HR Business Partner

As the company scales, success increasingly depends not just on research excellence, but on building people systems that let teams move fast without tripping over process gaps, inconsistent manager practices, or preventable compliance risk.

Success in this role looks like a People partnership that “just works” across both our hourly operations teams and our R&D teams: managers get crisp guidance, employees get consistent answers, and high-risk issues are prevented rather than cleaned up later.

The Team

This role sits within the People team, and is the dedicated HRBP for Operations plus our core R&D functions (Research, Hardware, Engineering). It works cross-functionally with leaders across those orgs, People Ops (policy/HRIS), Recruiting, Payroll, Finance, and Legal/external counsel.

There is no narrow lane: the mandate is to flex between day-to-day HR execution and higher-leverage business partnering, ensuring that our practices scale appropriately for both hourly and exempt populations.

In This Role You Will

- Own the end-to-end HRBP partnership for Operations, Research, Hardware, and Engineering: be embedded with leaders, bringing structure, judgment, and speed to people decisions.

- Drive org health and execution for R&D: partner with Research/Hardware/Engineering leaders on org design, talent planning, role clarity, team health, and change management as we scale.

- Run performance management support and the review cycle: set expectations, coach managers on feedback and documentation, facilitate calibrations, and ensure consistent standards across teams and levels.

- Partner on compensation and internal mobility: support promotions, transfers, raises, bonuses, and leveling decisions with fairness, market awareness, and clear documentation.

- Own hourly compliance and guardrails: timekeeping/clock-in-out practices, meal/rest compliance, attendance and leave administration, and manager behaviors that create or reduce wage/hour risk; partner with Payroll/Legal on audits and corrections.

- Streamline onboarding and offboarding across employee types (operators, technicians, engineers/researchers): align stakeholders (Ops/Recruiting/IT/Payroll), build checklists and comms, and ensure compliance diligence (I-9s, background checks, required trainings).

- Serve as first-line triage for benefits, leave, and immigration questions (plan coverage, life events, parental/disability leave, visas/transfers): coordinate with brokers/carriers and counsel so employees get fast, accurate answers and leaders are not bottlenecked.

- Build manager enablement and policy implementation: deliver management training for warehouse shift leads and first-time managers across the company; keep the handbook and policies current and workable (PTO/holidays by population, trainings, safety reporting), partnering with Anna and Legal for light legal execution.

What We Hope You’ll Bring

- 4+ years in an HRBP / People Partner role supporting high-performing technical orgs (Engineering/Research) and/or operations/technician teams in a fast-growing environment.

- Strong foundational knowledge of California employment law and HR compliance basics (wage/hour, leaves, I-9, required trainings), and the judgment to know when to escalate to Legal.

- Hands-on employee relations experience: investigations, performance management, terminations, and creating documentation that stands up to scrutiny - with high empathy and low drama.

- Credible business partnership skills: ability to advise leaders on org design, role clarity, hiring plans, and team health; comfortable influencing without authority.

- Operational excellence: you can design and run repeatable people programs (onboarding/offboarding, case management, training completion tracking, policy rollouts) with high reliability.

- Comfort partnering with Payroll and Benefits (plan changes, life events) and with immigration counsel/vendors (visa processing, compliance) without becoming a bottleneck.

- A pragmatic, high-credibility coaching style for managers at all levels - from shift leads to senior IC/manager populations - with clear expectations and strong follow-through.

- Exceptional written and verbal communication, discretion, and integrity: you keep stakeholders aligned, deliver sensitive messages with care, and operate with high trust.

Bonus Points If You Have

- Experience as an HRBP in an R&D-heavy environment (robotics, hardware, labs) where roles evolve quickly and leaders need real-time guidance.

- Experience scaling HR practices for an hourly workforce (warehouse/field) including wage/hour risk controls, timekeeping practices, and audit readiness.

- Experience building career ladders and performance frameworks for both operators/technicians and engineers (levels, expectations, calibration rhythms).

- Familiarity coordinating immigration and global mobility workflows (visas, transfers, vendor/counsel management).

- Experience building manager training programs (first-time manager, shift lead) and measuring adoption/outcomes (training completion, incident rates, escalation volume).