Senior Manager / Director – People & Culture

Uni Seoul | Pune (On-site, flexible hours)

WANTED: A CHIEF HAPPINESS ARCHITECT (the official title is less fun)

We sell joy in 1,000+ tiny, adorable forms. Now we need someone to build the same joy inside the company - for the 250+ people who make the magic happen across our stores, warehouse and HQ.

If you believe great culture is designed, not decorated, that a watertight payroll is a love language, and that no one should do by hand what a system can do better, keep reading. This one's for you.

ROLE SNAPSHOT

- Role: Senior Manager / Director – People & Culture

- Location: Pune Corporate HQ (on-site, with flexible hours)

- Reports to: The Founders — directly

- Team: HRBP – Retail and HRBP – HQ/Warehouse report to you

- Scope: 250+ people across stores in 8 cities, our warehouse and Corporate HQ

- Experience: 8+ years in HR, with 3+ years heading the HR function

- Level: Senior Manager or Director, based on depth of experience

MEET UNI SEOUL: CUTENESS AS A WAY OF LIVING

Uni Seoul is India's Korean-inspired impulse lifestyle brand. Founded in Pune in 2023, we've grown into 17+ stores across 8 cities in under three years.

Walk into one of our stores and you'll find plushies waiting to be adopted, a walk-in plushie closet, and shelves of quirky stationery, beauty and home finds. Everything is designed in-house and priced between 99 and 2,999.

What we've built so far:

- 17+ stores across Bengaluru, Pune, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Nashik, Ahmedabad, Kochi and Chennai

- 60 Cr ARR, on track to close the year at 100 Cr

- NPS above 80 and 4.7+ Google ratings — customers don't just shop, they come back

- 35 Cr Series A (June 2026), led by Riverwalk Holdings and Sauce.vc, with Panthera Peak Ventures and MIXI Global Investments

- An online store at uniseoul.in and a growing loyalty community

THE PLAYGROUND WE OPERATE IN

India's young consumers are buying small joys, often and on impulse. A 450 plushie, a pastel planner, a K-beauty find — these are everyday treats, not big-ticket decisions.

Three forces are powering this category:

- The K-wave is mainstream. K-dramas, K-pop and K-beauty have made Korean aesthetics part of everyday Gen Z and millennial life.

- Stores are experiences again. Shoppers want places that are fun to walk into, photograph and share — not just shelves.

- Global players have proven the model. Miniso, Daiso, Pop Mart and Artbox show how big this can get. We're building the homegrown, design-led version for India.

WHERE WE'RE HEADED

Our ambition is 500 stores across India, followed by the UAE and Southeast Asia through master franchises. In the near term, 18 new stores are already in the pipeline.

We're 250+ people today, and growing fast. That means new cities, new teams and a company that has to scale without losing its soul. The person in this role will decide what kind of company we become on the way there.

YOUR MISSION

Be the founders strategic partner on everything people. Build the processes, policies and systems that let a high-growth startup run like a well-oiled company — and make sure every rule, rupee and record behind it is rock solid.

You won't be buried in day-to-day firefighting. Your HRBPs run execution on the ground; you set the direction, build the playbook and raise the bar.

WHAT YOU'LL OWN

1. People strategy & structure: build the company behind the company

- Work with the founders on org design, manpower planning and the people roadmap as we grow from 250+ to 1,000+.

- Write the rulebook: HR policies, SOPs, a code of conduct and work ethics that everyone understands and follows.

- Turn messy, person-dependent ways of working into clear, repeatable processes.

2. Lead the HRBP team: one function, many frontlines

- Lead and coach our HRBP – Retail and HRBP – HQ/Warehouse.

- Set the standards, goals and review rhythm they work to, and step in on escalations.

- Grow the team as we scale, and make sure stores, warehouse and HQ all get the same quality of HR.

3. Compliance that runs like clockwork

- Own statutory compliance across every state we operate in: PF, ESIC, gratuity, bonus, professional tax, LWF, minimum wages, Shops & Establishments registrations and contract labour.

- Own payroll accuracy, end to end, for every employee, every month.

- Stay ahead of labour law changes, including the new Labour Codes, and keep us audit-ready at all times.

- Work with our legal counsel on audits, notices and disputes.

4. HR tech & automation: run People like a product

- Own our HR tech stack — Keka (HRMS), our ATS and payroll software — and make sure every people process runs on it, not on spreadsheets.

