Operations and Automation Specialist

Role details

• Location: Remote
• Employment type: Full time
• Department: People
• Compensation: $108,584 – $139,952

We strive for Buffer’s approach to salary, equity, and benefits to be:

• Transparent
• Fair
• Simple
• Generous

Read more about our compensation philosophies and approach.

Role description

About Buffer

We create social media and brand-building software for small businesses, creators, and individuals. Our mission is to provide essential tools to help small businesses get off the ground and grow. Through exceptional customer service and uplifting content, we help our customers believe they can succeed and do good along the way. Buffer is a fully distributed team, aiming to do things differently by rethinking traditional practices. We default to transparency with metrics, successes, and failures shared on our Transparency Dashboard. We are united by Buffer's values and hire globally. We strive for a diverse and inclusive environment where underrepresented groups can flourish. We travel once or twice per year for in-person work events encouraged to build deeper connections.

About the role

Buffer is a fully distributed company across many continents and timezones with big ambitions captured in strategic themes, initiatives, projects, and tasks. We prioritize radical transparency through documentation and context internally and externally. As a 15-year-old evolving company, we focus on integrating AI to operate more effectively. We seek a systems-minded operator and builder to work cross-functionally across Buffer to improve communication flow, decision-making processes, context sharing, tooling/IT approaches, and adaptation as AI transforms work. This role reports into the People team and will own and strengthen our company operating system as a remote global team. The goal is to create a calmer, clearer way of working by reducing complexity while building for customers.

What you'll own

• Team-wide communication flow and documentation: Improve tools/rituals including project management (Linear), internal communication (Slack), company-wide touchpoints (All Hands meetings, weekly newsletter) for clearer alignment.
• Information Architecture: Own/improve Notion space balancing internal reference material, historical documentation, transparent company handbook.
• Tooling: Oversee tools across Finance (renewals/budgeting), IT/Security (provisioning/deprovisioning, permissions/access). Optimize current tools stack; explore new solutions; offboard redundant tools.
• People Data: Develop tracking/reporting for visibility into benefits usage, time off, performance/promotions, diversity/tenure; operational health indicators like strategic alignment, decision velocity, team sustainability.
• Automation and AI adoptions: Support exploration/adoption of AI tools/automation to improve communication access and pace of decision-making/execution.

Helpful skills and experience

• Early adopter of AI/automation tools with hands-on examples using platforms like ChatGPT, Claude, Zapier, Make, n8n, Retool or similar.
• Technically confident with strong resourcefulness; quick self-teacher of new systems.
• Experience designing/maintaining company-wide systems in remote/global environments with strong systems thinking mindset.
• Strategic view on tool stack management including evaluation/adoption/retirement of tools.
• Good judgment balancing structure vs autonomy.
• Strong data literacy: defining metrics, building dashboards, turning data into narratives guiding decisions.
• Exceptional written/verbal communication skills suited for async environments; able to create concise structured accessible documentation.
• Deep care for people/culture motivated by clarity/trust/psychological safety in workplace.

Interview Process

1. Application: Submit application/resume explaining fit for Buffer/role. Review takes a few weeks.

Asynchronous exercise: Provide detailed process/automation/workflow document plus ~10-minute video explaining project.

3. Interview with People Team: Meet Chief of Staff & Senior People Operations Specialist; discuss role details/work.

Meet VP Finance & Operations + CEO: Understand Buffer’s strategy/values/work processes deeper.

5. Collaboration Day: Paid full-day working on real projects with team via Slack/Zoom.

Offer: Discuss details & receive offer.

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