People Lead, UK

Modal Labs; Greater London; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

Modal Labs in London is hiring our first People team member to build and run the people foundation as the London office grows into a core hub. You will own onboarding, payroll, benefits, and policy communications, and act as the go-to person for People in London.

You will partner with global teams to ensure compliance with UK employment norms, drive a smooth employee experience, and shape local recruiting operations while supporting managers and vendors.

Qualifications

• 5+ years experience in a People Ops or People & Talent generalist role in tech
• Working knowledge of UK employment norms, compliance, and labor environments
• Autonomy with minimal oversight; identify gaps and fix them
• Strong organizational skills and attention to detail
• Clear, thoughtful communicator with candidates, employees, and stakeholders
• Ability to balance strategic thinking and hands-on execution
• Excited to be a foundational hire and build processes from the ground up

Responsibilities

• Own core people operations for the London team (onboarding, offboarding, payroll coordination, benefits administration)
• Be the first point of contact for London employees on policies, benefits, pay and people matters
• Support managers to set teams up well and address performance or people issues
• Keep people data clean and current; stand up a single global source of truth
• Ensure UK benefits are competitive and policy messaging is clear and consistent
• Own the people side of building Modal's UK presence with vendors and global teams
• Maintain a smooth London office operation (space, supplies, setup)
• Coordinate local events and in-office experience in London
• Partner with global Talent for local recruiting operations and interview logistics

Skills

People ops

Communication

Organization

Autonomy

Attention to detail

Tools

HRIS

Payroll systems

Job description

About Us:

AI needs a new infrastructure layer. We're building it at Modal.

Every era of computing brought new workloads that previous infrastructure couldn't support: mainframes, databases, and the cloud. Each time, the company that rebuilt the layer underneath defined the decade. AI is no different, except it touches everything instead of one slice, and the window to build the layer underneath it is open right now.

Our customers include category-defining companies like Lovable, Ramp, Cognition, DoorDash, and Suno. They rely on Modal for instant GPU access, sub-second container starts, and native storage, so it's simple to serve low-latency inference, fine-tune models, and access production-ready sandboxes at scale.

We recently raised a $355M Series C at a $4.65B valuation, led by General Catalyst and Redpoint Ventures. We've crossed $300M+ ARR and grown fivefold since last September.

Our team includes creators of popular open-source projects (e.g.,Seaborn,Luigi), academic researchers, international olympiad medalists, and experienced engineering and product leaders with decades of experience.

The Role:

We are hiring our first People team member on the ground in London - the person who builds and runs the people foundation for the UK as our London office grows from a small team today into one of Modal's core hubs.

You'll help build out of the people function in London end to end, ensuring we create the best environment for our team. You will be the person who meets a new hire on day one, the person anyone on the team goes to when something comes up, and the owner of all things people operations (systems, benefits, onboarding).

This is a foundational, high-ownership role. We're looking for someone who wants to build a region, and who is energized by being the go-to person from everything People in London.

What you'll do:

People Operations & Compliance

• Own core people operations for the London team - onboarding, offboarding, payroll coordination, and benefits administration so every experience is smooth and nothing falls through the cracks.

• Be the first, trusted point of contact for London employees on questions about policies, benefits, pay, and people matters, handling sensitive topics with clarity, discretion, and pragmatism.

• Support managers on the ground: help them set their teams up well, spot early performance or people issues, and know when to loop in the broader People team.

• Keep our people data clean and current in our systems (departments, titles, managers) as we stand up a single global source of truth, and help operationalize the new HRIS locally.

• Make sure our UK benefits are competitive and in line with the local market, and that time-off and policy messaging is clear and consistent for the London team.

• Own the people side of building out Modal's UK presence - partnering with external vendors and global people operations to keep us compliant with UK employment.

Workplace & Operations

• Keep the London office running smoothly day to day (space, supplies, setup) and be a thoughtful steward of a welcoming, functional environment.

• Own local events, team bonding, and the in-office experience that makes London somewhere people want to be.

• Coordinate with vendors and building management as needed.

Recruiting Operations

• Own local recruiting operations for the London office in partnership with our global Talent team, including interview logistics and candidate experience on the ground.

Requirements:

• 5+ years experience in a People Ops or People & Talent generalist role, ideally in a fast-growing tech environment

• Working knowledge of UK employment norms, compliance, and labor environments

• Comfortable working autonomously and owning outcomes with minimal oversight - you see gaps and fix them

• Strong organizational skills and attention to detail - you notice what others miss

• Clear, thoughtful communicator with candidates, employees, and stakeholders

• Comfortable shifting between strategic thinking and hands-on execution

• Excited to be a foundational hire and help build people processes from the ground up