Location: The Netherlands (on-site for the first 18 months)
Reporting to: Co-CEOs

Cement and concrete sit at the heart of modern civilisation - and at the centre of one of the world’s largest industrial emissions challenges. Decarbonising construction is not incremental work; it requires new materials, new infrastructure, and industrial-scale execution.

Paebbl is building permanent carbon storage directly into construction materials. By mineralising CO₂ into a solid form, we enable both durable carbon removal and the production of low-carbon construction materials. As we scale, we are building a multi-country industrial organisation with teams across the Netherlands, Sweden, the UK, Finland, and potentially additional hubs in the future.

To support us in the next phase of development, we are hiring a Head of Talent Operations to take full ownership of the operational backbone of Paebbl’s people function. This is the most senior People role in the company and a hands-on leadership position. You will build the systems, run the processes, manage the partners, and ensure we can grow rapidly across borders without losing control. Over time, you will also build a team to support you.

This is not a “culture-only” role. It is a core operational role that enables disciplined growth and reduces risk.

What You Will Own

1) Multi-Country People Operations & Payroll

• Own and oversee end-to-end payroll execution across the Netherlands, Sweden, the UK, and Finland, ensuring flawless accuracy, timeliness, and compliance.

• Coordinate payroll providers and local advisers to ensure correct tax, social security, pension contributions, and statutory reporting.

• Maintain clean, audit-ready employee documentation, including contracts, amendments, and required records.

• Own operational HR processes across the employee lifecycle, including annual leave tracking, sickness reporting, contract administration, and employee file management.

• Act as the internal operational lead on employment compliance topics, coordinating with local legal advisers where required.

2) Global Mobility & Immigration

• Own and run end-to-end relocation processes for international hires.

• Manage work permits, visa processes, and regulatory filings in coordination with external immigration partners.

• Ensure processes such as the Dutch 30% ruling are handled correctly and proactively. Proactively ensure we stay on top of legislative changes that benefit or adversely affect our team across all our hubs, and adjust accordingly.

• Standardise mobility and onboarding processes to make international hiring predictable, fast, and scalable.

3) Systems, Policies & People Infrastructure

• Own our HRIS and ensure strong data quality, clean workflows, and scalable processes.

• Build and maintain the operational policy backbone needed for a multi-country scale-up (e.g. remote work, relocation, leave, probation, performance processes, offboarding, and employee lifecycle management).

• Identify bottlenecks and continuously improve internal workflows, reducing manual work and increasing clarity for managers and employees.

• Own vendor and partner management across payroll, immigration, and local advisory support.

• Provide reliable people data and reporting to leadership for workforce planning, compliance, and cost control.

4) Employee Relations & Performance Processes

• Support managers in employee relations topics, including probation management, performance improvement processes, disciplinary cases, and complex HR matters, ensuring structured and legally sound handling.

• Implement and run quarterly performance cycles and continuous feedback loops, ensuring strong adoption and completion across the organisation.

• Ensure performance management supports delivery against our OKRs and technical project timelines, and becomes a practical tool for managers.

5) Recruitment Process & Onboarding

• Ensure Paebbl’s recruitment processes run smoothly and consistently, supporting hiring managers with structure, process discipline, and compliance.

• Build and own our employer branding strategy, including building annual plans and budget inputs.

• Support proactive talent pipeline development alongside hiring managers.

• Own onboarding execution and ensure new hires become productive quickly, with consistent processes across hubs.

Note: This role is not intended to be a full-time recruiter. The focus is on building robust people operations and ensuring operational excellence across the employee lifecycle.

What Success Looks Like After 12 Months

• Payroll runs across multiple countries flawlessly; i.e. without incidents, delays, or compliance issues.

• HR systems, workflows, and policies are scalable, documented, and adopted across the organisation.

• Quarterly performance cycles are embedded, efficient, and trusted by managers.

• Employee relations cases are handled with rigour, discretion, and speed.

• Relocation and visa processes are structured, predictable, and well-documented.

• Leadership has access to clean, reliable people data for workforce planning and cost management.

• Managers experience People Operations as a high-quality operational partner - not a bottleneck.

• We have an updated AI-enabled talent operations strategy and operational plan.

What We’re Looking For

• Proven experience in a start-up or scale-up environment (50–200 employees), ideally in a fast-growing, operationally complex organisation.

• Strong track record owning people operations end-to-end, including multi-country payroll coordination and employee lifecycle management.

• Hands-on experience with international mobility, visas, and relocations.

• Strong understanding of European employment frameworks; Dutch HR experience is highly desirable.

• High operational discipline and attention to detail, with strong judgement and confidentiality.

• Ability to handle multiple complex processes simultaneously without compromising quality.

• Comfort working in technical, engineering-heavy, or industrial environments.

• Strong proficiency in modern HRIS systems and operational HR tooling.

• Professional fluency in English is required; Dutch is a strong plus.

What We Offer

• A mission that matters: you will help build the people infrastructure behind one of Europe’s most ambitious industrial climate scale-ups.

• A true leadership seat: the most senior People role in the company, reporting directly to the Co-CEOs or the COO.

• Real ownership: you will shape how our people systems work as we scale - not simply execute someone else’s playbook.

• High pace, high standards: you will work alongside teams solving complex technical and industrial challenges, where execution quality genuinely matters.

• A rare scaling opportunity: multi-country growth, international mobility, and building robust people infrastructure from the inside.

• A strong team environment: pragmatic, ambitious colleagues who value clarity, accountability, and constructive collaboration.

• Competitive compensation: salary aligned with experience, plus participation in Paebbl’s long-term incentive plan.

• A front-row seat to scale-up building: you will help shape how Paebbl grows across hubs and countries - and how we build a performance-driven organisation without losing our culture.

Why This Role Matters

As Paebbl scales across borders and to an industrial scale, operational excellence in people processes becomes a strategic advantage. This role ensures we can grow quickly while staying compliant, efficient, and performance-driven.

If you enjoy building structured systems, running critical operational processes, and enabling ambitious teams to deliver at speed, we would love to hear from you.