Head of People
Level : 6 Salary band : Competitive Location : Hybrid (London office 2 days per week) At Automata , we're on a mission to transform how scientists work by making automation accessible to every lab in the world. We believe that by giving labs the power to automate, we can unlock discoveries that will shape the future of life sciences—from diagnostics and drug discovery to synthetic biology. But we’re more than just a company disrupting the industry—we're a team of innovators, problem-solvers, and creators passionate about empowering scientists. Our LINQ platform combines hardware and software to streamline workflows, making lab automation fast, flexible, and affordable. This means our customers can focus on groundbreaking research, while we take care of the rest. Why Work at Automata? Impact : Your work will directly contribute to advancements in science and medicine, supporting labs around the globe as they push boundaries in research and innovation.
Innovation : You’ll be part of a team solving complex problems (seriously, no one else has figured out how to do this yet), using cutting-edge technology (we have robots).
Growth : We invest in our people . Whether through hands-on experience, professional development, or collaborative projects, you’ll grow both professionally and personally.
Community : Join a diverse, passionate team that values collaboration (golf on a Thursday, Soccer once a month, movie nights whenever we fancy it).
We're looking for a Head of People to lead our People and Workplace function across the UK, US and Germany. Reporting to the CFO, you'll be the senior people expert in the business: a trusted partner to the CFO and wider executive team on organisation design, culture, capability and people cost, and the accountable owner for every people-related service our employees rely on, from payroll and benefits to offices, events and visas. This is a player-coach role. You'll set the people strategy and lead a team, but you'll also roll up your sleeves to fix a payroll issue, rewrite a policy or run a complex employee relations case yourself. You'll build the processes, tools and data that let us scale without losing what makes Automata a great place to work.
Why this role matters now We're a growing scale-up operating across three very different employment markets, each with its own law, payroll rules, benefits norms and expectations. The way we hire, develop, reward and support people over the next few years will shape our ability to deliver for our customers. We need someone who can bring consistency and best practice where it matters, local compliance where it's required, and pragmatism everywhere.
Key accountabilities
- Business partnering and team leadership
Partner with the CFO and executive team to translate the business strategy into a clear, prioritised people plan covering headcount, capability, organisation design, culture and cost.
Act as a trusted advisor and coach to executives and senior leaders on organisational change, team structures, leadership effectiveness and sensitive people decisions.
Lead workforce planning with the CFO and Finance team, making sure the hiring plan, people budget and organisational design support the commercial and product roadmap.
Guide the business through change such as reorganisations, new market entry, restructures or redundancies, ensuring fair process and compliance in each country.
Own employee relations and casework, including grievances, disciplinaries, performance concerns and exits, handling them fairly, consistently and in line with local law.
Champion and embed Automata's values, building an inclusive culture where diverse teams of engineers, scientists and commercial staff do their best work.
Lead, coach and develop a team of four across People and Workplace, setting clear goals, building capability and creating a high-performing, service-minded function.
Own the people function budget and manage external partners (payroll, benefits brokers, legal counsel, recruitment and immigration providers), ensuring value for money and quality of service.
Report regularly to the CFO, executive team and, where required, the board on people metrics, risks and progress against the people plan.
- HR operations
Global payroll and benefits: own accurate, on-time payroll in the UK, US and Germany, working with providers and Finance on controls, reconciliations and year-end. Design, benchmark and manage competitive benefits packages in each country, including pension, healthcare and insurance, and run annual renewals.
HR administration: run a smooth employee lifecycle from offer to exit, including contracts, onboarding, changes, leave, right-to-work checks and offboarding, with accurate records and a great employee experience.
Policy and process: maintain a clear, compliant and up-to-date employee handbook and policy set for each country. Track legislative change and keep the business compliant with employment law in all three jurisdictions.
HR tooling and systems: own the HR technology stack (HRIS, ATS, performance and engagement tools), driving adoption, integration and automation so processes are self-service and scalable.
Data management and reporting: make sure people data is accurate, secure and GDPR-compliant. Build dashboards and reporting on headcount, attrition, hiring, engagement, diversity and people cost that leaders actually use to make decisions.
Reward management: build and run a fair, transparent and market-competitive reward framework, including salary bands, levelling, benchmarking, the annual pay review, bonus schemes and equity (share option) administration, working closely with the CFO.
