Senior Employee Relations Business Partner
Headway - Design & Development, New York, NY, United States
Senior Employee Relations Business Partner
Headway's mission is a big one to build a new mental health care system everyone can access. We've built technology that helps people find great therapists with the first software-enabled national network of providers accepting insurance. 1 in 4 people in the US have a treatable mental health condition, but the majority of providers don't accept insurance, making therapy too expensive for most people. Headway is building a new mental healthcare system that everyone can access by making it easy for therapists to accept insurance and scale their practice. Headway was founded in 2019. Since then, we've grown into a diverse, national network of over 60,000 mental healthcare providers across all 50 states who run their practice on our software and have served over 1 million patients. We're a Series D company with over $325m in funding from a16z (Andreessen Horowitz), Accel, GV (formerly Google Ventures), Spark Capital, Thrive Capital, Forerunner Ventures and Health Care Service Corporation. We want your time here to be the most meaningful experience of your career. Join us, and help change mental healthcare for the better. As a Senior Employee Relations Business Partner at Headway, you will play a critical role in strengthening organizational health, mitigating risk, and reinforcing our values through fair, consistent, and compassionate practices. You'll lead employee relations and accommodations processes with discretion and sound judgment ensuring our approach is but values-aligned. By centralizing and scaling high-leverage support, you will increase manager effectiveness and enable teams to perform at their best. You'll partner closely with HRBPs, Legal, and business leaders to navigate sensitive matters, build manager capability, and continuously improve our systems and processes. This is a high-impact role for someone who blends empathy, precision, and operational excellence. What You'll Do Employee Relations Case Management: Lead the intake, documentation, and resolution of complex ER matters, partnering with Legal and HRBPs to ensure timely, fair, and Headway-aligned outcomes. Provide risk-aware counsel on performance management, conduct, and policy interpretation. Accommodations Program Leadership: Own and evolve Headway's accommodations process with a focus on empathy, compliance, and consistency. Act as the central point of contact for employees, managers, and external partners. Manager Enablement & Risk Mitigation: Support managers through performance documentation, difficult conversations, and disciplinary processes. Provide tools, templates, and guidance to increase consistency, reduce risk, and build capability. Process Design & Operational Excellence: Create and continuously improve scalable systems (case trackers, templates, workflows) to ensure clean documentation, audit readiness, and reduced administrative burden on HRBPs and managers. Insights & Pattern Recognition: Use ER and accommodations data to identify trends, surface systemic risks, and drive proactive solutions. Collaborate with HRBPs to shape people strategies informed by case patterns and employee sentiment. Offboarding & Attrition Insights: Own and operationalize HRBP offboarding workflows, including separation documentation, manager talking points, and exit interviews. Track and analyze monthly attrition trends, synthesizing insights to identify systemic patterns and inform People team and leadership decisions. Cultural Stewardship & Judgment: Model Headway's cultural principles and uphold our Olympic-level performance standards in every interaction. Navigate ambiguity with clarity, empathy, and values-aligned decision-making. You'd Be a Great Fit If You Have 10+ years of experience in Employee Relations, HR, or employment law-focused roles, ideally in fast-paced or scaling environments. Are skilled in handling complex ER matters with discretion, fairness, and sound judgment. Understand the legal and human dimensions of workplace issues and can balance both in decision-making. Are a systems thinker who builds scalable, repeatable processes that improve clarity, reduce risk, and enable others. Are emotionally intelligent and values-driven, with a calm, steady presence during sensitive moments. Operate with high ownership and follow-through, and take pride in getting the details right. Communicate clearly and compassionately, with the ability to influence across stakeholders and functions. Care deeply about fairness, inclusion, and supporting people through challenging situations with integrity and respect. Compensation and Benefits: The expected base pay range for this position is $144,000 - $225,000, based on a variety of factors including qualifications, experience, and geographic location. In addition to base salary, this role may be eligible for an equity grant, depending on the position and level. We are committed to offering a comprehensive and competitive total rewards package, including robust health and wellness benefits, retirement savings, and meaningful ownership opportunities through equity. Compensation decisions are made holistically, ensuring fairness and alignment with market benchmarks while recognizing individual contributions and potential. Equity Compensation Medical, Dental, and Vision coverage HSA / FSA 401K Work-from-Home Stipend Therapy Reimbursement 16-week parental leave for eligible employees Carrot Fertility annual reimbursement and membership 13 paid holidays each year as well as a Holiday Break during the week between December 25th and December 31st Flexible PTO Employee Assistance Program (EAP) Training and professional development
