People & Culture Manager (Part-Time, all genders)

You will own people & culture at akeno: everything from the employment contract to the employee handbook to the hire we make next quarter. Your job is to turn founder attention into leverage: keep our HR and recruiting engine running reliably, and make akeno a place strong people want to join and stay at.

The structures, tools, and processes are already in place. We value your ability to take full responsibility for them and, above all, to ensure their reliability. This means running them week after week, adapting them where they no longer fit, and being accountable for the results.

This is a hands-on part-time role (25 to 30 hours per week) within a growing team. Strategic thinking and meticulous day-to-day execution are equally part of the job, often even within the same week. You will work directly with our founders.

What You'll Do

• Own the HR infrastructure end to end: Personio, policies, contracts, handbook, and employment law compliance.
• Run our onboarding and offboarding cycles and act as the main internal contact for people topics.
• Own hiring needs together with leadership, and support the full recruiting lifecycle from job description to signed contract.
• Keep our recruiting pipelines active and our ATS (Workable) clean. Source, screen, and engage candidates through the channels you own.
• Own employment law topics, including contract templates, working time, and documentation duties, and know when to escalate to external counsel.
• Work with our payroll-relevant data and make sure everything HR-side reaches payroll and our tax advisor correctly and on time.
• Build the akeno brand as a place to work, inside and out: shape how we articulate what we stand for, keep the internal rituals alive, and turn that into a visible external presence together with marketing.
• Refine any of the above where the current process no longer fits, and automate repetitive work rather than absorbing it.

Requirements

Must-haves

• 3+ years of professional experience combining operational execution with process ownership, for example in people operations, recruiting, consulting, or a founder-adjacent startup role.
• Track record of taking over existing processes and running them reliably, including under time pressure and with incomplete handover.
• Solid working knowledge of HR compliance and German labor law.
• Experience shaping culture deliberately rather than by accident: you have built or run rituals, feedback cycles, or internal communication that people actually engaged with.
• Experience in recruiting or talent sourcing, ideally for technical roles.
• Comfortable reading contracts and knowing when to escalate to external counsel.
• Confident with HR and recruiting tooling (e.g. Personio, Workable) and quick to automate repetitive work.
• Strong stakeholder communication and the confidence to make decisions independently, including saying no.
• Comfortable owning both the long-term structure and the tedious daily tasks that keep it running.
• Basic understanding of GDPR as it applies to employee data.
• Fluent German and English.

Nice-to-haves

• Experience owning people & culture in a company of similar size and stage.

• Experience hiring engineers or other technical profiles.
• Experience working with payroll providers or tax advisors on HR-side reporting.
• Experience working with marketing on employer branding, or comfort writing and publishing content in our own voice.

Benefits

At akeno, we believe people do their best work when they feel supported, connected, and empowered. Here's what you can look forward to:

• Generous Annual Compensation
• 30 Hours Working Week – Supporting work-life balance without compromising impact
• Relocation Package – Full support, including relocation assistance and accommodation guidance
• Visa Sponsorship – Comprehensive support throughout the process
• Wellpass Gym Membership – Access to hundreds of fitness and wellness options for just €10/month
• Job Ticket – Subsidized public transport to keep your commute affordable and stress-free
• German Language Courses – Learn or improve your German with our supported language program
• Snacks, Drinks & Great Coffee – Always available to keep you fuelled and focused
• Modern Office with a View – Work from our beautiful Hamburg office with panoramic city views
• Supportive & International Team – Join a warm, open-minded group of colleagues from around the world
• Real Ownership – You'll have space to take initiative and make a tangible impact
• Flexible Working Hours – Because we understand that life and studies don’t always fit a 9–5
• Regular Team Events – From lunches to offsites—we celebrate the wins (big and small) together