HR Manager in Abingdon

Salience Labs is building next-generation photonic technology to transform connectivity for AI, HPC, and data centre systems. With teams across the UK, Germany, and the US, we are now at a stage where operational rigour in our People function is critical to scaling effectively. This role sits at the core of our People team, reporting into the Head of People and Talent.

You will take ownership of the day-to-day running of People Operations, ensuring the business is compliant, structured, and building a consistent, high-performing culture across multiple geographies. The core People infrastructure is in place, but there is still plenty to improve. This role will take full ownership of BAU People Operations, ensuring we are audit-ready and running cleanly, while steadily raising the bar on how our processes, systems, and standards operate as we scale.

What you'll be doing:

• Own the employee lifecycle end to end, onboarding, changes, and off-boarding.
• Maintain accurate, audit-ready employee records across all geographies.
• Ensure compliance with employment law across the UK and US, with exposure to Germany beneficial.
• Manage contracts, policies, and documentation.
• HR Systems & Process Management:
• Own and optimise HRIS and People tooling, including Humaans and ATS workflows.
• Ensure data integrity, reporting accuracy, and process consistency.
• Build and refine scalable processes that reduce manual overhead.
• Employee Experience & Culture:
• Act as a first point of contact for employee queries and day-to-day people matters.
• Support managers with operational HR topics and guidance.
• Run and continuously improve onboarding and core employee experience processes.
• Support the development and embedding of a consistent company culture across geographies.
• Translate company values into practical, repeatable ways of working.
• Own and run lightweight engagement initiatives that are meaningful and scalable.
• Partner with the Head of People and Talent to identify gaps in culture and implement pragmatic improvements.
• Ensure new hires integrate effectively and experience a consistent, high-quality onboarding journey.
• Hiring Support:
• Support coordination and execution of hiring processes when needed.
• Ensure a consistent and high-quality candidate experience.
• Operational Support to Leadership:
• Provide reliable data and reporting to support decision making.
• Ensure the People function operates in a structured and predictable way.

What we're looking for:

• 4-7 years in HR or People Operations roles, ideally in scaling environments.
• Strong knowledge of UK and US employment law.
• Experience working with HRIS platforms and maintaining high data integrity.
• Highly organised and detail-oriented, with strong process discipline.
• Comfortable owning BAU operations independently.
• Able to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment.
• Strong interpersonal skills, with sound judgement when supporting employees and managers.
• Exposure to multi-country teams and distributed working environments.

Even better if you:

• Familiarity with German employment practices.
• Experience in startups or high-growth companies.
• Experience improving or implementing HR systems.
• Exposure to performance management processes.

If you are someone who takes pride in building structure, maintaining high standards, and making organisations run properly behind the scenes, while helping build the culture that allows teams to do their best work.