Associate Director, People Partner

New Engen; Seattle (WA); Hybrid; USD 130,000 - 170,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, Dental, Vision

401k - Employer match

HSA - Employer contributes

Flexible Vacation & PTO plan

Paid Maternity / Paternity

Paid Holidays

Hybrid work schedule

Laid back office environment

The coolest team ;)

Fun company events & off-sites

Job summary

New Engen is seeking an experienced HR leader to drive a scalable People function from Seattle. You will partner with senior leaders on organizational design, roles, and talent strategy to build strong teams and career paths.

You will lead HR Business Partners, shape leadership development, and align workforce planning with business priorities, while guiding change across a fast-moving agency environment.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of progressive HR experience in HRBP/People Strategy roles.
• Experience managing and developing HR Business Partners or other HR professionals.
• Demonstrated experience partnering with senior/executive leaders on complex org/talent decisions.
• Strong experience with organizational design, workforce planning, job design, job architecture, or career frameworks.
• Experience designing or leading company-wide talent programs (performance mgmt, talent reviews, succession, career development, leadership development).
• Strong business acumen and ability to connect People strategy to business priorities and outcomes.
• Ability to move between high-level strategy and practical execution.
• Coaching and influencing skills; navigate competing perspectives.
• Comfort operating in ambiguity and creating structure where playbooks may not exist.
• Experience in agency/professional services/tech or fast-moving matrixed org is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Lead our HR Business Partner function and develop trusted, proactive advisors.
• Manage and coach a team of HR Business Partners and set partnership strategy.
• Shape compensation and workforce design through organizational design and career frameworks.
• Lead workforce planning, performance, succession, development, retention, and hiring integration.
• Own talent practices: performance management, talent reviews, succession, career development, and leadership development.
• Serve as a strategic partner to senior leadership on organizational and talent decisions.
• Lead company-wide People initiatives with cross-functional impact.
• Coordinate People strategy with compensation, benefits, HR systems, and policies.

Skills

HRBP experience

Talent planning

Organizational design

Career frameworks

Leadership development

Analytical skills

Stakeholder management

Coaching

Experience with fast-moving orgs

Education

Bachelor's degree in HR, Business, Organizational Development, or related field

Job description

WHY NEW ENGEN?

At New Engen, we help brands grow-not just bigger, but smarter. We're a digital marketing agency built to drive meaningful impact across the entire customer journey, blending media, creative, analytics, influencer, and retail strategies into performance-driven campaigns.

Some clients partner with us through long-term agency relationships. Others tap into specialized solutions - like Donut Studios, our in-house creative studio for platform-native and short-form content, or Acorn Creator Suite, our influencer marketing solution built for retail impact. While each solution brings its own focus and flavor, they're all part of how we deliver for our clients, together, as one team.

We're a collaborative group of strategists, creatives, analysts, and makers who are all in on helping brands—and each other—thrive. We work hard, stay humble, and build with purpose.

What You'll Do

Lead Our People Partnership Strategy

Lead and develop our HR Business Partner function, ensuring our People Partners operate as trusted, proactive advisors who understand the business and help leaders make strong decisions about their teams.

You'll manage and coach a team of HR Business Partners, set the strategy and expectations for how we partner with the business, and help elevate the function from solving individual people challenges to identifying patterns, anticipating needs, and shaping broader organizational strategy.

Shape How We Design Roles & Organizations

Partner with senior leaders on organizational design, job design, and workforce strategy. You'll help us answer questions like: What capabilities do we need? How should teams be structured? Where should accountability sit? What does meaningful career progression look like?

You'll own and evolve frameworks around job structure, role clarity, leveling, career paths, and organizational design, creating greater consistency in how we build teams across New Engen.

Drive Workforce & Talent Planning

Lead our approach to workforce and talent planning, partnering with leaders to understand where the business is headed and what talent, capabilities, and organizational structures we'll need to get there.

You'll help connect workforce planning, performance, succession, development, retention, and hiring into a more cohesive talent strategy.

Build Scalable Talent Practices

Own and evolve company-wide talent practices, including performance management, talent reviews, succession planning, career development, and manager effectiveness.

Rather than simply administering programs, you'll continually evaluate whether our People practices are helping the business make better talent decisions and evolve them as our organization changes.

Be a Strategic Partner to Senior Leadership

Serve as a trusted advisor to senior leaders on complex organizational and talent decisions.

You'll bring together business context, people data, organizational insights, and strong judgment to help leaders navigate change, build effective teams, develop talent, and solve organizational challenges.

You'll also serve as a senior escalation point for complex or high-impact employee matters, partnering closely with our HR Business Partners and other members of the People team.

Lead Company-Wide People Initiatives

Partner closely with the Director of People to identify and lead strategic People initiatives that support New Engen's broader business priorities.

You'll take complex or ambiguous organizational challenges and turn them into clear strategies, frameworks, and programs that can scale across the company.

This could include work across organizational effectiveness, career architecture, leadership development, workforce strategy, performance, talent mobility, change management, and other evolving business needs.

Connect People Strategy Across the Function

Work closely with our People Operations to ensure our talent strategies connect effectively with compensation, benefits, HR systems, policies, and People operations.

You'll help ensure that the employee experience feels cohesive even when different areas of the People team own different parts of it.

What You Bring

• 8+ years of progressive HR experience, with significant experience in an HR Business Partner, People Partner, People Strategy, Talent, or organizational effectiveness role
• Experience managing and developing HR Business Partners or other experienced People professionals
• Demonstrated experience partnering with senior and executive leaders on complex organizational and talent decisions
• Strong experience with organizational design, workforce planning, job design, job architecture, or career frameworks
• Experience designing or leading company-wide talent programs such as performance management, talent reviews, succession planning, career development, or leadership development
• Strong business acumen and the ability to connect People strategy to business priorities and outcomes
• Ability to move comfortably between high-level strategy and practical execution
• Strong coaching and influencing skills, including the ability to challenge leaders thoughtfully and navigate competing perspectives
• Comfort operating in ambiguity and creating structure where a clear playbook may not yet exist
• Strong analytical instincts and the ability to use people data and business context to identify trends and inform decisions
• Experience leading organizational change or other complex, cross-functional initiatives
• Experience in an agency, professional services, technology, or similarly fast-moving and matrixed organization is a plus
• Talent Acquisition or recruiting leadership experience is a plus, but not required
• Bachelor's degree in HR, Business, Organizational Development, or a related field preferred; advanced degree or HR certification is a plus

LOCATION

This is a hybrid role based in our Seattle office. We believe this role is most effective with regular in-person partnership and collaboration with leaders and the broader New Engen team.

Perks & Benefits

• Medical, Dental, Vision, Short/Long-Term Disability, Life/AD&D
• 401k - Employer match
• HSA - Employer contributes
• Flexible Vacation & PTO plan
• Paid Maternity / Paternity
• Paid Holidays
• Hybrid work schedule
• Laid back office environment
• The coolest team ;)
• Fun company events & off-sites

Salary Range: $130,000 - $170,000 annually

Compensation for each opportunity is determined based on the applicable labor market, the scope and structure of the role or engagement, and the individual’s qualifications and experience.

New Engen is proud to have offices in Seattle, New York, and Northwest Arkansas, each one anchoring teams that drive creativity, collaboration, and culture. But great work isn’t limited to those zip codes. We also support a distributed team of remote employees across the country, giving people the flexibility to do their best work wherever they are.

We currently hire full-time employees in the following states: Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin