Talent & People Lead (m/w/d)

You take on two things for us: recruiting and building our People function. This is a hands-on role. You lead our recruitment yourself, from understanding the hiring need through sourcing, interviews and closing, while building the HR foundations that support our people across the company. You report directly to our Co-CEO and work closely with Operations and Finance. You start with no direct reports, so you are as comfortable doing the work as shaping how it should be done.

• Talent acquisition and recruitment: Own the entire recruitment lifecycle, from job descriptions through active sourcing, screening and interviews to offers and onboarding. Work closely with department heads and bring in external recruiters when needed
• Candidate experience and employer branding: Give candidates a clear, warm and responsive experience and tell our story honestly
• Hiring plans and cost management: Partner with the Co-CEO on headcount plans, personnel cost forecasts and hiring priorities
• HR governance and compliance: Develop and maintain HR policies and internal controls, so our employment processes are compliant, consistent and practical
• HR systems, payroll and administration: Own the reliable operation of our HRIS, payroll processes, personnel records and contracts, coordinating with Operations, Finance and service providers
• International employment: Oversee employment for team members outside Germany, coordinating EOR providers, local payroll partners and legal advisors
• Employee lifecycle and relations: Own the People side of onboarding, offboarding and employee relations
• Compensation and benefits: Develop our approach to salary benchmarking, pay structures, salary reviews and benefits
• VSOP administration: Oversee the administration, documentation and communication of our virtual share option programme
• Learning and development: Support Operations with HR expertise on development programmes (a supporting responsibility, not the core of the role)
• Improve the People function: Put practical processes, templates and reporting in place, without adding unnecessary bureaucracy

You are a well-rounded HR professional who genuinely enjoys recruiting. You care about finding great people, and you also know a company needs reliable policies, systems and processes to support them once they join. You are warm, direct, organised and discreet, and you like structure, even when you need to build it in a fast-changing environment.

• 5+ years of experience across HR, People Operations or related functions, with broad hands-on responsibility rather than experience limited to one HR specialism
• Proven experience managing the full recruitment lifecycle, including active sourcing, candidate assessment and closing hires
• Written and spoken fluency in English and German
• Strong knowledge of German employment law, HR compliance and personnel administration
• Experience running or improving HR operations, including HRIS, contracts, payroll coordination and employee records
• A structured, dependable way of working: you can handle multiple open roles, people processes and external dependencies without losing track of details
• Good judgement, discretion and the confidence to advise managers on sensitive people matters and challenge decisions constructively
• Based in Germany, Berlin preferred (candidates in the surrounding area are welcome)

Experience in a startup or scale-up, especially building HR or recruitment processes from an early stage, is a strong advantage. So is experience coordinating international employment, employer-of-record providers or multi-country payroll. Experience with Personio or comparable HRIS and applicant tracking systems, compensation benchmarking, benefits administration or employee share programmes is an advantage.

At Primefold, we build AI-native platforms that turn fragmented data into decisions teams can act on. Experience Intelligence (XI) turns surveys and experience data into insights, and Real Estate Intelligence (RI) is made for real estate investment and asset management teams.

You will own our People function and report directly to the Co-CEO. You will work closely with Operations, Finance, our department leaders and the co-founders, and help shape how we hire, support and develop our team as the company grows. We offer a competitive salary based on your experience and a remote-first, flexible working environment with opportunities for personal and professional development. We are a startup: our budgets are realistic, our processes are still taking shape and priorities will change. In return, you get trust and real room to shape things. We work with a humanistic approach: collaborative, egoless, transparent and responsive. The ideal start date is 4 January 2027.