Head of People Partnership

Varda Space Industries; El Segundo (CA); On-site; USD 175,000 - 225,000; Full time

Job summary

Varda Space Industries in El Segundo, CA, seeks a Senior People Partner to lead HR initiatives in a fast-growing hardware environment. You will coach executives, shape compensation strategy, and collaborate across Recruiting, Finance, and Systems to build a strong people foundation for rapid growth.

You will partner with four executives on leadership development, performance reviews, and promotions, using data-driven insights to guide decisions and scale the organization responsibly.

Qualifications

• 10+ years in HR with business partnering to engineering or hardware organizations.
• Deep compensation expertise and experience teaching leaders to apply it.
• Strong coaching skills, including with first-time managers and senior executives.
• Experience with talent reviews, calibration, and promotion decisions, with a bias toward outcomes.
• Credibility with technical leaders; be practical, direct, and useful.
• First-principles thinking, comfort with ambiguity, and self-direction to build without a roadmap.
• Skill at building relationships and aligning peers without formal authority.
• Experience in hardware, manufacturing, or deep tech is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Advise and coach leaders; partner with executive leadership on how they lead, organize, and grow.
• Talent evaluation; operationalize performance and support development and calibration.
• Compensation modeling; translate our philosophy into pay practices, including leveling, offers, and equity.
• Resolve conflict early; teach leaders to give direct feedback and de-escalate issues.
• Product mindset; start from first principles, ship small changes, measure impact and iterate.
• Collaborate across teams; align with peer functions to drive changes as one team.
• Use data and AI; analyze numbers to gain insights and inform decisions.

Job description

Low Earth orbit is open for business. Varda is accelerating the development of commercial space infrastructure, from in-orbit pharmaceutical processing to reliable and economical reentry capsules.Varda’s W-Series vehicles are built, designed, and operated by Varda in-house, including the pharmaceutical processing payloads, the capsules, the C-PICA heat shields, and the satellite buses.

From life-saving pharmaceuticals to more powerful fiber optics, there is a world of products used on Earth today that can only be manufactured in space. Varda is accelerating innovation in the orbital economy by creating both the products and infrastructure needed so space can directly benefit life on Earth. Our mission is to expand the economic bounds of humankind.

Our team is uniquely suited to accomplishing this goal, with leadership and staff comprised of veterans from SpaceX, Blue Origin, major pharmaceutical companies and Silicon Valley. Varda was founded in January 2021 by Will Bruey and Delian Asparouhov with significant backing from world class investors including Khosla Ventures, Lux Capital, Founders Fund, Caffeinated Capital, General Catalyst, and Also Capital.

Varda is headquartered in El Segundo, California, where we have offices and a production facility where our vehicles, equipment, and materials are built, integrated, and tested. Varda also has offices in Washington, DC and Huntsville, AL.

Join Varda, and work to create a bustling in-space ecosystem.

About This Role

Varda has grown to about 300 people and with significant growth ahead we are hiring our first dedicated people partner. You will be a trusted advisor to our Executive Leadership team, coaching and challenging them through rapid growth and change. You will work closely with your peers in Recruiting, Finance, and Systems/Analytics, to approach our people needs from a holistic, full-cycle, employee experience mindset.

This role is not set up for you. There is no existing function or playbook, and most leaders do not yet know the value of a People Partner. You will earn credibility by solving real problems and delivering results people can see.

What You'll Do

• Advise and coach leaders. Partner with our four executives and their leadership teams on how they lead, organize, and grow. Many of our managers are leading for the first time, so you will coach on feedback, delegation, and hard conversations.
• Talent evaluation. Operationalize performance so employees grow through outcomes, not effort. Partner in talent reviews and calibration, advise on development and succession, and guide pay and promotion decisions rooted in strong performance.
• Compensation modeling. Build our compensation philosophy into day-to-day practices, guiding through changes as the market shifts. Develop leadership understanding of pay, leveling, offers, promotions, and equity.
• Resolve conflict early. Teach leaders to give direct feedback and de-escalate situations before they become employee relations issues. This is yours end to end.
• Product mindset. Start from first principles, question everything, ship small, and measure what works, iterate and deliver again.
• Collaborate across teams. Align with peer functions so everyone drives changes as one team, in the same direction, toward the same horizon line.
• Use data and AI. Sharpen your point of view with real numbers, measure impact, understand the insights and what is missing. Use AI to deliver smarter, easier and faster.

Why Varda?

• Build the Future: Varda is building a new technology and a new market, help create the people foundation so our vision becomes reality .
• Solve Hard Problems: Create capability within the organization that directly enables the company manifest.
• Ownership & Impact: Join a fast-growing, passionate team where your work directly shapes the future of space and humanity.

What You Bring

• 10+ years in HR, including business partnering to engineering or hardware organizations. Experience as a first or founding HR hire is strongly preferred.
• Deep compensation expertise and experience teaching leaders to apply it.
• Strong coaching skills, including with first-time managers and senior executives.
• Experience with talent reviews, calibration, and promotion decisions, with a bias toward outcomes.
• Credibility with technical leaders. You are practical, direct, and useful.
• First-principles thinking, comfort with ambiguity, and the self-direction to build without a roadmap.
• Skill at building relationships and aligning peers without formal authority.
• Experience in hardware, manufacturing, or deep tech is a plus.

Compensation & Location

• Salary Range: $175,000 - $225,000/per year
• Leveling and base salary is determined by job-related skills, education level, experience level, and job performance
• You will be eligible for incentives in the form of stock options and/or long-term cash awards

Varda, like all employers, must ensure that its employees working in the United States are lawfully authorized to work in the U.S. Additionally, our employees are exposed to and have access to certain export-controlled items. Because our employees are provided access to export-controlled items, our policy is to only hire “U.S. persons” who are permitted to have access to our technology without an export license. “US person” means: U.S. citizen, U.S. lawful permanent resident, or protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3) (i.e., individual admitted to the U.S. as a refugee or granted asylum).

E-Verify Statement

Varda Space Industries, Inc. participates in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security E-Verify program. The E-Verify program is an Internet-based employment eligibility verification system operated by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Learn more about the E-Verify program.

Varda Space Industries is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. Candidates and employees are always evaluated based on merit, qualifications, and performance. We will never discriminate on the basis of race, color, gender, national origin, ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, martial status, mental or physical disability, or any other legally protected status.