Headway's mission is a big one to build a new mental health care system everyone can access. We've built technology that helps people find great therapists with the first software-enabled national network of providers accepting insurance. 1 in 4 people in the US have a treatable mental health condition, but the majority of providers don't accept insurance, making therapy too expensive for most people. Headway is building a new mental healthcare system that everyone can access by making it easy for therapists to accept insurance and scale their practice. Headway was founded in 2019. Since then, we've grown into a diverse, national network of over 60,000 mental healthcare providers across all 50 states who run their practice on our software and have served over 1 million patients. We're a Series D company with over $325m in funding from a16z (Andreessen Horowitz), Accel, GV (formerly Google Ventures), Spark Capital, Thrive Capital, Forerunner Ventures and Health Care Service Corporation. We want your time here to be the most meaningful experience of your career. Join us, and help change mental healthcare for the better. As a Senior Employee Relations Business Partner at Headway, you will play a critical role in strengthening organizational health, mitigating risk, and reinforcing our values through fair, consistent, and compassionate practices. You'll lead employee relations and accommodations processes with discretion and sound judgment ensuring our approach is but values-aligned. By centralizing and scaling high-leverage support, you will increase manager effectiveness and enable teams to perform at their best. You'll partner closely with HRBPs, Legal, and business leaders to navigate sensitive matters, build manager capability, and continuously improve our systems and processes. This is a high-impact role for someone who blends empathy, precision, and operational excellence. What You'll Do Employee Relations Case Management: Lead the intake, documentation, and resolution of complex ER matters, partnering with Legal and HRBPs to ensure timely, fair, and Headway-aligned outcomes. Provide risk-aware counsel on performance management, conduct, and policy interpretation. Accommodations Program Leadership: Own and evolve Headway's accommodations process with a focus on empathy, compliance, and consistency. Act as the central point of contact for employees, managers, and external partners. Manager Enablement & Risk Mitigation: Support managers through performance documentation, difficult conversations, and disciplinary processes. Provide tools, templates, and guidance to increase consistency, reduce risk, and build capability. Process Design & Operational Excellence: Create and continuously improve scalable systems (case trackers, templates, workflows) to ensure clean documentation, audit readiness, and reduced administrative burden on HRBPs and managers. Insights & Pattern Recognition: Use ER and accommodations data to identify trends, surface systemic risks, and drive proactive solutions. Collaborate with HRBPs to shape people strategies informed by case patterns and employee sentiment. Offboarding & Attrition Insights: Own and operationalize HRBP offboarding workflows, including separation documentation, manager talking points, and exit interviews. Track and analyze monthly attrition trends, synthesizing insights to identify systemic patterns and inform People team and leadership decisions. Cultural Stewardship & Judgment: Model Headway's cultural principles and uphold our Olympic-level performance standards in every interaction. Navigate ambiguity with clarity, empathy, and values-aligned decision-making. You'd Be a Great Fit If You Have 10+ years of experience in Employee Relations, HR, or employment law-focused roles, ideally in fast-paced or scaling environments. Are skilled in handling complex ER matters with discretion, fairness, and sound judgment. Understand the legal and human dimensions of workplace issues and can balance both in decision-making. Are a systems thinker who builds scalable, repeatable processes that improve clarity, reduce risk, and enable others. Are emotionally intelligent and values-driven, with a calm, steady presence during sensitive moments. Operate with high ownership and follow-through, and take pride in getting the details right. Communicate clearly and compassionately, with the ability to influence across stakeholders and functions. Care deeply about fairness, inclusion, and supporting people through challenging situations with integrity and respect. Compensation and Benefits: The expected base pay range for this position is $144,000 - $225,000, based on a variety of factors including qualifications, experience, and geographic location. In addition to base salary, this role may be eligible for an equity grant, depending on the position and level. We are committed to offering a comprehensive and competitive total rewards package, including robust health and wellness benefits, retirement savings, and meaningful ownership opportunities through equity. Compensation decisions are made holistically, ensuring fairness and alignment with market benchmarks while recognizing individual contributions and potential. Equity Compensation Medical, Dental, and Vision coverage HSA / FSA 401K Work-from-Home Stipend Therapy Reimbursement 16-week parental leave for eligible employees Carrot Fertility annual reimbursement and membership 13 paid holidays each year as well as a Holiday Break during the week between December 25th and December 31st Flexible PTO Employee Assistance Program (EAP) Training and professional development