Senior Employee Relations Partner

PowerToFly; Illinois; Hybrid; USD 112,000 - 168,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible work arrangements

Winter break

401(k) matching

Paid parental leave

Job summary

Relativity is seeking a Senior Employee Relations Specialist to act as a trusted advisor and lead complex investigations end-to-end. You will partner with Legal, HRBPs, and senior leadership to ensure defensible outcomes while scaling culture as the company grows.

The role emphasizes risk mitigation, governance, and strategic advisory across regions, with a focus on fair processes and documentation standards. A strong background in multi-state employment law is required.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of progressive HR experience with at least 3 years in employee relations or HR compliance.
• Demonstrated experience leading workplace investigations independently from intake through resolution.
• Working knowledge of multi-state employment law and regulatory compliance requirements.
• Strong written communication skills — able to produce clear, legally defensible documentation.

Responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end investigations into complex employee relations matters.
• Advise on high-risk performance cases, including PIPs and involuntary separations.
• Partner with Legal to manage risk, escalation thresholds, and compliance requirements.
• Ensure policies are applied consistently globally, accounting for regional legal and cultural differences.
• Coach managers on feedback delivery and documentation; provide real-time case consultation.
• Drive improvements to ER playbooks, templates, and workflows.

Skills

Employee relations

HR policy

HR strategy

HR analytics

Legal compliance

Investigation methods

Documentation

Tools

Workday

Rippling

Case management

Job description

Posting Type

Remote/Hybrid

Job Overview

The Employee Relations Specialist serves as a trusted advisor and practitioner responsible for navigating complex workplace matters with sound judgment, legal fluency, and a commitment to both people and organizational health. The Senior Employee Relations Specialist (Level 6) is a senior IC expert responsible for leading complex employee relations and performance management cases end-to-end, ensuring consistent, defensible, and equitable outcomes across the organization.

This role operates as a strategic partner to Sr. HRBPs, absorbing high-risk and high-complexity ER work while enabling HRBPs to focus on business strategy, talent decisions, and organizational effectiveness.

This role partners closely with HRBPs, Legal, and senior leadership to resolve issues swiftly and fairly while strengthening the company's culture as we scale.

Job Description and Requirements

Employee Relations & Investigations

• Lead end-to-end investigations into complex employee relations matters (e.g., misconduct, discrimination, retaliation, policy violations).
• Conduct structured interviews, assess credibility, synthesize evidence, and produce clear, legally defensible findings and recommendations.
• Partner closely with Legal to manage risk, escalation thresholds, and compliance requirements.
• Ensure consistent application of policies globally, accounting for regional legal and cultural differences.

Performance & Disciplinary Processes

• Advise on high-risk performance cases, including PIPs, coaching plans, and involuntary separations.
• Ensure performance processes follow structured, documented frameworks with clear expectations, timelines, and success metrics.
• Support differentiation between performance vs. capability vs. organizational/system issues in partnership with HRBPs.
• Drive consistency in disciplinary actions and ensure fairness across managers and teams.

Risk Mitigation, Compliance & Governance

• Act as a subject matter expert in employment law (multi-state and global) and internal policy frameworks.
• Ensure rigorous documentation standards and audit readiness across all ER and performance cases.
• Identify and mitigate legal, reputational, and employee experience risks before escalation.
• Own ER case governance, including escalation pathways and decision frameworks.

Manager & HRBP Advisory

• Coach managers on feedback delivery and documentation.
• Navigate difficult conversations.
• Determine when and how to elevate ER matters.
• Partner with Sr. HRBPs to align ER decisions with broader talent, calibration, and organizational outcomes.
• Provide real-time case consultation for ambiguous or sensitive situations.

Insights, Trends & Systemic Improvement

• Analyze ER case data to identify patterns by manager, function, or region.
• Identify recurring manager risk patterns.
• Identify policy gaps.
• Identify organizational friction points.
• Drive improvements to ER playbooks, templates, and workflows.

Capability Building & Enablement

• Design and deliver manager education on performance management rigor, documentation standards, bias mitigation, and fair process.
• Build scalable tools (templates, guides, intake frameworks) that improve quality and consistency of ER handling.
• Partner with HRBPs to elevate overall organizational capability in managing performance and ER proactively.

Decision Rights

• Recommend outcomes, risk mitigation strategies, and disciplinary actions.
• Own ER process integrity, case quality, and documentation standards.
• Escalate high-risk decisions to HRBPs, Legal, or leadership as appropriate.

Qualifications

Required

• 5+ years of progressive HR experience with at least 3 years in a dedicated Employee Relations or HR compliance role.
• Demonstrated experience leading workplace investigations independently from intake through resolution.
• Working knowledge of multi-state employment law and regulatory compliance requirements.
• Proven ability to manage sensitive, high-risk cases with discretion and sound judgment.
• Strong written communication skills — able to produce clear, legally-defensible documentation.

Preferred

• Experience in a global SaaS/technology, or pre-IPO company environment.
• Experience partnering with HRBPs in a global, matrixed organization.
• PHR, SPHR, SHRM-CP, or SHRM-SCP certification.
• Experience using HRIS platforms (Workday, Rippling, or similar) and case management tools.

Relativity is committed to competitive, fair, and equitable compensation practices.

This position is eligible for total compensation which includes a competitive base salary, an annual performance bonus, and long-term incentives.

The expected salary range for this role is between $112,000 and $168,000.

The final offered salary will be based on several factors, including but not limited to the candidate's depth of experience, skill set, qualifications, and internal pay equity. Hiring at the top end of the range would not be typical, to allow for future meaningful salary growth in this position.

Required Skills

Employee Relations, HR Business, HR Strategy, Human Resources Consulting, Leadership Training and Development, Organizational Development (OD), Recruiting, Succession Planning, Talent Management, Workforce Planning.

What Relativity Has to Offer

Relativity's software helps users organize data and quickly identify key issues during litigation, internal investigations, and compliance projects.

They offer employees great benefits like:

• Flexible work arrangements
• Winter break (office closed from Christmas through New Year's Day)
• 401(k) matching
• Paid parental leave