People Operations Senior Associate

Based from our headquarters in Paris, the People Operations Senior Associate will be an integral member of the regional HR team.

In this role, you will seamlessly blend rigorous legal and compliance adherence with an agile, employee-enablement mindset, supporting day-to-day lifecycle administration not only for France but across the wider Southern Europe region, as needed.

We are looking for someone who demonstrates an AI-first mindset, with the curiosity to audit legacy processes and leverage tools like Gemini or Claude to enhance efficiency for HR and employees.

A strong foundation in French labor relations, compliance, and employment law, alongside a deep understanding of workplace dynamics, is crucial for this role.  Candidates coming from a strong legal background with a genuine motivation to transition into an operational HR track are highly welcome.

Responsibilities:

1. Proactive Manager Partnership & Employee Relations

• Act as the primary, proactive business partner and advisor to managers across France. Rather than reacting to issues as they arise, you will consult closely with leadership to anticipate team challenges, guide people strategies, and recommend concrete, legally sound actions to ensure smooth daily operations.
• When formal workplace issues emerge, you will guide managers through objective case management. This includes empowering them through end-to-end disciplinary processes, overseeing structured grievance procedures, and leading thorough, confidential internal investigations regarding performance or compliance with high structural rigor. 

2. Employee Experience Champion

• Serve as a trusted, highly accessible champion for the employees in France, fostering a culture of open dialogue and active listening.
• With the support of the local People Operations Associate, your focus will be on high-touch employee advocacy. You will act as a sounding board for individuals navigating complex peer dynamics, facilitate informal conflict resolution, and proactively guide employees through internal mobility pathways, career progression frameworks, and professional development opportunities.

3. French Compliance, Social Dialogue & Risk Governance

• Serve as the centralized anchor for French compliance and labor relations, proactively mitigating organizational liability while nurturing a healthy social climate.
• You will act as the primary operational coordinator for the Comité Social et Économique (CSE), strategically mapping out consultation agendas, preparing mandatory document packs, and partnering with HR leadership to maintain an open, proactive, and compliant social dialogue.
• Utilizing your deep labor expertise, you will provide real-time, actionable legal guidance to people managers to safely navigate daily operations.
• You will take comprehensive ownership of localized health and safety governance, including leading the annual DUERP risk-mapping and prevention frameworks in collaboration with the CSE, while directing the statutory oversight of leaves (arrêts de travail), occupational health (Médecine du Travail), and the strategic optimization of Mutuelle and Prévoyance schemes alongside external brokers.

4. End-to-End Country Operations & Lifecycle Management

Under the guidance of the People Operations Director, and with the support of the local People Operations Associate, you will focus on People Operations activities for France, acting as a HR generalist anchor. You will oversee the localized employee lifecycle, ensuring operational excellence, data integrity within Workday, and compliance with French labor standards. You will collaborate closely with senior team members to steadily expand your operational knowledge, partnering on various cases as you continuously deepen your expertise and expand your impact within the broader People team.

• Seamless New Hire Onboarding: Execute comprehensive pre-boarding and onboarding protocols. Partner closely with Talent Acquisition to ensure eligibility-to-work checks are thoroughly completed, secure all mandatory compliance documentation in employee files, and lead localized onboarding sessions to ensure a smooth, high-touch landing experience for all new joiners.
• Payroll Input & HR Administration: Act as the operational bridge for monthly payroll by consolidating and delivering highly accurate payroll and bonus tracking, and supporting legal/administrative evidence to the processing team. Oversee the local administration of employee benefit schemes (private healthcare, gym memberships, transport allocations, and pension filings), meticulously track absences within Workday, and draft routine localized HR letters and documentation.
• Compliant Offboarding & Separation Tracking: Proactively manage the offboarding dashboard for departing employees, ensuring all standard separation processes are systematically and legally executed for both voluntary and involuntary terminations. Complete legally compliant termination paperwork, handle end-of-contract settlements, calculate applicable separation or retirement benefits, and conduct structured exit interviews.
• Localized HR Partnership on Labor Matters: Collaborate in close partnership with regional business leaders and the broader People team to ensure the fair, consistent, and sustainable implementation of internal labor and HR policies across all active business lines within the country.

As EcoVadis continues to evolve, there may be exciting opportunities to broaden your scope and contribute your expertise to new projects or responsibilities within the People Operations team. We value flexibility and are committed to ensuring any transitions align with your professional development and unique qualifications.

