Head of People

Equal1 is a fast-growing quantum computing company operating across Ireland, the Netherlands, Romania, the US, and Canada. We are looking for an experienced, hands-on HR leader to take ownership of the HR function and help us scale: building on processes already in place, partnering with external consultants, and creating a consistent employee experience across multiple jurisdictions.

As Head of People, you will shape the culture, leadership capability, and people experience of Equal1 as we scale a world-leading, high-growth deep tech company over the next 18 months.

Main Duties and Responsibilities

HR foundations & scaling

Develop and continuously improve scalable HR foundations, including core processes, templates, and policies, appropriate for a high-growth technology company operating across multiple jurisdictions.

Ensure HR compliance fundamentals are robust and audit-ready (right-to-work, data privacy/GDPR, mandatory training where applicable, employee relations processes, and required record keeping).

Lead the evolution of compensation foundations, including salary bands/levelling, location-based benchmarking, internal equity, and annual review cycles.

Establish a simple, high-signal people metrics cadence (hiring funnel health, time-to-hire, retention, onboarding completion, engagement indicators) to support leadership decision-making.

Own HR systems and data governance, ensuring strong data quality, reporting, access controls, and compliant handling of employee data.

Employee lifecycle & manager support

Partner closely with managers as a trusted advisor, equipping them to lead effectively through practical coaching on feedback, documentation, fair process, and clear communication.

Implement and run a lightweight performance and development framework (goal setting, reviews, calibration, promotions), providing a practical manager toolkit to enable consistency and fairness.

Own and continuously improve the end-to-end employee experience across the full lifecycle, from onboarding and probation through role/contract changes and offboarding, ensuring a consistent, high-quality and compliant approach across jurisdictions.

Help shape and scale Equal1’s culture and ways of working across distributed teams, strengthening internal communications and reinforcing a high-performance, values-led environment.

Hiring operations & workforce planning

Own and continuously improve the recruitment process as we scale the team, partnering with hiring managers and leveraging our external recruiting support to ensure a consistent, efficient end-to-end hiring experience.

Partner with Finance and leadership on headcount planning, hiring budgets, approvals, and tracking.

Maintain hiring governance: offer process, compensation alignment, approvals, contract issuance, and onboarding readiness.

Coordinate work permits, relocations and cross-border hires with external providers; track renewals and compliance.

HR operations across multiple jurisdictions

Own day-to-day HR operations across five jurisdictions, ensuring compliant and consistent practices while adapting to local requirements

Coordinate with external legal/HR advisors on employment contracts, templates, policy updates, renewals, and contract reviews.

Manage HR documentation and data integrity (contracts, amendments, policies, employee files)

Manage contractor/EOR engagements (onboarding, renewals, offboarding) in partnership with Finance/Legal, ensuring correct classification and documentation

Payroll, benefits and vendor management

Lead the set-up and ongoing management of benefits across jurisdictions

Establish clear internal processes for changes (joiners/leavers, salary changes, allowances, bonus inputs) to ensure accurate payroll execution.

Manage relationships with external providers for payroll and HR administration (including local payroll partners/EOR).

Experience and Qualifications

Required

5+ years of progressive HR / People Operations experience, ideally in a scaling tech or R&D environment.

Experience working with Irish employment legislation and HR compliance requirements.

Demonstrated experience managing HR across multiple countries/jurisdictions, with strong comfort coordinating external legal, payroll and benefits providers.

Strong working knowledge of employment contracts and HR compliance fundamentals

Experience partnering closely with Finance (budgets, headcount planning, approvals, compensation inputs).

Excellent communication skills, sound judgement, and high discretion with confidential information.

Highly organised, resourceful, and comfortable operating with ambiguity and minimal supervision.

Desired

Experience building HR processes from “early stage” to “repeatable and scalable”.

Experience supporting recruiting operations and vendor management (agencies, contractors, embedded recruiters).

Experience working across additional jurisdictions we operate in (Netherlands, Romania, the US, and Canada) is a strong plus.