Senior People Partner

Job description

COMPANY OVERVIEW Deepgram is the leading platform underpinning the emerging trillion-dollar Voice AI economy, providing real-time APIs for speech-to-text (STT), text-to-speech (TTS), and building production-grade voice agents at scale. More than 200,000 developers and 1,300+ organizations build voice offerings that are ‘Powered by Deepgram’, including Twilio, Cloudflare, Sierra, Decagon, Vapi, Daily, Cresta, Granola, and Jack in the Box. Deepgram’s voice-native foundation models are accessed through cloud APIs or as self-hosted and on-premises software, with unmatched accuracy, low latency, and cost efficiency. Backed by a recent Series C led by leading global investors and strategic partners, Deepgram has processed over 50,000 years of audio and transcribed more than 1 trillion words. There is no organization in the world that understands voice better than Deepgram. COMPANY OPERATING RHYTHM At Deepgram, we expect an AI-first mindset—AI use and comfort aren’t optional, they’re core to how we operate, innovate, and measure performance. Every team member who works at Deepgram is expected to actively use and experiment with advanced AI tools, and even build your own into your everyday work. We measure how effectively AI is applied to deliver results, and consistent, creative use of the latest AI capabilities is key to success here. Candidates should be comfortable adopting new models and modes quickly, integrating AI into their workflows, and continuously pushing the boundaries of what these technologies can do. Additionally, we move at the pace of AI. Change is rapid, and you can expect your day-to-day work to evolve just as quickly. This may not be the right role if you’re not excited to experiment, adapt, think on your feet, and learn constantly, or if you’re seeking something highly prescriptive with a traditional 9-to-5. THE OPPORTUNITY Deepgram is seeking a Senior Human Resources Business Partner to support our growing, remote-first organization. This inaugural HRBP role will partner closely with leaders of all levels and employees across the company to support employee relations, performance management, manager effectiveness, and scalable people practices. Reporting to the Head of People, the HRBP works cross-functionally with leaders, People Ops, Legal, Finance, and Recruiting to ensure people programs, policies, and processes are effective, compliant, and aligned with business needs. This is a highly collaborative role for someone who brings strong judgment, navigates complexity with confidence, and helps teams perform at a high level in a fast-moving environment. Occasional travel is expected to attend company offsites and team meetings at Deepgram offices as needed throughout the year. WHAT YOU’LL DO EMPLOYEE RELATIONS & MANAGER SUPPORT - Serve as a primary point of contact for employee relations matters, including performance concerns, interpersonal issues, investigations, and complex workplace scenarios - Coach managers through difficult conversations, feedback delivery, performance management, and documentation - Provide consistent, fair, and legally sound guidance across key employee lifecycle moments BUSINESS & LEADERSHIP PARTNERSHIP - Act as a trusted advisor to leaders on people-related risks, decisions, and trade-offs - Partner with the Head of People to translate company strategy into people practices that are right-sized for scale - Identify patterns and systemic issues early and recommend practical, upstream interventions - Serve as a change partner to leaders, helping design, position, and operationalize organizational changes to drive understanding, adoption, and trust. PERFORMANCE & MANAGER EFFECTIVENESS - Support performance management processes, goal-setting, feedback cycles, and manager capability building - Partner with leaders on team structure, talent and succession planning, and ways of working that enable strong performance and sustainable growth - Help managers navigate underperformance, role clarity challenges, and organizational change - Reinforce a culture of high performance without unnecessary bureaucracy - Lead the offboarding and separation experience with employees and managers, including exit interviews, separation agreements, and coordination with Finance - Partner on compensation cycles end to end, including merit and promotion rounds, off-cycle adjustments, and preparing change-of-salary and promotion letters - Serve as a trusted point of contact for manager and employee compensation questions, using judgment on what to resolve directly and what to escalate PROCESS, SYSTEMS & SCALE - Help build and refine People processes, templates, documentation, and manager resources - Partner on tools and workflows that improve consistency, efficiency, and employee experience - Balance compliance, speed, and sound judgment as the company grows - Partner with the Head of People to support change initiatives (e.g., policy updates, process shifts), including re-education, leader enablement, and reinforcement COMPLIANCE & ADMINISTRATION - Partner with People Ops, Legal, and Finance to ensure compliance with federal, state, local, and our local partners with regard to international employment laws - Support leave administration, policy application, and complex employee situations - Help ensure People practices are defensible, consistent, and aligned with company values IMMIGRATION - Act as the point of contact for work authorization needs, including H-1B, STEM OPT and Form I-983, and TN visa reviews - Partner with immigration counsel on case strategy and coordinate with candidates, employees, and hiring teams through each step YOU’LL LOVE THIS ROLE IF YOU - Enjoy partnering closely with managers and leaders to build a healthy and high performing culture - Are energized by navigating ambiguity and making sound decisions while building the HRBP playbook - Care about building and scaling fair, consistent, and human people practices in a fast-growing company - Thrive in environments where trust, judgment, and accountability matter IT’S IMPORTANT TO US THAT YOU HAVE - 7–10+ years of HR experience, including at least 5 years in an HR Business Partner role within high-growth or complex environments - Strong business judgment and the ability to understand context quickly, challenge assumptions when needed, and guide leaders through tough trade-offs - Deep experience in employee relations, performance management, and manager coaching - Comfort operating synchronously and asynchronously in a fast-paced, remote-first, evolving environment with shifting priorities Strong written and verbal communication skills and a high degree of discretion Notice: We're aware of individuals impersonating Deepgram recruiters. All legitimate Deepgram recruiting communication comes from an @deepgram.com http://deepgram.com email address. If you've received a message claiming to be Deepgram, please forward it to careers@deepgram.com.