Principal People Business Partner, R&D Engineering

We are seeking a Principal People Business Partner to provide strategic partnership to the CTO and 10 VP/SVP+ leaders within the global Okta R&D Engineering organization. While supporting a broader workforce of 1,200+ employees (including 730 in AMER), this role’s primary mandate is to deliver high-impact executive consulting. By offloading routine tactical and transactional work to Center of Excellence (COE) partners through our Pod model, the Principal PBP serves as a dedicated strategic advisor and coach to the most senior technical leadership to drive critical business objectives.

Job Duties and Responsibilities:

• Provide strategic advice, counsel, and consultative solutions to technical leadership on people management aspects of the Engineering organization, including driving organizational design, team effectiveness, executing change management strategy, and employee engagement solutions.
• Collaborate and consult on the design and delivery of People programs with the COEs to deliver effective solutions to the business.
• Lead the "AI-augmented" workforce transformation by consulting on role redesign, skill evolution, and strategic talent density to ensure humans and AI agents work together effectively.
• Orchestrate structural unification and complex organizational design for the VP+ population, optimizing spans, layers, and global delivery models for maximum operational effectiveness.
• Provide high-impact strategic consulting to executive leadership on organizational design, change management, and team effectiveness, utilizing the Pod model to delegate routine People programs to COEs.
• Deliver data-driven talent insights through Quarterly Business Reviews (QBRs), identifying trends to influence long-term workforce planning and executive decision-making.
• Partner with team members throughout the People organization to communicate and educate on policies, procedures, and compliance.
• Understand the Engineering client groups strategy, technical challenges, innovation initiatives, and global delivery model.
• Lead the execution of critical talent management cycles, including annual performance reviews, calibration sessions, talent talks, and annual rewards planning. Partner with executive leadership to leverage these processes as strategic levers to cultivate a high-performance culture, drive AI-driven innovation, and ensure rigorous talent density within the organization.

Required Skills and Experience:

• 10+ years of relevant experience with a Bachelor's degree, or an equivalent combination of education and experience
• Experience supporting large-scale technical organizations of 1,000+ employees across global regions.
• Demonstrated experience coaching and mentoring senior technical leadership (VP and SVP levels).
• Advanced proficiency in organizational design for complex, global engineering structures and matrixed environments.
• Exceptional communication skills combined with demonstrated problem solving ability are critical for this role.
• Demonstrated ability to work effectively in a team environment.
• Viewed as a resource for advice and guidance by peers and senior leaders.
• Good understanding of matrix structures and politically savvy.
• Ability to cope with pressure maintaining a high standard of deliverables.
• Excellent organization and follow-through skills.
• Ability to analyze and utilize data to make informed short and long term business decisions.
• Ability to work in a fast moving and changing environment.
• Ability to effectively communicate in various mediums to a wide variety of audiences.
• Able to build relationships, develop credibility with internal clients and mentor HR colleagues.
• Strong ability to multi-task and respond effectively to changing priorities and demands.
• Strong experience working with high-growth technology companies and R&D functions.

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