- Workplace, engagement and communications
Internal communications: lead the internal communications strategy, channel management and key messaging ensuring leadership messaging, people changes, policies and company news are communicated clearly and consistently, supporting leaders with all-hands and change communications.
Facilities management: oversee our offices, labs and workshop spaces in the UK, Germany and US, including leases, landlords, suppliers, office services, moves and space planning as we grow.
Health and safety: make sure we meet our H&S obligations in every location, with suitable risk assessments, policies, training, first aid and fire arrangements, and incident reporting. This includes the specific risks of working with robotics, hardware and lab environments.
Event management: plan and deliver company events, offsites and team socials that bring people together across sites and time zones.
Insurance management: manage the company's insurance programme with brokers and Finance, including employers' liability, property and employee insurance products, making sure cover is right for each country.
- Talent and development
Recruitment: own the end-to-end hiring process, through internal recruiters, agencies or both. Build a strong employer brand, a structured and fair interview process, and a great candidate experience that attracts top engineering, scientific and commercial talent.
Performance management: design and run a simple, effective performance and goal-setting framework that drives regular feedback, fair calibration and clear links to development and reward.
Learning and development: build manager and leadership capability, along with career frameworks and progression paths so people can see how to grow at Automata.
Employee engagement: measure engagement regularly, share results openly and work with leaders to act on them. Improve retention and make sure people feel heard and valued.
Immigration and visa support: manage our sponsorship obligations and visa processes, including the UK Sponsor Licence, US work visas and German permits such as the EU Blue Card, working with specialist advisers so international hires and transfers are smooth and compliant.
What you'll bring Essential experience Senior HR or People leadership experience in a technology or science business, ideally deep tech, robotics, life sciences or hardware.
A track record of leading the people function in a start-up or scale-up through rapid growth and change.
Experience running HR across more than one country, ideally including the UK, US and Germany.
Experience leading and developing a small team while staying hands-on.
Strong knowledge of current HR best practice across the full employee lifecycle, and the judgement to adapt it to a fast-moving business.
Desirable experience Managing visa sponsorship and immigration across multiple countries.
Building great Management Information which is used across the business to underpin decision making
Managing facilities and H&S
Reward/Compensation strategy and management.
CIPD Level 7, SHRM-SCP or an equivalent professional qualification.
Knowledge and skills Financial literacy: confident building and managing people budgets, modelling headcount and reward costs, and working closely with the CFO and board in their language.
Data-centric: uses people data to diagnose issues, measure impact and influence decisions. Comfortable with spreadsheets, HRIS reporting and dashboards.
Employment law: solid working knowledge of UK employment law, and an understanding of US (federal and state) and German employment frameworks, knowing when to seek specialist advice.
Influence: builds credibility quickly with senior leaders and staff and is comfortable challenging constructively.
Systems thinking: designs simple, scalable processes and makes good use of technology and automation.
How you work Commercially minded and pragmatic, focusing effort where it has most impact for the business.
Hands-on and comfortable with ambiguity, happy to build from scratch and do the detailed work yourself.
Sound judgement and discretion with confidential and sensitive matters.
An inclusive leader who brings warmth, fairness and consistency.
Curious and genuinely interested in the science and technology we build.
Why Automata Impact: your work will directly contribute to advances in science and medicine, supporting labs around the globe as they push the boundaries of research and innovation.
Innovation: you'll be part of a team solving complex problems (seriously, no one else has figured out how to do this yet), using cutting-edge technology (we have robots).
Growth: we invest in our people . Whether through hands-on experience, professional development or collaborative projects, you'll grow both professionally and personally.
Community: join a diverse, passionate team that values collaboration , with golf on a Thursday, football once a month and movie nights whenever we fancy it.
UK Team Benefits: 🍎 Vitality Health Insurance 👀 Eye Care 🚗 Salary Sacrifice - EV 🚲 Salary Sacrifice - Bike & Tech 🧘🏼♀️ Wellbeing & Support ☀️ Wellbeing & Development Allowance 💙 Spill & Employee Assistance Programme 😊 Additional Leave 👵🏼 Pension Scheme 🫂 Group Life & Critical Illness cover We are an equal-opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. Discrimination of any kind based on race, colour, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, genetic information, disability, or veteran status is strictly prohibited.