---
title: 'Manager, People Operations at Tunnl'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/manager-people-operations-tunnl-washington-04e1jdqem11a'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-07'
---

# Manager, People Operations at Tunnl

- **Company:** Tunnl
- **Location:** Washington, D.C. Metro Area
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-08-31
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-07
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/tunnl/421ed82d-9ee8-4de2-89ba-14c6c95b0610

## Job description

## About Tunnl

Tunnl is building a future where artificial intelligence enables organizations to connect meaningfully with the people who matter most. We help organizations conduct research at scale, define the right audiences, surface real-time insights, identify optimal communication channels, and measure changing attitudes over time.

Tunnl serves brands, agencies, and advocacy groups alike - organizations navigating complex communications, reputational, and regulatory landscapes. These teams need smarter, faster ways to make audience-informed decisions that stand up to scrutiny and resonate across stakeholder groups. Whether you're building a brand, shaping public opinion, managing risk, or launching a new initiative, Tunnl empowers you to move from insight to impact with clarity & confidence.

## Role Overview

Tunnl is seeking a Manager, People Operations to own the day-to-day systems and processes that keep our People Operations function running smoothly — from payroll and benefits to onboarding and compliance. This is a hands-on, generalist role for someone who wants to build and own core HR infrastructure at a growing company.

Reporting to the Director, People Operations & Talent, this role will manage Tunnl's HRIS (Rippling) and payroll operations, administer benefits and leave programs, and ensure the employee experience — from orientation through offboarding — runs on solid, well-documented processes. This opportunity is best suited for an HR professional who equally loves to craft & refine the tools and processes that support employees as well as getting out from behind the desk & engaging with people equally.

Success in this role looks like a People Ops function that's accurate, compliant, and that ensures a frictionless employee experience for Tunnl’s strongest asset, its people.

## What You’ll Do

- Own & refine the processes and workflows within Rippling, Tunnl’s HRIS system
- Oversee payroll processes & compliance across different employee subgroups (salaried, hourly, and contractors)
- Drive benefits programs and their administration including enrollment, education, enhancement and compliance
- Ensure a seamless onboarding process, including employment verifications as well as organizing and arranging onboarding & orientation programs for new hires
- Act as a liaison for compliance initiatives across the business, including state entity, SOC2, and data privacy & protection compliance
- Support the administration of employee performance management programs, including review cycles, goal-setting, and feedback processes
- Help to drive culture and engagement programs to enhance the employee experience across the business
- Ensure a seamless offboarding process as Tunnl alumni move onto new challenges

Qualifications:

- 3–5 years of experience in an HR Generalist or HR Payroll/Benefits Specialist capacity, ideally at a fast growing start-up
- Expertise in tech forward HRIS platform solutions, like Rippling, Deel, or similar platform
- Past experience owning payroll processes & benefits programs
- Familiarity with employment tax and multi-state compliance considerations
- Keen eye and interest in refining onboarding, orientation, and continued learning programs
- Interest in growing into broader strategic People Operations initiatives as the function scales

Preferred Qualifications:

- Masters in Human Resources Management
- SHRM Certification or similar

Why You Should Apply:

- Join a team driven by curiosity, teamwork, integrity, and a shared passion for solving big challenges.
- A friendly, welcoming, and supportive culture with regular social and team events.
- Comprehensive benefits with excellent medical, vision, and dental coverage.
- Health Savings Account (HSA) and Flexible Spending Account (FSA) options.
- Employer-paid life insurance & short-term & long-term disability, with other voluntary additional coverage available (accident, critical illness, hospital indemnity).
- Flexible hybrid work policy.
- Flexible paid vacation plus 80 hours of paid sick leave.
- 10 paid company holidays per year.
- 401(k) plan with 100% match up to 3%, plus 50% match up to 5% (subject to IRS limits).
- Cell phone reimbursement stipend.
- Monthly parking or commuter stipend for VA-based employees.

