People Operations Manager (DACH, Benelux, Nordics) People & Culture · Berlin, Amsterdam

Location: Amsterdam preferred (Berlin or Paris also possible) · Part-time possible
Reports to: Head of People Operations
Countries in scope: Denmark, Netherlands, Germany, plus small teams across central and Eastern Europe

About Shine

Shine is the financial copilot for entrepreneurs and small business owners. Founded by serial entrepreneurs Rico Andersen and Martin Hegelund, Shine is a leading European fintech unicorn on a mission to restore the joy of running a business, by ending wasted time on financial admin. Shine offers a connected solution for invoicing, accounting, payroll, business accounts, payments, and financing, meaning business owners can focus their energy on growing a healthy business, not held back by manual admin.

Today we're part of Cegid, a European leader in cloud software for finance and accounting. Together we're building Europe's leading financial copilot for small businesses and their accountants. Shine already supports more than 400,000 small businesses. As part of Cegid, we now reach over one million small businesses and 15,000 accountants across Europe.

We're a multicultural team working from France, Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands, contributing to a wider European network that spans Spain, Portugal, and Poland.

Your hiring experience matters

Just as we respect our customers' time, we respect yours. Your experience with Shine should feel simple, transparent and genuinely supportive.

If this sounds like somewhere you want to grow, we'd love to hear from you.

People Operations at Shine

Our HR team sits at the centre of our people strategy, we responsible for the operational excellence that allows a growing, multi-country organisation to run smoothly. We work closely with Finance, Legal, and Leadership to ensure every employee experience, from onboarding to offboarding, is handled with precision and care.

You'd be joining at a pivotal moment as we scale our European entities and invest in the systems and processes that will carry us through the next phase of growth.
About the Role
We’re building our People Operations function from the ground up — right now, in real time. This isn’t a role where the processes already exist and you’re asked to run them; it’s a role where you help build them while also keeping the day‑to‑day running for a growing group of countries.
Your core footprint will be Denmark and the Netherlands, with additional support for Germany, and a lighter, more occasional touch on small teams across other European countries.
We’re past the “green field” stage: the foundation is laid, and we’re now in full construction — bricklaying, one system and one process at a time, while a live operation runs alongside it and new things surface constantly. If you’ve never worked in an ambiguous, high‑speed, hyper‑growth environment like this, it’s genuinely hard to imagine how much hands‑on judgment, pragmatism, and speed it demands. Apple with caution.

What You’ll Do

• Own day‑to‑day People Operations execution for Denmark and the Netherlands, and provide support for Germany
• Provide lighter‑touch, ad hoc support for Belgium, Austria, Poland, and Finland
• Act as a direct point of contact for local managers in your countries — building relationships, not just processing requests
• Handle classic HRIS data entry and lifecycle administration (new hires, changes, terminations, contract data)
• Prepare payroll‑relevant data and hand it over cleanly to the separate payroll team — you are not running payroll, but you are the critical link that feeds it accurately
• Support the onboarding of newly acquired companies: get to know their people, welcome them, be the first friendly, competent face of People Operations they meet
• Work through high‑volume, detail‑heavy tasks independently and to completion — for example, taking several hundred contracts, migrating the relevant data into the absence/leave system, and cross‑checking it for accuracy
• Help shape and stabilize processes as you go, flagging gaps and improvements rather than waiting to be told

What You Bring

• Native‑level fluency in German, Danish, or Dutch, plus working proficiency in English (this role is run in English)
• Solid, hands‑on subject‑matter expertise in at least one of these countries’ HR/employment practices — you don’t need to be an expert in all seven countries, but you need real depth in at least one
• Experience with HRIS systems (data entry, records management, process administration)
• Familiarity with the basics of payroll‑relevant data preparation (you’re not a payroll specialist, but you understand what payroll needs from you and why)
• A track record of working in a fast‑moving, still‑forming, not‑yet‑stable environment — you’ve been somewhere before that didn’t have all the answers yet, and you know what it takes to build them
• Strong independent judgment: you know how to make a call when there’s no playbook yet, and you know when to make a decision versus when to ask
• A genuine “I’ll pick it up” mentality — no task is beneath you, no ambiguity is a reason to disengage, and “that’s not my job” is not in your vocabulary
• Intrinsic drive to finish what you start — you’re the kind of person who gets restless when something is left half‑done, not relieved
• Strong stakeholder management and relationship‑building skills, especially with people joining us through acquisitions
• Genuine service orientation — you care about doing good work for its own sake, not just about getting through the list
• Openness to coaching and mentoring: you don’t need to be strong at everything, but you know what “good” looks like, and you’re coachable in the areas where you’re not there yet

What We Offer

• A genuinely formative role: you’ll help build a function, not just staff one
• Direct exposure to multiple countries, systems, and stakeholder groups
• A team environment that — despite being newly built — already has more structure and role clarity than a typical early‑stage setup; for many people coming from very unstable environments, that alone is a meaningful step up
• Part‑time arrangements considered