People Operations Manager

Lupa; Greater London; On-site; GBP 52,000 - 78,000; Full time

Job summary

Lupa in London is seeking an HR Leader to own the employee lifecycle end-to-end from offer to exit, ensuring accurate records and compliant practices. You’ll design onboarding, manage pre-employment checks, and drive GDPR and employment-law compliance while maintaining robust HR systems.

You’ll be the go-to person for policies, process improvements, and people queries, supporting a high-growth startup environment from our Paddington HQ.

Qualifications

• Previous experience in an HR Manager, People Operations Manager, or HR Advisor role.
• Strong understanding of employment law, HR compliance, and the employee lifecycle.
• Experience managing right-to-work processes and visa sponsorship administration.
• Comfortable owning HR systems and maintaining the quality of employee data.
• Experience in a high-growth startup or scale-up environment.
• CIPD qualification or equivalent hands-on experience.

Responsibilities

• Own the employee lifecycle end-to-end, from offer through to exit.
• Build and run onboarding, including pre-employment checks and day one readiness.
• Own HR compliance; right-to-work checks, visa sponsorship admin, GDPR, and employment law.
• Maintain accurate employee records and HR systems, and produce required reporting.
• Be the first point of contact for employee and manager queries with clear guidance.
• Continuously improve processes and raise the bar for people operations.

Skills

HR management

People operations

HR advisory

Employment law

HR compliance

Right-to-work

Visa sponsorship

HR systems

Data governance

Startup experience

Education

CIPD qualification

Tools

HR software

Job description

About Us

Lupa is building a category defining product the industry has never seen before.

Lupa is building a category defining product the industry has never seen before. We’re the AI-native operating system for veterinary practices and pet parents, replacing the fragmented, clunky systems vets have tolerated for years with a single intelligent platform for scheduling, client communication, clinical documentation, and AI-driven care guidance. Practices run more efficiently, vets get back to doing what they love, and pet parents feel more connected to their animals’ health than ever. The traction speaks for itself: one of Europe’s top 100 AI startups with a team of 50 people, 10x growth in twelve months, the UK market leader, and now charging hard into the US and Europe. We have $25M in funding, 1M+ pets on the platform, and a buzzing HQ in Paddington, London. This is a rare chance to join a rocket ship at exactly the right moment and we’re looking for exceptional people to help us fly it.

In this role, you will:

• Own the employee lifecycle end-to-end, from offer through to exit and ensuring every stage is handled with care, accuracy, and speed
• Build and run a best-in-class onboarding experience, managing everything from pre-employment checks and documentation through to day one and beyond
• Own HR compliance; right-to-work checks, visa sponsorship administration, GDPR, employment law and keep the business clean and audit-ready at all times
• Maintain accurate employee records and HR systems, and produce the reporting the business needs to make good people decisions
• Be the first point of contact for employee and manager queries, providing clear, confident guidance on policies and processes
• Continuously improve how we do things, spotting inefficiencies, building better processes, and raising the bar on what great people operations looks like

Your background looks something like:

• Previous experience in an HR Manager, People Operations Manager, or HR Advisor role
• Strong understanding of employment law, HR compliance, and the operational mechanics of the employee lifecycle
• Experience managing right-to-work processes and, ideally, visa sponsorship administration
• Comfortable owning HR systems and maintaining the quality of employee data within them
• Experience in a high-growth startup or scale-up environment where you’ve had to build as well as run (nice to have)
• CIPD qualification or equivalent hands-on experience (nice to have)

As a person, you:

• Take real pride in getting the details right, accuracy and thoroughness aren’t a burden to you, they’re how you work
• Build trust through consistency and reliability, people know that if you’ve said you’ll do something - it’s done
• Look for ways to improve processes rather than accepting how things have always been done
• Are proactive and solutions-focused, you don’t wait to be told something is broken before you fix it
• Are excited to work in-person from our Paddington, London HQ
• Value working with people who are kind, ambitious, and pragmatic

What does success look like in 6 months?

• HR operations are running cleanly, records are accurate, compliance is tight, and the team has full confidence in our people processes
• Onboarding is something new starters genuinely rave about, structured, warm, and seamless from offer to day one
• You’ve already improved at least two processes and the business feels the difference