People Operations Lead

Cleo; England; Hybrid; GBP 65,000 - 90,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive compensation package

Work-life balance flexibility

Equity options

25 days annual leave plus public holidays

Private Medical Insurance

Enhanced parental leave

Online mental health support

Regular social activities

Job summary

A leading financial technology startup is seeking a People Operations Lead to enhance employee experience and ensure smooth operations across global teams. You will manage payroll, streamline processes, and implement system improvements to support a scalable workforce. A successful candidate will have experience in People Operations, hands-on payroll experience across multiple regions, and skills in HRIS platforms. Join one of the fastest-growing tech startups with a competitive compensation package and a commitment to work-life balance.

Qualifications

• 2–3+ years of experience in People Operations.
• Experience with payroll across multiple regions.
• Familiarity with EOR providers and multi-country setups.
• Proficient in HRIS systems and driving automation.
• Experience in a high-growth tech environment is a plus.
• Strong Excel/Google Sheets skills and process problem-solving.

Responsibilities

• Manage payroll data preparation for global teams.
• Implement automation to improve processes.
• Support People Ops workflows and ensure data accuracy.
• Contribute to operational and strategic projects.
• Provide ad-hoc support during peak periods.
• Act as a super-user for HRIS and People tools (Hibob & Rev People).
• Maintain documentation, contracts, and right-to-work records.
• Suggest improvements to enable scalable, consistent global experiences.

Skills

Experience in People Operations

Hands-on payroll experience

HRIS platforms familiarity

Strong Excel/Google Sheets skills

Detail-oriented and reliable

Ability to work in fast-paced environments

Collaboration and adaptability

Tools

Hibob

Rev People

Excel

Job description

Join to apply for the People Operations Lead role at Cleo.

About Cleo
At Cleo, we're embarking on a mission to fundamentally change humanity's relationship with money. Imagine a world where everyone, regardless of background or income, has access to a hyper‑intelligent financial advisor in their pocket. That's the future we're creating. Cleo is a profitable, fast‑growing unicorn with over $200 million in ARR and growing over 2× year‑over‑year.

About the Role
We’re looking for a People Operations Lead to help us build and support a world‑class employee experience as we scale. In this role, you’ll play a key part in managing the full employee lifecycle, driving process improvements, and ensuring our people systems and workflows run smoothly across our global team.

Key Responsibilities

• Own the preparation and submission of accurate payroll data for the UK, US, EU, and our global EOR populations, collaborating closely with our Finance team to ensure each cycle runs smoothly.
• Review, identify, and implement automation opportunities across our processes, helping reduce manual work and improve efficiency.
• Manage and maintain day‑to‑day People Ops workflows, ensuring data accuracy, compliance, and smooth operations across the employee and contractor lifecycle.
• Support the wider People Operations team on operational and strategic projects, including process optimisation, tooling implementation, and documentation improvements.
• Jump in wherever needed, providing ad‑hoc support across the People Ops team during peak periods or for special initiatives.
• Be a systems super‑user, helping optimise our HRIS and People tools (we use Hibob & Rev People), ensuring clean, reliable People data and smooth integrations.
• Champion People compliance, maintaining documentation, contracts, right‑to‑work records, and supporting People Partners on sensitive or complex cases.
• Identify opportunities to strengthen People workflows, proposing improvements that enable seamless scaling and a consistent global employee experience.

What We're Looking For

• You have 2–3+ years of experience in People Operations and can demonstrate impact across processes and people systems.
• You have hands‑on experience with payroll, ideally across multiple geographies (UK/US/EU) and experience supporting contractor pay.
• You’re comfortable working with EOR providers and understand how to navigate multi‑country People setups.
• You’re a systems and workflow enthusiast, experienced in HRIS platforms (Hibob experience is a plus), with a track record of driving automation and improving manual processes.
• You’ve worked in a high‑growth, fast‑paced environment, ideally within tech or another scaling industry.
• You have strong Excel/Google Sheets skills, including formulas and process‑oriented problem solving.
• You’re highly detail‑oriented and reliable, with a strong commitment to accuracy, especially when handling sensitive and confidential information.
• You’re collaborative, adaptable, and eager to support wherever needed across the broader People and Operations functions.

What Do You Get

• A competitive compensation package (base + equity) with bi‑annual reviews, aligned to our quarterly OKR planning cycles.
• Work at one of the fastest‑growing tech startups, backed by top VC firms, Balderton & EQT Ventures.
• A clear progression plan that encourages growth, leadership and ownership.
• Flexibility to support work‑life balance; we cover travel costs for remote collaboration.
• Global, distributed team with hybrid options for London office; travel supported.

Other Benefits

• Company‑wide performance reviews every 6 months.
• Generous pay increases for high‑performing team members.
• Equity top‑ups for team members getting promoted.
• 25 days annual leave a year + public holidays (+ an additional day for every year you spend at Cleo, up to 30 days).
• 6% employer‑matched pension in the UK.
• Private Medical Insurance via Vitality, dental cover, and life assurance.
• Enhanced parental leave.
• 1 month paid sabbatical after 4 years at Cleo.
• Regular socials and activities, online and in‑person.
• We’ll pay for your OpenAI subscription.
• Online mental health support via Spill.
• Workplace Nursery Scheme.
• And many more!

Welcoming Everyone

We strongly encourage applications from people of colour, the LGBTQ+ community, people with disabilities, neurodivergent people, parents, carers, and people from lower socio‑economic backgrounds. If there’s anything we can do to accommodate your specific situation, please let us know.