Job Title: HR Manager, Benefits Lead
Department: Partner Services Human Resources
Location: Hybrid, based in Washington, DC, or Durham, NC; or Remote in Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, or Virginia
Who We Are
Today’s societal challenges are more complex, interconnected, and urgent than ever. Sunflower Services is comprised of over 240 professionals with deep expertise in the philanthropic sector. We provide support services to fiscal sponsors and intermediaries and their hundreds of mission-driven projects—that are creating meaningful change. We welcome jobseekers who are motivated by results and driven by impact. For a list of current job openings at Sunflower, please visit our LinkedIn page.
Sunflower Services is an independent, nonprofit-owned Public Benefit Corporation dedicated to providing operational excellence to nonprofit and social impact organizations. Sunflower delivers integrated solutions in finance, HR, grants management, compliance, and other administrative areas, helping mission-driven organizations and changemakers focus on what matters most: their impact.
Position Overview
The HR Manager, Benefits Lead administers day-to-day systems and structures for benefits programs and manages the associated stakeholder relationships. As a member of the Leave of Absence and case Triage teams, this role provides employees with guidance and support.
What You’ll Do
- Provide exceptional daily HR service to clients, including mentoring others with basic benefit cases. Partner with Associate Director of HR, Partner Solutions HR Leadership, account teams and PNPO leaders in elevating and proactively addressing service concerns.
- Maintain a strong working knowledge of relevant benefit plans, best practices, and laws.
- Manage open enrollment(s) among client organizations, and associated benefits renewal processes.
- Analyze existing benefits policies and prevailing practices and recommend appropriate benefits programs and policies adjustments.
- Maintain benefits vendor relationships, liaising with vendor POC’s and advocating for staff as necessary
- Maintain the annual benefits calendar and associated annual and ad-hoc projects, including maintaining project plans, stakeholders, and timelines.
- Support benefits billing processes, including benefits and payroll election review and approval. Liaise between vendors and appropriate teams to ensure timely processing, payment, and issue resolution
- Ensure timely filing of mandatory benefits reporting.
- Develop content associated with benefits resources, intranet and proactive communication efforts. Identify, champion and develop new resources as needs arise.
- Manage benefits training initiatives and annual communications. Provide ad-hoc individual and project-specific support as needed (including custom training sessions).
- Support the management of leave of absence programs, following consistent guidelines and approaches as directed by LOA Lead.
- Support experimental benefits management services or prototype models as needed.
- Manage compliance related to benefits policies, including monitoring for and staying ahead of emerging laws and trends.
- Help maintain employee electronic files in compliance with policies and legal requirements. Maintains employee confidence and protects confidentiality of personnel data.
- Support triage, tracking, case response, and assignment for case logging system to provide exceptional daily service to client staff.
- Other duties assigned.
What You’ll Bring
- 4+ years of HR professional experience, including staff management and communication, and engagement with leadership.
- Bachelor’s degree or equivalent; preference for a Master’s in HR, HR certification, or equivalent.
- Experience with client management.
- Experience managing employee benefits programs, including managing and navigating benefits software.
- Experience in professional services environment, PEO or similar highly desired. Strong client service and interpersonal skills such as tact and diplomacy required.
- Possess a command of reporting systems as it relates to the extraction, manipulation, and analysis of benefits-related data.
- Experience managing a variety of vendor relationships.
- Experience in a progressive, mission-driven, and entrepreneurial environment.
- Strong organizational and project management skills.
- Excellent attention to detail and accuracy.
- Ability to think critically.
- Ability to balance strict compliance with business need, while maintaining focus on strategic priorities and discretion in a multi-stakeholder environment.
- Exceptional interpersonal skills, both written and verbal, with a strong customer service mentality and high degree of integrity, accountability, and emotional intelligence.
- Ability to draft high-quality correspondence and written materials.
- Ability to manage a high volume of tasks with shifting priorities and deadlines.
- Superior analytic and problem-solving skills with a thoughtful approach to addressing challenges.
- Optimism and adaptability.
Compensation and Benefits
The annual salary range for this position is $66,000 - $75,000. Our salary ranges are based on national compensation benchmarks of similar sized companies in professional services. This position is eligible for an annual bonus at 5% of the annual salary.
We offer a comprehensive benefits package that includes medical, dental, and vision insurance, plus a flexible spending account and health savings account, in addition to a 401k with a company match, and commuter benefits.
We give generous paid time off, with 16 days of vacation time, 10 days of personal time, 20 hours of volunteer time, 11 company holidays, and 4 optional holidays.
We support work-life balance with parental leave, UrbanSitter membership, Employee Resource Groups, and fitness and telecommunications reimbursements.
We value growth and development with options for education reimbursement and professional development.
We also offer disability, life insurance, additional voluntary insurances, and access to Teladoc and Health Advocate.
Work at Sunflower Services
Submit a resume and cover letter. The application deadline for this position is July 17, 2026. The deadline to apply may be shortened or extended depending on business needs.
Location Requirements
This is a full-time position. The position can operate on a hybrid schedule, based in our Washington, DC, or Durham, NC offices, or it can be fully remote from the following locations: Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, or Virginia.
If a new hire is within proximity of our Washington, DC or Durham, NC offices, the expectation during onboarding (~90 days) is that you come into the office a minimum of 3 days per week. After this onboarding period, employees can then come into the office on a more flexible schedule with the remaining days worked at home/remotely.
Physical Requirements
- Prolonged periods of sitting at a desk and working on a computer
We will make reasonable accommodations under the guidelines of the Americans With Disabilities Act.
Sunflower Services is an Equal Opportunity Employer without regard to race, gender, disability status, veteran status, or any other category protected by federal, state, or local law.
Visit our web page to learn more about Sunflower Services and watch this video.
