Business Partner

Responsibilities

• Work directly with senior leaders across Engineering, Physics, and Operations to understand business priorities and connect them to people strategy. Serve as a trusted advisor on organizational design, team structure, and leadership capability—not a policy relay point.
• Co‑own the rollout and ongoing evolution of our performance review process and career framework. Coach managers on setting clear expectations, giving direct feedback, and having the conversations that actually move people forward.
• Navigate complex employee relations situations with sound judgment, balancing empathy with accountability. Support a culture where feedback is normal, not an event, and where people feel both challenged and respected.
• Help leaders manage through the growing pains of a scaling deep‑tech company. Facilitate calibration sessions, support restructuring conversations, and bring a diagnostic lens to engagement and retention patterns.
• Use people data (attrition trends, engagement signals, compensation benchmarks) to inform recommendations rather than gut feel. You don't need to be a data scientist, but you should be comfortable building a case with numbers.
• Maintain solid working knowledge of German labor law (BetrVG, TzBfG, AGG), with an appreciation for the nuances of operating across multiple jurisdictions. Know when to flag, when to advise, and when to bring in counsel.

• 10+ years of progressive HR/People experience, with at least 5 years in a true business partnering capacity (not a renamed generalist seat).
• Experience in a scaling tech, deep‑tech, or engineering‑heavy environment. You've seen what happens when headcount doubles and organizational maturity hasn't caught up yet.
• Strong command of German labor law; multi‑country exposure is a meaningful plus.
• Demonstrated ability to coach leaders through ambiguity—performance conversations, org changes, team frustration—without defaulting to process for process's sake.
• Comfort operating in a function that's still being built. You can hold the tension between "we need structure" and "we need to move".
• Fluent in German and English (both are daily working languages).

Demonstrates extensive experience in HR and people strategy, particularly in scaling tech environments, with a strong command of German labor law and the ability to coach leaders through complex organizational challenges. Proficient in using people data to inform strategic decisions while fostering a culture of feedback and accountability.