People business partner lead

About Watershed

Watershed is a software platform for running a world-class climate program. We measure our success in the carbon reduction achievements of our customers. We are looking for team members who love product-building, want to work hard at a mission-oriented startup, and will collaborate with us in shaping the culture of a growing team.

We have offices in San Francisco, New York and London and remote team members across the US and Europe. We hope that you’ll be interested in joining us!

The role

Building an excellent team is a critical driver of Watershed’s success. As our first People business partner you’ll shape how our People org functions, define best practices, and develop a strategy for how we support the business. One of our operating principles is operate at the intersection of intensity & care. In addition to traditional People Partner responsibilities, you’ll create early programs, practices and policies that will help support this principle, shape our People philosophy and approach to drive the business.

You will:

• Build and instill the expectation of managerial excellence from leadership
• Coach and advise managers on creating and developing great teams and people
• Create L&D opportunities to develop managers (until we build an L&D function)
• Promote a positive environment that is inclusive and high performing
• Coach leaders on talent planning, org design, retention strategies, and change management
• Partner with the People team to evolve our performance review program to emphasize recognition and development
• Create foundational people practices and policies that will guide Watershed’s approach on how we motivate, engage and treat people
• Partner with the People Operations team on HR and compliance initiatives
• Partner closely with other members of the people, workplace and recruiting teams on company wide initiatives

You have: 

• 8+ years experience as a People Partner
• Experience working at fast growing companies and comfort with ambiguity
• Experience advising and coaching leaders at all levels
• A solutions oriented approach to problem solving
• Excellent written and verbal communication chops
• Desire and ability to be a player coach – everyone is a doer at Watershed!
• Collaborative working style
• Strong judgment and discretion
• Lead with empathy, move with speed

FAQ
What’s your approach to remote work?

Watershed is hiring team members on all US and EU time zones, and we’re committed to growing a long-term distributed team. We have hub offices in San Francisco, New York and London, and remote team members from Oregon to New Jersey to Ireland. There may be certain jobs that need to be in San Francisco / New York / London or certain locations, and will be specifically noted in the job description or in conversations.

What are Watershed’s return-to-office plans?

We reopened our San Francisco office in June 2021, and treasure the energy and collaboration that comes from working together in person. We’re particularly lucky to have a great rooftop outdoor space, where we can gather for lunch, one-on-one’s, and the occasional outdoor whiteboarding session. We’re also investing deeply to support remote as a first-class hub, with regular Zoom social times, an emphasis on transparency and written artifacts, and periodic offsites to gather everybody in person.

We’re a COVID-cautious company. The office is open to vaccinated team members and we’ll continue to pay close attention to case rates to ensure it’s safe for everybody.

What’s the interview process like?

It starts the same for every candidate: getting to know the team members through 1 to 2 conversations about Watershed, your experience, and your interests. Next steps can vary by role, but usual next steps are a skill or experience screen (e.g. a coding interview for an engineer, a portfolio review for a designer, deeper experience call for other roles) which leads to a (usually virtual) onsite interview after that if the screens go well. We prioritize transparency and lack of surprise throughout the process.

Diversity & Inclusivity:

CULTIVATE A DIVERSE TEAM — We strive to build a company where people from all backgrounds feel welcomed and empowered to lead and succeed.