HR Business Partner R&D

HR Business Partner, R&D

Location: Palo Alto, CA (3 days in office)

We are seeking an experienced HR Business Partner, R&D to partner with managers across Engineering, Product, Design, and Customer Support to strengthen manager capability, build high-performing teams, and drive business and talent outcomes.

This hands-on role focuses on manager coaching, performance management, compensation planning, organizational health, and people program execution. As a trusted advisor, you will help managers navigate complex people decisions, improve team performance, and build the capabilities required to achieve business objectives.  You will diagnose organizational challenges, identify opportunities and translate them into practical, high-impact people solutions. You will also help shape the future of HR business partnering by leveraging AI and agentic workflows to improve decision quality, expand HRBP leverage, enhance manager support, and deliver scalable people solutions.

This role is designed for a highly accountable HRBP who thrives in a high-velocity environment, takes ownership of outcomes, has strong bias for action, proactively solves problems, and continuously improves how work gets done.  The ideal candidate combines the judgment of a trusted advisor, the execution rigor of an operator, and the mindset of a builder.

Scope of Impact

Business Partnership

• Build trusted partnerships with managers and leaders across supported R&D organizations, serving as a credible advisor on talent, organization, and people-related decisions.
• Translate business objectives into practical solutions that enable organizational effectiveness.
• Balance business priorities, employee experience, and long-term organizational implications when advising managers
• Proactively identify organizational risks, capability gaps, talent concerns, and workforce trends, and drive recommendations that improve business outcomes.

Manager & Leadership Capability

• Advise first-line and mid-level managers on people leadership, performance management, employee development, engagement, organizational health, and team effectiveness.
• Identify capability gaps and implement targeted interventions that strengthen manager effectiveness and team performance.
• Coach managers through challenging employee situations, difficult conversations, performance concerns, organizational change, and development planning.
• Provide guidance on HR policies, processes, and people practices while reinforcing broader organizational considerations.
• Deliver manager enablement and leadership development initiatives that improve effectiveness and consistency at scale.

Performance, Talent Management and Compensation 

• Own execution of annual people programs, including performance reviews, calibration discussions, talent reviews, and compensation planning, ensuring high-quality outcomes and strong manager engagement
• Coach managers through complex performance management decisions and strengthen performance expectations, accountability, and employee development practices.
• Identify talent, retention, succession, and capability risks and develop mitigation plans with managers 
• Partner on compensation decisions aligned with company philosophy and leverage workforce insights to improve decision quality.

HR Program Design, Execution & AI-Enabled Transformation

• Design, implement, scale, and improve people programs that enhance manager effectiveness and organizational outcomes.
• Simplify, automate, and redesign people processes with a focus on outcomes rather than digitizing legacy workflows.
• Champion AI, automation, and agentic workflows across HRBP work to improve decision quality, increase capacity, and deliver scalable people solutions and  impact beyond traditional human capacity.
• Deliver integrated HR solutions in partnership with the broader People team and identify innovative approaches that improve productivity, adoption, and effectiveness.

Organizational Health, Engagement & Development

• Advise leaders on organizational health, culture, and team effectiveness while strengthening the development, retention, and engagement of key talent.
• Use workforce sentiment, organizational insights, and people analytics to identify risks, diagnose challenges, and implement sustainable solutions.

Employee Relations

• Provide guidance and independently manage moderate to complex employee relations matters using sound judgment and risk assessment.
• Resolve employee concerns in partnership with managers and collaborate with Legal on sensitive, high-risk, or specialized matters.

How You Create Impact

• Translate complex business priorities into focused, executable people solutions.
• Influence decisions through expertise, credibility, and practical problem-solving.
• Demonstrate urgency, ownership, and follow-through while balancing strategic thinking with hands-on execution.
• Leverage data, organizational insight, and systems thinking to diagnose challenges and develop scalable solutions.
• Strengthen manager effectiveness through coaching, development, and enablement.
• Drive execution of talent, performance, compensation, and people programs that improve organizational outcomes.
• Navigate employee relations and performance matters with sound judgment and appropriate risk assessment.
• Leverage AI, automation, and agentic workflows to increase impact, productivity, and scale while maintaining an enterprise mindset.

What Success Looks Like

• Be known for speed, ownership, sound judgment, and turning ambiguous people challenges into actionable solutions.
• Build trusted advisor relationships with managers who proactively seek your guidance on critical talent and organizational decisions.
• Elevate manager capability, accountability, and team effectiveness across supported organizations.
• Deliver strong execution of performance, talent, compensation, and people programs that improve business outcomes.
• Anticipate organizational risks and continuously improve how people work is delivered through AI, automation, and scalable solutions.

Qualifications & Experience

• Required Qualifications: Minimum 8 years of progressive HR experience, including at least 3+ years as a People Partner or HR Business Partner, with a Bachelor's degree in Business, Human Resources, or a related field; or 6+ years of experience with a Master's degree.
• Preferred Qualifications: Experience supporting R&D client group

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