HR Manager, EMEA R&D

Starburst; Warszawa; Hybrid; PLN 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Stock grants

Flexible paid time off

Competitive pay

Job summary

Starburst is seeking an HR Manager for the EMEA R&D organization in Warsaw. This hands-on, locally embedded role owns the hire-to-retain lifecycle for the region, partners with engineering leaders, and shapes culture and employee experience with a local lens.

You will maintain an active presence in the Warsaw office, run 1:1s, design local hiring and onboarding, manage offers and logistics, and collaborate with Office Management and People Operations.

Qualifications

• 3-5 years of HR experience, with engineering/tech partnership a plus
• Fluency in English and Polish
• Strong stakeholder management skills and collaboration
• Ability to translate feedback into concrete actions
• Willingness to travel up to 25%

Responsibilities

• Build and maintain culture and team health in EMEA R&D
• Design and run local hiring and onboarding for the region
• Own offers, day 1 readiness, and compliance for new hires
• Strengthen employer branding and local market presence
• Provide backup for EMEA People Ops activities and office operations

Skills

HR experience

English proficiency

Polish proficiency

Stakeholder management

Travel readiness

Job description

Starburst delivers enterprise intelligence at scale by giving organizations secure, governed access to all their data, wherever it lives. Built for distributed data environments, Starburst helps enterprises power AI and analytics without the cost and complexity of traditional data consolidation. With open standards including Trino and Apache Iceberg, Starburst enables trusted access to complete enterprise context while helping organizations avoid vendor lock-in. Leading global enterprises trust Starburst to fuel AI, analytics, and enterprise intelligence. Learn more at starburst.ai .

About the role

We're looking for an HR Manager to be a local culture and talent partner to our EMEA R&D organization. This is a hands-on, locally-embedded role where you’ll build trust with leaders and engineers face-to-face, own the full hire-to-retain lifecycle for the region, provide backup support for ongoing operations in region, and bring a local lens to programs designed centrally. This role will have direct influence on shaping the employee experience and culture in our R&D organization.

As an HR Manager, EMEA R&D at Starburst you will drive:

Culture & Team Health

• Maintain an active, visible presence in the Warsaw office (minimum 3 days/week) and attend key meetings in person, not remotely.
• Run regular 1:1s with first-line managers to stay close to team health and emerging feedback themes.
• Conduct exit interviews for EMEA & APJ Engineering, analyzing turnover trends to partner with leaders on action plans.
• Turn Feedback Survey results and other cultural indicators into specific, tracked action items for EMEA Engineering.
• Surface emerging issues to key leadership and maintain a consistent pulse on employee sentiment.

Talent & Hiring

• Design and run a local hiring and onboarding program tailored to the region, complementary to our global onboarding practices.
• Own sourcing and screening for regional engineering roles, building and maintaining a local candidate pipeline.
• Design the interview loop in partnership with the Hiring Manager and set clear expectations for interviewer goals and responsibilities.
• Manage new hire logistics from start to finish: offers, day 1 readiness, and compliance.
• Build local market presence and influence to strengthen our employer brand in the region.
• Champion internal mobility opportunities for engineers across the region, while ensuring we maintain fairness and equity across the process.

Additional Scope

While we build out longer-term operational coverage, this role will also provide secondary support across the following areas to ensure continuity and no gaps in coverage:

Office Management

• Serve as a secondary point of contact for day-to-day Warsaw office operations, providing coverage during absences, peak periods, or as workload requires.
• Partner closely with the current Office Management & People Operations Specialist to stay looped in on ongoing priorities and vendor/facilities matters. Ensure feedback is mapped into local cultural connection points to keep teammates engaged.

EMEA Operations Support

• Provide backup support for EMEA People Ops activities including employee lifecycle transactions, stepping in during PTO, surge periods, or as capacity needs dictate.
• Work alongside the current Office Management & People Operations Specialist to maintain consistent employee experience.

Some of the things we look for:

• 3-5 years of HR experience; prior experience partnering with an Engineering or technical organization is a plus but not required
• Fluency in English and Polish
• Strong stakeholder management skills; comfortable building trust and driving alignment with cross-functional partners
• A track record of turning employee feedback and insight into action items that visibly move the needle on team culture
• Ability to Travel: This role will require 25% in-person travel for purposes including but not limited to new hire onboarding, team and department offsites, customer engagements, and other company events. Actual travel expectations may vary by role and business needs.

Where could this role be based?

• This role is based in our Warsaw office and follows a hybrid model, with an expectation of being onsite 2-3 days per week.

Build your career at Starburst

All-Stars have the opportunity and freedom to realize their true potential. By building alongside top talent, we’re empowered to take ownership of our careers and drive meaningful change. Anchored in industry-proven technology and unprecedented success, All-Stars are taking on the challenge everyday to disrupt our industry – and the future.

Our global workforce is supported by a competitive Total Rewards program that reflects our commitment to a rewarding and supportive work environment. This includes a variety of benefits like competitive pay, attractive stock grants, flexible paid time off, and more.

We are committed to fostering an intentional, inclusive, and diverse culture that drives deep engagement, authentic belonging, and an exceptional All-Star experience. We believe that diversity of thought, perspective, background and experience will enable us to own what we do, drive our success and empower our All-Stars to show up authentically.

Starburst provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state
or local laws.