People Operations & Payroll Lead

Team description The People Enablement team ensures every SumUpper has a consistent, high-quality experience throughout their time here, from their first day to their last. We're building something ambitious: a People Ops and Payroll function that's faster, smarter, and built to scale across borders. As the lead for Northern Europe, you'll shape how a team of eight operates across Germany, the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Belgium turning complexity into clarity and manual work into automation. This is a role where you will bring structure, automation, and clear ownership to a function that's built to scale. 📽 Berlin What you'll do Lead and develop a team of eight People Ops and Payroll partners, consolidating two distinct functions into one integrated, accountable regional team Map, redesign, and scale core processes across the full employee lifecycle — from onboarding through to offboarding — ensuring accuracy, compliance, and efficiency across all markets Identify and implement automation opportunities using no-code and low-code tools, reducing manual effort and setting a new standard for how the team works Build a success measurement framework covering SLAs, error rates, and processing times — and report on this regularly to senior stakeholders Partner with Finance, People Partners, Legal, and Compliance to ensure payroll accuracy and regulatory alignment across Germany, the UK, and beyond You'll be great for this role if… Proven leadership experience in multi-country People Ops, with Germany as a core market and exposure to the UK, Ireland, or the Netherlands Strong knowledge of German employment law and HR compliance requirements, with the ability to navigate complex legal scenarios confidently across the employee lifecycle A solid understanding of payroll processes across EU markets, with UK employment law knowledge considered a strong plus A clear track record of delivering process improvements and automation initiatives, with concrete examples of efficiency gains and time saved Hands-on experience with AI-powered or no-code tools such as Make or n8n, alongside advanced Excel skills and a data-driven approach to decision making Comfort leading through change and ambiguity, with the stakeholder management skills to build trust while restructuring how a team operates Why you should join SumUp 🌎 Opportunity to work with SumUppers globally on large-scale fintech products used by millions of businesses worldwide, from our Berlin office. This involves an office-first setup 🌈 Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion: be part of a workplace that values and promotes diversity, fostering an inclusive environment where everyone's perspectives are respected and embraced 🚀 Enrolment onto our Virtual Stock Option programme: you will own a stake in SumUp's future success 📚 A dedicated annual L&D budget of €2000 for your individual development, which you can use to attend conferences and/or advancing your career through further education 💶 A corporate pension scheme where we match up to 20% of your contributions 🏖 Generous time off: enjoy 28 days of paid leave plus public holidays and special leave days 🏋️ Numerous other benefits such as Urban Sports Club subsidy, Kita placement assistance, subsidised office lunches 🌴 Break4me: 1-month sabbatical after 3 years of service 🔗 Referral Bonus: earn additional rewards by referring talented individuals to join the SumUp team Job Application Tip We recognise that candidates feel they need to meet 100% of the job criteria in order to apply for a job. Please note that this is only a guide. If you don’t tick every box, it’s ok too because it means you have room to learn and develop your career at SumUp.