Team Lead People Operations [Europe]

Emma; Lisboa; On-site; EUR 70,000 - 100,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Private Health Insurance

24 vacation days (+1 per year worked)

Pet-friendly office

Job summary

Emma in Lisbon seeks a seasoned People Operations leader to own delivery, quality, and growth for the EU team. You will partner with the CHRO and senior leaders to shape governance, processes, and strategy across multiple EU countries while leveraging AI to reduce manual work.

Lead day‑to‑day operations, advise on labour law and compliance, and manage payroll, contracts, onboarding, offboarding, mobility, audits, and compliance for EU entities, building a scalable People Ops function aligned

Qualifications

• 5+ years of HR/People Ops experience with a strong focus on EU compliance and labour law across multiple jurisdictions.
• Proven experience leading or managing a team and driving engagement across diverse teams.
• Ability to navigate different country contexts, manage projects autonomously, and make decisions, seeking input when needed.

Responsibilities

• Team leadership: set priorities, manage workload, develop and ensure quality of delivery across EU teams.
• Senior leadership advisory: act as trusted advisor to CHRO and senior leaders on people topics, with clear recommendations.
• Operational ownership of payroll, contracts, onboarding, offboarding, mobility, audits and labour law compliance across EU entities.
• External provider management: payroll partners, legal counsel, benefits vendors, EOR, with structured performance reviews.
• EU entities continuous improvement: manage topics across countries with prioritization and strategic judgment.
• Future of people operations: define vision for EU People Ops and collaborate with Excellence teams and external providers.

Skills

HR Leadership

EU Compliance

Labour Law

Stakeholder Management

Communication Skills

English Fluent

Tools

Personio

Remote

Perk

Job description

Ready to lead, disrupt and reinvent the sleep industry?

We are Emma – The Sleep Company. Founded in 2015, we have grown into the world’s largest direct-to-consumer (D2C) sleep brand, with a presence in over 20 markets and more than 35 Emma stores across Europe.

Our mission is simple: to develop sleep comfort products that empower our customers to awaken their best every day. Today, our products are trusted by millions and recommended by leading consumer associations worldwide.

It’sour people who bring this mission to life. At Emma,you’lljoin a driven, international team that values ownership, collaboration, and continuous knowledge sharing. With colleagues from over 70 nationalities, we combine diverse perspectives with a shared ambition to learn, grow, and create lasting impact, together.

Ready to awaken your best with us?

You’lllead the day-to-day operations and development of thePeopleOperationsEU team, owning delivery, quality, and theteammember'sgrowth.

Beyond the teamleadership,you'lloperateasa trusted advisor toour CHRO andother senior leadersonsensitivepeopletopics, always having compliance and the business needs in mind. That means bringing sound judgment, clear recommendations, and the credibility to influence decisions at that level.

The team is actively moving toward aPeoplePartnering model, meaningyou'llincreasingly be a trusted voiceand point of contact formanagers and Emmies onpeopletopics.You'llalso shape the future of PeopleOperations::thinkingaheadplatform managementand reducingoperational complexityas well as manual work through AIadoption. You will partnerwith the P&O Excellence team to turn that vision into practice.

What you´ll do:

Team leadership: priorities, workload distribution, development, and quality of delivery across all team members

Senior leadership advisory: acting as a trusted advisor to our CHRO and senior leaderson people topics across EU, bringing clear recommendations and sound judgment on complex or sensitive situations around labour law and similar topics

Operationalownershipofpayroll, contracts, onboarding, offboarding, mobility,auditsandlabourlaw compliance acrossourEU entities

External provider management: payroll partners, legal counsel, benefits vendors, EOR providers, with structured performance evaluation and accountability

EU entities continuous improvement: continuously managing and resolving open topics across countries, applying prioritization and strategic judgment on what to tackle and when

Future of people operations: setting the vision for how People Operations EU should evolve, and partnering with external providers, and internal teams (Excellence teams) and to deliver it

Who we´re looking for:

5+ years of HR/People Ops experience with a strong focus on EU compliance,labourlaw, and HR process design across multiplejurisdictions

Proven experience leading or managing a team: driving engagement, setting direction, developing people, holdingyour teamaccountable

Capabilityto navigate across different country contexts, manage projects autonomously, and make decisions without deep localexpertisein each, knowing when to seek input and when to act

Strong business acumen paired with a sense for compliance:Finding a good balance to do what isthe bestfor Emma while keeping an eye on the local and EU regulations

Experienceinmanaging external providers (payroll, legal, EOR) with rigor

Strong communicationskills: able to translate complex legal or operational topics into clear, actionable guidance forsenior stakeholders andnon-specialists.

• Fluent in English;additionalEuropean languages a plus

Experience with a range of HR platforms is a nice to have; familiarity with Personio, Remote and Perk specifically is a plus.

What we offer:

• Responsibility and decision-making authority from your first day
• The opportunity to work on challenging tasks that contribute to your professional growth
• Work independently and as part of a dedicated, international team
• Private Health Insurance and 24 vacations days per year, with 1 extra day per year worked (until a limit of29 daysper year)
• Work with and learn from experts in diverse fields
• Get to know your team members at our exciting company events
• Working from a pet-friendly office

Become an Emmie

We are on a mission to become No.1 in the world of sleep, and we’re looking for driven, ambitious people to help us shape what’s next. If you’re curious, hands-on, and ready to challenge the status quo, you’ll find the space here to make things happen and create real impact.

We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer and are committed to building an inclusive workplace. We celebrate diversity and consider all qualified applicants regardless of race, ethnic origin, religion or belief, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, or age.

Our aim is to get back to you within a few days. Due to the high volume of applications, there may be slight delays, but we’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

Upon your consent, we may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as get the interviews transcript and summarised by AI. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgement. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please reach out to [emailprotected]