Summary of the Culture and Community Manager job at Clera

About the Role

We're a small, ambitious deeptech startup at the intersection of AI, robotics, and materials science — working to dramatically accelerate the discovery of next-generation materials for the energy sector and beyond. Our team of engineers, scientists, and operators is growing, and we're looking for a Culture and Community Manager to take intentional ownership of who we are as a team and how we work together.

This is a high-agency, highly people-facing role. You'll design the rituals, traditions, and systems that keep a fast-moving, technically deep team feeling connected and energized — while also running candidate outreach and owning the practical people-ops work that makes everyday employee experience reliable and warm. On-site in Berlin, full-time.

What You'll Do

• Design and run weekly rituals, team socials, monthly activities, celebrations, and quarterly offsites that feel genuinely meaningful — not performative.

• Create shared traditions and experiences that build a distinctive, cohesive team identity.

• Make all-hands meetings and collective gatherings more energetic, interactive, and participatory.

• Build trusted relationships across the company and maintain a continuous pulse on team sentiment.

• Proactively notice signs of disengagement or frustration; reach out to support team members or escalate when appropriate.

• Review monthly team updates to spot recurring asks, tone shifts, or emerging themes — and follow through on them.

• Source and outreach to candidates via LinkedIn, communities, referrals, and creative channels.

• Screen candidates for motivation, values, judgment, and cultural contribution; support interview coordination.

• Own practical, people-facing problems that lack a clear owner — and build workable solutions without a predefined playbook.

• Maintain lightweight people-ops: onboarding experiences, trackers, follow-ups, and internal documentation.

• Coordinate reliably across founders, employees, vendors, and external partners.

What We're Looking For

Required:

• Minimum 2 years of experience in community management, people operations, or a closely related field.

• Demonstrated ability to own and solve people-facing operational problems without a predefined playbook.

• Experience screening and evaluating candidates for motivation, values, and cultural fit as part of an interview process.

• Cross-functional collaboration experience — comfortable working alongside founders, engineers, scientists, vendors, and external partners.

Ideal Background:

• Background in community management, employee experience, recruiting, events, hospitality, startup ops, university communities, or similar.

• Strong emotional judgment and the ability to handle sensitive conversations with care and discretion.

• High agency, low ego — willing to do both the visible and the unglamorous work.

• Startup mindset: obsessed with speed, urgency, and impact; comfortable with ambiguity and a fast-changing environment.

• AI-native curiosity: you actively use AI tools to build workflows, write prompts, or create automations that make work faster. Engineering skills are not required — but genuine enthusiasm for leveraging AI in your day-to-day is.

• Warm, approachable, and persistent communicator who can give leadership honest, practical views of team sentiment.

• Ability to rally reluctant participants without making culture feel forced or top-down.

Location & Work Arrangement

• Location: Berlin, Germany (on-site)

• Visa sponsorship: Not available — candidates must have existing authorisation to work in Germany.

Why This Role

This is a rare opportunity to shape culture from the ground up at a technically ambitious, well-funded early-stage company tackling one of the most important scientific challenges of our time. You'll work closely with founders, have real ownership, and see your work directly reflected in how a remarkable team shows up every day.