Reports to: COO
Department: Operations
Salary: £42,000 - £45,000
The Role
We’re looking for a highly organised People Operations Manager to own the coordination of recruitment, onboarding and day-to-day people operations.
You’ll work closely with the COO, founders and team leads to ensure every hire follows a structured process, every employee has a consistent onboarding experience and leadership has complete visibility over workforce planning and capacity.
This role sits at the heart of the business and will play a key part in helping Solar on Steroids scale without losing the culture, quality and agility that have driven our growth so far.
Key Responsibilities
Recruitment & Talent Acquisition
Own the operational recruitment process from approval through to offer.
Responsibilities include:
- Managing recruitment pipelines
- Posting vacancies
- Screening applications
- Scheduling interviews
- Coordinating interview stages
- Managing candidate communications
- Preparing offers and contracts
- Maintaining recruitment trackers
- Building talent pools
- Delivering an outstanding candidate experience
Workforce Planning
Support the COO with workforce planning and hiring coordination.
Including:
- Hiring plans
- Capacity tracking
- Recruitment forecasting
- Annual leave visibility
- Upcoming onboarding requirements
- Probation tracking
- Weekly workforce reports
- Headcount planning support
You’ll help ensure hiring remains proactive rather than reactive.
Hiring Readiness
Before any offer is made, you’ll coordinate the company’s Hiring Readiness Checklist.
This includes confirming:
- Reporting line
- Functional trainer
- Onboarding owner
- Start date
- Equipment requests
- System access
- 30/60/90-day plan
- Capacity confirmation
No new hire progresses until every stage has been completed.
Onboarding
Coordinate a structured onboarding experience for every employee.
Including:
- Welcome communications
- Contracts and documentation
- Equipment and access
- Company induction
- ClickUp setup
- Training schedules
- Probation planning
- First-week experience
- 30/60/90-day planning
You’ll work closely with functional trainers to ensure every new starter has a clear path to becoming fully productive.
People Operations
Own the day-to-day administration of the people function.
Including:
- Annual leave
- Sickness management
- Payroll preparation
- Personnel records
- Contracts
- Policies
- HR documentation
- Probation administration
- Performance review scheduling
- Employment references
Leadership & Operations Support
Support the COO by maintaining visibility across the people function.
Including:
- Recruitment dashboards
- Workforce planning reports
- Capacity reporting
- Hiring metrics
- People KPIs
- Probation tracking
- Leadership meeting preparation
- Action tracking
- Recruitment forecasting
You’ll help ensure leadership always has accurate, up-to-date information to support decision-making.
Continuous Improvement
Help improve how the business recruits, onboards and develops people.
Including:
- Improving onboarding
- Simplifying recruitment processes
- Building and maintaining SOPs
- Improving documentation
- Supporting AI and automation projects
- Working alongside the Systems Architect
- Supporting ClickUp and operational workflow improvements
Decision Authority
This role owns the operational coordination of recruitment and people operations.
Responsible for:
- Recruitment coordination
- Candidate communication
- Interview scheduling
- Onboarding coordination
- People administration
- Workforce planning support
- Capacity reporting
- Recruitment tracking
- Maintaining HR documentation
- Leadership reporting
Final decisions remain with the COO and Founders for:
- Headcount approval
- Organisational structure
- Reporting lines
- Salary decisions
- Promotions
- Final hiring decisions
- Probation outcomes
- Workforce strategy
What Success Looks Like
Within your first six months:
- Recruitment follows one consistent operating process.
- Time-to-hire has reduced through better coordination.
- Every new starter completes a structured onboarding programme.
- 100% of new hires have documented 30/60/90-day plans.
- Weekly workforce planning and capacity reports are delivered consistently.
- Leadership has complete visibility over recruitment, onboarding and workforce capacity.
- Recruitment administration no longer sits with the founders.
- Managers understand their responsibilities throughout the employee lifecycle.
You’ll Be Great If You…
- Love bringing order to fast-moving environments.
- Enjoy building processes rather than working around them.
- Can manage multiple priorities simultaneously.
- Communicate confidently with people at all levels.
- Naturally identify problems before they become issues.
- Thrive in growing businesses where no two days are the same.
- Want to help build a company, not just work within one.
Experience
We’re open to different backgrounds, but you’ll likely have experience in one or more of the following:
- People Operations
- Talent Acquisition
- Internal Recruitment
- HR Operations
- Operations Coordination
- Executive Support
- Recruitment Agency or In-house Recruitment
Experience within a scaling SME or high-growth business would be highly advantageous.
Skills
- Excellent organisational skills
- Strong written and verbal communication
- High attention to detail
- Commercial awareness
- Strong prioritisation skills
- Confidence working with multiple stakeholders
- Comfortable using technology and AI tools
- Ability to improve and document operational processes
Nice to Have
- CIPD Level 3 or Level 5 qualification (or working towards one)
- Experience in an in-house People Operations or Talent role
- Experience recruiting across marketing, sales or technology functions
- Experience supporting a scaling SME or startup
- Familiarity with UK employment law and HR best practice
- Experience using HRIS or ATS platforms (e.g. Rippling, BambooHR, Workable or Teamtailor)
- Experience using ClickUp, Notion, Monday.com or similar workflow tools
- Experience producing people metrics and leadership reporting
- Experience coordinating onboarding, probation and performance review processes
- Interest in AI, automation and operational improvement
People Operations Manager in Warrington employer: Solar on steroids
At Solar on Steroids, we pride ourselves on being an exceptional employer that fosters a vibrant and inclusive work culture. As a People Operations Manager, you will play a pivotal role in shaping our recruitment and onboarding processes, ensuring every team member has a seamless experience while contributing to our rapid growth. With a focus on employee development and continuous improvement, we offer unique opportunities for professional growth in a dynamic environment where your contributions truly matter.
