Director, People Business Partner

The Director, People Business Partner is a senior People leader responsible for shaping and operationalizing the People Business Partner model at Restaurant365. This role serves as a strategic advisor to executives and senior leaders, leads and guides the PBP team, and builds scalable processes, playbooks, and best practices that strengthen how People partners support the business. 

This leader will align workforce, talent, organization, and leadership strategies to business priorities across multiple functions and growth stages. The role is both strategic and hands-on—setting direction for the PBP function while also rolling up sleeves to directly support executives and critical client groups as needed. 

The Director will drive consistency, rigor, and measurable outcomes across workforce planning, organization design, talent management, performance, employee relations, compensation partnership, people analytics, and change leadership while helping R365 scale in a practical, people-centered way. 

PBP Function Leadership & Operating Model 

• Lead, coach, and develop the People Business Partner team, setting clear expectations, priorities, and service standards. 

• Build, refine, and operationalize the PBP model, including core processes, playbooks, tools, templates, and best practices that improve consistency, quality, and scale. 

• Establish team operating rhythms for workforce planning, talent reviews, organizational changes, performance cycles, and executive partnership. 

• Guide PBPs on complex business, talent, and employee matters while elevating overall capability, judgment, and partnership across the team. 

• Partner across the People Team to ensure strong alignment among PBPs, People Operations, Talent Acquisition, Total Rewards, Learning & Experience, and Legal. 

Executive Partnership & Business Support 

• Serve as the strategic People advisor to assigned executives and senior leaders, translating business priorities into practical people strategies and actions. 

• Roll up sleeves to directly support executive leaders and client groups as needed, particularly during business-critical moments, leadership transitions, restructures, or gaps in coverage. 

• Use strong business acumen, data, and judgment to advise on organizational effectiveness, talent needs, team design, leadership capability, and employee experience. 

• Build trusted relationships with leaders and provide direct, thoughtful coaching on performance, leadership, team health, and change. 

Workforce, Talent & Organization 

• Lead workforce planning efforts with leaders and FP&A to align headcount, capabilities, and organizational structure with company strategy and budgets. 

• Partner on organization design, role clarity, leveling, job architecture, and position management to support growth, efficiency, and scale. 

• Drive talent management processes including performance reviews, talent assessment, succession planning, leadership development, and career growth. 

• Partner with leaders to identify organizational risks, capability gaps, retention concerns, and development priorities, and turn those insights into action. 

• Support global and evolving business needs, including organizational changes tied to new functions, international growth, or Mexico operations, as applicable. 

Employee Relations, Risk & Change Leadership 

• Act as a senior escalation point for complex and sensitive employee relations matters, balancing business needs, employee experience, and risk. 

• Guide leaders and PBPs on investigations, performance matters, corrective action, leaves, accommodations, policy interpretation, and sensitive employment decisions. 

• Ensure People practices and decisions align with company policy and applicable employment laws and are applied thoughtfully and consistently. 

• Lead the people side of change initiatives, restructures, leadership transitions, and process improvements with clear communication and sound change management. 

Analytics, AI & Operational Excellence 

• Leverage Workday, people analytics, AI, and automation tools to improve insight, speed, and consistency in HR business partnering work. 

• Identify repeatable workflows that can be simplified, standardized, or automated across the PBP model, including reporting, documentation, communications, and knowledge management. 

• Define and monitor key people metrics to inform decisions and measure impact across talent, organization, and workforce outcomes. 

• Sets and ensures responsible use of AI and automation in HR workflows with guardrails and appropriate attention to privacy, data quality, bias mitigation, and good judgment in alignment with R365 AI guidelines. 

• 12–15+ years progressive Human Resources/People experience, with significant time as a strategic HR/People Business Partner supporting senior leaders in matrixed, high‑growth organizations; experience in SaaS and/or pre‑IPO environments strongly preferred. 

• 5+ years of people leadership experience, including directly managing and developing HR/People Business Partner teams and/or HR centers of expertise. 

• Proven success building and scaling HRBP/PBP processes, operating models, and best practices that improve effectiveness, consistency, and business impact. 

• Strong experience partnering with executives on workforce planning, organization design, leadership effectiveness, talent strategy, performance management, and organizational change. 

• Demonstrated ability to operate as both a strategic leader and hands-on business partner, with a willingness to step in directly where needed. 

• Strong employee relations capability and sound judgment in managing sensitive and complex people matters. 

• Experience partnering on compensation matters, including market alignment, promotions, and variable or sales incentive plans. 

• Strong analytical, systems-thinking, and problem-solving skills, with the ability to use data to shape recommendations and decisions. 

• Demonstrated experience using AI, automation, and digital tools to improve HR workflows, efficiency, and quality of work. 

• Strong understanding of employment law, HR practices, and risk management principles. 

• Excellent communication, coaching, and executive presence with the ability to influence leaders at all levels. 

• Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources, Business, or related field, or equivalent experience. 

• SPHR, SHRM-SCP, or similar certification preferred. 

• Proficiency with Workday, HRIS tools, Microsoft Office, people analytics/reporting tools, and AI-enabled productivity platforms. 

• Ability to travel up to ~10–15% based on business needs (e.g., key leadership meetings, onsite support for major changes, Mexico office visits). 

Core Competencies 

• HR Knowledge and Expertise – Deep, current understanding of HR/People practices and employment law, and when to bring in specialists. 

• Strategic Business Acumen – Connects People strategy to business priorities, SaaS metrics, and financial outcomes. 

• Customer Focus & Stakeholder Partnership – Anticipates leader and employee needs; delivers practical solutions and high‑quality partnership. 

• Analytical & Critical Thinking – Uses data, insight, and systems perspective to diagnose problems and design sustainable solutions. 

• Builds Relationships, Trust & Credibility – Seen as a trusted advisor who can give honest, direct feedback that leaders act on. 

• Social Agility & Influence – Navigates complex, matrixed environments and drives alignment across diverse stakeholders. 

• Collaborative & Inclusive – Champions inclusion, psychological safety, and diverse perspectives in decision‑making. 

• Change Leadership & Organizational Design – Leads through ambiguity and complexity; designs structures and processes that enable growth. 

• Effective Communicator & Coach – Communicates with clarity and empathy; coaches leaders and PBPs to higher performance. 

• Digital Fluency, AI & Automation – Comfortably adopts, experiments with, and scales digital, AI, and automation tools in HR workflows while ensuring responsible, ethical, and inclusive use. 

• Proactive & Results‑Driven – Takes initiative, drives accountability, and delivers measurable outcomes for the business and employees.