People Data & Operations Specialist H/F

Compensation: €53,000 – €60,000 per year

Want to work in a friendly environment that is rapidly growing? Octopus Energy, the 5th French energy provider in 10 years, is a renewable energy provider and a true pioneer of the electricity revolution.

How do we do it? We can’t change the world by doing the same thing as everyone else. We try not to overcomplicate things, and we develop in an environment with minimal processes and rules. The most important thing is not just to follow the trend, but to create it.

We don’t want to create company clones. We want to see you – with your talents, your perspectives, and your unique skills.

Want to join a fast-growing company with a lot of autonomy and a slightly different approach to People Ops? Welcome to Octopus Energy France. We operate with a NoHR model: managers are the first point of contact for their teams regarding HR matters. The People Ops team’s role is to provide them with the right structure, tools, information, and skills so they can be self-sufficient in their daily work. In this context, we are looking for a reliable People Ops specialist who can both build and develop our ways of working, and specifically contribute to the team’s daily operations. The role is divided into two main areas, each representing approximately 50% of your time: Build: HR projects, tools, data, automation, AI, process improvement. Run: HR administration, payroll processing, support for managers and teams, data validation and integrity. This balance is obviously not fixed: depending on new developments, projects, or the time of year, you may spend more time on one of these areas. Above all, we are looking for someone who enjoys creating things while staying connected to operational activities.

What you will do:

1. Build: Developing our People Ops A significant part of your role will involve managing projects that allow the People Ops team and managers to work better, simpler, and more effectively.

Specifically, you will be able to:

• Lead HR projects from start to finish, from defining the need to implementation.
• Simplify and improve our processes.
• Create and develop our Help Hub and our documentation.
• Build useful dashboards and reports for management: consolidate and better leverage data from our various tools.
• Automate specific checks, reports, or recurring tasks.
• Identify and test simple AI and automation use cases.
• Participate in cross-functional projects with Octopus teams, particularly those based in the UK.
• Support managers in the adoption of new tools or ways of working. We are looking for someone who enjoys starting with an often-unclear need, understanding it, structuring it, and finding a concrete solution. Data and AI are tools to assist People Ops and teams, not an end in themselves. Therefore, we are not looking for a pure Data Analyst or a technical expert, but someone who knows how to use them to solve operational problems.

2. Run: Contributing to the team’s daily operations The second half of the role involves full participation in daily People Ops activities.

Depending on the team’s needs, you may be involved in:

• HR administration: contracts, amendments, transfers, absences, terminations...
• Payroll preparation and validation.
• Checking and ensuring data consistency across our various tools.
• Responding to managers’ and employees’ questions.
• Tracking and resolving operational issues.
• Supporting the team during peak periods or urgent tasks. The idea is not for you to specialize in administration or payroll. However, you must be willing to dive into these topics, understand them, and support the team when necessary. For us, operational activities (run) are also a crucial source for creation (build): it is by confronting daily problems that we identify what needs to be simplified, automated, or rethought.

This role is for you if:

• You have at least 7 years of experience in People Ops, HR Operations, or a generalist role with a strong operational component.
• You have a very good command of English (minimum B2-C1), necessary for working with international Octopus teams.
• You have already worked in a startup/scale-up environment where you need to navigate uncertainty, adapt quickly, and move forward even when everything is not perfectly structured.
• You are comfortable with People Ops operational activities: HR administration, payroll processing, data validation, support for managers and teams.
• You are comfortable working with data and know how to use it for validation, analysis, and better management.
• You have already managed HR or tool-related projects from needs assessment to implementation.
• You are very proficient with Google Sheets / Excel and, more broadly, the digital work environment: Google Workspace, Slack, MacBook...
• You are pragmatic: you look for simple, useful, and truly applicable solutions.
• You are autonomous, comfortable in a fast-paced environment, and able to prioritize between long-term projects and more urgent operational tasks.

Conversely, this role is not for you if... Let’s be honest, this role is likely not suitable for someone looking for:

• A pure Data Analyst / People Analyst role.
• A role focused exclusively on projects, with no desire to participate in operational activities.
• A position primarily focused on payroll or HR administration.
• A purely technical role.
• A very strategic or managerial role, far removed from daily operational activities.

We are looking for a versatile and reliable People Ops specialist who can spend their morning advancing a project on tools or data, and their afternoon helping the team with payroll, data discrepancies, or a manager’s query.

Why you’ll love working with us?

You’ve seen the salary or the indicated range for this position and would like to discuss it? Ask us! We always discuss this at the first contact because, while we strive to create fair pay scales, we also believe it’s important to match your experience and compensate it properly. We will have the opportunity to tell you more about how we determined the salary, as well as the other benefits you will receive by joining us! Also know that we have some flexibility, because we never want salary to be the reason someone doesn’t apply to Octopus – the most important thing for us is to find the right Octo-fit!

Certified since 2024 and 4th in 2025, Octopus Energy France ranks 1st out of over 200 companies in the Great Place to Work 2026 ranking! This is a strong reflection of our commitment to creating a great work environment!

We are an organization where people learn, decide, and build faster. Where they work autonomously, with outstanding people, on innovative projects. Equity share, flexible working hours, excellent health insurance, transport subsidy for eco-friendly transport, reimbursement of part of the travel pass cost beyond the minimum legal level, and even specific days off to participate in a community project that is important to you… We want your commitment to be rewarded with benefits that truly matter to you! At Octopus, we are primarily looking for kind and empathetic people. Equal opportunities are very important to us, and we are committed to providing an inclusive and fair work environment. We invite you to apply regardless of your age, gender, marital status, skin color, disability, pregnancy or parenthood, origin, religious beliefs, or sexual orientation.