Employee Benefits Technical Implementation Manager

We’re building the next generation of employee benefits infrastructure.

At Happl, we help global teams design, manage, and scale benefits that actually work for their people by using AI, across flex allowances, benefits, insurance, recognition, and wellbeing, all in one intelligent platform.

Happl is backed by leading investors such as YCombinator, 6Degrees Capital, and more, known for backing leading companies such as Deel, Rippling, Airbnb, Coinbase, Dropbox, and most recently was awarded a place in the UK’s top 100 startups for 2026.

About the role

As an Employee Benefits Technical Implementation Manager at Happl, you'll be the person customers trust to turn their benefits strategy into a working reality. You'll own the setup of Happl across a portfolio of accounts - configuring the platform, building the eligibility and allowance logic, mapping the data, and making sure what launches actually reflects what the customer set out to deliver.

This role sits at the intersection of customer success and product. You'll work directly with HR, Reward, and Finance stakeholders to understand the strategy behind their programme - who's eligible for what, how allowances flex by grade or country, what payroll needs to see, where the exceptions live - and translate it into a clean, scalable configuration on Happl. You'll be equally comfortable walking a Reward Director through how their scheme will behave in the platform, unpicking a messy HRIS export, and building the rules logic that makes a complex global programme run without manual intervention.

We're still building this function. That means there's no rigid playbook to follow - you'll help write it. If you're energised by that kind of ownership, and want to shape how a category-defining product gets deployed across the world, this is the role for you.

What you’ll be doing

• Leading end-to-end customer implementations, from discovery and scoping through to go-live and long-term optimisation, taking full ownership of the setup throughout

• Running structured discovery sessions to understand each customer's benefits strategy in detail - eligibility populations, grade and country variations, allowance structures, joiner/leaver treatment - before a single rule is configured

• Building and owning advanced rules logic: eligibility criteria, allowance tiers, pro-rating, life event triggers, approval flows, and the edge cases that make real-world benefits programmes messy

• Owning data mapping between customer HRIS, payroll, and Happl - defining the field-level mapping, handling messy or inconsistent source data, and making sure every downstream output (payroll deductions, P11D treatment, insurer census files) is right

• Configuring multi-country programmes with the local nuance intact - different providers, currencies, tax treatments, and enrolment rules sitting under one coherent setup

• Testing rigorously before launch: building test populations, validating rules behave as intended across every scenario, and catching the problems that would otherwise land on an employee's payslip

• Building and automating implementation workflows using AI tools, reducing manual effort and raising the consistency and quality of every deployment

• Acting as the escalation point during and after go-live, diagnosing root causes quickly and partnering with Engineering to drive permanent fixes

• Translating what you learn across implementations into reusable assets - configuration templates, mapping libraries, and playbooks - that make every future launch faster and smarter

• Partnering with Customer Success to ensure adoption and take-up are strong post-launch, identifying configuration gaps and opportunities that drive retention and expansion

• Feeding implementation insight back to Product and Engineering with clarity and evidence, directly influencing the roadmap - particularly where the platform can't yet express what customers need

• Analysing configuration and usage data across your portfolio to spot patterns, flag risks early, and surface opportunities to improve customer outcomes

• Championing AI-first ways of working - actively exploring tools like Claude and ChatGPT to accelerate delivery, automate repetitive tasks, and bring smarter thinking to every customer engagement

• Staying genuinely curious about the benefits market, HR tech, and the evolving AI landscape, bringing ideas that keep Happl and its customers ahead of the curve

What we’re looking for

• 3+ years working in employee benefits - at a brokerage, consultancy, insurer, benefits platform, or in-house benefits/reward team - with real exposure to how schemes are administered, not just designed

• A track record of owning complex, multi-stakeholder implementations end-to-end — with the technical depth to design robust solutions and the communication skills to bring customers with you

• Hands-on experience with APIs, webhooks, and data integrations; comfortable diagnosing issues, building elegant solutions, and documenting them clearly for customers and internal teams

• Truly AI-native: you use tools like Claude, ChatGPT, and modern no-code platforms in your day-to-day work, and you’re excited about what they unlock in implementation and customer delivery

• Strong analytical and problem-solving instincts — able to take ambiguous requirements and turn them into clear, well-structured technical plans

• An excellent communicator who adapts naturally — as confident presenting a solution architecture to a CTO as troubleshooting a configuration issue with an HR admin

• Highly organised and self-directed, capable of managing multiple concurrent implementations without compromising on quality or customer experience

• Excited by the prospect of helping build a function from the ground up — you’re energised by defining how things should work, not just following an established path

• Genuine curiosity about HR technology, employee benefits, and the role AI is playing in reshaping how companies support their people

If you don’t meet every requirement but feel this role fits your trajectory, we’d still love to hear from you.

What to expect

Happl is growing fast, and the pace reflects that. You’ll be working on things that don’t have established answers yet, building processes that don’t exist, making decisions with incomplete information, and iterating quickly when things change. That’s not a caveat; it’s the nature of building something totally new.

Some weeks will be brilliant. Some will be genuinely hard. Customer needs will evolve, priorities will shift, and you’ll occasionally be asked to figure out something nobody at Happl has had to figure out before. You’ll need to be resilient, resourceful, and direct, with customers, with the team, and with yourself when something isn’t working.

What you’ll get in return is real. The access, influence, and ownership available here wouldn’t exist in a larger company. Your work will be visible, your ideas will land, and the people around you will be talented, motivated, and invested in doing something that matters. If you’re energised by the challenge of building (not just operating) you’ll find a lot to love about working here.

Why join Happl

• Be part of building something that really matters — the future of how companies support their people

• Competitive salary and that reflects the impact you’ll have

• Real equity — a meaningful stake in what we’re building together

• Hybrid working from day one, with the trust and flexibility to do your best work

• Your own Happl account — use the platform you’re helping to build and shape

• Private Health Insurance, because we care about how you’re doing

• Dental insurance

• A personal Wellbeing budget to spend however wellbeing works for you — no questions asked

• A dedicated L&D budget to grow in the direction that excites you

• Pension from day one — we’re invested in your future, not just the short term

Additional Details

Location: London, Holborn

Team: Product

Working arrangement: Hybrid (3+ Days in Office)

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