People Business Partner

At the Catalight Foundation, we are building the future of work for nonprofits. We strive to build an engaging employee experience through an inclusive and wellbeing driven lense. One that creates a healthy and high-performing culture by supporting our team members with space to learn, grow and do their best work.

We’re looking for a People Business Partner (PBP) who’s ready to think big, and partner with leaders and teams to build a thriving, people-first culture. You’ll serve as a strategic advisor and trusted coach — driving impactful performance management, leadership development, workforce planning, and employee engagement across our teams. If you’re energized by creating equitable workplaces, supporting leadership growth, and making sure every voice is heard and celebrated — this is the place for you.

Most importantly, your role will help foster an inclusive, resilient, and high-performing workplace where everyone feels seen, heard, and valued. You’ll be essential in people development, empowerment and employee upskilling. You will supports leaders + managers in live into + role modeling our values while stretching towards organizational goals. You’ll drive bold, data-informed people strategies that support talent development, retention, and overall employee experience.

This is a fully remote position; with the core hours on Pacific/Hawaiian time zones and occasional travel is appreciated.

Your Impact at Catalight

As a trusted and strategic partner, you’ll advise and collaborate with leaders and managers across the organization on all things related to people and culture. You’ll build strong relationships to help teams confidently navigate growth and change, role modeling and designing experience with our values and equity in mind. You’ll champion employee well-being by partnering with our Benefits and Total Rewards teams to support leave, accommodation, and wellness processes, while guiding leaders on effective performance management practices and coaching them to strengthen leadership skills and team dynamics. In partnership with Learning & Development (L&D), your role will be essential in people development, empowerment, and employee upskills, guiding leaders and managers to align with our values and organizational goals. You’ll drive bold, data-informed people strategies that support talent development, retention, and employee engagement. Most importantly, you'll help foster an inclusive, resilient, and high-performing workplace where everyone feels seen, heard, and valued.

Who You Are

You are a bold and innovative thinker who wants to challenge the status quo in pursuit of meaningful continuous growth. As a natural connector, you build trust and community with ease, inspiring and influencing individuals at all levels of the organization. You are a steadfast champion of JEDI (Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion), ensuring that policies, decisions, and everyday interactions are grounded in fairness, inclusion, and belonging. Centering care in your leadership approach, you advocate for well-being and bring empathy and insight to every coaching moment and partnership you cultivate.

Essential Job Functions

• Serve as an effective thought partner and trusted consultant on all things people, culture, and ecosystem
• Embody and advocate for our values in your work, actively role modeling our values in action:
• Demonstrate a deep understanding of business goals to align people strategies like workforce planning, leadership development, and talent management.
• Proactively identify opportunities to implement innovative solutions that align business objectives with people strategy across HR functional areas.
• Build trust by addressing employee concerns with empathy, clear communication, and timely follow-through to support a positive and respectful experience.
• Keep clear, consistent documentation of employee issues and actions using our case tracking system to support fairness, compliance, and follow-through.
• Collaborate with the People team and other Catalight teams to ensure optimal service delivery and people programs aligned with business needs.
• Support employee relations activities, partnering with Legal, Quality and Risk teams as needed.
• Provide workforce planning support to build people capacity, plan and manage talent, and achieve departmental objectives.
• Drive employee engagement through inclusive culture-building, recognition, and team success initiatives.
• Coach and develop leaders to improve performance management skills, drive team harmony, and build high-performing, motivated, and collaborative teams.
• Facilitate change management conversations that empower teams and minimize negative impacts.
• Ensure policies and procedures are aligned with goals, consistently administered, and compliant with regulations.
• Analyze HR trends and metrics to develop, implement, and monitor effective solutions and policies.
• Attend staff meetings, trainings, and contribute to team-wide initiatives.
• Take on additional duties as assigned to support the evolving needs of the team and organization. 

Qualifications

Minimum Education, Experience & Training Equivalent to:

We believe humans with a diverse range of experiences may be suited for the work at hand. We are avoiding education and experience minimums with an acknowledgment that these can be barriers for historically excluded groups. We’re looking for someone who brings deep expertise in people-centered work and is excited to grow with us. This role is well suited for someone who has:

• Significant experience in human resources, ideally with 5+ years as a strategic HR/People Business Partner.
• A strong understanding of California employment law (required).
• A proven ability to thrive in dynamic, evolving environments.
• An HR certification (PHR or SHRM-CP) is a plus, but not required.

If your background doesn’t match every qualification but you’re passionate about people and equity-centered work, we encourage you to apply.

Requests

• High emotional intelligence and self-awareness.
• Excellent communication, coaching, and relationship-building skills.
• Background in design thinking or user centered design
• Strength translating data to insights in service of people experiences
• Sensitivity to working with an ethnically, linguistically, culturally, and economically diverse population. 
• A commitment to the values of the organization while demonstrating good judgment, flexibility, patience and discretion when dealing with confidential and sensitive matters.  
• Familiar with Generative AI, Microsoft Office (Outlook, Word, Excel, Teams etc), Workday. 
• Frequent visual or auditory communication and listening. 
• Capacity to utilize computers and telephones to communicate.   
• Can communicate effectively within the work environment, read and write in English.  
• Visual and auditory ability to work with candidates, staff and others in the workplace continuously. 

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities (organized by our company values):

Community oriented: 

• Seeks to understand the underlying needs, desires, and values of colleagues. 
• Proactively builds spaces for others to engage in learning and community.
• Appreciates and demonstrates collaboration across teams. 
• Serves as a role model, bringing our core values to life in your work. 
• Works well with employees at any level of employment. 

Equity informed:

• Knowledge of multiple historically excluded groups with subject matter knowledge in I/DD (intellectual and developmental disability) communities.
• Interest in working with and elevating employee needs. 
• Approaches work with a growth mindset, welcome feedback, and understand that humans all have biases and are imperfect as a baseline. 

Bold:

• Challenges the status quo in service of creating advocacy informed systems and external partnerships. 
• Experience coaching, facilitating, or working in advocacy spaces. 
• Navigates ambiguity with an excitement for problem solving. 
• Effectively manages programs from visioning to implementation + impact measure.
• Commitment to meet agreed upon deadlines on time or ahead of schedule. 
• Transparent on action, pursuits, and outcomes.

Wellbeing driven: 

• Willingness and commitment to self-reflection and re-thinking.  
• Ability to understand your physical, mental, social, and financial wellbeing needs with a willingness to co-create boundaries that allow you to sustainably show up and honor your humanity.
• Capacity to lead and guide a team towards effective + sustainable wellbeing driven spaces.

Conditions of Employment

• Ability to obtain and maintain criminal record clearance through the Department of Justice (DOJ). The People & Performance Department must analyze DOJ/FBI live scan reports in accordance with applicable Federal, State, and Local laws, as well as fitness for the position.
• Ability to obtain and maintain clearance through the Office of Inspector General.
• Must attend any required training.

Time Type:

Compensation:

The statements contained in this job description reflect general details as necessary to describe the principal functions of this job. It should not be considered an all-inclusive listing of work requirements. Individuals may perform other duties as assigned, including work in other functional areas as deemed fit for the organization.