Director, Global HR Business Partner - R&D

About the role

DDN is building AI infrastructure and its R&D organization is growing fast. It is looking for a Director, Global HR Business Partner - R&D to partner directly with the Chief Product Officer and his leadership team across the entire R&D organization. The role owns the people and organizational agenda for R&D and sits within the CPO's leadership team. It is US-based but the organization is global, so success requires thinking globally and working closely with People leaders across regions.

Key responsibilities

• Own the people agenda for R&D globally, partnering with the CPO on organization design, workforce planning, talent strategy, leadership capability and investment priorities.
• Operate as part of the R&D leadership team, bringing a business point of view to decisions.
• Own performance and employee relations end-to-end, including early identification of underperformance, direct feedback and complex employee relations matters, partnering with Legal and regional People teams where needed.
• Shape the organization's structure, spans, layers, capabilities and roles, and advise on build, buy, develop or reorganize decisions.
• Coach executives and managers through growth, change, team effectiveness and difficult talent decisions.
• Help build DDN's People playbook by creating and improving global practices such as performance management, onboarding, manager enablement and talent reviews.
• Turn strategy into execution by breaking complex problems into workstreams and driving them to completion.
• Partner with regional People leaders to create a cohesive global approach, and connect with Talent Acquisition, Compensation, People Operations and regional teams.

Required profile

• Significant experience as a senior HR Business Partner or People Partner, ideally supporting Engineering, Product, R&D or another complex technical organization.
• Track record as a thought partner to senior executives and a contributor to leadership teams.
• Experience owning performance and employee relations matters from diagnosis through resolution.
• Experience in high-growth, transformation or 0 to 1 / 1 to 2 environments.
• Meaningful global experience driving a global agenda through regional People teams.
• Strong business curiosity and enough fluency in technical organizations to understand what the business is trying to accomplish.

Required skills

• Organization design, talent strategy, performance management and employee relations.
• Ability to turn ambiguity into a plan and drive projects through to completion; formal project management experience is welcome.
• Ability to connect talent issues to organization design, compensation, leadership and hiring.
• Confidence to respectfully challenge senior leaders when needed.