Head of People Ops & Labor Relationships

Spendesk; Paris; Hybrid; EUR 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible remote policy

Lunch 60% funded

Alan Premium health insurance

Gymlib access

Moka.care access

Latest Apple equipment

Office snacks

Job summary

Spendesk is seeking a Head of People Operations & Employee Relations to lead a team and own operations across France, the UK, Spain, Germany and Italy. You will drive an international People Ops strategy, ensure compliant processes, and scale operations through automation and AI, while partnering with Finance and payroll providers for optimal outcomes.

The role reports to the VP People and requires strong international experience, payroll expertise, and a proactive, detail-oriented approach to

Qualifications

• Led a People Operations function or department.
• Experience across multiple countries with local regulations and ways of working.
• Made AI and automation part of day-to-day work, with hands-on implementations.
• Strong payroll expertise and ability to challenge external payroll providers.

Responsibilities

• Define and drive the People Operations roadmap aligned with Spendesk priorities.
• Oversee employee journey and payroll operations across France, UK, Spain, Germany and Italy.
• Lead automation and AI initiatives to streamline processes and data flow.
• Co-lead employee and labour relations across France, Spain and Germany.

Skills

People operations leadership

International experience

Automation & AI

Payroll expertise

Compliance mindset

Confidential handling

Stakeholder management

Tools

Personio

Siit

Dust

Claude

G-suite

Notion

Job description

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 hands-on experience implementing AI agents, automated workflows or similar solutions.

• Can balance strategic thinking with operational pragmatism, ensuring that decisions are translated into clear, reliable and scalable ways of working.

• Take an employee-first approach while keeping scalability, efficiency and the team's capacity in mind.

• Have strong payroll expertise and are able to effectively challenge external payroll providers, identify risks and ensure a high level of service quality.

• Have experience managing Works Councils

• Bring a strong compliance mindset and understand how to embed compliance into People processes and operations.

• Are rigorous, detail-oriented and highly trustworthy when handling confidential and sensitive information.

• Are close to the business, understand operational and business challenges, and know how to translate them into effective People Operations processes.

People Ops stack

Personio, Siit, Dust, Claude, G-suite, Notion

About Spendesk

Spendesk is the AI-powered spend management and procurement platform that transforms company spending. By simplifying procurement, payment cards, expense management, invoice processing, and accounting automation, Spendesk sets the new standard for spending at work. Its single, intelligent solution makes efficient spending easy for employees and gives finance leaders the full visibility and control they need across all company spend, even in multi-entity structures. Trusted by thousands of companies, Spendesk supports over 200,000 users across brands such as Payfit, Accor, Welcome to the Jungle, Swile, Big Mamma, Malt and Yousign. With offices in the United Kingdom, France, Spain and Germany, Spendesk also puts community at the heart of its mission.

For more information: www.spendesk.com/press

About our people & culture

We believe that people do their best work when they're given the freedom to thrive and grow. That's why liberation is at the core of everything we do. We empower Spendeskers to take ownership of their work, to navigate ambiguity, and seize every opportunity. Spendeskers come from all over the world (35+ countries and counting!) but we have plenty in common: we're bold, ever-curious, committed to kindness, and tackle every challenge with a positive mindset.

About our benefits

Our culture is built on trust, empowerment, and growth - with benefits to match!

• Flexible on-site policy : 4 days per month remote (non-accumulative) and 3 full weeks remote per year (non-consecutive)

• Lunch 60% funded by Spendesk (Swile Card)

• Alan Premium health insurance

• A Gymlib pass to let off steam after a productive day at work

• Access to Moka.care for emotional and mental health wellbeing

• Latest Apple equipment

• Great office snacks to fuel your day

• A positive team to work with daily!

Diversity & Inclusion

At Spendesk, we're committed to fostering an environment where all differences are encouraged, supported and celebrated. We're building our culture for everyone, with everyone. Our goal is to attract and build a diverse, equal and inclusive team, where everyone feels welcome and we truly embrace and encourage people from all backgrounds to apply.