Sr. People Business Partner

Dive in and do the best work of your career at DigitalOcean. Journey alongside a strong community of top talent who are relentless in their drive to build the simplest scalable cloud. If you have a growth mindset, naturally like to think big and bold, and are energized by the fast-paced environment of a true industry disruptor, you’ll find your place here. We value winning together—while learning, having fun, and making a profound difference for the dreamers and builders in the world.

The Senior People Business Partner (Sr. PBP) operates as an embedded strategic partner within the Product & Technology business unit at Cloudways (DigitalOcean). As the primary backup to the Director of People, this role translates core People strategies into operational execution by partnering directly with the leadership of assigned unit. The Sr. PBP is responsible for driving organizational effectiveness, leading unit-level change initiatives, managing complex front-line employee relations, and ensuring high-impact talent decisions aligned with Cloudways and DigitalOcean priorities.

Operating Context & Strategic Evolution

In alignment with DigitalOcean’s re-imagined People Business Partnering model, the Sr. PBP role shifts focus from transactional execution toward high-value, strategic ownership:

• Strategic Business Partner: Acts as a primary architect for organizational health, leadership coaching, and talent growth.

• Domain Product Owner: Partners with People Centers of Excellence (COEs) to co-create strategic roadmaps across Talent Acquisition, Total Rewards, Talent Management, and AI Augmentation.

• Insightful Connector: Integrates analytics, external industry insights, and organizational feedback into business strategy while ensuring compliant, scalable people practices.

1. Strategic Business Partnership & Leadership Advisory

• Serve as a trusted advisor and coach to senior leadership of the assigned unit on organizational effectiveness, change management, leadership coaching, and high-stakes decision-making.

• Partner with business leaders to align people strategy with growth targets, ensuring the organization has the right skills, structures, and capabilities.

2. Organizational Design & Change Management

• Architect and champion organizational design initiatives to build leaner, optimized models—such as facilitating headcount shifts, managing structural changes, and implementing the Org Design Charter transition.

• Lead comprehensive change management and communication strategies for restructures, mapping impacts, anticipating resistance, and ensuring smooth team assimilation.

3. Talent Planning, Performance & Rewards

• Drive peak-season performance evaluation, calibration, and promotion review sessions at leadership levels, leveraging data-driven insights to ensure fair and evidence-based decisions.

• Partner with Compensation and leadership on annual compensation planning, equity audits, and talent mobility initiatives for high-performing tenured talent.

• Collaborate with Talent Acquisition to define hiring strategies, review senior candidates, and ensure hiring decisions support workforce planning.

4. Talent Risk Mitigation & Retention

• Proactively analyze signals (engagement data, compensation outliers, performance patterns) to identify attrition risks before they become resignations and deploy targeted retention strategies for mission-critical roles.

• Partner with leaders to manage complex underperformance cases at senior levels, structuring conversations, building