Sr. People Business Partner

Join DigitalOcean and contribute to building the simplest scalable cloud alongside a community of top talent driven by innovation and growth. If you thrive in a fast-paced, bold environment and embrace a growth mindset, this is the place for you. At DigitalOcean, collaboration, learning, and making a meaningful impact for creators and builders worldwide are core values. The Senior People Business Partner (Sr. PBP) role is embedded within the Product & Technology business unit at Cloudways (DigitalOcean) and serves as a strategic partner to leadership. Acting as the primary backup to the Director of People, this position translates people strategies into actionable plans, driving organizational effectiveness, managing complex employee relations, and supporting talent decisions aligned with company priorities.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Business Partnership & Leadership Advisory
Serve as a trusted advisor and coach to senior leaders on organizational effectiveness, change management, leadership development, and critical decision-making. Collaborate with business leaders to align people strategies with growth objectives, ensuring the right skills, structures, and capabilities are in place.

Organizational Design & Change Management
Lead organizational design initiatives to create leaner, optimized structures, including managing headcount shifts and structural changes. Drive change management and communication strategies during restructures, anticipating challenges and facilitating smooth transitions.

Talent Planning, Performance & Rewards
Oversee performance evaluation, calibration, and promotion reviews during peak cycles using data-driven insights to ensure fairness. Partner with Compensation and leadership teams on annual compensation planning, equity audits, and talent mobility for high-potential employees. Collaborate with Talent Acquisition to define hiring strategies and review senior candidates to support workforce planning.

Talent Risk Mitigation & Retention
Analyze engagement data, compensation trends, and performance patterns to identify attrition risks proactively. Implement targeted retention strategies for critical roles and manage complex underperformance cases at senior levels, ensuring structured conversations and legally compliant outcomes.

HR Centers of Excellence Partnership & Data-Driven Intelligence
Leverage global HR dashboards and analytics to inform evidence-based discussions on talent health, organizational risks, and performance trends.

Required Qualifications

Experience & Functional Expertise
Minimum of 8 years of progressive HR or People Business Partner experience, preferably supporting fast-paced Product and Technology engineering teams within the tech industry.

Key Competencies
Proven ability to balance strategic organizational design and operational execution, including employee relations and performance management. Demonstrated success leading large-scale organizational transformations and cultural integrations. Strong analytical skills to interpret HR metrics and influence executive decisions. Exceptional consultative and coaching skills with senior leaders, coupled with executive presence and stakeholder management. This is an onsite role.

Preferred Qualifications and Benefits

Why You’ll Enjoy Working at DigitalOcean
You will be part of a cutting-edge technology company focused on simplifying cloud and AI, where thinking big, bold, and acting with ownership are encouraged. DigitalOcean prioritizes career development by offering access to extensive learning resources, including reimbursement for conferences and LinkedIn Learning courses. Employee well-being is supported through comprehensive benefits, flexible time off, and local engagement initiatives. Compensation is competitive and includes base salary, performance bonuses, equity grants, and participation in the Employee Stock Purchase Program.

DigitalOcean is an equal-opportunity employer committed to diversity and inclusion, ensuring no discrimination based on race, gender, age, disability, or other protected characteristics. Applicants may apply to up to three positions within any 180-day period to encourage thoughtful and well-matched applications.