HR Business Partner, EMEA

Hi! I'm Hannah and I lead the HRBP Team here at Ashby. I joined over four years ago as the first People hire, and I'm excited that our team is expanding! The People Team provides support to Ashby employees through the development and implementation of programs, policies, and services that contribute to a productive and inclusive working environment. We ensure that the work we do aligns with our Operating Principles and strengthens the environment we're building at Ashby. Our approach is to do things differently; we prioritize what truly fits our team and enhances how we work together. By embracing creativity and customization, we aim to create a people-first culture that drives both individual and organizational success.

We review all applications, and there's no benefit to applying quickly. Take your time, look over the application questions, and please submit before the application deadline! We can't take calls outside the interview process, so reaching out to the team won't move your application forward.

Role overview:
We're looking for an experienced, UK-based HR Business Partner (HRBP) to play a key role in supporting Ashby’s next phase of growth and to be Ashby's first dedicated HR presence in EMEA. You'll be the go-to People partner for our EMEA leaders and employees. You'll bring the local expertise we need around UK employment law, benefits, employee relations, and entity compliance, and you'll work closely with our US-based HR Business Partners, who also support teams in the region. Building strong relationships, getting the details right, and creating a great employee experience should all be equally important to you.

As our HRBP for EMEA, you'll translate business objectives into a people strategy that fits how Ashby operates in the region. You'll be a trusted advisor to leaders and work closely with our wider People team, while also diving into the details to make sure our processes and procedures run smoothly. We're a growing startup, so there's a lot to accomplish! You'll move easily between strategic projects and administrative tasks and support the team wherever it's needed. In this role, you'll join a high-impact team that is rethinking how People Ops can and should work, while shaping an exceptional workplace culture for our global team.

Role requirements:

• UK employment expertise: You have deep, hands-on knowledge of UK employment law and practice, including contracts, benefits and pensions, leave, performance and separation processes, and workplace requirements. You know when to partner with external counsel and advisors, and you help us reduce risk while staying true to how Ashby operates.

• Strategic HR partner: At your core, you build strong relationships with leaders and earn credibility and trust as a strategic partner. You proactively assess team, manager, and company needs, make recommendations, and put solutions in place.

• People Operations Expertise: You bring broad knowledge of People Ops and HR, including compensation, benefits, performance management, and compliance, and you're happy to roll up your sleeves on projects outside your core remit.

• Multi-country and entity support: You've supported employees across multiple EMEA countries and understand how working through an entity differs from working through an EOR. You're ready to help as we expand our footprint.

• Strategic Thinking: You have the ability to translate business objectives into actionable people strategies

• Strong Communicator: You have excellent written and verbal communication skills. You can effectively convey information to all stakeholders and have the ability to present and facilitate discussions clearly and confidently.

• Compensation Expertise: You have experience using compensation market data to develop and maintain competitive, equitable compensation practices, with an understanding of how to apply market data across EMEA and other international regions.

• Performance Management: You have deep experience building and evolving performance management practices. You are comfortable coaching managers through difficult performance conversations and helping build scalable approaches that align with company culture and operating principles.

• Training and Development: You have experience building and scaling internal training programs, specifically for management teams. You are comfortable facilitating topics to all levels of employees.

• Employee Relations & Risk Management: You offer guidance to leaders in managing sensitive employee situations. As needed, you act as a mediator and investigate escalated issues. You stay up to date on legal requirements related to employment and regulatory compliance, partnering with legal counsel as needed to mitigate risk.

You could be a great fit if:

• 💻 You have deep experience (~8 years) in HR or People Ops, ideally in a high-growth, scaling company

• 🇬🇧 You're a UK-based HR generalist with strong expertise in UK employment law, benefits, and employee relations

• 🌍 You've supported a globally distributed, asynchronous workforce across multiple EMEA countries

• 🔑 You take real ownership. You move work forward on your own, keep the right people in the loop, and see things through

• 🧭 You're a principled thinker who wants to understand why things work the way they do before deciding what should change

• 📣 You communicate clearly and directly, with strengths in coaching, facilitation, and policy development

• 🔄 You are flexible in your approach and avoid rigid adherence to past playbooks or overly process-heavy solutions.

• ⚡️ You're energized by a fast-paced environment with a mix of strategic and hands-on work

• 🤝 Handling complex employee relations issues is one of your strengths

• ⚙️ Continuous Improvement is core to how you operate. You're detail-oriented and always looking for ways to improve People Ops processes and documentation

• 🔍 You've used HRIS, compensation tools, and other HR systems to drive operational excellence

Bonus points if you have:

• An advanced degree in HR, business, or organizational development

• CIPD qualification (Level 5 or 7) or an equivalent HR certification

This role may not be a fit if:

• You’re looking to simply bring processes or programs from previous roles and implement them here. While past experience is valuable, you'll need to apply principled thinking to assess what would work well for Ashby.

• Working independently feels uncomfortable and you require a significant amount of guidance in how to perform your job.

• Having difficult conversations with all levels of employees makes you uneasy

• You shy away from ambiguity - preferring structured, pre-defined assignments.

• You prefer working with a single team instead of multiple teams.

Interview process
Our interview process is thorough. We want to make sure everyone who joins is the right fit for Ashby, and we'll give you plenty of information to decide whether Ashby is the right fit for you. The process for this role is:

• Recruiter screen with the Talent Acquisition team (30 minutes)

• People Ops team interview (45 minutes)

• Take-home assignment (1 hour)

• People Leader interview (45 minutes)

• Virtual onsite (2–3 hours)

About Ashby
We're building the next generation of recruiting software, starting with a suite of products that helps talent leaders, recruiters, and hiring managers run an efficient, data-driven hiring process.

We're well funded and backed by great investors, including Y Combinator, Elad Gil, and Lachy Groom. We have thousands of amazing customers, including Snowflake, OpenAI, Shopify, Ramp, Notion, and Zapier (and many others we can't name!). Our growth and retention metrics are best-in-class among our peers: tens of millions in ARR, more than 100% year-over-year growth, very low churn, and many years of runway. We'll share more details once we meet. In short, it's the perfect time to join! 🚀

Benefits

• Competitive salary and equity.

• 10-year exercise window for stock options. You shouldn’t feel pressure to purchase stock options if you leave Ashby -do it when you feel financially comfortable.

• Unlimited holiday with five weeks recommended per year on top of UK bank holidays. Expect "Holiday?" on our one-on-one agenda until you start taking it 😅

• A generous budget for equipment, software, and office furniture. Get what you need to be happy and productive!

• Top-notch supplemental health insurance (private medical and dental) for you and your dependents, with premiums covered by us, plus company-paid life insurance + income protection, and a workplace pension with a 3% Ashby contribution.

• Generous family leave. You'll get your full statutory family leave entitlement, and Ashby pays the first 12 weeks at 100%.

• £100/month education budget, with bigger items (like conferences) covered with manager approval.

Ashby's success depends on hiring great people and creating an environment where we can be happy, feel challenged, and do our best work. We're being deliberate about building that environment from the ground up. I hope that excites you enough to apply.

Ashby provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, genetics, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression. We are committed to a diverse and inclusive workforce and welcome people from all backgrounds, experiences, perspectives, and abilities.

Ashby is committed to a fair and transparent hiring process. We confirm that this advertisement is for an active, existing vacancy within our organization. Please be advised that we may use artificial intelligence-driven tools to assist our recruitment team in screening, assessing, and selecting candidates for this position.