People Operations Specialist
Join the Crew
For more than 30 years, Mainframe Studios has been a place where creative people do their best work together. Our teams collaborate closely to solve creative and technical challenges, delivering world-class content for partners such as Netflix, Mattel, Sony, and DreamWorks. We’re excited to welcome candidates who want to be part of that legacy and help build the future.
Position Overview
Reporting to the HR/People & Culture leadership team, the People Operations Specialist serves as the operational backbone of the department. This role is responsible for executing, maintaining, and auditing the core workflows and data systems that support the entire employee lifecycle - from offer generation to offboarding. Acting as a key operational bridge between Artist Management, Talent Acquisition, and employees, this role ensures internal talent changes, production transitions, and baseline compliance requirements are handled with meticulous accuracy, empathy, and care.
Primary Areas of Responsibility
Internal Talent & Lifecycle Management
- Artist Management Liaison: Act as the central HR operational point of contact for Artist Management regarding production-specific roles. Provide foundational guidance on Employment Standards and company best practices.
- Internal Mobility Coordination: Oversee the operational execution of internal talent shifts, including drafting and tracking promotion letters, contract extensions, lateral production reassignments, and salary progressions.
- Contract Retention Tracking: Proactively track and monitor fixed-term contract end dates. Coordinate with Producers and leadership to initiate retention workflows, renewal agreements, or offboarding timelines.
- Performance Review Support: Support the operational tracking of artist performance reviews, ensuring completion documentation is filed correctly within the HRIS.
HR Systems & Data Administration
- Data Maintenance & Entry: Utilize the HRIS (UKG Ready) to accurately input employee data, update records, and maintain overall data integrity.
- Employee Records & Reporting: Maintain digital employee records with the highest level of discretion and confidentiality. Generate regular and ad-hoc reports regarding workforce metrics as required.
- Payroll Liaison: Coordinate closely with the Payroll department to ensure all compensation changes, new hires, contract extensions, and terminations are accurately communicated and processed with the correct paperwork.
Onboarding & Talent Acquisition Support
- Offer Logistics: Partner with the Talent Acquisition team to handle the final stages of the recruitment cycle, including conducting reference checks, negotiating offers, and preparing formal offer letters.
- Operational Onboarding: Lead the operational phase of onboarding by coordinating with internal IT, facilities, and management teams to ensure a seamless setup for new hires.
General Compliance & Immigration Support
- Immigration Tracking: Maintain systematic tracking and baseline compliance documentation for Temporary Foreign Workers (TFWs) currently employed at the studio.
- Immigration Coordination (As Needed): Provide occasional support for work permit applications, renewals, and LMIAs, coordinating with external immigration counsel as required. Stay informed on general updates to Canadian TFW programs.
- Employment Standards Compliance: Ensure all standard employment documentation aligns with provincial (BC and Ontario) and federal labour guidelines.
Qualifications & Core Competencies
- Experience: Minimum 3 years of progressive HR experience in an operational or coordinator role - experience within the Animation, VFX, Video Games, or broader Tech/Digital Media industries is an asset.
- Education: Post-secondary degree or diploma in Human Resources, Business Administration, or a related field.
- Compliance Knowledge: Deep understanding of Canadian labour and employment legislation, specifically including BC and Ontario Employment Standards. Familiarity with TFW program basics is an asset.
- Technical Skills: Intermediate to Advanced proficiency in HRIS platforms (hands-on experience with UKG Ready or similar modern HR databases is a major plus), Google Workspace, and Microsoft Office.
Core Values & Competencies
- Human-Centric & Approachable: Demonstrates a high level of empathy, openness, and active listening; ensures that all foundational workflows and employee lifecycles are handled with a supportive, employee-first mindset.
- Inclusive & Accessible Communication: Maintains an approachable, open-door style when guiding employees through workplace policies, contract changes, and standard operations; ensures HR workflows feel transparent, clear, and highly accessible to everyone in the studio.
- Trust & Tact: Blends a warm, empathetic demeanour with the absolute discretion, confidentiality, and professional boundaries required to handle sensitive data and contract lifecycles.
- Meticulous Attention to Detail: Takes pride in a high degree of data accuracy, paperwork precision, and thorough organization.
- Adaptable & Proactive: Highly organized and comfortable shifting priorities in a fast-paced, collaborative production environment.
Life at Mainframe
We believe that incredible animation is born in an environment where people feel secure, balanced, and inspired. We don’t just offer a job; we offer a community that celebrates every win.
- A Collaborative Creative Community: We prioritize genuine connection through regular studio events, social activities, and cultural initiatives, ensuring our environment is as vibrant as the animation we create.
- Growth & Impact: Work directly alongside world-class talent to solve unique creative challenges for global partners like Netflix, Mattel, and Sony.
Our Commitment to Inclusion
We are committed to inclusion at Mainframe Studios as an Equal Opportunity Employer. We know that our stories are more powerful when they’re told by a team with diverse backgrounds, identities, and lived experiences. We actively welcome and encourage applications from BIPOC, LGBTQ2S+, and Indigenous communities, as well as individuals with diverse abilities.
We strive to make our recruitment process accessible to everyone. If you require any specific accommodations at any point in the journey, please let us know at recruiting@mainframe.ca.