People Operations Manager

Solar on steroids; Manchester; On-site; GBP 52,000 - 74,000; Full time

Job summary

Solar on Steroids is seeking a highly organised People Operations Manager to own recruitment, onboarding and day-to-day people operations. You will partner with the COO and team leads to standardise processes, deliver proactive workforce planning and provide leadership with clear people metrics.

The role sits at the heart of scaling while preserving culture, quality and agility. You will drive structured onboarding, performance reviews and cross-functional HR activities across a growing SME.

Qualifications

• Experience in People Operations, talent acquisition and onboarding.
• Strong process orientation and documentation skills.
• Ability to forecast capacity and report workforce metrics.
• Experience scaling SME or startup environments preferred.

Responsibilities

• Own recruitment workflow from approval to offer and onboarding.
• Develop workforce plans and track capacity with weekly reports.
• Coordinate Hiring Readiness and onboarding for new hires.
• Maintain HR documentation and employment references.
• Provide leadership with timely people metrics and reporting.

Skills

Excellent organisational skills

Strong written and verbalcommunication

High attention to detail

Confidence working with multiplestakeh

Comfortable using technology and AI

Ability to improve and document SOPs

Education

CIPD Level 3 or Level 5 qualification

Tools

ClickUp

Notion

Monday.com

Rippling

BambooHR

Teamtailor

Job description

We’re looking for a highly organised People Operations Manager to own the coordination of recruitment, onboarding and day-to-day people operations.

You’ll work closely with the COO, founders and team leads to ensure every hire follows a structured process, every employee has a consistent onboarding experience and leadership has complete visibility over workforce planning and capacity.

This role sits at the heart of the business and will play a key part in helping Solar on Steroids scale without losing the culture, quality and agility that have driven our growth so far.

Key Responsibilities

Recruitment & Talent Acquisition

Own the operational recruitment process from approval through to offer.

Responsibilities include:

• Managing recruitment pipelines
• Screening applications
• Scheduling interviews
• Coordinating interview stages
• Managing candidate communications
• Preparing offers and contracts
• Maintaining recruitment trackers
• Building talent pools
• Delivering an outstanding candidate experience

Workforce Planning

Support the COO with workforce planning and hiring coordination.

Including:

• Hiring plans
• Capacity tracking
• Recruitment forecasting
• Annual leave visibility
• Upcoming onboarding requirements
• Probation tracking
• Weekly workforce reports

You’ll help ensure hiring remains proactive rather than reactive.

Hiring Readiness

Before any offer is made, you’ll coordinate the company’s Hiring Readiness Checklist.

This includes confirming:

• Reporting line
• Functional trainer
• Onboarding owner
• Equipment requests
• System access
• 30/60/90-day plan
• Capacity confirmation

No new hire progresses until every stage has been completed.

Onboarding

Coordinate a structured onboarding experience for every employee.

Including:

• Welcome communications
• Contracts and documentation
• Equipment and access
• Company induction
• ClickUp setup
• 30/60/90-day planning

You’ll work closely with functional trainers to ensure every new starter has a clear path to becoming fully productive.

People Operations

Own the day-to-day administration of the people function.

Including:

• Annual leave
• Sickness management
• Payroll preparation
• Contracts
• HR documentation
• Performance review scheduling
• Employment references

Leadership & Operations Support

Support the COO by maintaining visibility across the people function.

Including:

• Workforce planning reports
• Capacity reporting
• Hiring metrics
• People KPIs
• Probation tracking
• Action tracking
• Recruitment forecasting

You’ll help ensure leadership always has accurate, up-to-date information to support decision-making.

Help improve how the business recruits, onboards and develops people.

Including:

• Improving onboarding
• Simplifying recruitment processes
• Building and maintaining SOPs
• Improving documentation
• Supporting AI and automation projects
• Working alongside the Systems Architect
• Supporting ClickUp and operational workflow improvements

  Decision Authority

  This role owns the operational coordination of recruitment and people operations.

  Responsible for:

  • Recruitment coordination
  • Onboarding coordination
  • People administration
  • Workforce planning support
  • Capacity reporting
  • Recruitment tracking
  • Maintaining HR documentation
  • Leadership reporting

  Final decisions remain with the COO and Founders for:

  • Headcount approval
  • Organisational structure
  • Reporting lines
  • Salary decisions
  • Promotions
  • Probation outcomes

  What Success Looks Like

  Within your first six months:

  • Recruitment follows one consistent operating process.
  • Time-to-hire has reduced through better coordination.
  • Every new starter completes a structured onboarding programme.
  • 100% of new hires have documented 30/60/90-day plans.
  • Weekly workforce planning and capacity reports are delivered consistently.
  • Leadership has complete visibility over recruitment, onboarding and workforce capacity.
  • Recruitment administration no longer sits with the founders.
  • Managers understand their responsibilities throughout the employee lifecycle.

  You’ll Be Great If You…

  • Love bringing order to fast-moving environments.
  • Enjoy building processes rather than working around them.
  • Communicate confidently with people at all levels.
  • Naturally identify problems before they become issues.
  • Thrive in growing businesses where no two days are the same.
  • Want to help build a company, not just work within one.

  Experience

  We’re open to different backgrounds, but you’ll likely have experience in one or more of the following:

  • People Operations
  • Talent Acquisition
  • Internal Recruitment
  • HR Operations
  • Operations Coordination
  • Executive Support
  • Recruitment Agency or In-house Recruitment

  Experience within a scaling SME or high-growth business would be highly advantageous.

  Skills

  • Excellent organisational skills
  • Strong written and verbal communication
  • High attention to detail
  • Confidence working with multiple stakeholders
  • Comfortable using technology and AI tools
  • Ability to improve and document operational processes

  Nice to Have

  • CIPD Level 3 or Level 5 qualification (or working towards one)
  • Experience in an in-house People Operations or Talent role
  • Experience recruiting across marketing, sales or technology functions
  • Experience supporting a scaling SME or startup
  • Familiarity with UK employment law and HR best practice
  • Experience using HRIS or ATS platforms (e.g. Rippling, BambooHR, Workable or Teamtailor)
  • Experience using ClickUp, Notion, Monday.com or similar workflow tools
  • Experience producing people metrics and leadership reporting
  • Experience coordinating onboarding, probation and performance review processes
  • Interest in AI, automation and operational improvement