People Operations Manager

Proteins are the molecular machines of life, used for many therapeutic, diagnostic, chemical, agricultural and food applications. Designing and optimizing proteins takes a lot of expert knowledge and manual effort, through the use of custom computational and biological tools.

Machine learning is revolutionizing this space, by enabling high-fidelity protein models. At Cradle, we offer a software platform for AI-guided discovery and optimization of proteins, so that biologists can design proteins faster and at scale. We are already used by clients across biopharma, biotech, agri-tech, food-tech, and academia.

We're an experienced team of around 90 people. We've built many successful products before and have enough funding for multiple years of runway. We are distributed across two main locations, Zurich and Amsterdam, and are focused on building the best possible team culture.

We offer our employees a very competitive salary, a generous equity stake in the company and a wide range of benefits and career progression opportunities.

As our People Operations Manager, you are the architect of our internal team experience and our corporate foundation. Reporting to the COO, you will be driving our People Operations and the employee experience by balancing high-touch people management with high-stakes Business Operations. We are looking for a sharp, analytically-minded "fast-riser" who wants to master the internal mechanics of a Series B startup—from scaling our employee engagement and global benefits to managing equity grants and corporate governance.

• People Operations: Own the end-to-end execution of the employee lifecycle, from seamless contracting and visa renewals to coordinating laptop procurement and supporting our monthly payroll and benefits cycles. Build and improve the operational systems that underpin People Ops and Business Ops: documenting processes, closing gaps, and designing workflows that hold up as we scale.

• Global Benefits: Serve as the primary point of contact for our team’s benefits across the Netherlands and Switzerland, as well as managing the ongoing coordination for our growing US and remote teams.

• Employee Experience & Analytics: Manage the administration and analysis of our employee engagement surveys. You will use these insights to execute initiatives that elevate the daily experience of being a "Cradler."

• Investor Relations & Equity: Act as the custodian of Cradle’s equity records and shareholder registries. You will administer employee grants and provide critical support during fundraising cycles by managing our investor data rooms.

• Various Operations Projects: Contribute to high-impact initiatives that transition from design to reality. Current priorities include a total overhaul of our Knowledge Management structure, setting up the US office operational footprint, and leading specific pension reviews.

Must-haves:

• 2–4 years of experience in an operational, generalist, or analytical role with a lean to people empathy (e.g., startup ops, consulting, or project management).

• A track record of building or improving processes in fast-changing startup environments. You're quick to spot something sub-optimal, designed a fix, and see it through.

• Comfort connecting the dots across different operational domains (People, Finance, Legal). You understand how a change in one area ripples into others.

• High "numerical intuition": Comfort with Excel/Google Sheets for managing data-heavy tasks like equity grants, payroll inputs, or survey analysis.

• A versatile communicator who can handle sensitive employee topics with empathy and technical legal documents with precision.

• Ability to be in the Amsterdam or Zurich office at least 3 days a week.

Nice-to-haves:

• Experience with equity/ESOP platforms (e.g., Ledgy, Carta).

• Prior exposure to Dutch or Swiss labor regulations.

Our commitment to inclusive hiring

Cradle evaluates all candidates based on merit, regardless of sex, gender, ethnicity, socio-economic background, or any other aspect of identity. We maintain zero tolerance for discrimination and actively encourage candidates from all backgrounds to apply.

AI disclosure

Cradle uses an applicant tracking system that includes basic AI-assisted features which may generate scores or rankings based on how applications match a job description. These outputs are not used to make or meaningfully influence hiring decisions — all candidates are evaluated through a thorough, human-led review by our recruiting team.

A notice about recruitment scams

Please be aware that scammers are posing as us in order to get your personal details or money. We only communicate via @cradle.bio email addresses, we only make job offers after having met you in person at our office in Zurich or Amsterdam, and we never ask you to pay for anything during the interview process.