People Business Partner (f/m/d)

ABOUT FOCUSED ENERGY Focused Energy is building the future of clean energy through laser-driven inertial fusion. Backed by our $240M Series A — the largest fully secured Series A in the global fusion industry — we are scaling rapidly across multiple geographies. Based in Germany and the US, we have brought together the top scientific and engineering minds using proven technologies to unlock fusion power at commercial scale. Focused Energy is working to realize game-changing scientific innovation that promises to deliver a clean, sustainable and abundant source of power globally. Location: Role is Hybrid and can be based in Berlin or Darmstadt, Germany. YOUR ROLE We're hiring a People Business Partner to sit at the intersection of business strategy and people decisions. This isn't a generalist role bolted onto an HR department. You'll be embedded with technical and operational leaders, translating workforce challenges into actionable solutions across performance, development, organizational design, and team effectiveness. You're joining at a pivotal moment. We're rolling out a company-wide leveling and career framework, launching our first structured performance cycle, and building the infrastructure that will carry us from Series A through commercialization. You won't inherit playbooks — you'll co-create them. WHAT YOU'LL DO Strategic Partnering Work directly with senior leaders across Engineering, Physics, and Operations to understand business priorities and connect them to people strategy. Serve as a trusted advisor on organizational design, team structure, and leadership capability — not a policy relay point. Performance and Development Co-own the rollout and ongoing evolution of our performance review process and career framework. Coach managers on setting clear expectations, giving direct feedback, and having the conversations that actually move people forward. Employee Relations and Culture Navigate complex employee relations situations with sound judgment, balancing empathy with accountability. Support a culture where feedback is normal, not an event, and where people feel both challenged and respected. Change and Org Effectiveness Help leaders manage through the growing pains of a scaling deep-tech company. Facilitate calibration sessions, support restructuring conversations, and bring a diagnostic lens to engagement and retention patterns. Data-Informed Decision Making Use people data (attrition trends, engagement signals, compensation benchmarks) to inform recommendations rather than gut feel. You don't need to be a data scientist, but you should be comfortable building a case with numbers. Compliance and Risk Awareness Maintain solid working knowledge of German labor law (BetrVG, TzBfG, AGG), with an appreciation for the nuances of operating across multiple jurisdictions. Know when to flag, when to advise, and when to bring in counsel. WHO YOU ARE - 10+ years of progressive HR/People experience, with at least 5 years in a true business partnering capacity (not a renamed generalist seat) - Experience in a scaling tech, deep-tech, or engineering-heavy environment. You've seen what happens when headcount doubles and organizational maturity hasn't caught up yet - Strong command of German labor law; multi-country exposure is a meaningful plus - Demonstrated ability to coach leaders through ambiguity — performance conversations, org changes, team friction — without defaulting to process for process's sake - Comfort operating in a function that's still being built. You can hold the tension between "we need structure" and "we need to move" - Fluent in German and English (both are daily working languages) WHAT SETS YOU APART - You've partnered with technical leaders (engineering, S&T, science) and earned credibility in those environments - You've been part of standing up or significantly evolving a performance management or leveling framework - You have a point of view on what great people partnering looks like — and it's g…