Head of People Partnership

Varda Space Industries•El Segundo, CA

8h•$175,000 - $225,000•Onsite

About The Position

Varda is hiring its first dedicated People Partner as the company grows from approximately 300 employees. The role will advise the Executive Leadership team and help leaders navigate rapid growth and change. Working with Recruiting, Finance, and Systems/Analytics peers, the position will support a holistic, full-cycle employee experience. This is a new function without an existing playbook. The successful candidate will build credibility by addressing practical organizational needs and delivering visible results. The role is on-site in El Segundo, California.

Requirements

10+ years of experience in HR, including business partnering with engineering or hardware organizations.
Deep compensation expertise and experience teaching leaders to apply compensation practices.
Strong coaching skills, including experience coaching first-time managers and senior executives.
Experience with talent reviews, calibration, and promotion decisions, with a focus on outcomes.
Credibility with technical leaders; a practical, direct, and useful approach.
First-principles thinking, comfort with ambiguity, and self-direction to build without an existing roadmap.
Ability to build relationships and align peers without formal authority.
Must be a U.S. person permitted to access export-controlled technology without an export license: a U.S. citizen, U.S. lawful permanent resident, or protected individual admitted as a refugee or granted asylum.

Nice To Haves

Experience as a first or founding HR hire is strongly preferred.
Experience in hardware, manufacturing, or deep tech.

Responsibilities

Advise and coach four executives and their leadership teams on leading, organizing, and growing their teams.
Coach managers, including first-time managers, on feedback, delegation, and difficult conversations.
Operationalize performance management so employee growth is based on outcomes; partner on talent reviews and calibration, advise on development and succession, and guide performance-based pay and promotion decisions.
Apply Varda’s compensation philosophy to day-to-day practices and guide leaders on pay, leveling, offers, promotions, and equity as market conditions change.
Help leaders provide direct feedback and resolve or de-escalate conflict early, owning this work end to end.
Apply a product mindset: start from first principles, test and measure approaches, iterate, and deliver improvements.
Collaborate with peer functions to align changes and work toward shared goals.
Use data to assess impact, identify insights and gaps, and use AI to deliver work more effectively and efficiently.