Senior People Partner (Engineering)

Lightning AI•San Francisco, CA

10h•$180,000 - $200,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Lightning AI is the company behind PyTorch Lightning. Founded in 2019, we build an end-to-end platform for developing, training, and deploying AI systems—designed to take ideas from research to production with less friction. Through our merger with Voltage Park, a neocloud and AI Factory, Lightning AI combines developer-first software with cost-efficient, large-scale compute. Teams get the tools they need for experimentation, training, and production inference, with security, observability, and control built in. We serve solo researchers, startups, and large enterprises. Lightning AI operates globally with offices in New York City, San Francisco, Seattle, and London, and is backed by Coatue, Index Ventures, Bain Capital Ventures, and Firstminute. You’re a strategic People Partner who improves how engineering organizations make people decisions as they scale. In this role, you’ll support our Engineering organization as a primary partner to senior technical leaders, bringing clarity, consistency, and strong judgment to org design, talent decisions, and complex people challenges. This role is not purely advisory. You will own high-impact situations end-to-end while helping leaders build the capability and systems needed to scale effectively. As a Technical People Partner at Lightning AI, you’ll join a small, high-impact team. This role combines strategic partnership with direct ownership across employee relations, performance, and scalable people operations in a distributed environment. You will be joining the People Team and report to our Head of People. This is a hybrid role based in our San Francisco office with in-office requirements of 2 days per week. The salary range for this role is $180,000-$200,000.

Requirements

8+ years of experience in People Partnering or HRBP roles, with significant experience supporting engineering or technical teams
Demonstrated success influencing senior technical leaders on org design, performance, and talent decisions
Strong employee relations judgment with proven ability to own and resolve complex, high-impact situations
Experience driving compensation, promotions, and leveling decisions in technical environments
Experience supporting globally distributed teams and navigating multi-country complexity
Comfort operating in fast-paced, ambiguous environments while building practical structure and clarity
Excellent communication and influencing skills across senior and highly technical audiences
Exposure to international employment models or global expansion work

Nice To Haves

Deep familiarity with engineering career frameworks and technical compensation models
Experience building or evolving people systems in scaling organizations
Experience supporting globally distributed engineering organizations
SPHR or comparable certification
Demonstrated success designing or improving compliance-focused programs that measurably reduce organizational risk

Responsibilities

Partner with Engineering leaders to drive clear, consistent decisions on org design, team structure, leveling, promotions, and compensation
Own complex employee relations and performance situations end-to-end, coaching leaders through performance management, role transitions, and exits
Build manager capability by improving how leaders give feedback, handle performance, and make talent decisions
Partner with Recruiting and Engineering to strengthen hiring quality through better role design, leveling, and evaluation practices
Identify friction or risk in people processes and implement pragmatic, scalable improvements in collaboration with cross-functional partners (Legal, Total Rewards, Finance)

Benefits

We offer competitive base salaries and equity with a 25% one year cliff and monthly vesting thereafter.
For our international employees, we work with our EOR to pay you in your local currency and provide equitable benefits across the globe.
Medical, dental and vision
Life and AD&D insurance
Flexible paid time off including winter closure
Paid family leave benefits
$500 one time home office stipend
$1,000 annual learning & development stipend
100% Citibike membership (NYC only)
$45/month gym membership
Additional various medical and mental health services