People Operations Generalist

modal; London (KY); On-site; USD 86,000 - 119,000; Full time

Job summary

Modal is seeking a hands-on People Operations Generalist for the UK to own day-to-day People Ops for our growing UK team. You will report to the People Lead, Europe, and serve as the primary contact for UK employees and managers across onboarding, payroll coordination, changes, and offboarding.

You will build scalable processes, partner with payroll/benefits providers, and keep employee data accurate and compliant.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of People Operations or HR experience at fast-growing companies.
• Strong knowledge of UK People Operations including payroll, benefits, pensions, and lifecycle processes.
• Independent and able to own tasks with sound judgment.
• Highly organized and detail-oriented in a fast-moving environment.
• Strong written and verbal communication with discretion handling sensitive matters.
• Hands-on, flexible approach; able to build processes from scratch.
• Experience with office operations, workplace, or recruiting coordination is a plus.
• Based in London and able to work from the office five days a week.

Responsibilities

• Own day-to-day People Operations for UK employees, including onboarding, changes, leave, documentation, and offboarding.
• Act as the first point of contact for UK employees and managers, escalating complex matters as needed.
• Partner with payroll, benefits, pension, and external providers for smooth UK administration.
• Keep employee data, documentation, and People processes accurate and compliant.
• Build and improve UK People processes, policies, and self-service resources as we scale.
• Execute global People programs locally for the UK team.
• Own London office operations, collaborating with the Workplace team and vendors.
• Coordinate onsite interviews and final stages of UK candidate experience.
• Plan and support local employee events and initiatives.

Skills

People Operations

HR experience

UK payroll & benefits

Independence

Organization

Communication skills

Discretion

Office operations

London-based

Job description

About Us:

AI needs a new infrastructure layer. We're building it at Modal.

Every era of computing brought new workloads that previous infrastructure couldn't support: mainframes, databases, and the cloud. Each time, the company that rebuilt the layer underneath defined the decade. AI is no different, except it touches everything instead of one slice, and the window to build the layer underneath it is open right now.

Our customers include category-defining companies like Lovable, Ramp, Cognition, DoorDash, and Suno. They rely on Modal for instant GPU access, sub-second container starts, and native storage, so it's simple to serve low-latency inference, fine-tune models, and access production-ready sandboxes at scale.

We recently raised a $355M Series C at a $4.65B valuation, led by General Catalyst and Redpoint Ventures. We've crossed $300M+ ARR and grown fivefold since September.

Our team includes creators of popular open-source projects (e.g.,Seaborn,Luigi), academic researchers, international olympiad medalists, and experienced engineering and product leaders with decades of experience.

The Role:

In short, the People Operations Generalist for the UK will own day-to-day People Operations for our growing UK team.

Reporting to our People Lead, Europe, you'll be the go-to person for UK employees and managers, with ownership across the employee lifecycle - from onboarding and payroll coordination to employee changes and offboarding. You'll bring strong UK People Operations expertise, help build scalable processes, and partner with the broader People team on global programs. You'll also help run the day-to-day London office and work closely with Recruiting on the final stages of the UK candidate experience, including onsite interview coordination and candidate support.

Things move fast at Modal, and priorities change as we grow. We're looking for someone flexible and hands‑on who’s happy to jump in, figure things out, and take on whatever needs doing across their area. Some of the things you'll do:

• Own day-to-day People Operations for our UK employees, including onboarding, employee changes, leave, documentation, and offboarding.

• Act as the first point of contact for UK employees and managers, escalating more complex matters as needed.

• Partner with payroll, benefits, pension, and other external providers to ensure smooth UK administration.

• Keep employee data, documentation, and People processes accurate, compliant, and up to date.

• Build and improve UK People processes, policies, and self‑service resources as we scale.

• Execute global People programs locally, ensuring they work effectively for our UK team.

• Own day-to-day office operations in London, collaborating with internal partners (like the Workplace team!) and third party vendors.

• Coordinate onsite interviews and the final stages of the candidate experience for UK hires.

• Plan and support local employee events and initiatives.

What we're looking for:

• 5+ years of People Operations or HR experience, ideally with experience at multiple fast‑growing companies at a similar stage of growth.

• Strong knowledge of UK People Operations and employment practices, including payroll, benefits, pensions, and employee lifecycle processes.

• Comfortable working independently and taking ownership, with the judgment to know when to escape or bring in additional expertise.

• Highly organized and detail‑oriented, comfortably managing multiple priorities in a fast‑moving environment.

• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with a high level of discretion when handling sensitive employee matters.

• A hands‑on, flexible approach; you’re comfortable figuring things out, building processes from scratch, and jumping into whatever needs doing.

• Experience with office operations, workplace, or recruiting coordination is a plus.

• Based in London and comfortable working from the office five days a week (life happens, of course!)