Lead People Operations Generalist

JobsCloseBy Editorial Insights

Harness is seeking a Lead People Operations Generalist to own the EMEA employee experience for a fast-growing tech company in London. This role blends strategic and hands-on work, acting as the regional expert on onboarding, data management, leaves, mobility and lifecycle changes, while partnering with Legal and Payroll on GDPR and cross-border compliance. You’ll drive programs locally, localize policies, and build scalable SOPs, with Hibob as the regional HRIS, and tools like Greenhouse and CultureAmp. Requirements: 6+ years multi-country EMEA experience, strong UK/EU knowledge, background in high-growth SaaS, and proven complex employee relations handling. Apply via our site with a tailored CV and stakeholder management examples; be wary of fraud scams and use only official Harness channels.

Harness is led by technologist and entrepreneur Jyoti Bansal, founder of AppDynamics (acquired by Cisco for $3.7B). The company has raised ~$240M in Series E venture funding, is valued at $5.5B, and backed by top investors including Goldman Sachs, Menlo Ventures, IVP, Google Ventures, J.P. Morgan, Capital One Ventures, Citi Ventures, ServiceNow, Splunk Ventures and more. Harness is building the industry’s leading AI-powered software delivery platform, enabling teams worldwide to build, test, and deliver software faster, safer, and more reliably. Writing code is only 30–40% of the engineering lifecycle — the rest involves testing, deployments, security, compliance, and optimization. Harness brings AI and automation to this outer loop, turning complex, time-consuming workflows into streamlined processes at massive global scale.

The platform includes industry leading products in CI/CD, Feature Flags, Cloud Cost Management, Service Reliability, Chaos Engineering, Software Engineering Insights, Internal Developer Experience, and API discovery, observability, governance, and runtime protection. Over the past year, Harness powered 128M deployments, 81M builds, 1.2T API calls protected, and $1.9B in cloud spend optimized, helping customers like United Airlines and Choice Hotels accelerate releases by up to 75% and achieve 10x DevOps efficiency. With employees in over 25 countries, Harness is shaping the future of AI-driven software delivery — and we’re looking for exceptional talent to help us move even faster.

Position Summary

We’re looking for a Lead People Operations Generalist to own and elevate the employee experience across EMEA for a fast-growing global tech company. This role is both strategic and hands-on—you’ll be the regional expert for People Operations, ensuring compliant, scalable, and human-centered HR practices while partnering closely with global teams.

You’ll lead core people operations across the employee lifecycle, act as the first point of escalation for complex cases, and help build the systems, processes, and standards that allow us to scale confidently across multiple countries. You’ll work cross-functionally with other G&A teams such as Payroll and Legal to provide operational, compliance and administrative support to the business.This position reports to the Senior Manager, People Operations.

About the role

• Serve as the People Operations lead for EMEA, supporting employees and managers across multiple countries and employment models.
• Own regional people processes including onboarding, offboarding, employee data management, leaves, mobility, and lifecycle changes.
• Act as a trusted advisor to managers on people policies, employment practices, and employee relations matters.

Compliance & Risk Management

• Ensure compliance with EMEA employment laws, works council requirements, GDPR, and internal controls.
• Partner with Legal, Payroll, and external vendors to manage audits, regulatory changes, and documentation.
• Maintain accurate and compliant employee records across all systems.

Global Programs & Scaling

• Partner with global People Operations, PBPs, and other departments within the global People & Places function to roll out global programs (performance cycles, compensation, benefits, engagement).
• Partner with the Talent Acquisition team to onboard and support employees who are hired through the EOR.
• Localize global policies and programs for EMEA markets while maintaining consistency
• Contribute to SOPs, playbooks, and scalable operating models.

Systems, Data & Process Excellence

• Act as a regional SME for HRIS (Hibob) and local partner for other people tools (e.g., Greenhouse, CultureAmp, Pave).
• Drive operational rigor through documentation, SLAs, and data integrity.
• Use data and insights to identify trends, risks, and opportunities for improvement.

What We’re Looking For

• 6+ years of People Operations / HR Generalist experience, including multi-country EMEA support.
• Strong working knowledge of EMEA employment law (UK, EU, and at least one additional region).
• Experience supporting a high-growth tech or SaaS company.
• Proven ability to manage complex employee relations cases independently.
• Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills.
• Enjoys solving big problems and working across the organization. 
• Comfortable operating in ambiguity and scaling environments.

About you

• Experience in pre-IPO or public company environments
• Exposure to works councils, TUPE, or cross-border mobility
• HRIS implementation or optimization experience–Workday experience a plus
• Prior experience leading projects and working on cross-functional teams

Work Location

London, UK. Hybrid

What you will have at Harness

• Competitive salary
• Flexible work schedule
• Flexible Time Off and Parental Leave
• Monthly, quarterly, and annual social and team building events
• Monthly internet reimbursement

Harness in the news:

• Accelerating Our Mission to Bring AI to Everything After Code
• Goldman Sachs leads investment in software delivery startup Harness at $5.5 billion valuation
• How Harness runs 16 “startups within a startup” at scale | Jyoti Bansal
• Harness Research Shows AI Visibility Crisis Fueling Security Nightmare
• Harness has been named to the Inc. Power Partner list for software delivery success

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex or national origin.

Note on Fraudulent Recruiting/Offers

We have become aware that there may be fraudulent recruiting attempts being made by people posing as representatives of Harness. These scams may involve fake job postings, unsolicited emails, or messages claiming to be from our recruiters or hiring managers. 

Please note, we do not ask for sensitive or financial information via chat, text, or social media, and any email communications will come from the domain @harness.io. Additionally, Harness will never ask for any payment, fee to be paid, or purchases to be made by a job applicant. All applicants are encouraged to apply directly to our open jobs via our website. Interviews are generally conducted via Zoom video conference unless the candidate requests other accommodations.

If you believe that you have been the target of an interview/offer scam by someone posing as a representative of Harness, please do not provide any personal or financial information and contact us immediately at [email protected]. You can also find additional information about this type of scam and report any fraudulent employment offers via the Federal Trade Commission’s website (https://consumer.ftc.gov/articles/job-scams), or you can contact your local law enforcement agency.