Head of People Partnership

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
• This role is on-site in El Segundo, CA
• 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

ITAR Requirements

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).