADA leave, Open Enrollment, workers' comp, immigration cases, and audit prep. I do it without missing a payroll deadline.
I also scale it. As lead of an AI Enablement team, I built bots, Zapier automations, and Monday.com workflows on Claude and custom GPTs. They cut hours of manual admin work and kept service steady as headcount grew.
I thrive working cross-functionally, partnering with Payroll, Finance, IT, Legal, and outside vendors across the org, and I turn operational detail into clear updates People leaders can act on.
Carol Vilchez-Smith, PHR
Four areas I own.
Full-time, part-time 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.
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.
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.
AI-enabled operations
AI-forward People Ops team member. 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.
Resumes, read from the other 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 ever opens it. I'll rebuild yours so it clears both.
Professional resume writer
Crafting, restructuring, and rewriting your application documents from the ground up.
Career coach
Job search strategy, interview prep, and due diligence on the companies you're targeting.
HR & recruitment consultant
Hiring-side critique of layout, wording, and ATS compliance, from someone who ran the process.
Resume audit & critique
Line-by-line feedback on the draft you already have. You'll get specific notes on what to cut, what to quantify, and where a recruiter's eye stops.
Full rewrite
A complete overhaul of phrasing, tone, and achievements. I turn task lists into outcomes and move the results a hiring manager actually cares about into the first third of the page.
LinkedIn profile optimization
Your profile rewritten to match your refreshed resume, so recruiters searching for your skills actually surface you and find one consistent story when they click.
Cover letter drafting
Tailored companion letters written for a specific role and company, not a template with the name swapped out.
Intro to Anthropic products
A working session on Claude Chat, Cowork, and Design, plus initial user setup. I'll get you past the blank prompt box and into the workflows that actually save you hours, the same way I built them for a 650-person People team.
Every engagement starts with a conversation so I can see your documents and understand the roles you're chasing.
Book a conversation Email meSeven results worth a look.
Each one came from owning the problem start to finish.
LOA vendor RFP & savings
Ran a leave vendor RFP for a 650+ employee org. Scored five vendors and cut roughly $40K in combined rate and fee savings.
Performance review cycle, built from scratch
Partnered with executive leadership and people managers to set the performance review strategy: wrote the review questions and rating scale, facilitated calibration, and launched the cycle in Lattice and Paylocity for corporate and Showroom managers across 650 employees.
Built the Babylist Showroom programs from scratch
Lead on the people infrastructure for Babylist's first retail showroom: onboarding, policies, benefits, pay structure, and HR systems ready for exempt and non-exempt staff on opening day. Then I kept building programs that put people first and still served the business.
Paid Gradual Return-to-Work
Collaborated with executive leadership and designed a 6-week, 4-day-per-week, 100%-pay return-to-work benefit for birthing parents.
Company-wide compliance refresh
Built an annual compliance refresh across four workforce segments. Hit 100% completion on HIPAA, anti-harassment, and policy acknowledgments, all tracked for audit.
A Real Partner
Trusted by people managers and their teams. Building rapport is my edge: managers bring me their hard conversations on performance, conduct, and separations, and employees tell me what they would not put in a ticket. I write PIPs with managers, run separation prep meetings, and coach them to lead with confidence and settle issues before they grow.
Bot Builder
If it repeats, I automate it. Payroll, benefits, and compliance admin automations on Claude, custom GPTs, and Zapier that saved hours on recurring tasks and held consistency, compliance, and collaboration across stakeholders.
The stack and areas I've worked.
The platforms and skills I use to run the day-to-day people operations and collaborate cross-functionally and beyond.
HCM / HRIS & ATS
Compliance & risk
Benefits, Leave and Accommodations
Payroll
Performance & manager enablement
AI & automation
Reporting, docs & collaboration
What it's like to work with me.
From managers, peers, and partners across Babylist, United Sports Brands, and beyond.
Where I've done the work.
Babylist, Inc. · Consumer Tech · Remote
- Ran end-to-end lifecycle for 650+ employees across U.S. corporate, Ohio fulfillment, Beverly Hills Showroom, and PEO populations in Canada, Mexico, and the Philippines.
- AI Enablement team member; built bots and automations on Claude, custom GPTs, Zapier, and Monday.com to scale service delivery.
- Owned multi-state compliance, LOA vendor RFP, workers' comp, immigration tracking, and payroll input SOPs.
- Partnered with executives and managers on performance review strategy end to end, then built and ran the cycle in Lattice and Paylocity for corporate and Showroom managers across 650 employees. Coached managers through performance conversations, PIPs, and separation prep.
OceanX · DTC Subscription Commerce · Hybrid, Orange County
Griswold Industries · Industrial Manufacturing · Orange County
United Sports Brands · Consumer Sporting Goods · Orange County
Foundation Building Materials · Building Materials Distribution · Orange County
Earlier: ASICS America (Benefits Coordinator) · CyberCoders (HR Coordinator) · The Beverly Hills Hotel (HR Coordinator) · Whole Foods Market (Payroll & Benefits Specialist).
Book a conversation.
Hiring for a People Ops role, or need project help with leave programs, compliance, an HR-ops rebuild, or AI workflows? Pick a time that works for you.