Education & Academic Foundation

• A University degree in Human Resources Management, Employment Law, or a closely related professional discipline is highly preferred.

Experience & Track Record

• A minimum of 4+ years of professional experience as an Employee Relations Specialist, HR Generalist with a heavy labor/relations focus, or Corporate Labor Paralegal in France.
• Direct experience coordinating matters related to French Works Councils (CSE) is mandatory.
• Deep, practical knowledge of French employment law (Code du Travail), collective bargaining agreements (conventions collectives), French disciplinary protocols, and hands-on familiarity with updating the DUERP.
• Candidates coming from a strong legal background with a genuine motivation to transition into an operational HR track are welcome.

Technical Expertise

• Adeptness in leveraging AI tools, such as Claude or Gemini, as well as automation to optimize HR workflows, enhance operational efficiency, and support data-driven decision-making.
• Excellent baseline knowledge of digital office tool suites (Google Workspace, MS Office, NetSuite, Workday).

Language Skills & Linguistic Toolkit

• Fluency in French is mandatory. A strong professional command of English, our corporate language, is required to collaborate with global leadership and support non-French-speaking local employees daily.

Operational Skills & Required Competencies

• Conflict Resolution & Objectivity: Exceptional conflict-resolution capabilities, strong analytical skills to perform risk assessments, and the objectivity required to handle sensitive workplace matters under pressure.
• Stakeholder Influence: Communicates clearly and displays a strong ability to influence, guide, and convince internal stakeholders at all tiers of the company.
• Organization & Time Management: Exceptional organizational and time-management skills; capable of prioritizing high volumes of operational tasks and meeting tight legal deadlines.
• Ethical Integrity: Ability to operate with total ethical integrity, absolute professionalism, and complete confidentiality at all times.
• Resilience & Emotional Intelligence: Resilient and emotionally intelligent; able to navigate complex crisis situations or sensitive employee issues calmly and effectively.

• Location: Paris

In return for your expertise, we offer:

• Support with all the necessary office and IT equipment
• Flexible working hours
• Wellness allowance for mental and physical wellbeing
• Access to professional mental health support
• Referral bonus policy
• Learning and development 
• Sustainability events and community involvement
• Peer recognition program
• Employee-led resource groups
• Hybrid work organization (12 days in office per month)
• Working from abroad policy
• Meal Vouchers Card (Swile)  
• Transportation allowance: 50% transportation reimbursement (Navigo travel Pass)
• Private Health Insurance (Mutuelle) 50% paid by the company
• Gymlib subscription
• Jour repos forfait (RTT)
• Hybrid  Monthly Allowance for electricity and Internet
• French social security system and the welfare plan subscribed by the company (Prevoyance Collective)

Our hiring team looks forward to reviewing your CV, in English, with a guaranteed response to every application. A new job with purpose awaits you!

Don’t meet all criteria? Please apply anyway. We welcome diverse candidates and want to assess your skills and potential contribution to EcoVadis, regardless of your background.

Can the hiring process be adjusted to suit my needs? Yes. We want all candidates, including people with disabilities, people with long-term health conditions, and neurodiverse applicants, to feel confident demonstrating their potential. If you require adjustments, such as interview questions in advance, please inform the hiring team.

Our team’s strength comes from everyone’s uniqueness and is founded upon mutual respect. EcoVadis commits to equity, inclusion and reducing bias in our hiring processes. EcoVadis does not accept any form of discrimination based on characteristics such as color, national or ethnic origin, ancestry, citizenship, religion, beliefs, age, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, neurodiversity, disability, parental status, or any other protected characteristic that makes you unique. To reduce bias in hiring, applicants are encouraged to remove personal details such as photos, marital/parental status, religion, gender, postal code, university name/graduation date, past leave details, and nationality (instead, confirm eligibility to work in the job location).

Our recruitment processes do not include AI systems that make autonomous decisions impacting individuals’ rights without human oversight. Inputs and outputs of the system have been validated by humans and answers are based on algorithms that analyze previous data with which the system has been trained. We use SmartRecruiters as our applicant tracking system and to schedule interviews. Gemini is used to summarize notes from interviews and to refine job descriptions and social media messaging. AssessFirst is used to support talent assessment decisions.