HR Business Partner at Humanoid (London, United Kingdom)
Humanoid· London, United Kingdom·
Role details
Humanoid at a glance
Humanoid builds commercially scalable, safe humanoid robots to automate labor-intensive industrial tasks in warehousing, logistics, and manufacturing.
Designs and builds general-purpose humanoid robots (the HMND 01 platform) that automate physical industrial tasks like goods handling, picking and packing, and kitting, orchestrated by an in-house AI fleet framework called KinetIQ.
Approximately $30M self-funded by founder Artem Sokolov; a ~$200M Series A was in talks as of early 2026 (not closed) raised · latest: Series A (in talks, ~$200M, no valuation set) as of February 2026 · backed by Artem Sokolov (founder, sole shareholder)
Job description
Here at Humanoid, we believe in a future where robots amplify human potential. That’s why we’ve set out on a mission to build the world’s most capable, commercially-scalable, and safe humanoid robots. We’re bringing that mission to life with HMND‑01 - our rapidly developed humanoid platform being deployed in real industrial environments - and we’re growing the team to take it even further.
About the Role: As the HR Business Partner, you will partner day-to-day with leaders across Engineering, Hardware, and Software to strengthen manager capability, improve org effectiveness, and build scalable people practices for a deep-tech environment. You’ll be a trusted advisor on everything from performance to employee relations and culture balancing speed, rigor, and fairness. You will be closely working with our Chief HR, operating as a key partner in shaping and delivering the people strategy for the technical organisation. This is a hands-on role: equal parts strategic partner and operator.
What You’ll Do:
- Serve as the primary HR partner for Engineering, Hardware, and Software leaders.
- Help technical leaders navigate scale moments (new layers, new managers, evolving leadership expectations).
- Coach technical managers on setting expectations and operating rhythms (goals, execution cadence, feedback loops).
- Support performance differentiation (high/medium/low performance) and ensure managers address issues early and fairly.
- Enable consistent, high-quality 1:1s, feedback, and career conversations.
- Partner with leaders to evolve career frameworks/levels for technical roles (e.g., SWE, robotics, embedded, firmware, electrical, mechanical).
- Clarify dual tracks (IC vs management), promotion readiness, and growth expectations.
- Spot retention risks in critical technical roles and implement targeted plans.
- Support leaders through difficult moments with empathy, directness, and legal/compliance awareness.
- Align with Talent Acquisition on technical hiring strategy, interview process health, candidate experience, and hiring manager enablement.
- Partner with People Ops to ensure smooth execution of core people processes and a strong employee experience.
We’re Looking For:
- 7+ years of proven HRBP experience supporting technical teams (Engineering, Hardware, Software, AI/ML).
- Strong capability in org design, workforce planning, manager coaching, performance management, and employee relations.
- Comfort operating in ambiguity and driving clarity in fast-moving environments.
- High judgment with an ability to balance empathy with high standards.
- Excellent stakeholder management, communication, and influence skills.
- Strong execution skills: able to run cycles, manage detail, and deliver consistently.
Nice To Have:
- Experience in deep-tech, robotics, embedded systems, or hardware + software organisations.
- Experience building or refining leveling frameworks and IC/manager career tracks.
- Familiarity with engineering operating models (on-call, incident management, postmortems).
What We Offer
- Competitive equity: stock options with meaningful upside as we scale.
- 30+ paid days off, including 23 days of annual leave, all UK bank holidays, and additional company closure days (including Christmas–New Year shutdown).
- Private healthcare, including virtual and in-person care.
- Pension scheme with 8% total contribution (5% employee, 3% employer) on full earnings.
- Free daily breakfast, catered lunch, and snacks in-office.
- Work at the frontier - collaborate daily with world-class engineers, researchers, and product experts building the next generation of AI and humanoid robotics.
- Real ownership - direct access to founding leadership, meaningful input on product direction, and the ability to drive key initiatives from day one.
Why work at Humanoid
- High-growth environment: Company grew headcount by 139% in a single year, indicating rapid scaling and opportunity for career advancement. 65+ open roles suggest strong hiring momentum.
- Talent from top robotics firms: Team includes alumni from Boston Dynamics, Sanctuary AI, Dyson, Ocado Technology, Arrival, Wayve, and others — offering a deep learning and collaboration environment.
- Technical focus: Engineering and technical roles represent 38% of the workforce, with senior-level hires at 23% of the team. The company emphasizes hardware, AI, machine learning, and control systems.
- Mission-driven: Clear purpose to automate undesirable, unsafe, and repetitive work — appealing to candidates who want to make a tangible societal impact.
- Global presence: Offices in London (HQ), Cambridge (USA), and Burnaby (Canada), plus operations in 16 countries — offering potential for international mobility and remote collaboration.
- Innovation culture: Described as a place where engineers and researchers “move from demo to deployment” and “not just in the lab.” The CTO emphasizes building systems that perform in the real world from day one.
- Office/Hybrid policy: Not explicitly stated, but the company has physical offices in three countries and a distributed team across 16 nations — likely supports hybrid/remote with in-office collaboration for engineering roles.