Lead People Partner

<p>We’re a global team of over 400 people, working together to push the boundaries of open-source technology and multi-cloud solutions. Our vision is to help developers, builders, and creators bring their ideas to life with speed and simplicity, by providing a cloud data platform that makes open-source databases, search, streaming, and application infrastructure easily accessible to everyone. </p> <h2>The Role</h2> <p>As Lead People Partner, you will collaborate with the CPTO and their leadership team to build talent-dense organisations, plan ahead for the talent they need, and make sure Aiven's people strategy actually shows up in how the function runs.</p> <p>You're not just implementing what the People team designs. You help shape what it is, then make it land in your function in a way that works. You're also a senior voice on what the People function builds and prioritises across the company.</p> <p>Leaders treat you as a peer who challenges and supports them, not as someone who runs HR processes on their behalf.</p> <h2>What You'll Do</h2> <ul> <li><strong>Exec advisory</strong>: Act as a strategic advisor to your C-suite and VP-level leaders. Shape how they build their organisations, manage and develop their top talent, and retain the people they can't afford to lose.</li> <li><strong>People strategy for your functions</strong>: Co-create the people strategy for your functions with functional leadership. Understand the business well enough to know what's needed, and push back when the ask isn't the right answer.</li> <li><strong>Talent density</strong>: Set the standard for how talent density is built and maintained in your functions, through 9-box, career frameworks, stay interviews, and succession planning. Keep an honest, current view of where the organisation is strong, where it's thin, and what needs to change.</li> <li><strong>Manager accountability</strong>: Drive the shift to managers owning their people outcomes instead of leaning on HR, ensuring managers have the skills, tools, and expectation to handle it themselves.</li> <li><strong>Total rewards, levelling, and DEI:</strong> Own total rewards alignment and levelling consistency across your functions. Champion diversity at senior leadership level, in how promotions, succession, and hiring decisions get made.</li> <li><strong>Workforce planning</strong>: Think 6–12 months ahead with your functional leaders on headcount, capability, and team shape. Lead the headcount planning squads with the functional Guilds (TA and FP&A).</li> <li><strong>AI-first behaviours</strong>: Sponsor AI-native career frameworks in your functions, and drive AI-first behaviours in how your functional leaders and their teams work.</li> <li><strong>Collaborate with wider People team:</strong> When a people product needs to be built, company-wide or specific to your function, you’ll influence and collaborate with the wider people team, bring the functional insight, frame the problem, and stay involved as the work develops.</li> <li><strong>Raising the team</strong>: Mentor and coach junior and mid level People Partners, and help the whole team produce better work, not just your own patch.</li> <li><strong>Company-wide influenc</strong>e: Be a key voice in what the People function prioritises and builds across the business, bringing the perspective of the functions you support.</li> </ul> <h2>What We're Looking For</h2> <ul> <li>Proven experience as a senior HR/People Business Partner operating at executive level, ideally supporting C-suite and VP-level leaders directly.</li> <li>A track record of building high-density organisa