People Partner

Black Forest Labs

ABOUT BLACK FOREST LABS We're the team behind Latent Diffusion, Stable Diffusion, and FLUX—foundational technologies that changed how the world creates images and video. We’re creating the generative models that power how people make images and video—tools used by millions of creators, developers, and businesses worldwide. Our FLUX models are among the most advanced in the world, and we're just getting started. Headquartered in Freiburg, Germany with a growing presence in San Francisco, we're scaling fast while staying true to what makes us different: research excellence, open science, and building technology that expands human creativity. WHY THIS ROLE You'll split your time between People Partnering and People Operations, with that balance shifting toward more partnering as we grow and the ops layer matures. You'll report into the Head of People and work closely with our existing EU People team member, taking the lead on partnering and providing guidance on ops quality and approach. This role suits someone who can hold a room with senior leaders, thinks commercially, and isn't too precious to roll up their sleeves when it matters. Your background might be in HR, Operations, Consulting, or Programme Management; what matters more is that you bring good judgement, a genuine interest in the people function, and the self-awareness to know what you don't yet know. Tech experience is essential, you'll be supporting engineers, researchers, and commercial teams, and you need to understand how they think. WHAT YOU’LL WORK ON PEOPLE PARTNERING * Serve as a key People Partner for EU-based managers and employees, providing support across performance, team effectiveness, and organisational design * Coach and develop managers across the org, building leadership capability as we scale * Own compensation strategy inputs and lead key employee lifecycle moments, performance cycles, promotions, difficult conversations * Lead employee relations matters in the EU with sound judgement and solid knowledge of German employment law; know when to escalate to external counsel * Be a trusted presence at HQ, the person leaders come to before a situation becomes a problem PEOPLE OPERATIONS * Set the standard for people ops quality in Europe; not doing everything yourself, but ensuring it's done well * Provide guidance to our EU Ops and People Partner, supporting their development and ensuring execution quality * Use data, tooling and AI to make People Ops smooth and scalable, spot inefficiencies and fix them * Own your portion of the People roadmap, from design through to delivery WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FOR ESSENTIAL * 7–10 years of experience in People, Operations, Consulting, Programme Management, or a related field - with meaningful HR exposure and a genuine interest in building the function * Must have worked in tech (deep tech e.g AI, infrastructure, developer tooling, fintech, or similar would be a bonus) * Must have startup or scale-up experience - you know what it feels like to build, not just inherit * Comfortable moving between strategic thinking and hands-on execution - you've done both and neither intimidates you * Strong coaching instincts with the credibility to influence senior stakeholders * Fluent in German and English. WHILE NOT REQUIRED, IT’S AN ADDED PLUS IF YOU ALSO HAVE: * Hands-on HR generalist experience * Experience being a senior or lead People hire in an early-stage or scaling environment * Experience building or significantly improving People processes from scratch * Working knowledge of German employment law * Exposure to cross-border or multi-entity employment in Europe HOW WE WORK TOGETHER We’re a distributed team with real offices that people actually use. This role will join us in Freiburg at least 2 days a week (or one full week every other week). We’ll cover reasonable travel costs to make this possible. We think in-person time matters, and we’ve structured things to make it accessible to all. We’ll discuss what this will look like for the role during our interview process. EVERYTHING WE DO IS GROUNDED IN FOUR VALUES: * Obsessed. We are a frontier research lab. The science has to be right, the understanding deep, the product beautiful. * Low Ego. The work speaks. The best idea wins, no matter who said it. Credit is shared. Nobody is above any task. * Bold. We take the ambitious bet. We ship, we do not wait for conditions to be perfect. * Kind. People over politics. We treat each other with genuine warmth. Agency without empathy creates chaos. If this sounds like work you’d enjoy, we’d love to hear from you BASE ANNUAL SALARY: €100,000 - €130,000 + EQUITY

