Lead People Business Partner

About Handshake

Handshake is building the career network for the AI economy, backed by the largest and most trusted job network on the internet. As the only three-sided job marketplace connecting 18 million knowledge workers, 1,500 educational institutions, and 1 million employers, Handshake powers career discovery, hiring, and upskilling—from first internships to full-time roles, freelance work to gig work, and beyond.

Founded in 2014, we’ve built the most trusted platform for early talent—owning the college-to-career market and powering nearly every career center. Today we’re building on that foundation to help students and early professionals upskill or reskill for the future.

Now’s a great time to join Handshake. Here’s why:

• Category Leader: Over 92% coverage across US universities & 77% of total US university student population.
• Proven Market Demand: Deep employer partnerships across Fortune 500s and the world’s leading AI research labs.
• World-Class Team: Leadership from Scale AI, Open AI, xAI, Notion, Coinbase, and Palantir, just to name a few.
• Capitalized & Scaling: $434M raised with a $175M run rate.
  
  

About The Role

We’re looking for a high-impact Lead People Business Partner. This role is for someone who thrives as a strategic operator and wants to help scale a performance-driven, mission-aligned organization.

You’ll partner closely with senior leaders across the business, serving as a sounding board, challenger, and architect of our talent strategy. This isn’t a support function, it’s an embedded, high-trust role where you’ll influence how we design orgs, assess performance, enable leaders, and raise the talent bar.

• Partner closely with senior leaders to shape org design, workforce planning, and team effectiveness as the business scales
• Drive rigorous performance management ensuring clarity of expectations, timely feedback, and decisive action on both high and low performance
• Coach senior leaders and managers through organizational growth, leadership development, and team evolution
• Translate business needs into actionable people strategies across the talent lifecycle
• Lead the execution of core People program including compensation reviews, feedback cycles, and organizational changes in close partnership with COEs
• Use data, tools, and feedback to assess what’s working, spot issues early, and inform decisions that improve the employee experience
• Continuously evaluate and evolve our People practices to ensure they scale effectively and align with Handshake’s mission and pace
  
  

Desired Capabilities

• Bring 8 years of progressive HR experience, including 4 years as an HRBP/People Partner in high-growth, fast-paced environments
• Approach talent with a first-principles mindset - not defaulting to the same playbooks, but designing better ones for the context
• Communicate clearly and strategically, with the ability to synthesize complex org dynamics and influence executive decisions
• Comfortable with hard conversations and operating with empathy, urgency, and a bias for action
• View HR as a strategic multiplier for scaling teams, improving performance, and driving business results
  
  

Perks

Handshake delivers benefits that help you feel supported—and thrive at work and in life.

The below benefits are for full-time US employees.

🎯 Ownership: Equity in a fast-growing company

💰 Financial Wellness: 401(k) match, competitive compensation, financial coaching

🍼 Family Support: Paid parental leave, fertility benefits, parental coaching

💝 Wellbeing: Medical, dental, and vision, mental health support, $500 wellness stipend

📚 Growth: $2,000 learning stipend, ongoing development

💻 Remote & Office: Stipends for home office setup, internet, commuting, and free lunch/gym in our SF office

🏝 Time Off: Flexible PTO, 15 holidays 2 flex days, winter #ShakeBreak where our whole office closes for a week!

🤝 Connection: Team outings & referral bonuses

Explore our mission, values, and comprehensive US benefits at joinhandshake.com/careers.