People Operations / Associate HR Director

People Operations Lead, Poland About Tripadvisor The Tripadvisor Group connects people to experiences worth sharing, and aims to be the world’s most trusted source for travel and experiences. We leverage our brands, technology, and capabilities to connect our global audience with partners through rich content, travel guidance, and two-sided marketplaces for experiences, accommodations, restaurants, and other travel categories. The subsidiaries of Tripadvisor, Inc. (Nasdaq: TRIP), include a portfolio of travel brands and businesses, including Tripadvisor, Viator, and TheFork. Role Purpose At Tripadvisor Group, our People Operations team is focused on building a transparent, collaborative, and high-performing employee experience. This role will translate global business priorities into practical, localized people processes and strategies that support our growing Kraków hub and broader technical organization. This role is both strategic and hands-on. The successful candidate will serve as Tripadvisor’s senior local People Operations leader in Poland, acting as a trusted advisor to local business leaders, global People teams, and cross-functional partners while ensuring operational excellence and compliance with Polish employment law. Role Overview Tripadvisor is establishing Poland as a key hub for our global engineering and technical teams. We are seeking a pragmatic, highly autonomous HR leader who can build, execute, and scale people practices in a fast-moving environment. This is a broad, generalist role with significant individual contributor responsibility. This role will own local HR operations, employee relations, compliance, workforce enablement, and site culture initiatives, while partnering equally closely with global Centers of Excellence (including Talent Acquisition, Total Rewards, Legal, Payroll, and People Systems) and local senior leadership onsite to ensure Group consistency. The ideal candidate is low-ego, execution-oriented, and comfortable moving between strategic advisory work and hands-on operational problem solving. They will bring deep Polish HR expertise, strong stakeholder judgment, and the ability to operate effectively with remote leadership and minimal day-to-day oversight. Most importantly, the ideal candidate will be equally adept at partnering with both local leadership and global HR Centers of Excellence. Job Location: Hybrid This role is a hybrid position that requires 1-2 days per week in our Krakow office What You’ll Do Key Responsibilities Local HR Leadership & Strategic Partnering Serve as the senior People Operations partner for Tripadvisor’s Poland-based employees and leaders, with a particular focus on the Kraków technology hub. Act as a trusted advisor to local business leaders and global People Operations teams, balancing business priorities with enterprise-wide people strategy. Provide guidance on organizational design, workforce planning, team effectiveness, employee engagement, performance management, and talent development. Partner with leaders to identify and address people-related risks, including employee burnout, retention challenges, manager capability gaps, and organizational change impacts. Support the continued maturation of the Kraków site by strengthening local culture, operating practices, and employee experience. Polish Employment Law, Compliance & Risk Management Serve as Tripadvisor’s primary subject matter expert on Polish employment law and HR compliance, in partnership with legal counsel. Advise managers, People Operations, Legal, Finance, and G&A stakeholders on local employment matters before decisions are made, including terminations, notice periods, disciplinary processes, non-competes, working time, leaves of absence, and employment documentation. Ensure local HR processes are compliant with the Polish Labour Code, ZUS requirements, and applicable employment regulations. Partner with Legal and external advisors to monitor legislative changes and brief global People stakeholders on relevant updates before they take effect. Proactively audit local policies, documentation, and practices to maintain readiness for Labour Inspectorate inspections and other compliance reviews. Localize global HR policies and programs to ensure they are practical, compliant, and culturally appropriate for Poland. People Operations Execution Own day-to-day People Operations delivery for Poland, serving as the accessible local HR point of contact for employees and managers. Resolve employee and manager questions directly and efficiently, reducing unnecessary escalation through global or vendor channels, while also encouraging and influencing the use of the employee portal for self-service answers. Handle sensitive employee relations matters with discretion, sound judgment, cultural awareness, and in-person trust where needed. Execute and continuously improve employee lifecycle processes, including onboarding, offboarding, contract administration, benefits enrollment, employee documentation, and employment certificates. Manage offer logistics and pre-employment documentation for Poland-based candidates in partnership with Talent Acquisition. Identify opportunities to simplify, automate, and scale local HR workflows while maintaining a strong employee experience. Payroll, Benefits & Vendor Coordination Provide any needed data to centralized Payroll team. Support centralized HR COEs in compliance requirements related to payroll, ZUS, benefits, and employee records, working hands-on where needed until scalable processes are fully established. Partner with Total Rewards and Finance on salary reviews, compensation frameworks, local benefits, and market benchmarking for Kraków and other Poland-based roles as needed. Talent, Performance & Workforce Enablement Support managers through performance management, talent review, employee development, internal mobility, and progression processes. Help managers navigate employee performance in a way that is both legally compliant and aligned with Tripadvisor’s values. Roll out global People programs locally, including performance reviews, engagement surveys, learning initiatives, manager enablement, and cultural transformation efforts. Adapt global program timing, messaging, and delivery where required by Polish law, market expectations, or local business context. HR Data, Systems & Analytics Use Workday and other People systems to execute local HR workflows accurately and efficiently. Using Visier, leverage HR data and analytics to provide insights on headcount, turnover, engagement, retention, organizational health, and workforce trends. Use GenAI, to improve productivity, decision quality, and operational efficiency while understanding their limitations and risks. Operating Principles The successful candidate will embody Tripadvisor’s execution-oriented culture and demonstrate the following behaviors: Execution Is Our Edge Take ownership from strategy through execution, ensuring work is completed with urgency, accuracy, and accountability. Prioritize practical action over excessive analysis, while applying sound judgment to risk, compliance, and stakeholder impact. Finish what can be completed today and maintain momentum on complex cross-functional work. No Problem Is Someone Else’s Problem Own People Operations processes end to end, even when work crosses teams, functions, or geographies. Navigate ambiguity, remove blockers, and know when to push with diplomacy versus when to build consensus. Act as a reliable partner to senior stakeholders in Kraków and across the global organization. Low-Ego, High-Trust Leadership Build trust through transparency, consistency, discretion, and follow-through. Operate with humility and pragmatism, whether advising senior leaders or solving day-to-day administrative issues. Work collaboratively across cultures, time zones, and functions while maintain