Interim Head of People, North America

Boston

Partners Capital is seeking an interim Head of People, North America for 7-8 months (~May 2025 – ~January 2026) to run our North American People Function and key global initiatives. This role is interim cover for maternity leave.

This role requires managing a team of 6 HR professionals, HR expertise (employee relations, labor law, performance management, talent development, talent reviews, people analytics, HR operations, talent acquisition etc.) and the ability to manage complex initiatives including the Firm’s global compensation program and headcount planning. The Head of People will drive strategic business priorities, ensure effective and efficient delivery of core HR projects, and will uphold compliance and people governance.

Reporting to the Head of North America with a dotted line to the Global COO, this individual is a key member of the leadership team and advise senior leaders on people and talent matters. In addition, the Head of People will be a trusted partner across all client groups in North America (Boston, Dallas, New York and San Francisco).

Responsibilities

Responsibilities include, but are not limited to, the below:

  • People Team Management: Lead and mentor a high-performing People Team consisting of HR operations, generalist and talent acquisition professionals to drive excellence and support business goals. Demonstrate a solid understanding on all HR based matters across the full employee lifecycle to support team decisions. Includes employee relations, HR policy, compliance and regulatory requirements, compensation, payroll, benefits (including 401k administration), people analytics, employee leave management, immigration, talent acquisition, onboarding, offboarding, learning and development.
  • Senior Stakeholder Management: Build strong relationships with senior leadership (including the Firm’s Head of North America (NA), Global COO, CEO, CIO, NA office heads and global functional heads) and other key stakeholders to align HR strategies with business objectives. Support and attend Global People Committee meetings as required.
  • Compensation:
    • Global compensation program: Lead the Firm’s global compensation program. This includes finalizing the approach and timeline in partnership with the Global COO, conducting in depth quality checks of data and data analysis to ensure budgets are feasible and in line with goals, developing and managing project timeline, partnering with and updating key stakeholders and decision makers (global Partnership and other leaders), partnering with consulting partner to update and manage global compensation tool, creating and managing global communications, and providing subject matter expertise to drive the process. Responsible for incorporating any unique situations into overall plan and approach in partnership with Global COO.
    • Global compensation statements: Oversee the development, testing and launch of year-end compensation statements. Support the team with testing and quality checks. Partner with external consultants to provide strategic guidance and internally with the Global COO.
    • Global compensation training: Oversee the development of global compensation training and support the PeopleCom chair with global delivery.
    • NA compensation: Partner with functional leaders to support the annual compensation process for North America to ensure adherence to budgets and compensation framework as well as consistency in year-end/compensation outcomes. Oversee compensation benchmarking across North America.
  • Employee Relations: Provide expert guidance on complex employee relations matters, ensuring compliance and following best practice, to manage risk for the Firm.
  • People Analytics: Partner with external consultants and People Team to oversee the delivery of headcount reporting to the Board and Partnership. This includes oversight of quarterly board materials that also report out on the Firm’s DEI Scorecard progress. Prepare Global COO ahead of Board and Partner meetings. Oversee and support ad hoc people analytics requests in partnership with external consultants, People Team and Head of FP&A.
  • Hiring Plan Management: Partner with leadership, Head of FP&A, and regional Heads of Talent Acquisition to manage global hiring plan. Report on progress to COO and partner on any reforecasting exercises. Manage communications with senior leaders. Partner to develop and approve 2026 hiring plan at year-end.
  • Budget Management:
    • Oversee 2025 global People budget to ensure tight controls and no overspend. Lead development of 2026 budget. Partner with regional People Teams and Finance.
    • Oversee North American business budgets to ensure tight controls and overspend. Partner with other leaders and Business Operations Manager.
    • Manage approvals and escalate issues to Global COO and Head of NA.
  • Charity Program: Manage global charity program in partnership with PeopleCom and regional contacts. Ensure activities are aligned with program vision and budget, provide regular updates to PeopleCom and drive regional and global communications and engagement.
  • Vendor Management: Oversee vendors including consultants, outsourced payroll provider, 401k administrator, 401k advisor, benefits broker, other benefits vendors (including healthcare and life insurance), and UKG.
  • Governance and Controls: Maintain oversight of appropriate NA employment laws and compliance requirements for all client groups, partnering with the respective internal teams (Legal, Compliance) and leadership to ensure pragmatic counsel and application of new or revised policies, as appropriate.
  • Performance Development: Lead the annual performance development process from October – December 2025, which includes talent reviews and promotion decisions. Ensure meritocratic outcomes and identification of high-potential talent while working to tight deadlines. Lead global reporting needs including promotion analysis. In addition, this person will help support the annual Mid-Year process in June, which is lighter touch.
  • UKG (HRIS) Oversight: In addition to overseeing the UKG relationship, in partnership with People Team Principal, responsible for overseeing invoicing to ensure aligned with budget, system enhancements and external consulting partner who administers the system. Responsible for overseeing team to ensure accurate and timely data is maintained in the system.
  • Training and Development: Oversee ongoing training and development programs including executive coaching, management development programming and other training (anti-harassment and anti-discrimination, as an example).
  • Global meeting support: Partner with the Global COO, CEO and People Committee Chair to develop materials for quarterly WW calls and year-end meeting week. Manage preparation of promotion materials for YE meeting week, including scripts and promote preparation.

In addition, all Partners Capital team members have the following requirements:

  • Be responsible for ensuring all information security processes, policies and procedures are adhered to and any issues or concerns are raised with the Cyber Security team.
  • Ensure full compliance with all local data protection regulations and privacy controls, and any related issues are raised via the appropriate channels.

Qualifications / Attributes

  • Bachelor’s degree or related field
  • 15+ years of experience in human resources / human capital
  • Proven experience in a senior HR leadership role, preferably within a global or multi-regional matrixed organization, with experience managing cross-functional HR teams
  • Ability to operate in a fast-paced and “results-focused” environment, with strong attention to detail and a commercial approach.
  • Strong business acumen and the ability to connect People Team practices to business results.
  • Strong stakeholder management skills with the ability to build trust, engage and influence at all levels.
  • Proactive and solution-oriented, with demonstrated ability to lead and execute projects with strong project management skills.
  • Excellent analytical, organization, prioritization, and written/verbal communication skills
  • Proficient in managing and resolving conflict in a constructive manner across all seniority levels. High degree of professionalism and sound judgement with understanding of when and how to escalate issues.
  • Ability to handle a high-level of confidentiality, discretion, and sensitivity regarding employee information.
  • Extensive experience in employee relations, including handling complex cases and advising senior leadership. Familiar with state-specific HR guidance and support to client groups across North America.
  • Experience managing performance development processes and driving engagement initiatives.
  • Intellectually curious team player willing to do whatever it takes to contribute to the success of the business.
  • High proficiency in Microsoft Office (Excel, PowerPoint, Word, Outlook)

Contact Details

Please send your resume to NorthAmericaRecruiting@partners-cap.com with the subject: Interim Head of People, North America. Further information about Partners Capital is available on our website www.partners-cap.com.

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