Sr Talent & People Partner

About Rivia

Rivia is a technology company building a data engine that powers the future of clinical trial intelligence. Rivia was founded on the belief that new drugs can be brought to market more successfully with a fraction of today's capital.

Biotechs are the source of most therapeutic innovation, yet clinical development is constantly constrained by fragmented data and outdated tooling. Rivia unifies clinical trial data at scale through a core engine built as a reusable intelligence layer, comprising hundreds of configurations and trial-specific logic, independent of source structure. This vertical stack of data engine, workflows, and agents creates a distinct advantage in how trials are operated.

Over the past two years, European and US based biotechs running global clinical trials on Rivia have demonstrated measurable impact, from earlier understanding of therapeutic potential to significantly more efficient trial execution. In March 2026, Rivia raised its $15M Series A led by Earlybird Venture Capital.

Rivia’s ambition is to become the standard infrastructure for modern drug development, transforming how trials are executed end-to-end.

The Role

As our Senior Talent & People Partner, you will be the first hire in Rivia’s People team, working directly alongside the Head of People to build and scale the function from the ground up. You’ll own Talent Acquisition end to end while growing into the broader world of People: employee experience, development, performance, culture, organizational design, and operations.

This is an opportunity for a strong recruiter ready to make the leap into a broader People role. You won't inherit a fully established HR playbook. Together, we'll create processes, solve unfamiliar problems, test ideas, and build the foundations that help Rivia scale. You'll learn directly from the Head of People through hands-on ownership, close collaboration, and exposure to both strategic decisions and operational challenges.

Think of yourself as the Head of People's partner in crime: an independent thinker, trusted collaborator, and hands-on builder who brings ideas, challenges assumptions, moves quickly, and follows through. We want someone who understands the business behind the People work and wants to become a true advisor to leaders, not just a process executor.

What Excites You

• You love recruiting, but want to grow beyond Talent Acquisition and learn the full People spectrum.

• Being the first People team hire and building from scratch sounds more exciting than maintaining an established playbook.

• Working closely with the Head of People, challenging ideas, and learning through real ownership.

• Finding exceptional talent and building trusted partnerships with hiring managers.

• Solving ambiguous business and people problems with speed, curiosity, and pragmatism.

• Creating better employee experiences, growth opportunities, and ways of working.

• Taking initiative, juggling priorities, and seeing the impact of your work directly.

Responsibilities

Talent Acquisition

• Own end-to-end hiring across teams, including role definition, Talent Mapping, sourcing, interviews, candidate management, offers, and closing.

• Be a true advisor to hiring managers on hiring strategy, market realities, candidate quality, and trade-offs.

• Build proactive pipelines and deliver a thoughtful, responsive candidate experience.

• Improve hiring processes, ATS workflows, reporting, and recruitment analytics.

Employee Experience & Development

• Co-build onboarding, employee experience, engagement, culture, and development initiatives with the Head of People.

• Help implement performance reviews, feedback practices, career development, and manager enablement.

• Listen to employee and manager needs, identify friction, and turn insights into practical improvements.

People Operations & Business Partnership

• Help build scalable People processes, policies, systems, and employee lifecycle workflows from the ground up.

• Support managers with pragmatic, business-aware advice and thoughtful people decisions.

• Contribute to projects across organizational design, compensation, HR operations, and People analytics as your scope grows.

• Spot problems early, propose solutions, and own implementation rather than waiting for instructions.

What Excites Us

• Professional proficiency in German.

• Strong end-to-end Talent Acquisition experience and evidence of independently delivering high-quality hires.

• Ambition to pivot into a broader People role; previous generalist experience is not required.

• A builder and problem-solver who acts quickly, thinks critically, and takes ownership through execution.

• Business acumen and confidence to challenge, influence, and advise hiring managers and leaders.

• Comfort with ambiguity, high expectations, multiple priorities, and hands-on work.

• Excellent communication, judgment, organization, and stakeholder management.

• Curiosity, humility, and willingness to learn new People disciplines.

Nice to Have

• Knowledge of Swiss employment and labour law.

• Exposure to employee development, performance management, or employee engagement.

• Experience in a startup or scale-up and familiarity with ATS, HRIS, or People analytics.

Hiring Process

Our hiring process typically takes 2–4 weeks across four stages:

1. Recruiter Interview: 30-minute introductory conversation with the People team.

2. Deep dive: Conversation with the Head of People about recruitment, business partnership, and growth ambitions.

3. Practical case 1: Step by Step on how to fill the Head of People role.

4. On-site: Final stage in our Zürich office to explore mutual fit.

Our Values

At Rivia, we are committed to excellence, continuous learning, and the success of both our customers and our team.

• In it to Win it: Approach challenges with determination, resilience, and drive.

• Embrace change: See change as an opportunity to improve.

• Why not?: Challenge assumptions and stay curious.

• Find the gap: Proactively identify and solve problems.

• Collective accountability: Own outcomes together and support one another.

• Value add solutions: Deliver meaningful, impactful results.