People Operations Partner

Job description

ABOUT CUSPAI CuspAI is the frontier AI company on a mission to solve the breakthrough materials needed to power human progress. While nature took billions of years to perfect molecules, we are harnessing AI to unlock trillion-dollar materials breakthroughs in months, not millennia. Our founding team is the most cited in the world, comprised of world-class researchers in AI, chemistry and engineering. We are working on some of the hardest and most important challenges including energy, clean water, the future of compute, and carbon capture, and this is just the start of what our 'search engine' for next-generation materials will unlock. We invite you to be part of a diverse, innovative team at the intersection of AI and materials science, working to create impactful partnerships that drive innovation, scalability, and industry collaboration. This work matters. Your work matters. We’re on the cusp of the on-demand materials era. Join us. THE ROLE Due to ongoing growth, we are looking for an experienced and adaptable People Operations Partner to join our people team. This is a builder role for someone who finds deep satisfaction in getting operations right. You'll own our People operations function, HRIS architecture, people data, compliance across jurisdictions, and the processes that make onboarding, offboarding, and everything in between run cleanly. It's for someone who genuinely loves systematizing complexity, sweats the details, and wants to build something durable at a company that's moving fast. YOUR IMPACT Your work will directly impact the velocity at which we can solve challenges in critical areas such as next-generation computing, carbon capture and clean energy. You'll have trust, autonomy and support as you work together to evolve CuspAI's people operations function, enabling Cusp to scale thoughtfully and sustainably. This is a rare opportunity to be an early member and core part of the foundational people team during a company's formative scaling phase. You will play a central role in helping CuspAI to grow its operational back-bone so the company has a solid foundation it can hyperscale on. Partnering closely with your peers from finance, IT, payroll, recruitment and many more, you’ll be able to demonstrate what a well connected cross functional team is capable of delivering. You will be an example of operational excellence and a builder of culture. WHAT YOU WILL DO Operational excellence - Drive cross-functional collaboration with key stakeholders and partner teams, leveraging strong project management expertise to help lead cross-functional workstreams and change management initiatives with significant operational impact. - Act as a thought leader in leveraging AI and operational best practices to automate repetitive administrative work, improving efficiency and accuracy, while delivering a best-in-class employee experience. - First point of contact for our employees for all their inquiries and concerns; providing guidance, advice, problem-solving and coaching throughout their employee experience at Cusp - Map, design, document and execute People processes end to end across the employee life cycle. You’ll have the opportunity to build most of these from the ground up. People data & the people tech stack - You’ll own and administer our HR systems (e.g. Deel). Configure automated (AI) workflows, maintain data integrity so our source of truth stays accurate. - Evaluate and implement new tooling, and ensure our stack scales with headcount growth. - Be the internal expert others come to when the system isn't doing what it should. Compliance & Employment Law - Keep the company compliant as we scale — across employment legislation, jurisdictions, and regulatory requirements. Partner closely with our internal legal team and external counsel where necessary. - Manage policy documentation, ensure processes meet legal standards in each country or state we operate in, and flag risks before they become problems. - Maintain an internal knowledge base that actually stays current. Compensation, payroll & Benefits Administration - Administer compensation cycles, salary changes, and benefits programs in partnership with Finance. - Ensure accuracy across payroll inputs and benefits enrollment. Immigration & Global Mobility Support - Support immigration and mobility processes for new hires with visas and employees relocating to work in other jurisdictions. - Coordinate operational aspects of immigration cases including residence permits, work authorisations, and registration requirements in collaboration with external immigration providers and internal stakeholders. - Act as the operational point of contact for managers and employees regarding immigration processes and timelines. MUST HAVE SKILLS AND QUALIFICATIONS: - Experience & Operational Depth: You've spent 5–7 years in People Operations or a generalist HR role where the work was fundamentally about making things run. You've built things from scratch, inherited broken processes and fixed them, and you understand what it takes