Talent Detection Specialist (f/m/d) – HR & People Manager

sewts GmbH; München; On-site; EUR 65,000 - 90,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

Learning budget

Deutschlandticket

Team events

Job summary

sewts.VELUM is seeking an HR/People Operations lead who will own end-to-end people processes. You will manage hiring across Europe using Personio, ensure payroll accuracy, and handle contracts, visas and compliance for international hires.

You’ll partner closely with founders and engineers to build a scalable, high-trust culture. You’ll design feedback and development processes, manage payroll monthly, and drive team activities from Munich across Europe.

Qualifications

• 2+ years in HR or People Operations at a startup/scale-up/tech/industrial company.
• Hands-on experience preparing German payroll and knowledge of German employment law.
• Recruiting experience with an ATS (Personio is a plus).
• Highly organized with strong attention to detail.
• Able to communicate with senior engineers, field technicians and founders in the same day.
• Leads with empathy and handles confidential information discreetly.
• AI-native: uses AI tools to work faster.
• Fluent in English; German is a plus.
• Based in Munich or willing to relocate; role is in-person.

Responsibilities

• Own hiring in Personio: job ads, sourcing, screening, interview scheduling, feedback and follow-ups.
• Run processes for various roles (perception engineer, field technician, operations intern).
• Design and implement performance conversations and development plans with founders.
• Prepare monthly payroll including hours, travel, absences, bonuses and changes.
• Maintain employee records, contracts, references, visas and work permits for international hires.
• Track headcount, personnel costs and hiring plans; report key metrics to founders.
• Coordinate team events, offsites and the Munich-Europe office setup and culture.
• Identify repetitive tasks and automate them where possible.

Skills

HR experience

People Operations

German payroll

Recruiting experience

Communication

Empathy

Process design

AI tools

English-German bilingual

Tools

Personio

Job description

Your mission

Robots couldn't handle soft materials. We fixed that.

Our robots see, grip and handle textiles, towels and cables the way humans do. They run in real production across Europe, and the US is next. Behind every robot that survives contact with reality there’s a team: software and hardware engineers, field technicians, deployment crews, ten nationalities and counting.

About the Role

At our stage, every hire changes the company. The people we bring in over the next year will decide how far sewts goes. Someone has to find them, win them over, sign them and make sure they want to stay.

Our engineers build the robot’s brain and its body. You build the backbone of the team. That means recruiting, people management and HR admin: the work that keeps everything else standing. You work directly with the founders, own people end to end and shape what it feels like to work at sewts.

That someone is you.

What You’ll Actually Do

• Recruiting, end to end: Own our hiring in Personio: job ads (including the fun names), sourcing, screening, interview scheduling, feedback and follow-ups. No candidate waits a week for an answer.
• Hire for heads and hands: Run a process for a perception engineer, a field technician who travels across Europe and an operations intern with the same confidence. You know what great looks like for each.
• People management: Be the go-to person for everyone on the team. Together with the founders, you design how we run feedback, performance conversations and development, and you handle the difficult conversations too.
• Payroll preparation: Prepare monthly payroll. That covers hours, travel days, absences, bonuses and changes. Everyone gets paid correctly, on time, every time.
• HR admin: Employee records, contracts, references, sick notes, VSOP paperwork, visas and work permits for international hires. Accurate, secure and reliable in preparation for the monthly payroll.
• HR controlling: Keep headcount, personnel costs and hiring plans under control. Give the founders the numbers they need, such as time-to-hire, pipeline health and budget vs. actual.
• Team & culture: Offsites, team events, the office. You make sure a team split between the Munich workshop and customer sites across Europe still feels like one team.
• Automate the boring stuff: Find the repetitive work in People and automate it instead of just documenting it.

Your profile

Who You Are

• Ideally 2+ years in HR, People Operations or an HR Generalist role at a startup, scale-up or tech/industrial company
• Hands-on experience preparing German payroll, and solid knowledge of German employment law
• Recruiting experience with an ATS (Personio is a plus)
• Highly organised, with real attention to detail
• A communicator who can handle a senior engineering candidate, a field technician calling from a customer site and a founder in the same afternoon
• You lead with empathy and handle confidential information with discretion
• You build the process when there isn’t one yet
• AI-native: you already use AI tools to work faster
• Fluent in English– German is a plus
• Based in Munich, or ready to move. This role is in-person

Nice to Have

• Experience in software, robotics, automation
• Experience building employer initiative programs
• Employer branding and a feel for LinkedIn
• An additional European language

You do not need to meet every single requirement to apply.

Why This Role

• You build it, you don’t inherit it: You shape People at sewts from the ground up, with no legacy processes to fight.
• Real impact, visible fast: Every hire you make ends up working shoulder to shoulder with robots in real factories.
• Direct line to the founders: Decisions take days, not quarters.
• Your role grows with us: As the team scales, so does your scope.

Setup & Benefits

Competitive salary + VSOP · Learning budget · Deutschlandticket · EGYM Wellpass · Flexible working · Team events · Speciality coffee · High-trust, low-bureaucracy culture

Reality Check

Robots will misbehave, and sometimes so will spreadsheets. A field technician will need a contract change while working at a customer site. Someone will resign on the same day two candidates accept. The payroll deadline won’t move just because an interview took longer. If that sounds like chaos, this isn’t your role. If it sounds like exactly the job you’ve been looking for, welcome to sewts.

Your Talent Partner

Questions about the role? Reach out anytime.
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