Light

Note: this role is 5 days a week onsite ABOUT LIGHT Light is the AI-native finance platform built for hypergrowth. Founded in 2022, we've reimagined finance software from the ground up—processing hundreds of millions of records in under a second and automating multi-entity accounting across global jurisdictions. We're trusted by companies like Lovable and Legora, and backed by world-class investors including Balderton Capital, Atomico, Cherry Ventures, and Seedcamp. In summer 2025, we raised $30M in Series A funding, bringing total funding to $43M. While traditional ERPs bolt AI onto legacy systems, Light was built AI-first—from database design to user experience. The result: finance teams reduce operational workload by 84% and expand into new countries in days, not months. We’re expanding globally across London, Copenhagen, and soon New York. Join us as we build the finance platform that hypergrowth companies have been waiting for. THE ROLE We’re hiring a People Partner to own and evolve critical People systems & processes as Light continues through rapid scaling and growing across teams, geographies and complexity. This is a high ownership IC role, focused on continuous improvement and enabling a high performance organisation. Over the last 6 months we’ve gone from 40 → 90 and we are looking to make an additional 30+ hires this year. You will report directly to the Head of Finance & Core Ops, and work closely with the wider leadership team, acting as a key partner on people related decisions, while also building and executing within all pillars of HR WHAT YOU WILL BE DOING PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT & FEEDBACK SYSTEMS * Own the design, execution, and iteration of Light’s performance review and feedback cycles * Ensure performance processes are rigorous, consistent, and drive high-performance behaviours * Work with leadership to maintain clear expectations, accountability, and promotion decisions COMPENSATION & PROGRESSION FRAMEWORKS * Own compensation review cycles, benchmarking, and internal alignment processes * Build, maintain and evolve role levels and progression frameworks across the company * Ensure compensation and promotion decisions are structured, fair, and consistently applied ORG DESIGN & LEADERSHIP PARTNERING * Partner with leadership on org structure, scaling decisions, and team effectiveness * Advise on organisational changes during growth, ensuring clarity and operational effectiveness * Identify and resolve structural bottlenecks as the company scales HIRING & TALENT PARTNERING * Partner with Finance and leadership on workforce planning and headcount allocation across teams and geographies * Support definition and structuring of roles to ensure clarity of scope, level, and organisational fit * Provide input into hiring prioritisation and sequencing as the company scales PEOPLE OPERATIONS & SYSTEMS * Own core People processes including onboarding, offboarding, and employee lifecycle moments * Improve HR systems and tooling (e.g. HiBob) to ensure scalability and accuracy * Build operational clarity across People processes as the company grows CULTURE & WAYS OF WORKING * Shape and reinforce effective ways of working as Light scales * Identify cultural and organisational friction points and drive improvements with leadership * Strengthen communication rhythms, alignment, and operational cadence across teams COMPANY WORKPLACE & EVENTS * Own the day-to-day workplace experience across Light’s London office, ensuring it is functional, well-run, and aligned with company culture * Own planning and execution of company offsites and key team events * Design experiences that strengthen alignment, trust, and cohesion across global teams YOUR QUALIFICATIONS * 5+ years experience in a People Partner, People Manager or HRBP role in a high-growth environment * Ownership of people systems (performance, compensation, hiring, onboarding) * Exposure to scaling SaaS companies through scaling phases * Strong business acumen and ability to translate company priorities into people systems * High agency and comfort operating independently in fast-moving environments * Strong stakeholder management experience with senior leadership exposure * Structured, analytical thinking and ability to operate in ambiguity * Working knowledge of UK and European employment frameworks BONUS POINTS * Experience across both Talent Acquisition and broader People/HR systems * Experience designing or significantly evolving performance or compensation systems * Experience owning company-wide events or offsites at scale

Payhawk

Company Mission Payhawk is a leading global spend management solution for scaling businesses. Headquartered in London and combining company cards, reimbursable expenses and accounts payable into a single product; its future-facing technology enables finance teams to control and automate company spending at scale. The Payhawk customer base includes fast-growing and mature multinational companies in 32 countries including LuxAir and Wagestream. With offices in New York, London, Berlin, Munich , Barcelona, Paris, Amsterdam, Vilnius and Sofia; Payhawk is backed by renowned investors such as Lightspeed Venture Partners, Greenoaks, QED Investors, Bek Ventures and Eleven Ventures. Our values include supporting flat hierarchies, taking ownership and responsibility, seeking and providing feedback, managing constructive critique, and speaking our minds. We understand that the best ideas don’t all come from the same place, so we encourage diversity and inclusion in all areas of our work. The future of fintech is about more than money, and we believe in work-life balance, continual learning, and empowered teams. We’re also on a journey to measure and improve our environmental and social impact. From virtual cards to digital subscriptions, our software and automation help take paper out of the equation for our customers, too. We’re changing the world of payments, and we’re looking for an exceptional team to help us.  About the Role We are seeking a dynamic and results-driven People Partner to join our team in Sofia. This role will partner closely with our Marketing & Customer Success Teams and cross-functional departments to help scale and drive the success of our organization. As a People Partner, you'll be instrumental in fostering a high-performance culture, strengthening engagement, and reinforcing our core values throughout the team. Responsibilities * Collaborate with leaders and managers to ensure employees are supported, engaged, and empowered to excel at all times. * Design and implement clear, achievable career pathways for top performers, driving professional growth and retention. * Lead initiatives that reinforce our company culture and values, ensuring alignment with our mission and vision. * Take ownership of employee relations, addressing underperformance swiftly and effectively. * Develop and execute strategies to consistently elevate our eNPS scores across departments, ensuring a continuously improving employee experience. * Champion a culture of autonomy and accountability, ensuring teams take ownership of their work while delivering exceptional results. * Drive a transparent feedback culture where input is not only encouraged but acted upon—fostering an environment of openness and continuous improvement. * Hold managers accountable for the quality of their leadership, helping them develop as strong, empathetic leaders who inspire peak performance. * Partner with Talent Acquisition to attract and onboard top-tier talent, ensuring a smooth integration that accelerates success and cultural alignment. * Collaborate with department heads to address skills gaps and drive personalized development initiatives that elevate both individual and team performance. Requirements * 4+ years of HR Business Partnering within high-growth and fast-paced technology driven organisation * Superb communication and interpersonal skills and strong organizational skills, detail orientation, and an ability to priorities tasks effectively * Demonstrated ability to provide strategic insights and influence leadership teams on people and organizational topics. * A process-oriented mind that is not afraid to challenge existing processes and build new ones. * The courage to learn, and to share your learnings with us. * Proactiveness and most importantly a lot of enthusiasm with a deep desire to make the internal client, employee and manager experience simpler, pleasant and more productive * Humble, self-aware, trustworthy, you treasure great colleagues and relationships and are committed to nurturing the culture of the team and company Company Benefits * Competitive compensation package based on experience * 30 days holiday paid leave, plus bank holidays * Exchange policy to another Payhawk office (Amsterdam, London, Paris, Berlin or Barcelona) * Flexible working hours and opportunity to work from home * Regular team-wide events  * Additional Medical and Dental care * Multisport card fully funded by us * Opportunity to use the Payhawk product with monthly travel allowance. * Company office massages * Personal Assistant service  Please note that unfortunately we cannot provide visa sponsorship, and to be considered for this role, candidates must be able to provide proof of their eligibility to work in the EU. Payhawk is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender perception or identity, national origin, age, marital status, protected veteran status, or disability status.