Senior Employee Relations Partner

Posting Type

Remote/Hybrid

Job Overview The Employee Relations Specialist serves as a trusted advisor and practitioner responsible for navigating complex workplace matters with sound judgment, legal fluency, and a commitment to both people and organizational health. The Senior Employee Relations Specialist (Level 6) is a senior IC expert responsible for leading complex employee relations and performance management cases end-to-end, ensuring consistent, defensible, and equitable outcomes across the organization.

This role operates as a strategic partner to Sr. HRBPs, absorbing high-risk and high-complexity ER work while enabling HRBPs to focus on business strategy, talent decisions, and organizational effectiveness.

This role partners closely with HRBPs, Legal, and senior leadership to resolve issues swiftly and fairly while strengthening the company's culture as we scale.

Job Description and Requirements

Employee Relations & Investigations

Lead end-to-end investigations into complex employee relations matters (e.g., misconduct, discrimination, retaliation, policy violations)

Conduct structured interviews, assess credibility, synthesize evidence, and produce clear, legally defensible findings and recommendations

Partner closely with Legal to manage risk, escalation thresholds, and compliance requirements

Ensure consistent application of policies globally, accounting for regional legal and cultural differences

Performance & Disciplinary Processes

Advise on high-risk performance cases, including PIPs, coaching plans, and involuntary separations

Ensure performance processes follow structured, documented frameworks with clear expectations, timelines, and success metrics

Support differentiation between performance vs. capability vs. organizational/system issues in partnership with HRBPs

Drive consistency in disciplinary actions and ensure fairness across managers and teams

Risk Mitigation, Compliance & Governance

Act as a subject matter expert in employment law (multi-state and global) and internal policy frameworks

Ensure rigorous documentation standards and audit readiness across all ER and performance cases

Identify and mitigate legal, reputational, and employee experience risks before escalation

Own ER case governance, including escalation pathways and decision frameworks

Manager & HRBP Advisory

Coach managers on:

Feedback delivery and documentation

Navigating difficult conversations

When and how to escalate ER matters

Partner with Sr. HRBPs to align ER decisions with broader talent, calibration, and organizational outcomes

Provide real-time case consultation for ambiguous or sensitive situations

Insights, Trends & Systemic Improvement

Analyze ER case data to identify patterns by manager, function, or region

Repeat manager risk patterns

Policy gaps

Organizational friction points

Drive improvements to ER playbooks, templates, and workflows

Capability Building & Enablement

Design and deliver manager education on:

Performance management rigor

Documentation standards

Bias mitigation and fair process

Build scalable tools (templates, guides, intake frameworks) that improve quality and consistency of ER handling

Partner with HRBPs to elevate overall organizational capability in managing performance and ER proactively

Decision Rights

Recommends outcomes, risk mitigation strategies, and disciplinary actions

Owns ER process integrity, case quality, and documentation standards

Escalates high-risk decisions to HRBPs, Legal, or leadership as appropriate

Qualifications

Required

5+ years of progressive HR experience with at least 3 years in a dedicated Employee Relations or HR compliance role

Demonstrated experience leading workplace investigations independently from intake through resolution

Working knowledge of multi-state employment law and regulatory compliance requirements

Proven ability to manage sensitive, high-risk cases with discretion and sound judgment

Strong written communication skills — able to produce clear, legally-defensible documentation

Preferred

Experience in a global SaaS/technology, or pre-IPO company environment

Experience partnering with HRBPs in a global, matrixed org

PHR, SPHR, SHRM-CP, or SHRM-SCP certification

Experience using HRIS platforms (Workday, Rippling, or similar) and case management tools

Relativity is committed to competitive, fair, and equitable compensation practices.

This position is eligible for total compensation which includes a competitive base salary, an annual performance bonus, and long-term incentives.

The expected salary range for this role is between following values: $112,000 and $168,000

The final offered salary will be based on several factors, including but not limited to the candidate's depth of experience, skill set, qualifications, and internal pay equity. Hiring at the top end of the range would not be typical, to allow for future meaningful salary growth in this position.

Required Skills: Employee Relations, HR Business, HR Strategy, Human Resources Consulting, Leadership Training and Development, Organizational Development (OD), Recruiting, Succession Planning, Talent Management, Workforce Planning