Head of People & Culture (f/m/d)

TACTILIA robotics; München; On-site; EUR 110,000 - 170,000; Full time

Job summary

TACTILIA robotics in Munich is seeking its first Head of People & Culture to lead and scale the entire People function — Recruiting, People Ops and HRBP — as we prepare for rapid growth.

You will build a world-class talent engine, design the org for scale, raise the management and performance bar, and own the employee lifecycle from onboarding to growth and, if needed, offboarding. You’ll also shape compensation, policy and culture as we grow, with a focus on practical, data-driven decisions.

Qualifications

• Degree in Business, Psychology, HR or adjacent field.
• Real years in HR inside fast-moving tech companies.
• Ability to set direction and close candidates.
• History of building scalable HR processes.
• Ability to give hard feedback constructively.
• Comfort using data to justify decisions.
• Strong English; German is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Build a world-class talent engine: end-to-end hiring, sourcing, assessment, candidate experience, executive recruiting, closing.
• Design the org for scale: structure, leadership roles, succession, decision rights, spans of control.
• Raise the management and performance bar: goals, feedback, development, promotions, accountability.
• Run the whole employee arc: HRIS, payroll, benefits, immigration, policies, employee relations, data.
• Own comp and rewards: leveling, salary bands, equity, promotion standards, reviews.
• Hold things together through change: navigate growth without losing trust.
• Build a scalable culture: embed values in hiring, communication, leadership, recognition.
• Consider AI's impact on roles and workflows, measure speed and quality.
• Keep processes lean and compliant with German/EU regulations.

Skills

HR leadership

Talent acquisition

People operations

Organizational design

People analytics

Employee relations

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Business/HR or related

Tools

HRIS

Payroll systems

Job description

About TACTILIA

At TACTILIA, we are building the industry-ready robotic hand that closes one of the biggest gaps in Physical AI. Spun out of SCHUNK, the global market leader in gripping technology, we combine a decade of robotic-hand expertise and real industrial access with the speed and ambition of a deep-tech startup.

This isn't a research project waiting for its first customer. We already have a product, customers are ready to use it, and we are launching now. Your work will directly shape the team, culture and processes that make that possible.

You will join at the moment when a handful of people become a real organization: how do we build a team, and the People & Culture foundations behind it, that are as reliable and scalable as the product we're bringing to market?

The Role

You'd be our first Head of People & Culture. That means leading and scaling the whole People function — Recruiting, People Ops, and HRBP — setting direction, building the team under you, and raising execution quality as we prepare for rapid growth.

Some days you're sourcing a candidate yourself. Other days you're sitting with the CEO working out what the org chart needs to look like in a year. Both matter equally here.

What you will do:

Building a world-class talent engine. Own hiring end to end — workforce planning, sourcing, assessment, candidate experience, interviews, executive recruiting, and closing, across technical and leadership roles. Build our channels and our reputation as a place worth joining, from nothing.

Designing the org for scale. Work with the CEO, CTO, and department leads on structure, leadership roles, succession, decision rights, and spans of control — figuring out what the org needs to look like before we're forced to react to it.

Raising the management and performance bar. Build practical, no-nonsense systems for goals, feedback, development, promotions, and accountability.

Running the whole employee arc. First interview to onboarding to growth to, if it ever comes to that, a good exit plus the plumbing underneath it: HRIS, payroll, benefits, immigration, policies, employee relations, and the People data that tells you whether any of it's working.

Owning comp and rewards. Partner with leadership on leveling, salary bands, equity, promotion standards, and comp reviews that stay fair as we grow, not just defensible.

Holding things together through change. Growth breaks things. You're the person who helps teams and leads through structural shifts without losing trust or people along the way.

Building a culture that scales, not dilutes. Embed our values into how we hire, communicate, lead, and recognize people — while deliberately reaching past our existing networks to bring in exceptional talent from backgrounds we wouldn't otherwise see.

Thinking about how AI changes the work itself. Partner with leadership and functional leads to rethink roles, workflows, and skills around AI — and actually measure whether it's making us faster and better, not just different.

Keeping the lean stuff lean. All of this needs to hold up under German and EU regulation — without becoming bureaucratic.

What you bring:

• A degree in Business, Psychology, HR, or something adjacent

• Real years in HR inside fast-moving tech companies

• The range to set direction and get into the weeds yourself — including closing candidates

• A history of building HR processes that flex for a startup but hold up as things scale

• The ability to deliver hard feedback without it landing hard

• Comfort using data to make the case for what you're doing

• Strong English; German is a real plus, not a checkbox

Bonus:

• Built or scaled an HR function from zero before — startup, spin-off, or corporate venture

• Worked in robotics, hardware, or deep tech

• Got a network you could tap into for sourcing in engineering or robotics

The next chapter of robotics won't be built in a lab. It will be built by people who care about what happens when technology meets the real world.

At TACTILIA, you'll work on one of the hardest open problems in robotics: giving machines the dexterity, reliability, and robustness they need to interact with the physical world at industrial scale.

The technology is taking shape. The team is being built. And the standards for robotic hands and their skills are still wide open.

That means your decisions will have a lasting impact — not just on a product, but on what comes next for Physical AI.

Build the hand. Define the standard. Shape what comes next.

If you're excited by the challenge of building robotic hands that work reliably in the real world, we'd love to hear from you.