Head of People & Culture (f/m/d)

<h1><strong>About TACTILIA</strong></h1><p style="min-height:1.5em">At TACTILIA, we are building the industry-ready robotic hand that closes one of the biggest gaps in Physical AI. Spun out of Schunk, the global market leader in gripping technology, we combine a decade of robotic-hand expertise and real industrial access with the speed and ambition of a deep-tech startup.</p><p style="min-height:1.5em">This isn't a research project waiting for its first customer. We already have a product, customers are ready to use it, and we are launching now. Your work will directly shape the team, culture and processes that make that possible.</p><p style="min-height:1.5em">You will join at the moment when a handful of people become a real organization: how do we build a team, and the People &amp; Culture foundations behind it, that are as reliable and scalable as the product we're bringing to market?</p><h3></h3><h1><strong>The Role:</strong></h1><p style="min-height:1.5em">You'd be our first Head of People &amp; Culture. That means leading and scaling the whole People function — Recruiting, People Ops, and HRBP — setting direction, building the team under you, and raising execution quality as we prepare for rapid growth.</p><p style="min-height:1.5em">Some days you're sourcing a candidate yourself. Other days you're sitting with the CEO working out what the org chart needs to look like in a year. Both matter equally here.</p><p style="min-height:1.5em"><strong>What you will do:</strong></p><p style="min-height:1.5em"><strong>Building a world-class talent engine.</strong> Own hiring end to end — workforce planning, sourcing, assessment, candidate experience, interviews, executive recruiting, and closing, across technical and leadership roles. Build our channels and our reputation as a place worth joining, from nothing.</p><p style="min-height:1.5em"><strong>Designing the org for scale.</strong> Work with the CEO, CTO, and department leads on structure, leadership roles, succession, decision rights, and spans of control — figuring out what the org needs to look like before we're forced to react to it.</p><p style="min-height:1.5em"><strong>Raising the management and performance bar.</strong> Build practical, no-nonsense systems for goals, feedback, development, promotions, and accountability.</p><p style="min-height:1.5em"><strong>Running the whole employee arc.</strong> First interview to onboarding to growth to, if it ever comes to that, a good exit plus the plumbing underneath it: HRIS, payroll, benefits, immigration, policies, employee relations, and the People data that tells you whether any of it's working.</p><p style="min-height:1.5em"><strong>Owning comp and rewards.</strong> Partner with leadership on leveling, salary bands, equity, promotion standards, and comp reviews that stay fair as we grow, not just defensible.</p><p style="min-height:1.5em"><strong>Holding things together through change.</strong> Growth breaks things. You're the person who helps teams and leads through structural shifts without losing trust or people along the way.</p><p style="min-height:1.5em"><strong>Building a culture that scales, not dilutes.</strong> Embed our values into how we hire, communicate, lead, and recognize people — while deliberately reaching past our existing networks to bring in exceptional talent from backgrounds we wouldn't otherwise see.</p><p style="min-height:1.5em"><strong>Thinking about how AI changes the work itself.</strong> Partner with leadership and functional leads to rethink roles, workflows, and skills around AI — and actually measure whether it's making us faster and better, not just different.</p><p style="min-height:1.5em"><strong>Keeping the lean stuff lean.</strong> All of this needs to hold up under German and EU regulation — without becoming bureaucratic.</p><p style="min-height:1.5em"></p><p style="min-height:1.5em"><strong>What you bring:</strong></p><ul style="min-height:1.5em"><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">A degree in Business, Psychology, HR, or something adjacent</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Real years in HR inside fast-moving tech companies</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">The range to set direction <em>and</em> get into the weeds yourself — including closing candidates</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">A history of building HR processes that flex for a startup but hold up as things scale</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">The ability to deliver hard feedback without it landing hard</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Comfort using data to make the case for what you're doing</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Strong English; German is a real plus, not a checkbox</p></li></ul><h2><strong>Bonus:</strong></h2><ul style="min-height:1.5em"><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Built or scaled an HR function from zero before — startup, spin-off, or corporate venture</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Worked in robotics, hardware, or deep tech</p></li><li><p style="min-height:1.5em">Got a network you could tap into for sourcing in engineering or robotics</p></li></ul><p style="min-height:1.5em"></p><p style="min-height:1.5em">The next chapter of robotics won't be built in a lab. It will be built by people who care about what happens when technology meets the real world.</p><p style="min-height:1.5em">At TACTILIA, you'll work on one of the hardest open problems in robotics: giving machines the dexterity, reliability, and robustness they need to interact with the physical world at industrial scale.</p><p style="min-height:1.5em">The technology is taking shape. The team is being built. And the standards for robotic hands and their skills are still wide open.</p><p style="min-height:1.5em">That means your decisions will have a lasting impact — not just on a product, but on what comes next for Physical AI.</p><p style="min-height:1.5em"><strong>Build the hand. Define the standard. Shape what comes next.</strong></p><p style="min-height:1.5em">If you're excited by the challenge of building robotic hands that work reliably in the real world, we'd love to hear from you.</p><p>Find more <a href="https://www.arbeitnow.com/english-speaking-jobs">English Speaking Jobs in Germany</a> on Arbeitnow</a>