Team Lead People Operations & Payroll (f/m/x)

Your mission The Team Lead People Operations & Payroll shapes how great People operations feel at IONITY: seamless, smart, human, and built to scale. You will lead the day-to-day People Operations team, own the operational interface to payroll, and make sure core employee processes run with accuracy, pace, and care across a multi-country European setup. This role is built for a hands-on People leader who has seen what scale really looks like. Someone who has operated in a fast-moving, multi-country business, enjoys complexity, loves user-centred processes, and knows how to combine strong systems thinking with a genuinely human employee experience. Alongside People Operations and payroll, you will also lead the team responsible for IONITY’s internally used cars, helping make sure employees across the business stay mobile and supported. Your mission You will build and lead the team behind the moments employees rely on most, making sure the admin side of things never feels like admin. You will continue to make our processes scalable without becoming rigid, efficient without losing the human touch, and modern enough to use systems, automation, and AI where they create real value. What you’ll do Own smooth, reliable People Operations delivery across the employee lifecycle. Ensure payroll inputs, handovers, and data flows are accurate, timely, and well managed. Improve processes, systems, and workflows to make work simpler, smarter, and more scalable. Use automation and AI thoughtfully to reduce friction and create more time for meaningful human support. Help raise employee benefits across our countries to a more comparable and scalable level, while respecting local realities. Support and develop IONITY’s internally used car service and keep it practical, efficient, and employee-friendly . Partner closely with People Partners to stay close to business needs and make sure support feels seamless across teams. Build strong partnerships across the business and turn complexity into usable solutions. Lead, coach, and grow your team with trust, clarity, and high standards. Your profile Strong experience in People Operations / HR Operations , including ownership of core employee lifecycle processes. Solid experience in payroll coordination and managing payroll-relevant operational processes. Meaningful leadership experience in a fast-moving, multi-country environment – with the judgement that comes from building, adapting, and leading through complexity. Experience helping to build or align People processes, services, or employee benefits across countries. Experience with Personio and Deel is a strong plus. A strong eye for detail, a customer-centric mindset, and a real love for clean, efficient processes. Curiosity about how systems, automation, and AI can make work better for both teams and employees. A pragmatic, hands-on approach, strong ownership, and the energy to build as you go. Fluent English is required, German or another European Language is a Bonus. What will make you stand out You have led passionate People teams in a growing, multi-country setup. You are energised by building, fixing, and improving rather than maintaining the status quo. You are thorough and consistent, but never bureaucratic for the sake of it. You care about building processes that make life easier for people, not more complicated. You lead with trust, grow teams, and do not confuse control with leadership. About us IONITY is a joint venture of the car manufacturers BMW Group, Ford Motor Company, Hyundai Motor Group, Kia, Mercedes-Benz AG and Volkswagen Group with Audi and Porsche, along with BlackRocks Climate Infrastructure Platform as financial investor.