Head of People & Operations

Sparkd - AI for Business Growth

. Own people, payroll, administration and operations processes end to end, reporting directly to the CEO .

Posted 10/14/2026full-timeMilan • ItalyLead💰 €27,000 - €37,000 per yearWebsite

Core Competencies

Role fit

Core Competencies

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Demonstrates expertise in HR and People Operations, with a strong focus on Italian employment administration, payroll management, and onboarding processes. Capable of designing and improving operational workflows while effectively communicating in both Italian and English.

Highest-signal resume keywords

HR Generalist ExperienceItalian Employment AdministrationEnd-to-End Hiring ManagementProcess Design and ImprovementBilingual Communication

ATS Keywords

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Applicant Tracking System Keywords

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Hard Skills

Payroll ManagementOnboarding Process DesignPerformance Review Cycle ManagementInternship Agreement FinalizationJob Announcement ManagementTraining Budget ManagementAI Tools UtilizationDocumentation SkillsTechnical RecruitingGraduate Recruiting

Soft Skills

Clear WritingConfident CommunicationFlexibilityTeam CollaborationKnowledge Sharing

Tools & Technologies

WorkableEdenred Meal VouchersDevice-Management PlatformPayroll Consultant ManagementOffice Management Software

Industry Keywords

CCNL ContractsPayslipsLeave ManagementInternshipsConvenzioni di Stage

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

Own people, payroll, administration and operations processes end to end, reporting directly to the CEO
Create, publish and manage job announcements in Workable from specification to offer
Run internship pipelines with ITS and TTS institutes and university career boards
Finalise internship agreements with universities and institutes
Onboard new hires, ensuring contracts, laptops, email, accounts and licences are ready on day one
Run the performance review cycle end to end
Deliver the “Get the basics right” course to new joiners
Support Agile rituals including daily standups, weekly sprints and Friday retrospectives
Redesign onboarding through the first three months, including role-specific plans, buddies and 30/60/90-day check-ins
Collect onboarding feedback and improve the process
Design and manage a yearly learning programme for Forward-Deployed Engineers
Select courses and certifications and manage training budgets and enrolments
Organise internal knowledge-sharing sessions and track participation and progress
Manage holiday and permessi requests and finalise the company holiday plan
Run monthly payroll for the Italian entity with the external payroll consultant
Check and distribute payslips and prepare salary payments
Purchase and distribute Edenred meal vouchers
Handle Milan office purchases and reconcile receipts
Buy hardware and manage the laptop fleet through the device-management platform
Manage the Milan office rent and landlord relationship
Organise team travel and accommodation
Plan team offsites, including the annual Dublin offsite at HQ
Use AI tools to automate routine administration and maintain current process guides

Requirements

What you’ll need

At least 2+ years of experience in HR, people operations or an HR generalist role, ideally in a startup or scale-up
Strong knowledge of Italian employment administration: CCNL contracts, payroll, payslips, leave, internships and convenzioni di stage
Experience running hiring end to end, including technical and graduate recruiting
Ability to manage external partners such as payroll consultants, accountants and labour lawyers
Process design, documentation and improvement skills
Clear writing and confident communication in Italian and English, written and spoken
Willingness to work flexibly across people operations, payroll, administration and general company operations
Working hours Monday to Friday, 8:30–17:30 Italian time
Hybrid schedule: 3 days in the Milan office and 2 days remote

Benefits

Comp & perks

Meal vouchers: €10 for each day in the office (around €120/month)
Public transport pass reimbursement up to €200 per month upon submission of proof of purchase
High usage limits on frontier AI models and AI agents, with new releases available from day one
Brand-new 15-inch MacBook Pro (M5) for work
Salary reviewed every year