Head of People Partnering

Summary

Join UpGuard's People team as a People Partner, playing a key role in shaping a high-performance culture and delivering people strategies that scale with the business. Partner with global leaders to co-design team structures, enable performance, and guide them through change. Use data to spot risks and drive key moments in the employee lifecycle, ensuring a seamless experience. Embed high-quality practices for employee relations and performance development, working closely with the VP, People. Champion UpGuard's global culture and values, embedding DEIB principles. Work with EOR partners to support compliant experiences across the globally distributed team. Shape the future of work at UpGuard, where remote, high-performing, people-first teams thrive.

Requirements

• Proven experience leading People Partnering or senior HRBP teams in high-growth tech, SaaS, or remote-first environments—you thrive in pace and ambiguity
• A track record of delivering impactful company-wide programs that elevate how teams perform, grow, and lead
• Strong commercial acumen—you balance care and performance while keeping business outcomes in focus
• Confidence in influencing senior leaders, navigating tough conversations, and creating space for productive tension
• A proactive mindset—you don’t wait for issues; you anticipate, act early, and redesign the system if needed
• The ability to zoom out and think strategically while rolling up your sleeves to get things done—equal parts coach, operator, and builder
• A data-informed approach—you use insights to guide action, influence change, and track impact
• Experience working across borders, partnering with EORs, and navigating global compliance, especially in AU, India, the US, and the UK
• Excitement for leveraging AI to build scalable solutions, raise the bar, and show what great looks like

Responsibilities

• Lead and develop our People Partnering function—coaching the team to deliver high-impact, high-trust support to their business areas
• Turn our strategy into action—from co-designing team structures, and enabling performance, to guiding leaders through change and growth with confidence
• Spot risks before they become issues—using people and performance data to surface insights, shape initiatives, and measure impact
• Drive key moments in the team member lifecycle—performance reviews, compensation cycles, development planning—with People Ops to ensure a seamless experience
• Embed high-quality, consistent practices for employee relations and performance development—working closely with the VP, People, you’ll partner with leaders and business teams to get things right, early
• Be a calm, clear presence in complex situations, offering confident, pragmatic advice through ambiguity and growth
• Champion our global culture and values, and use every opportunity to embed DEIB into how we hire, grow, support, and celebrate our people
• Work closely with our EOR partners to support compliant, consistent experiences across our globally distributed team
• Play a key role in shaping the future of work at UpGuard, where remote, high-performing, people-first teams thrive

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience leading People Partnering in a 300+ person, global, remote-first company
• Built or scaled HRBP/People Partnering functions with operational and cultural excellence at the core
• Experience working with tools like Leapsome, Notion, Asana, Gemini/ChatGPT, BambooHR
• A creative mindset and a bias for action, you enjoy finding better ways to do things and then making them happen

Benefits

• Monthly Lifestyle subsidy: use this for financial, physical and mental wellbeing (all regions)
• WFH set-up allowance: to ensure you have the right environment to work in, we will help you get set up within your first 3 months at UpGuard (all regions)
• $1500 USD annual Learning & Development allowance: to support your career development all team members will be able to expense development opportunities against this allowance (all regions)
• Generous Annual Leave/PTO allowances: time to recharge your batteries (all regions)
• 18 weeks paid Parental Leave: irrespective of parenting role (all regions)
• Personal Leave allowance: this includes sick & carer’s leave (all regions)
• Fully remote working environment: whilst we have physical offices in Sydney & Hobart, we do not mandate compulsory attendance (all regions)
• Top-spec hardware: all team members will be provided with top-spec laptops for their role (all regions)
• Personal device security & online privacy protection subsidy: UpGuard provides team members with a paid subscription to personal device security & online privacy protection platform (all regions)