People Operations, AI & HR Systems Lead

Polaroid; Amsterdam; On-site; EUR 120,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

Polaroid is seeking an experienced, hands-on People Operations Leader to own our HR operations, systems, and compliance backbone as we scale in the Netherlands and beyond. This builder role requires taking ownership of People operations, HRIS architecture, data quality, and cross-jurisdiction compliance, shaping onboarding, offboarding, and processes from scratch with autonomy and trust.

You’ll modernize the employee experience with automation and AI, replacing manual admin with fast, consistent

Qualifications

• Experience scaling People Operations in tech or scale-up environments.
• Hands-on leader for HR operations, systems and compliance.
• Deep experience configuring and auditing HR systems (Personio preferred).
• Strong project management and cross-functional coordination.
• Fluent in Dutch employment law and cross-border considerations.

Responsibilities

• Own HRIS, ATS, payroll interfaces and performance platforms.
• Design end-to-end People processes across the employee lifecycle.
• Lead cross-HR initiatives and AI-driven workflow pilots.
• Ensure compliance across jurisdictions and maintain a policy library.
• Support relocation, visa processes, and international mobility.

Skills

People Operations

HR Systems

Project Management

Data-Driven HR

Stakeholder Alignment

AI in HR

Dutch Employment Law

Tools

Personio

Job description

At Polaroid, we don't just make products; we create experiences that spark emotion, celebrate creativity, and bring people closer together. At the intersection of art and technology, we champion a future where analogue moments and genuine human connection are preserved and celebrated in an increasingly digital world.

Job Summary

We're looking for an experienced, hands-on People Operations Leader to own our HR operations, systems, and compliance backbone as Polaroid scales.

This is a builder role, for someone who finds real satisfaction in getting operations right. You'll take ownership of our People operations function, HRIS architecture, people data, and cross-jurisdiction compliance and the processes that make onboarding, offboarding, and everything in between run cleanly. Much of this doesn't exist yet in a finished form; you'll be building it from scratch, with the trust and autonomy to shape how the function operates for years to come.

You'll also modernize how employees experience the People function, using automation and AI to replace manual, repetitive admin with something faster, more consistent, and genuinely pleasant to use. If you like moving between process mapping in the morning and prototyping an AI-driven workflow in the afternoon, this role gives you room to do both, with real employees feeling the difference.

You'll partner closely with peers across Finance, IT, Payroll, People Business partnering and TA and be an example of what a well-connected, operationally excellent People team can deliver.

What You'll Do

Employee Experience, Process & AI Automation

• Map, design, and build People processes end-to-end across the employee lifecycle.
• Be the first point of contact for employees navigating People processes. You'll problem-solve, coach, and make the admin side of work feel human.
• Lead cross HR and cross-functional workstreams and change initiatives that move the needle, bringing stakeholders along the journey.
• Push the team's thinking on AI: spot where automation can kill repetitive admin and improve employee experience (FAQs, policy navigation, chatbots). Build it, implement it, and make sure it's compliant.
• Be the person the rest of the People team comes to when they want to know what's possible with AI and help them get there.

Systems & People Data

• Own our HR tech stack (HRIS, ATS, payroll interfaces, performance platforms). Keep asking whether each piece is adding the right value, cutting redundancy wherever you find it.
• Be the person people come to when a system is misbehaving, and no one else can figure out why.
• Build a People dashboard leadership actually wants to look at and get the rest of HR fluent in using data to make the case for what they need.

Compliance & Employment Law

• Keep us on the right side of employment law as we grow across jurisdictions working closely with Legal and the People Business Partners.
• Own a policy library and knowledge base people can find their way through.
• Turn policy into workflows that run themselves where they can with clear approval paths, exception handling, and a human in the loop where it matters.

Payroll, Benefits & Mobility

• Administer compensation cycles and salary changes and ensure accuracy across payroll inputs and benefits enrollment.
• Be the support for employees relocating or joining on a visa coordinating permits, work authorizations, and registrations with external partners so moving countries doesn't feel like a bureaucratic maze.
• Be the go-to person managers and employees turn to when they have immigration questions.

Who You Are

• Experience working in a fast-paced, scaling environment, ideally within a technology-led company, scale-up or start-up.
• Experience in People Operations or a generalist HR role focused on making things run, building from scratch, fixing broken processes, and keeping the operational side of a People function healthy at scale.
• You've gone deep on at least one HR system (experience with Personio is a plus) as the person who configured it, audited data quality, and built its workflows. You know how to judge whether a tool is serving the business or just adding overhead.
• You look beyond system limitations and proactively find practical solutions, with a strong intrinsic drive to investigate and improve
• You are a strong Project Manager: you break vague goals into concrete next steps and keep things moving through clear ownership and realistic timelines.
• You stays on top of evolving systems and continuously explore ways to optimize processes and extract more value.
• You are familiar with employment law in the Netherlands. Experience with Germany and Asian markets is a plus.
• You build trust quickly, influence without authority, and get easily alignment across teams.
• Fluent in both "HR" and "tech" you can translate strategy into usable solutions.

What We Offer

• A high-impact transformation project with visible outcomes.
• The opportunity to reshape the employee experience end-to-end.
• Collaboration with a passionate team at the intersection of creativity, technology, and human connection.