HR Business Partner

Headway; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Headway is hiring an exceptional HR Business Partner to support our growing Engineering organization in New York City. This high-visibility role partners with HR leadership and Engineering leadership to build scalable people strategies, programs, and policies.

You will shape talent planning, performance management, and leadership development while leveraging data-driven insights and collaborating with Centers of Excellence to support the entire lifecycle.

Qualifications

• 5–8 years of progressive HRBP or HR-adjacent/generalist experience in high-growth environments.
• Independently partner with business leaders and elevate initiatives.
• Data-driven with qualitative and quantitative signals to surface insights.
• Build trust with managers through candor and accountability.
• Strong grounding in core HR processes: performance, org design, talent development.
• Thrives in fast-paced settings with ownership and discipline.
• Comfort using AI tools in day-to-day work with engineering leaders on AI transformation.

Responsibilities

• Strategic Business Partnership: Translate business priorities into people plans and elevate insights.
• Talent Strategy & Performance: Lead performance management and talent reviews; coach managers.
• Organizational Design & Effectiveness: Inform org structure decisions using headcount data.
• Coaching & Manager Development: Provide direct feedback to shift behavior and build capability.
• Analytical & Data-Driven Decision Making: Build and use people data; leverage AI to accelerate analysis.
• Operational Excellence: Own programs end-to-end from planning through execution.
• Cultural Stewardship & Employee Experience: Model Headway values and ensure fairness and inclusion.

Skills

HRBP experience

Data-driven decision making

Coaching & development

Organizational design

Cross-functional collaboration

AI in HR

Tools

People analytics tools

Job description

1 in 4 people in the US have a treatable mental health condition, but most providers don't accept insurance, making therapy too expensive for most people. Headway’s mission is to fix this by building a new mental healthcare system everyone can access. We started by solving the biggest barrier to care: insurance. The admin work - credentialing, claims, payment reconciliation - is a nightmare. We've automated that.

But we're going further. Over 75,000 providers across all 50 states run their practice on our software, serving over 1 million patients. We are building the best tools for therapists to run their entire practice, reimagining the experience of finding a therapist, and investing in the platform foundations to enable this at scale. We aren't just a billing layer; we are becoming the platform where care actually happens.

We're a Series D company with $325M+ in funding (a16z, Accel, Spark Capital, etc.), looking for exceptional people to help us achieve this mission. We want your time here to be the most meaningful experience of your career. Join us, and help change mental healthcare for the better.

About the Role

This role is located in our New York City office and is in person 2-days a week.

We're looking for an exceptional HR Business Partner to support our growing Engineering organization. This is a high-visibility, cross-functional role: you'll work closely with HR Business Partner leadership and Engineering leadership to build the people strategy, programs, and policies that let the org scale sustainably.

You’ll shape and execute people strategies that enable scale, strengthen leadership, and drive Olympic-level performance. You'll act as a trusted advisor and thought partner to managers and employees across the full HR lifecycle: providing counsel on organizational design, performance management, talent planning, and leadership development - balancing near-term priorities with long-term organizational health and cultural integrity. You’ll use data-driven insights and sound judgment to identify trends, influence decisions, and lead high-impact initiatives that elevate the employee experience, strengthen manager capability, and ensure our teams are empowered to perform at their best. This role also partners closely with our Centers of Excellence (Total Rewards & Compensation, People Ops, Legal, and Talent Acquisition) so the Engineering org has the support it needs across the entire lifecycle.

You Will:

• Strategic Business Partnership: Independently partner with leaders to translate business priorities into actionable people plans. Connect People programs to functional goals, surface patterns across your client group, and elevate insights that inform broader org thinking.

• Talent Strategy & Performance: Lead performance management and talent review processes with rigor and follow-through within the org. Coach people managers to set clear expectations, deliver feedback, and take early action on performance — building their confidence to lead with accountability.

• Organizational Design & Effectiveness: Partner with leaders to inform org structure decisions, clarify roles and decision rights, and support team health within your defined scope. Use headcount and workforce data to identify talent gaps and support scalable design.

• Coaching & Manager Development: Build trusted relationships with managers and deliver direct, actionable feedback that shifts behavior and builds capability. Reinforce Headway's cultural principles and managerial expectations through consistent coaching and follow-through.

• Analytical & Data-Driven Decision Making: Independently build and use people data — attrition, engagement, performance patterns — to surface insights and influence leadership action. Leverage AI tools to accelerate analysis, synthesize feedback at scale, and draft communications with speed and precision

• Operational Excellence: Own People programs and projects end-to-end within the org, from planning through execution and follow-through. Balance multiple workstreams without losing precision or quality.

• Cultural Stewardship & Employee Experience: Model and amplify Headway’s values and performance standards. Ensure fairness, inclusion, and consistency in decision-making. Surface patterns in sentiment and proactively strengthen engagement and trust.

You have:

• 5–8 years of progressive HRBP or HR adjacent/ generalist experience (e.g., Chief of Staff, Strategy, Consulting), with a track record of supporting senior executives in high-growth or scaling environments.

• Independently partner with business leaders — you don't wait to be told what's needed, and you know when to elevate and when to run with it.

• Are data-driven, using both qualitative and quantitative signals to surface insights and support decisions.

• Build genuine trust with managers through candor, follow-through, and sound judgment.

• Have solid grounding in core HR processes — performance management, org design, talent development — and execute them with rigor.

• Thrive in fast-paced environments where ownership, agility, and operational discipline are the expectation.

• Are curious about and comfortable using AI tools in your day-to-day work — you don't need to be technical, but you should be able to hold a credible conversation with engineering leaders about what AI transformation means for talent, skill gaps, and team design.

• Model Headway's cultural principles and hold a high bar for performance and accountability.

We believe a team's strength is in its people, and we cannot achieve this mission without a team that reflects the diversity of this problem – across race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, age, national origin, religion, family status, disability, military status, and experience. Headway is committed to the full inclusion of all qualified individuals. As part of this commitment, Headway will ensure that persons with disabilities are provided with reasonable accommodations. If reasonable accommodation is needed to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and/or receive other benefits and privileges of employment, please inform the recruiter when they contact you to schedule your interview.

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A notice to Headway applicants: To protect yourself against phishing and recruitment fraud, please note that Headway only accepts applications through our official careers page at https://headway.co/careers. Headway will never refer you to external websites, ask for payment or personal information, or conduct interviews via messaging apps. All official communication will come from a @findheadway.com email address. If you are contacted by someone claiming to be from Headway via an unofficial channel, please do not share any information and report it as spam.