Pod Lead, Sparrow Guided Team

Sparrow is the first high-tech, high-touch employee leave management solution. Our mission is to make it simple for companies to provide their employees with all kinds of leave (i.e. family, medical, etc.).

Currently, the leave management process is painful and inefficient for everyone. Company leaders struggle to keep up with regulations and processes that change frequently, and the employees going on leave are overwhelmed by bureaucracy at an exceptionally important juncture in their career. Sparrow transforms this ordinarily tedious, error-prone, complex to remain compliant, and time-consuming process into a 30-minute end-to-end experience saving teams time (20 - 40 hours per leave) and money (up to $30K per leave).

Sparrow is headquartered in San Francisco but all employees work remotely across the country. Sparrow is a diverse, highly talented, and supportive team. Together, we are hardworking, collaborative, smart, and humble—after all, we’re solving real problems.

We're expanding our Customer Experience organization and are looking for a Pod Lead to support the Leave Guide (Guided) team. As a Pod Lead, you will oversee the day-to-day operations of your assigned team members and serve as the primary point of contact for escalations, quality assurance, and team support within the Guided service model.

In our Guided offering, Leave Advisors support employees through their leave journey by providing high-level guidance, curating leave plans, and empowering employees to complete their own state and disability benefit filings using Sparrow's knowledge base and dashboard. As Pod Lead, you are the expert on this service model—motivated to serve as a resource, mentor, and coach to your peers, customers, and team members.

This is a new and evolving service, and you will play a key role in refining processes, establishing standard operating procedures, and contributing to continuous improvement across the team.

Here's what you will do:

• Oversee the day-to-day workflow of your pod, assigning tasks and leaves to ensure coverage needs are met and SLAs are maintained.

• Serve as the primary escalation point for complex or sensitive leave situations within your pod.

• Work closely with other Pod Leads to collaborate, share knowledge, and standardize operating cadences across Concierge and Guided.

• Work with CX Managers to identify areas of improvement for pod members.

• Serve as the subject matter expert on the Guided service model

• Ensure your pod has a clear understanding of each customer's policies, workflows, and processes within the Guided framework.

• QA leave plans, payroll plans (PPPs), and email communications to ensure accuracy, consistency, and a high standard of customer experience.

• Instill confidence in customers and assist with escalated leave questions, empowering both employees and HR admins to navigate next steps independently.

• Provide on-the-job training and mentorship to Leave Guides on your pod—supporting new hires through onboarding and shadowing, and upleveling more experienced Leave Guides.

• Offer consistent, constructive feedback to support team members' growth and development.

• Foster a positive, collaborative team culture by modeling Sparrow's values and encouraging knowledge-sharing.

• Identify, innovate, and take initiative on new processes to drive efficiency and productivity improvements specific to the Guided service offering.

• Document learnings, challenges, and opportunities to inform future process updates and SOPs.

• Work with Customer Onboarding Specialists to assist with onboarding new customers and ensuring a smooth transition to the pod.

• Serve as the voice of Guided customers at Sparrow so that cross-functional teams can continue to refine the product and service based on real needs.

• Participate in the creation and refinement of training materials, resources, and SOPs specific to the Leave Guide (Guided) role.

About You

• Stellar attendance record and strong track record of reliability.

• A natural go-to person—others seek you out for questions, guidance, and clarification.

• Collaborative and team-oriented, yet able to work independently with minimal supervision.

• Expert knowledge of leave management and a clear sense of where to find answers when you don't know them.

• Skilled at communicating complex information in a clear, empathetic, and actionable way—through email, phone, or video.

• Comfortable providing feedback to team members and always looking for ways to support their growth.

• Highly organized and detail-oriented, with the ability to track tasks across multiple employees and ensure nothing falls through the cracks.

• Proactive in anticipating customer and team needs, and motivated to solve problems before they escalate.

• Adaptable and optimistic—you thrive in fast-paced, ever-changing environments and approach uncertainty with a solutions mindset.

• Superior organization skills and detail-oriented. Able to track various tasks across different customers and ensure nothing gets lost. Exceptional organization and time management skills.

• Outstanding verbal and written communication skills. Clear, empathetic communicator able to balance rapport and problem-solving. Comfortable communicating through email, chat, and phone calls.

• People Person. Remarkable degree of empathy and interpersonal intuition, and strong, active listening skills. More than 2 years of client-facing experience where relationship-building is valued.

• Learner’s mindset. Highly self-directed, adaptable, and open to feedback in a fast-paced, always-changing environment.

• Proactive. You anticipate what customers or the team may need next. Proactive in identifying and solving problems.

• Systems-oriented. Always thinking of how to improve processes and increase efficiency.

• Trustworthy. Able to handle confidential information appropriately.

• Relentlessly optimistic. You believe in and work toward positive change, undeterred by uncertainty or roadblocks.

• Empathetic. You lead with compassion and understand each situation from the customer’s perspective.

• Self-directed. Adaptable, and comfortable with change.

• Trustworthy. You act with discretion and can be trusted to handle confidential information appropriately.

• Committed. You are focused on continuous learning and process improvement.

In collaboration with the Sparrow team, build a better product:

• Collect and share product and process feedback you receive during customer interactions.

• Identify common customer challenges and recommend process adjustments.

• Participate in the creation and refinement of training materials, resources, and SOPs for the Leave Advisor role.

• Provide and seek specific feedback with peers, supporting your team’s growth and development.

• Share product and process feedback gathered from customer interactions.

• Recommend improvements to task workflows and resource materials.

• Participate in the creation and refinement of SOPs and training for the Leave Advisor role.

• Contribute to a positive, collaborative team culture by offering and receiving constructive feedback.

Internal Role Requirements

• Currently a Leave Specialist II or III on the Guided team.

• Solid understanding of the Guided service model and Sparrow's leave management process.

• History of frequently assisting new team members through training and shadowing.

• Must be in good standing in your current role.

• This is an hourly, non-exempt position. Compensation ranges from $34.23 to $42.31 per hour and is based on your legal state of residence.

Our work at Sparrow is impactful. We help People teams with one of the hardest parts of their job, and we support employees at a time when they need it most. We’re driven by our mission, much like a nonprofit, but with the resources and scale of a fast-growing venture-backed company.

Sparrow is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. While we are united by our excitement for the mission and product, the diversity of our experiences is one of our strengths. The Sparrow team is made up of people with all types of backgrounds, and we have teammates in 40 states and counting. To learn more about the Sparrow team and its benefits, check out our careers page.