Founding People Lead (m/f/d)

We are looking for a Founding People Lead (m/f/d) to build Optiml's people function from the ground up. You will get the chance to treat People Ops like a product, designing automated systems instead of running the same process manually every time, so a lean team can operate like a much bigger one.

You will own the full people function end-to-end: recruiting and hiring across commercial, technical, and operational roles, onboarding, performance and HR operations.

Optiml runs hub-and-spoke, with Zurich and London as physical hubs and the international and diverse team distributed across CH, DE and the UK. Culture here does not happen by default; it has to be designed. You will own how onboarding runs, how offsites are structured, and how a distributed team stays connected.

You will thrive here if you build from first principles, are comfortable with ambiguity, and see the people function as a system to design. You make people's decisions from the business need backwards and are a credible sparring partner for founders, not only an executor.

• Own recruiting and hiring end-to-end across commercial, technical, and operational roles
• Partner with hiring managers to define role requirements, build structured interview kits, and standardise candidate communication

• Build and automate onboarding, offboarding, and performance-review workflows using the AI-native stack (Notion, Slack, AI agents)
• Own the people tech stack: evaluate and implement tools and automations that cut manual admin

• Design and own culture rituals and communication systems that work across a distributed, hub-and-spoke team
• Plan and help run team offsites and culture initiatives
• Run performance management (30/60/90s, probation reviews) and continuously automate the repeatable parts
• Act as the day-to-day point of contact for employees on culture, wellbeing, and people questions

• Own HR administration and compliance across the CH, DE, and UK entities: contracts, amendments, employee records, and local employment law, partnering with the Head of Operations
• Manage day-to-day employee relations - performance concerns, grievances, and sensitive situations - escalating appropriately
• Support compensation and benefits administration: salary reviews, benchmarking, and benefits setup and renewal across entities

• 4-7 years in People Ops or Engineering, HR or Recruitment, including time in a startup or high-paced environment - or a strong track record in an adjacent field (operations, consulting, founder's office) with a genuine pull toward people and culture work
• Proven ownership of a full people function or key processes end-to-end: you have built structure from scratch without a roadmap and kept several workstreams running in parallel
• Track record owning full-cycle recruiting across different roles and departments: sourcing, screening, and closing
• Strong stakeholder management and experience in building trusted relationships across a distributed team and with founders
• Business acumen, understanding the business model, stage, and priorities, and make people and hiring decisions from the business need backwards
• Builder mentality: Using AI tools daily in your own workflow and are energized by removing manual, repeatable work
• Track record setting up and improving HR operations end-to-end: HRIS, processes, policies, and compliance is ideal
• Strong written and verbal English; German as a nice-to-have
• Based in or able to work from London, and willing to travel to Zurich and offsites