HR & Payroll Manager

At Smartech, we believe retail should never be boring. We’re the destination for discovery, where customers can explore, try, and play with the newest innovations in tech, gaming, and e-mobility. Our teams across London, New York, Rome, and Berlin bring the world’s most exciting brands to life through immersive, experience-led retail. As we continue to scale globally, we’re looking for someone who can help take care of our most important asset: our people. This is your opportunity to join a fast-growing, energetic, international company – and to help us create the incredible employee experience our teams deserve.

The Role

We are looking for a proactive and experienced HR & Payroll Manager to own our global HR function, combining hands-on HR operations and payroll management with the development and delivery of our wider people strategy. You will support our retail and back-office teams across the UK, US and EU, building a structured, reliable and scalable HR function as Smartech grows. Working closely with leadership, Finance, Operations and managers, you will take ownership of the full employee lifecycle, strengthen people policies and systems, and help managers become confident people leaders. If you enjoy getting the detail right while shaping the bigger picture, this is the place for you.

What You'll Be Doing

• HR Leadership and Strategy: Develop and deliver the people strategy with leadership, translating business priorities into practical plans, clear responsibilities and scalable HR processes. Improve HR systems and coordination with Finance and Operations; use dashboards covering payroll accuracy, hiring, turnover, absence, reviews and employee relations to inform leadership decisions.
• Payroll and HR Operations: Own payroll delivery across all markets, working with Finance and local providers to ensure accurate, timely processing, reporting and resolution of employee queries. Validate payroll inputs and outputs, including hours, leave, starters, leavers and pay changes; reconcile discrepancies and maintain clear approvals and records before Finance releases payments. Manage day-to-day HR operations and the full employee lifecycle, including contracts, onboarding, probation, employment changes and offboarding, with accurate and confidential employee records.
• People Development and Employee Experience: Own recruitment processes with hiring managers, including role definition, interview scorecards, talent pipelines and hiring timelines; partner with Marketing on employer branding. Design and deliver structured onboarding, probation and performance review cycles, including a 30-60-90 day framework, clear expectations and consistent manager follow-up. Build manager capability through practical guidance and training on feedback, performance conversations, employee relations and people management responsibilities. Lead employee engagement and training initiatives that strengthen the employee experience and support development across retail and office teams.
• Employee Relations and Compliance: Build and maintain HR policies, the employee handbook and standard templates; coordinate employment and payroll compliance across markets with local advisers and providers. Lead employee relations matters, including grievances, disciplinary cases and performance concerns, ensuring fair processes, sound documentation and specialist advice where needed.

What We're Looking For

If you are a pragmatic HR professional who enjoys balancing hands-on delivery with longer-term planning, we invite you to apply. Join us to shape our people function and build a consistent, positive employee experience as we grow.

• Proven HR generalist or HR management experience, combining operational ownership with the development and delivery of people initiatives.
• Strong hands-on payroll experience, including input validation, reconciliation, reporting and coordination with Finance or external providers.
• Experience in employee relations, HR policies, recruitment, onboarding and performance management, with confidence advising managers and leadership.
• Experience supporting international or multi-site teams; exposure to UK, US or EU HR and payroll environments is desirable.
• Ability to build practical processes, simplify complexity and balance business priorities with a fair and consistent employee experience.
• Excellent organisation, attention to detail and communication skills, with sound judgement and the ability to handle sensitive information confidentially.
• Strong MS Excel and Google Sheets skills, confidence using HR and payroll systems, and the ability to turn people data into useful insights.
• A degree in HR, CIPD qualification or equivalent relevant experience; payroll qualifications and retail experience are desirable.