Manager, HR Business Partner

9amHealth is an AI-enabled virtual specialty care platform focused on managing high-cost chronic conditions at scale. The company partners with employers, health plans, and pharmacy benefit managers to deliver comprehensive, cost-effective medical care for individuals living with obesity, diabetes, hypertension, and dyslipidemia. Members receive access to specialized clinicians, including endocrinologists, obesity medicine specialists, and clinical pharmacists, at-home lab testing, prescription medications, and lifestyle support.

9amHealth was founded in 2021 and is backed by leading healthcare investors like Define Ventures, SemperVirens, 7Wire Ventures, and The Cigna Group Ventures.

About the role

Reporting to the VP of People, this role supports leaders and employees across GTM, Product, Engineering, Clinical Care Operations, and G&A during one of the most formative stages of the company's growth.

As our Senior People Partner, you'll help build the foundation for how we support managers, employees, and the business as we scale. That means balancing thoughtful business partnership with hands-on execution across employee relations, leave administration, compliance, policy, benefits, and manager support. You'll bring the judgment and pattern recognition that comes from supporting organizations through multiple stages of growth, helping us make sound decisions today while building people practices that can evolve alongside the business.

You'll work in close partnership with the Senior People Operations Manager, who owns the systems, workflows, and operational infrastructure behind our People programs. Together, you'll shape both the approach and the execution – partnering to design practical, scalable people practices and bringing them to life through thoughtful processes, systems, and manager enablement.

Success in this role means knowing when to introduce structure, when to iterate, and how to build a management culture that helps the business scale without creating unnecessary complexity. You'll help create more confident and capable managers, resolve employee relations matters with clarity and consistency, evolve people programs alongside the business, and establish a People function that becomes a trusted partner in helping leaders make better business decisions.

What you’ll do

• Help define what great management looks like at 9amHealth by establishing clear expectations, coaching leaders through difficult decisions, and building a culture of accountability, feedback, and high performance.

• Coach and support directors and senior managers through team dynamics, organizational change, performance conversations, and other complex people challenges, serving as a trusted advisor before issues escalate.

• Design, launch, and continuously evolve core people programs, including performance management, manager enablement, organizational planning, and leadership development, to meet the needs of the business today while laying the foundation for future growth.

• Partner with the VP of People and business leaders to shape people strategies that strengthen organizational effectiveness, improve manager capability, and support the company's continued growth.

• Own employee relations end-to-end, conducting investigations, advising managers, documenting decisions, and resolving employee concerns with care, consistency, and sound judgment.

• Partner closely with the Senior People Operations Manager to design and operationalize people programs, translating strategy into scalable processes, systems, and employee experiences across the full employee lifecycle.

• Manage leave of absence cases (FMLA, state leaves, medical, personal) from start to finish, ensuring compliance, clear communication, and a thoughtful employee experience while helping establish scalable practices for the future.

• Build, maintain, and continuously evolve the employee handbook, HR policies, and related documentation so they're compliant, practical, and aligned with the company's stage of growth.

• Own benefits administration end-to-end, including broker and vendor relationships, open enrollment, employee support, and ongoing evaluation of program effectiveness as the organization grows.

• Ensure compliance with federal, state, and local employment laws across our multi-state workforce, proactively identifying risks, recommending practical solutions, and partnering with Legal when appropriate.

Develop practical manager resources, training, and enablement that help leaders build stronger teams until a dedicated Learning & Development function is established.

What you’ll need

Minimum Qualifications

• 7+ years of HR/HRBP experience, including meaningful time partnering with senior leaders in a high-growth or scaling environment.

• Experience helping organizations mature through multiple stages of growth, with the judgment to build what the business needs today while anticipating what it will need tomorrow.

• Demonstrated ability to design, implement, or evolve people programs and practices, not just operate existing ones.

• Demonstrated ability to manage employee relations cases from intake through resolution, with strong judgment, thoughtful documentation, and a clear understanding of when to escalate.

• Strong manager coaching skills with the ability to influence leaders, deliver candid feedback, and build lasting leadership capability.

• Strong business judgment and the ability to balance employee experience, organizational health, and business outcomes when advising leaders.

• Comfort operating in ambiguity while creating clarity for others. Able to make thoughtful decisions with imperfect information, adapt quickly, and avoid over-engineering solutions.

• Experience supporting performance management, compensation, leveling, promotion, and other core talent processes with consistency and sound judgment.

• Effective across a distributed workforce; comfortable building relationships, influencing leaders, and supporting teams across time zones and geographies (including the US and Austria).

• Working knowledge of US employment law and the judgment to recognize risk, recommend practical solutions, and partner with Legal when appropriate.

• Hands-on experience managing leave of absence programs, including working knowledge of FMLA and multi-state leave requirements.

• Experience owning or co-owning benefits programs, including open enrollment, vendor relationships, and employee-facing communications.

• Experience developing, maintaining, and evolving HR policies and employee handbooks with an emphasis on both legal compliance and practical usability.

• Comfort leveraging modern AI tools to improve drafting, analysis, and operational efficiency, while exercising strong judgment about where human discretion and partnership remain essential.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in healthcare, digital health, or another clinical/regulated environment.

• Familiarity with Rippling or a comparable HRIS platform.

• Experience supporting both a US headquarters and an international office, with awareness of how cross-jurisdictional complexity shows up in day-to-day HR work.

• Exposure to manager coaching or facilitated learning programs, even informally.

• Comfort with modern AI-assisted workflows; you actively use tools to speed up drafting, prep, and analysis, and you have a clear sense of where human judgment still needs to come first, especially in sensitive HR contexts.

• Experience supporting both a US headquarters and an international office (European context a strong plus).

What you can expect at 9amHealth

At 9amHealth, you'll join the exciting environment of a startup with the stability of highly experienced founders that have successfully built a business from scratch. We foster a collaborative learning mindset and a passion for improvement. You'll work with a brand-new product alongside a small, flexible team of people eager to shape technology, infrastructure, and culture.

Our team members are spread across the globe, with physical sites in San Diego, California, and Vienna, Austria, but we value your culture regardless of where you work.

We offer a comprehensive benefits package, including health, dental, and vision insurance, along with flexible PTO and work from home options. We provide a professional development budget and support continuing education, empowering our team to grow alongside the company. Team members have the opportunity to make a meaningful impact on chronic disease management and patient outcomes while contributing to a collaborative, mission driven culture focused on improving healthcare accessibility and affordability.

Our commitment to diversity and inclusion

Diabetes disproportionately impacts BIPOC (black, indigenous, and people of color) communities. We are committed to creating a workforce that reflects our patients and creating a positive healthcare experience for them. We welcome applications from people of color, LGBTQ+ individuals, people with disabilities, members of ethnic minorities, and foreign born residents.