People Operations Manager

Transform 800,000 hectares of greenhouses into fully-autonomous food production sites

At eternal.ag, we're building the future of sustainable food production. Our mission is to convert the world's existing greenhouses into fully automated facilities that can produce fresh food year-round - addressing the critical need to double food production by 2050 while facing severe labor shortages, water scarcity, and climate challenges.

About the Role

We’re hiring a HR/People Operations Manager to run the day-to-day people operations that keep a fast-growing, global team healthy and high-performing. Based in our Bengaluru office, you’ll support core HR operations across India, Germany, and remote team members, building systems that scale while keeping the employee experience human and consistent.

You’ll work closely with our Talent Recruiter, team leads, and finance operations to make sure hiring, onboarding, compliance, and people processes are tight, fair, and easy to run.

What You’ll Do

Own the employee lifecycle end-to-end

You’ll run the operational backbone for employees from onboarding through role changes, performance cycles, and offboarding. You’ll make sure every stage is clear, timely, and consistent, so managers can lead well and employees can do their best work.

Build scalable HR systems for a fast-growing team

You’ll design and implement the processes that help us scale without chaos: policies, workflows, and self-serve documentation that people actually use. You’ll continuously simplify removing friction, tightening handoffs, and making “how we do things” easy to follow across locations.

Run multi-country compliance with confidence

You’ll coordinate employment law, HR compliance, and documentation across India, Germany, and remote arrangements working with external counsel and local experts where needed. You’ll ensure contracts, statutory requirements, and internal practices stay up to date as regulations and the team evolve.

Own payroll, benefits, and HR administration

You’ll manage HR operations with precision: payroll coordination, benefits administration, leave policies, reimbursements, and employee records. You’ll be the person who catches issues before they become problems and who builds repeatable workflows so nothing depends on heroics.

Partner with Talent on hiring and onboarding

You’ll work closely with our Talent Recruitment Specialist to ensure smooth candidate-to-employee handoff, onboarding plans, and first-week readiness (accounts, equipment coordination, documentation, and team intros). You’ll help improve onboarding based on feedback and outcomes, not just checklists.

Bring structure to performance and feedback

You’ll implement lightweight, consistent performance practices that fit a startup context - goal setting, check-ins, calibration support, and clear documentation. You’ll help managers handle feedback well, address issues early, and keep decisions fair and transparent..

Who You Are

Core requirements

• Bachelor’s or Master's degree in human resources, business, or related field.

• 2+ years of experience in People Operations / HR, ideally in a fast-growing startup or high-change environment

• Strong hands-on experience running People Operations across India (and coordinating with other countries or remote employment models)

• Experience owning employee lifecycle processes: onboarding, performance cycles, role changes, offboarding

• Operational excellence: you’re organized, detail-oriented, and reliable with confidential information

• Strong communication skills and good judgment: you can handle sensitive topics with clarity and care

• High ownership mindset: you see gaps, propose solutions, and make the system better without waiting for perfect direction

Bonus points if you have

• Built HR processes from scratch (workflows, performance cycles)

• HR analytics comfort (dashboards, basic automation, lightweight reporting)

• Experience supporting remote-first or distributed teams across time zones

• Familiarity with common HR tools (e.g., Humaans, Deel/Remote, TeamTailor) and improving workflows across them.

What We Offer

Real ownership: You’ll own the people-ops engine that supports a global team and your work will directly influence how well we scale.

Build from scratch (with support): You’ll establish the foundations, systems, and rhythms that the company will run on for years.

High-leverage work: Great people operations unlock faster hiring, smoother onboarding, stronger teams, and better retention.

Global team: Work across our Cologne HQ and Bengaluru office with a tight, mission-driven team and short feedback loops.

Mission that matters: Help build the team enabling fully automated greenhouses and more resilient, sustainable food production worldwide.

Apply Now

Send us a short note with:

• A few lines on what motivates you about building great people operations in fast-growing companies (and why eternal.ag)

• Your CV and/or LinkedIn profile

We’re committed to building a diverse and inclusive team. We encourage applications from candidates of all backgrounds.

eternal.ag is building fully automated food production sites that can sustainably produce fresh food year-round. Backed by world-class investors and partnering with leading agricultural companies, we're turning the vision of fully-autonomous greenhouses into reality.