- Automate the repetitive stuff: onboarding, attendance, leave, payroll inputs, offer letters and exits.

- Use AI tools to speed up hiring, answer everyday employee queries and cut manual work across the function.

- Build live people dashboards — headcount, attrition, hiring funnel, people cost — so every decision runs on data.

5. Performance, rewards & growth: make growth fair and visible

- Run goal-setting, KRAs/KPIs and the annual appraisal cycle end to end.

- Own salary benchmarking, incentive structures and support our ESOP programme.

- Build learning, career paths and succession plans so we grow leaders from within.

- Lead hiring for senior and leadership roles, and build an employer brand that attracts great people.

6. Culture, employee relations & POSH: be the person people trust

- Turn our values into everyday habits — rituals, recognition and celebrations people actually look forward to.

- Be the final word on grievances, ethics and conduct; handle disciplinary matters fairly and by the book.

- Run the POSH framework and Internal Committee, and train teams across locations.

YOUR FIRST YEAR, AT A GLANCE

- First 30 days: Visit stores and the warehouse, meet every team, sit with the founders. Complete a full people, process and compliance health check.

- By day 60: A People & Culture roadmap agreed with the founders. Statutory compliance fully in order across every state. HR tech stack reviewed and an automation plan in place.

- By day 90: Core policies, SOPs and code of conduct live. HRBP goals and review rhythm set. First engagement pulse survey done.

- By month 12: Most routine HR work automated. Clean audits. Attrition trending down. A clear career ladder and leadership pipeline in place.

How we'll measure you: compliance and payroll accuracy, share of HR processes automated, time to hire, attrition, engagement scores and internal promotions.

WHO YOU ARE

Must-haves:

- 8+ years in HR, with at least 3 years heading the HR function (Senior Manager); 12+ years for Director.

- You've led HR for an organisation of 200+ people and managed a team of HRBPs or HR managers.

- You've built HR processes, policies and SOPs from scratch — not just maintained them.

- Strong, hands-on command of statutory compliance and payroll across multiple states.

- Hands-on experience with HRMS platforms (Keka preferred), applicant tracking systems and payroll software — you've implemented or improved them, not just used them.

- A tech-first mindset: you automate processes, use AI tools in your daily work, and are comfortable with data and dashboards.

- A graduate or postgraduate degree in any discipline; an MBA/PGDM in HR is a plus.

Strongly preferred:

- Experience in a high-growth startup, ideally working directly with founders through rapid scale-up.

- Experience with a multi-location workforce - stores, warehouses, field or plant teams.

- Retail experience is a nice-to-have, not a must, our HRBP Retail brings the store expertise.

The vibe we're looking for:

- Strategic enough to shape the company, hands-on enough to fix a payroll error yourself.

- Warm enough to be trusted, firm enough to be respected.

- When you see a repetitive task, your first thought is how do we automate this

- Calm in a crisis, comfortable with ambiguity, allergic to bureaucracy.

WHY YOU'LL LOVE IT HERE

- Work directly with the founders. No layers, no waiting for approvals from someone three floors up. Your ideas go from whiteboard to rollout in weeks.

- A true open-door HQ. Anyone can walk up to anyone, founders included. Good ideas win, whoever they come from.

- Flexible working hours. We care about outcomes, not attendance registers. Plan your day around your best work.

- Build, don't babysit. This is a blank canvas. The function you design will support 500 stores.

- Learn at startup speed. You'll see retail, expansion, fundraising and brand-building up close. Few roles teach this much this fast.

- Grow as we grow. As the company scales, so does your team, your scope and your title.

- Competitive pay and wealth creation. Strong compensation, plus eligibility for our ESOP programme.

- The cutest perks in India. Employee discounts on everything in our stores. Yes, including the plushies.

- A team that actually has fun. Launch parties, store openings, festivals and celebrations are part of the job description.

THINK YOU'RE THE ONE PROVE IT (WITH STYLE)

Write directly to Mohit - [HIDDEN TEXT] with the subject line Application for Senior Manager / Director – People & Culture, attach your CV, and tell us:

1. Why you In 150 words or less, why should we hand you the keys to our culture

2. Your HR war story. The hardest people situation you've handled, and what you'd do differently now. Humour is welcome; wisdom is essential.

3. Your automation win. One HR process you automated, and what it saved.

Consider this your first test. If your email makes us smile, you're halfway there. If it also shows you read every word of this JD, you're further than most.

We can't wait to meet you :)

Senior Manager/Director - People & Culture