to keep the operational side of a People function healthy at scale. - HRIS Ownership: You've gone deep on at least one HR system. Not as a power user, but as the person who configured it, audited the data quality, built the workflows, and pushed its limits. You know where systems break down, how to work around their constraints, and how to evaluate whether a tool is actually serving the business or just adding overhead. - Employment Compliance Across Jurisdictions: You are familiar with employment law in the UK, Netherlands, USA, Germany, Singapore, and Japan. You've worked across at least some of these markets, you know what you know, and crucially you know what to check when you're not sure. - Attention to Detail: You're the person who notices the field that's been populated inconsistently for six months, the policy that contradicts itself on page three, or the offboarding step that's been quietly skipped. You don't let it go because fixing it isn't technically your job, you fix it, or you make sure someone does. - Prioritization Under Pressure: When everything is urgent and half of it is also unclear, you don't stall. You make a call on what matters most, communicate it, and get moving. You're comfortable holding multiple workstreams without dropping any of them, and you've learned to distinguish the things that need to be perfect from the things that just need to be done. - Written Communication: You write the way good operations work: clearly, precisely, and without unnecessary complexity. A process document you've written can be followed by someone who wasn't in the room when it was created. A policy you've drafted doesn't require a lawyer to interpret. You default to plain language, and you know that ambiguity in writing usually means ambiguity in thinking. - Stakeholder Management & Cross-functional Collaboration: You know how to build trust quickly, communicate clearly without jargon, and get alignment across teams who don't share your context. You're comfortable influencing without authority, pushing back when something isn't right, and bringing people along when you need their cooperation to get something done. - Project Management & Self-organization: You keep things moving through your own rigor: clear ownership, realistic timelines, structured follow-through. You know how to break a vague goal into concrete next steps, and you don't let things fall through the cracks because no one was watching. - Navigating Ambiguity & Change: At a hyperscaling company, the org chart shifts, priorities reprioritize, and the process you built three months ago may already need rebuilding. You don't need perfect information to make progress, and you don't freeze when the goalposts move. ADDITIONAL CONSIDERATIONS This role could be based in our Amsterdam, Berlin, or London offices, with the expectation of being in the office three days per week. This role will report into the Head of People based in Amsterdam. Additionally, there may be occasional travel required to other locations for collaboration and project work. WHAT WE OFFER - A competitive salary: We value and reward impact and growth - Equity in CuspAI: You have a stake in the success of the company - Time off to stay fresh: 28 days holiday (DE, NL, UK) or 21 days holiday (JP, SG, US), in addition to local public holidays - ‘Gold Standard’ parental leave: 26 weeks (primary caregiver) and 12 weeks (secondary caregiver) at full pay - we look after you and your family while we work on the most important materials discovery problems together - Professional development budget: We invest in your career development so you can stay up to date with the latest industry knowledge or add to your skills to increase impact and growth - Solve meaningful problems: See how your work has a direct impact on advancing materials science and solving sustainability and climate-related problems through the creation and application of bleeding-edge SOTA technology and revolutionary techniques - True interdisciplinary teamwork: Be part of a deeply collaborative environment bridging AI research, computational chemistry, and experimental science - work with world-class researchers and engineers who enjoy sharing knowledge and supporting each other Join us in shaping the future of materials with AI. Together, we can create groundbreaking solutions for a more sustainable world. CuspAI is an equal opportunities employer committed to building a diverse and inclusive workplace. We do not discriminate on the basis of sex, race, religion or belief, ethnic or national origin, disability, age, citizenship, marital, domestic or civil partnership status, sexual orientation, gender identity, pregnancy or related condition (including breastfeeding), veteran status, or any other basis protected by applicable law. We actively encourage applications from all backgrounds and value the unique perspectives and contributions that diversity brings to our team. Please let us know if you require any specific adjustments during or after the interview process. We will do everything we can within reason to accommodate.