People Partner Lead

About the role:

As the Senior People Partner for R&D, you'll be more than a traditional HR Business Partner-you'll be a strategic force behind how we design and scale high-performing, fast-moving teams across our Product, Platform, and AI engineering organizations. This role is about driving innovation through org design, fostering an elite engineering and product culture, and enabling teams to move fast without breaking execution discipline.

This is the most senior individual contributor People Partner role supporting North America R&D, with a clear path to leading the entire R&D People Partner function. You will be the successor to the R&D People Partner leadership role, making this a rare opportunity to shape not just the teams, but also the future of the function itself.

You'll partner closely with engineering and product leaders to design organizations that prioritize small, autonomous, high-impact teams, balancing agility with operational excellence. Whether it's helping AI and platform teams iterate at startup speed or ensuring that our most mature products continue to scale, you will be the architect behind how we structure, grow, and enable world-class talent to push boundaries.

This is a remote position open to candidates residing in the US.

You should apply if:

• You want to impact the industries that run our world: Your efforts will result in real-world impact-helping to keep the lights on, get food into grocery stores, reduce emissions, and most importantly, ensure workers return home safely.
• You are the architect of your own career: If you put in the work, this role won't be your last at Samsara. We set up our employees for success and have built a culture that encourages rapid career development, countless opportunities to experiment and master your craft in a hyper growth environment.
• You're energized by our opportunity: The vision we have to digitize large sectors of the global economy requires your full focus and best efforts to bring forth creative, ambitious ideas for our customers.
• You want to be with the best: At Samsara, we win together, celebrate together and support each other. You will be surrounded by a high-calibre team that will encourage you to do your best.

• Org Design for Speed & Impact
  
  
  
  • Architect small, high-performing teams that can move fast and iterate quickly while maintaining operational excellence.
  • Help leaders design orgs that scale without bureaucracy, ensuring the company remains as agile as a startup even as we grow.
  • Identify bottlenecks, silos, and inefficiencies, restructuring teams proactively to maximize velocity and impact.
  
  
  
  
• Strategic Advisory at the Highest Level
  
  
  
  • Act as the most senior individual contributor in the North America R&D People Partner function, reporting directly to senior leadership with a path to owning the R&D People Partner org.
  • Work alongside senior engineering, AI, and platform leaders to anticipate talent needs and build an org structure that enables sustained innovation.
  • Be a key voice in shaping the talent strategy for next-gen AI, platform, and product engineering teams.
  
  
  
  
• High-Performance Culture & Leadership Development
  
  
  
  • Ensure teams maintain an innovation mindset while reinforcing best practices for execution, delivery, and accountability.
  • Implement scalable leadership development programs, ensuring that Samsara continues to produce world-class product and engineering leaders from within.
  • Work with senior leaders to drive a culture of continuous feedback and radical candor, enabling top talent to reach their full potential.
  
  
  
  
• Data-Driven Decision Making
  
  
  
  • Leveragepeople analytics to inform org design, team health, and leadership effectiveness.
  • Provide insights that help leaders makeproactive decisions on hiring, retention, and performance before challenges emerge.
  • Drive continuous improvement by measuring how team structure impacts speed, execution, and innovation cycles.
  
  
  
  
• Champion, role model, and embed Samsara's cultural principles (Focus on Customer Success, Build for the Long Term, Adopt a Growth Mindset, Be Inclusive, Win as a Team) as we scale globally and across new offices.

Minimum requirements for the role:

• Proven Experience Driving Fast-Paced Innovation: You've designed org structures that enable teams to ship quickly while maintaining execution discipline.
• 8+ years of People Partner experience, with at least 5 years supporting R&D, product, AI, or engineering teams in high-growth, fast-paced environments.
• Influence & Communication: You are a trusted advisor to executives and know how to navigate complex org dynamics while driving decisive action.
• Data-Driven Decision Making: You can translate people metrics into strategic insights that directly impact speed, execution, and long-term team success.
• Ownership Mentality: You operate with a founder mindset, embracing ambiguity and solving problems proactively.