People Manager

Your mission This is a standalone People role with significant influence across Techspace. Reporting to the CEO and working closely with the Leadership Team, you will help us build a high-performing organisation as we grow; strengthening manager capability, developing and retaining our best people and ensuring we deal with people issues fairly and effectively. You’ll also leverage AI and automation to streamline our HR operations, drive data backed decision making, and ensure our People processes remain slick, efficient, and scalable as we grow. It’s a very hands-on role. You’ll move comfortably between coaching a manager through a difficult conversation, advising the Leadership Team on organisational design, improving our performance approach and making sure the fundamentals, from payroll and policies to Personio and employment compliance, work brilliantly. We’re looking for someone with strong judgement who knows when to coach, when to challenge and when formal HR intervention is necessary. You’ll combine empathy for people with an understanding that a great People function ultimately helps the business and its teams perform better. RESPONSIBILITIES Leadership & Strategic People Partnership Partner with the Leadership Team to develop and continuously improve individual, team, company, and functional performance. Work with the Leadership Team to collect periodic employee engagement surveys and ensure appropriate action plans are in place. Deliver regular reporting on key people metrics to inform leadership decisions and improve employee experience. HR Policy, Compliance & Employment Law Ensure compliance with UK and German employment laws, including changes arising from the upcoming UK Employment Rights Act. Manage employee relations, troubleshooting and resolving complex situations while balancing business risk. Create and implement HR policies that reflect and support our hospitality minded culture. Oversee compensation and benefits administration across both markets. HR operations including payroll (working with finance), leave management, HR systems, salary benchmarking and reviews. Performance Management Lead the continued evolution of our performance approach. Oversee and continuously improve the talent review process, ensuring managers are supported with the right resources and tools. Identify opportunities to automate and scale talent management practices to drive consistency, efficiency, and impact across the business. Own the recruitment framework, upskilling managers to hire effectively while leaving final hiring accountability with line managers. Learning, Development & Manager Capability Proactively identify individual, team and organisational capability gaps and design and deliver targeted development solutions. Own the career development framework, ensuring every Techspacer has an annual career progression and development plan, with progress reviewed twice yearly. Drive manager development initiatives that equip line managers with the core skills needed to coach, lead and develop high-performing teams. Source, curate and facilitate high impact learning programmes, combining internal coaching, external providers and digital learning tools. Support structured career and development conversations across the business to nurture talent pipelines and retain top performers. Measure the impact of L&D initiatives to ensure development directly supports performance, operational excellence and Techspace’s business goals. Culture, Engagement & Wellbeing Act as a champion for Techspace’s values, high performance standards, and culture across the business Drive employee engagement initiatives that strengthen community and belonging and shared accountability. Lead onboarding to set employees up for success early, and manage offboarding to ensure a positive transition. Integrate DEI into daily practices, embedding equal opportunity and fairness across teams. Partner with managers to address working relationships, resolve conflict, boost team morale, and drive retention. AI & HR Process Automation Identify and implement opportunities to leverage AI tools and automation across the employee lifecycle (e.g., onboarding workflows, policy search, basic HR query resolution, administrative tasks). Streamline HR administration and data management to eliminate friction for managers and free up capacity for strategic, high value people partnering. Explore ethical and efficient applications of AI to enhance HR analytics, talent review workflows, and learning & development content. Your profile WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR Required Experienced HR generalist with at least 2 years' experience as a HR Manager or Senior People Partner, comfortable delivering at both operational and strategic levels without direct reports Experience in hospitality, real estate, or customer-service focused industries, working with multi site teams across multiple locations Good knowledge of UK employment law and best practices. Knowledge of German employment law helpful Experience with HRIS systems and HR analytics (Techspace uses Personio) Excellent communication skills with fluency in English (German language skills are advantageous) Preferred Understanding of flexible workspace or property management operations preferred Experience working in a dynamic, growth-stage SME environment would be useful. Ideally the jobholder will hold a CIPD qualification What separates you You see work as a place where you learn, where you deliver and where you have fun You are comfortable working in a fast-paced, service oriented environment You balance empathy for employees with commercial needs of Techspace. Both are important. You enjoy partnering with senior leaders to improve service and customer experience and are comfortable challenging senior leaders Excellent communicator, including in difficult conversations You enjoy getting stuck in as well as strategic thinking Why us? What We Offer Opportunity to shape the people function of an ambitious flexible workspace provider Competitive salary of around £70,000, depending on experience Private health insurance, critical illness insurance, life insurance, medical cash plan Generous holiday allowance of 27 days 5 days of Life Leave for life events, charitable days, training outside work Matching policy for money you raise for charity Training linked to business needs Access to our workspaces Regular team events and international travel opportunities Location & Travel Based in London but with regular travel expected to Berlin. Hybrid role with 4 days working with the Hub team in the office. Flexible approach. Our Values Here are the values we care most about. Not only are they behaviours that best represent our team culture, but this also extends to new members and partners we intend to work alongside. We Are Open - we create environments that support openness and honesty. We listen to each other, challenge, support, and always assume positive intent. We Care - we care deeply about our fellow Techspacers, about serving our members and about our impact on the world. We Move At Thoughtful Pace - we have a bias for action and being decisive. We trust each other to take risks and we learn from our mistakes. We Strive to Improve - we are ambitious, stretching ourselves to innovate and always do better. We Seek Balance - we choose fun and fairness, and support each other to find our balance. Techspace is an equal opportunity employer. We welcome applications from all backgrounds. About us Techspace is the go-to place for scaling tech, freeing teams to build the future, with a network that spans the world’s leading tech hubs. Techspace is a member centric company that designs, creates & operates working environments for growing technology companies. Now more than ever the workplace is undergoing rapid change & transformation: we aim to be at the cutting edge of workplace design, providing flexible & collaborative environments that enable technology businesses to thrive. Most importantly Techspace, at its heart, is a people business: the relationships we form with our members makes our community value proposition come to life. Techspace is an equal opportunity employer and we value diversity. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, colour, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, marital status or disability status.