Regional People Ops & Payroll Lead — Northern Europe
People | Berlin
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.
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