Culture and Community Manager

About the Role

We're a small, ambitious deeptech startup at the intersection of AI, robotics, and materials science — working on technology that could meaningfully accelerate energy innovation. Our Berlin-based team of scientists, engineers, and operators moves fast and cares deeply about the work.

We're looking for a Culture and Community Manager to own the intentional design of our team culture from the ground up. This is a high-agency, high-impact role for someone who thrives at the intersection of people, operations, and creativity — someone who can build trusted relationships across a technically diverse team, spot problems early, and make everyday work feel more connected and energizing.

This is an on-site role based in Berlin, Germany. Visa sponsorship is not available.

What You'll Do

• Design and run weekly rituals, team socials, monthly activities, celebrations, and quarterly offsites that feel authentic rather than forced.
• Make all-hands and collective meetings more energetic, interactive, and participatory.
• Build trusted relationships across the company and maintain a continuous pulse on team sentiment — noticing disengagement or frustration early and responding proactively.
• Review regular team updates to surface recurring themes, tone changes, or unmet needs, and follow through with action.
• Source and reach out to candidates via LinkedIn, communities, referrals, and other creative channels; screen for motivation, values, and cultural contribution.
• Support interview coordination and own a warm, consistent candidate experience.
• Maintain lightweight people-ops: onboarding experiences, trackers, follow-ups, and internal documentation.
• Take ownership of practical, people-facing problems that lack a clear owner — build workable solutions without waiting for a full playbook.
• Coordinate across founders, employees, vendors, and external partners with reliable attention to detail.

What We're Looking For

Required:

• Experience in community management, people operations, employee experience, recruiting, events, hospitality, startup ops, or a closely related field.
• Proven ability to design, plan, and execute team events — from weekly rituals to offsites — including logistics, vendor management, scheduling, and budgeting.
• Experience sourcing and screening candidates and coordinating interview processes.
• Excellent written and verbal communication; able to translate values into everyday behaviors and give founders honest, practical views of team sentiment.
• Strong organizational skills — comfortable maintaining trackers, documentation, and follow-up systems.
• High emotional intelligence: skilled at sensitive conversations, rallying reluctant participants, and building trust across technically diverse teams (scientists, engineers, and beyond).
• Startup mindset: high agency, low ego, comfort operating without detailed playbooks, and willingness to do both visible and unglamorous work.
• Willingness to travel for quarterly offsites and occasional events.

Nice to Have:

• AI-native curiosity: you experiment with AI tools, build workflows, write prompts, or create lightweight automations to make your work faster (engineering skills are not required).
• Prior experience at a startup or in a deeply technical environment (e.g., working alongside scientists or engineers).

Location & Work Arrangement

This is a full-time, on-site position based in Berlin, Germany. You'll be a daily presence in the office — central to how the team experiences its culture. Occasional travel is required for quarterly offsites and events. Visa sponsorship is not available for this role.

Compensation & Benefits

Compensation details will be discussed during the interview process. You'll be joining a well-funded seed-stage company backed by established European and international investors, with meaningful opportunities for growth as the team scales.