Head of People Ops

Reporting to the VP People, you will join the People team (10p) and lead a team of two People Operations Specialists. You will own the People Operations and Employee Relations scope across France, the UK, Spain, Germany and Italy, supporting more than 250 employees across these countries.

This role comes at a stage where the foundations of our People Operations model are in place. The focus is no longer on building the function, but on bringing deeper expertise, ensuring an adequate level of compliance and running our processes with consistency and reliability. You will help continuously improve the way we support all Spendeskers while making sure our practices remain robust and fit for an international organisation.

As Head of People Operations & Employee Relations, you will combine team leadership, operational excellence, local HR expertise and continuous improvement. You will ensure that our People processes are well-run, compliant and employee-centred, while making our ways of working more scalable through process improvement, automation and the pragmatic use of AI.

Key Responsibilities

People Operations strategy

• Define and drive the People Operations roadmap in line with Spendesk's priorities and the wider People strategy.

• Clarify roles, responsibilities and escalation paths, identify opportunities to simplify and standardise processes, prioritise initiatives, and use People data to monitor performance and support decision-making.

• Set clear priorities, roles and expectations for the Senior and Junior team members, coach and develop the team, and create the right conditions for autonomy, ownership and high-quality delivery.

• Ensure a strong balance between day-to-day delivery, escalation management and continuous improvement, while building robust documentation, knowledge-sharing and back-up arrangements.

Employee journey & payroll operations

• The team manages the day-to-day execution of employee journey and payroll processes. You will oversee the quality, consistency and timeliness of these processes across the countries in scope, while ensuring a high-quality, seamless and positive employee experience at every stage.

• Act as an escalation point for complex, sensitive or high-impact situations, monitor recurring issues and operational risks, and ensure that incidents are resolved at their root cause, with appropriate care for the employees involved.

• Continuously assess and improve the employee experience across our people operations, identifying opportunities to simplify processes, raise service standards and strengthen the support provided to employees and managers.

• Challenge processes and the payroll operating model when needed, define relevant service standards and metrics, and work closely with Finance and payroll providers on reporting, reconciliations and operational improvements.

Improve scalability through automation and AI

• You will make automation and AI a core part of the People Operations operating model, rather than treating them as standalone initiatives. You will redesign workflows and ways of working to reduce manual effort, improve data flows and give employees and managers faster access to the right information.

• You will define and drive a clear roadmap of high-impact use cases, including automated workflows, self-service resources and AI-enabled solutions. You will also ensure that these solutions are thoughtfully governed, protecting sensitive People data while preserving human judgement where it matters.

Co-lead employee relations and labour relations

• Working closely with the VP People, you will co-lead employee representative and social dialogue matters across France, Spain and Germany, with a particular focus on CSE activities in France and equivalent representative bodies in Spain and Germany.

• Your responsibilities will include managing social dialogue calendars, preparing and coordinating employee representative meetings, supporting elections and consultation processes, responding to questions from employee representatives, ensuring appropriate follow-up, and working with local advisors when specific expertise is required.

What we're looking for

If the role speaks to you, we encourage you to apply even if you don't tick every box. You will likely thrive if you:

• Have already led a People Operations function or department, either by building it from scratch or by taking ownership of an established scope and developing it further.

• Have significant international experience and are comfortable operating across multiple countries, local regulations and ways of working.

• Have made AI and automation part of their day-to-day work, with