## About Tunnl

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Tunnl is an AI-powered audience intelligence platform that connects research, audience building, targeting, and measurement into a single closed-loop system for advertisers and agencies.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Venture-funded; $2.6M total funding)
- **Headquarters**: Arlington, Virginia, United States
- **Founded**: 2021
- **Founders**: Sara Fagen, Brent Seaborn, Alex Lundry

## Core Business
- **Primary industry/industries**: Audience intelligence, advertising technology, market research, public affairs
- **Target customers**: B2B – advertisers, agencies, public affairs and advocacy organizations, brand marketers
- **Mission or purpose statement**: “Empower advertisers and agencies with the audience intelligence they need to reach the right people with their public affairs, issue advocacy, and brand marketing campaigns.” [tunnldata.com/about-us](https://www.tunnldata.com/about-us)

## Products & Services
- **Tunnl Audience Intelligence Platform (SaaS)**: An end-to-end platform that integrates survey research, audience creation, media targeting (including linear TV, CTV, digital), and campaign measurement in a single closed loop. The platform leverages over 6.9 trillion proprietary data points, 23,000+ predictive models, and AI to generate 700 billion predictions per year. [tunnldata.com](https://www.tunnldata.com/)
- **Premier Audience Suite**: Off-the-shelf audience segments covering U.S. policy opinion makers and other high-value targets. [tunnldata.com](https://www.tunnldata.com/)
- **Reach & Frequency / Linear TV Measurement**: A self-serve TV rating feature for linear TV advertisers to plan and measure reach and frequency. [tunnldata.com](https://www.tunnldata.com/)
- **Model Library**: Over 23,000 predictive tools for audience targeting and opinion scoring. [tunnldata.com](https://www.tunnldata.com/)

## Competitive Advantages
- **Proprietary data moat**: Over 20 years of opinion data scored on every U.S. adult (dating back to 2003), creating a dataset competitors cannot replicate quickly. [tunnldata.com](https://www.tunnldata.com/)
- **Closed-loop platform**: Unlike fragmented approaches (separate vendors for research, audience, media buying, measurement), Tunnl connects everything in one AI-driven system, turning insights directly into actions.
- **AI infrastructure**: 700 billion AI-driven predictions per year, 23,000+ models, and 6.9 trillion data points provide scale and accuracy.
- **Political campaign heritage**: Founders originated from high-stakes political campaigns, giving deep expertise in persuasion and audience movement.

## Strategic Focus
- **Expand CTV and linear TV targeting**: The FreeWheel integration aims to accelerate political and public affairs targeting across connected TV for upcoming election cycles.
- **Self-serve capabilities**: Enabling advertisers to plan and measure TV reach without manual intervention.
- **Closed-loop intelligence**: Continue to shorten the cycle from research to measurement, allowing clients to see individual-level opinion shifts and message effectiveness in weeks, not months.
- **Industry diversification**: While rooted in political/public affairs, Tunnl is expanding into brand marketing and other outcome-driven industries.

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: Described as “smart, curious, and driven” with a collaborative, cross-functional environment. The team values innovation and strategic problem-solving.
- **Remote/Hybrid Policy**: Flexible remote work policy is explicitly offered. [tunnldata.com/careers](https://www.tunnldata.com/careers)
- **Perks**:
  - Unlimited vacation days plus a company holiday between Christmas and New Year’s
  - Employer 401k match
  - Paid sick leave
  - Team events (trivia, sports brackets, driving ranges)
- **Growth Opportunities**: 25% headcount growth in the last year, with open roles across business development, research, media strategy, and account management. The company encourages personal and professional development.
- **Engineering & Product**: Technical staff makes up 17% of the team (12 people). The product and engineering teams work on cutting-edge AI and data infrastructure.
- **Employee Rating**: 4.2/5.0 on LinkedIn (based on 4 reviews), with high marks for work-life balance (4.4) and culture (4.3).

## Sources
1. [tunnldata.com](https://www.tunnldata.com/)
2. [tunnldata.com/about-us](https://www.tunnldata.com/about-us)
3. [tunnldata.com/careers](https://www.tunnldata.com/careers)
4. [tunnldata.com/our-team](https://www.tunnldata.com/our-team)
5. [linkedin.com/company/tunnldata](https://www.linkedin.com/company/tunnldata)

## Other roles at Tunnl

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