Job Description

About us

Salience Labs is building an industry-defining approach to optical circuit switching for AI infrastructure, engineered for real latency reduction and cost savings. We’re moving towards real-world deployment, and joining at this stage means genuine ownership over that next chapter, working alongside a highly technical team on one of the most consequential problems in AI infrastructure today.

The Role

With teams across the UK, Germany, and the US, we’re at the stage where People leadership and operational rigour are critical to scaling well.

As Head of HR, you will own the People function: the strategy, the team, and the day-to-day running of it. You’ll lead a small People team and stay close to the detail, from employee relations to data accuracy to a great first week for every new starter, while helping shape how the company is organised and planned as it grows. The foundations are in place, and there’s real scope to decide what gets built next. This is a fast-moving environment with a strong bias to action: we value people who make good decisions at pace, and who see a problem and fix it rather than waiting to be asked.

You’ll partner closely with the Head of Talent, Finance, and the wider leadership team.

What you’ll be doing:

Strategy & leadership

• Set the People strategy, aligned to our growth plans.
• Lead and develop the People team.
• Work with Talent, Finance, and leadership on org design, headcount planning, and workforce forecasting.
• Choose and implement new People tools and ways of working.

Running the function

• Own the employee lifecycle, including onboarding from the point an offer is signed.
• Manage employee relations cases directly, from informal issues through to formal processes.
• Keep us compliant across the UK and US (Germany exposure beneficial), with accurate, audit-ready records and HRIS data.
• Own policies, contracts, and the processes behind them, and keep improving them as we scale.

Culture & partnership

• Help build a consistent culture across geographies and turn our values into practical ways of working.
• Coach managers and act as a trusted adviser to leaders.
• Work with the Head of Talent on a seamless candidate-to-employee experience.

What we’re looking for

• Senior HR leadership experience in a high-growth startup, with a clear track record of operating at pace as the business scaled.
• A strong bias to action: you move quickly, take ownership, and get things done without needing a lot of direction.
• Direct experience supporting and managing people in the US, including US employment law and compliance in practice.
• Hands-on employee relations experience, including complex cases.
• Experience across both strategy and operations, comfortable owning the detail as well as the direction.
• Experience implementing or improving HR systems and keeping data clean.
• Experience contributing to org design and workforce planning alongside Finance and senior leadership.
• Experience leading others and working across multiple countries.
• Organised, detail-oriented, and sound in your judgement.

If you take pride in making an organisation run properly while helping shape the strategy and culture behind it, we’d love to hear from you.