People & Culture Manager

Company

Founded in Berlin, autarc is a ~40 person start-up who were part of Y Combinator's S24 batch in San Francisco. Our team consists of people in Sales, Tech and Operations, with the Operations department currently ~20 people, as we continue to grow throughout the year.

Role description

As our first dedicated People & Culture Manager, you'll shape how we attract, onboard, and develop the people who are building autarc. Reporting directly to the founders, you'll split your time roughly 50/25/25 between people development, recruiting support and culture topics. You will make sure we hire the right people and then help them thrive. As it is the first role we hire in this area, we need an allrounder, not a specialist.

On the People Development side (~50%), you will:

• Take ownership of our structured onboarding experience
• Coordinate our half-yearly feedback and performance review cycle that support continuous growth
• Identify learning & development needs across the team and source or build appropriate programs (e.g. workshops, coaching, peer learning)
• Be a trusted point of contact for team members on topics like career growth, team dynamics, and wellbeing
• Support the founders in shaping and embedding autarc's culture as we scale. From rituals and team events to values and communication norms

On the Recruiting side (~25%), you will:

• Own the first stages of the hiring process end-to-end: align with team leads on role requirements, create and publish compelling job postings, screen incoming applications, and lead initial recruiter and culture-fit interviews
• Manage our ATS (Personio), track hiring metrics, and use data to identify bottlenecks

On the Office culture side (~25%), you will:

• Plan and organise our monthly team events as well as seasonal celebrations (summer BBQs, after-work drinks, Easter, etc.)
• Celebrate milestones: coordinate gifts and recognition for new joiners, birthdays, and work anniversaries
• Keep our office a space people enjoy being in. Manage supplies, coordinate with our cleaning service, and make sure the little things are taken care of
• Handle related purchasing, vendor management, and expense tracking

Requirements

• 3+ years of experience in a People/HR generalist or People & Culture role, ideally in a fast-growing start-up or scale-up environment
• Hands-on recruiting experience. You've sourced, screened, and closed candidates yourself
• A genuine passion for people development: you care about helping individuals grow, not just filling seats
• You enjoy creating a welcoming environment and don't see office culture tasks as "beneath" you
• Structured, self-driven work style — you're comfortable building processes from scratch
• Berlin-based, hybrid 3 days in the office (Mitte)
• Fluent in English (German is a plus)

What we offer

• Freedom to choose your own equipment (within a budget)
• 26 paid vacation days
• An annual team retreat
• The choice between Dance or JobRad for mobility
• The choice between Classpass or Urban Sports Club for fitness
• Regular team events, lunches and activities

Next steps

If your application is successful, you will participate in the following:

• Screening call with Louis (Recruiter)
• Culture fit call with a Senior of the team
• Final on-site interview with Etienne (CEO) and the team

About us

Right now, 25% of CO2 emissions in Europe are caused by heating our buildings. In order for this to be reduced, the transition towards renewable energy needs to be simplified and made more accessible. There are too few installers to meet the growing demand for heat pumps, and a solution to match this trend needs to be brought to the market.
autarc is developing the leading operating system (OS) for heat pump installers, enabling a more digital and efficient installation process for heat pumps.
Through this, autarc is reducing the hurdles to decarbonizing single-family homes and small apartment buildings in Europe, with the goal to help with the planning and designing of 1 million heat pumps by 2030.