Senior HR Business Partner

About World Labs: We build foundational world models that can perceive, generate, reason, and interact with the 3D world — unlocking AI's full potential through spatial intelligence by transforming seeing into doing, perceiving into reasoning, and imagining into creating. We believe spatial intelligence will unlock new forms of storytelling, creativity, design, simulation, and immersive experiences across both virtual and physical worlds. We bring together a world-class team, united by a shared curiosity, passion, and deep backgrounds in technology — from AI research to systems engineering to product design — creating a tight feedback loop between our cutting-edge research and products that empower our users. Role Overview The Senior HR Business Partner will serve as a strategic advisor to functional leaders across technical and non-technical teams. This role is responsible for driving organizational effectiveness, supporting high-performance standards, and guiding leaders through complex people decisions. This foundational role will help build the HRBP function from the ground up: establishing core management toolkits, strengthening org design rigor, advising on performance and flight risk, and acting as connective tissue between leaders and the broader People team. You’ll help ensure we scale with intentionality, high performance, and sound judgment, while laying the groundwork for future org growth. You'll be a true partner to the founding team and business leads — not an administrator. You'll help us organize and scale the company, give direct feedback to managers, steer important people decisions, and build the infrastructure that lets everyone do the best work of their careers. You'll own the full employee lifecycle, stand up our first people systems, and operate with urgency across whatever's most important each week. What You Will Do: Partner directly with founders and team leads on org design, headcount planning, and talent strategy — from hiring through career development Drive org design work — reorgs, reporting structures, span of control, leveling and titling — with rigor and speed Regularly track people data and identify trends on hiring, attrition, engagement, and compensation; use it to influence decisions, not just report them Give direct, critical feedback to managers on areas of opportunity; understand their teams and products well enough to make recommendations that actually land Build management toolkits and coach managers to lead at a high level — not just advising on individual situations but systematically upleveling the management layer. Your draft touches it but doesn't give it enough weight for a founding role. Own employee relations end-to-end — you handle complex and sensitive situations with discretion, empathy, and sound judgment, and you know when to escalate Partner with recruiting on hiring strategy, role scoping, interview structure, and offer decisions as we scale headcount rapidly Build foundational people infrastructure from scratch: onboarding, leveling frameworks, compensation bands, feedback cycles, and an employee handbook people actually read Stand up our HR tech stack — HRIS, performance tooling, survey infrastructure — and own those vendor relationships Support visa sponsorship and immigration processes; Champion culture, psychological safety, and DEI — build programs that match our values and scale with us Key Qualifications: 6–10 years as an HR generalist or HRBP, with meaningful time supporting technical teams at a high-growth startup You're comfortable in ambiguity and can pull relevant signal out of complex situations and make sound decisions without waiting for a playbook Strong analytical and problem-solving skills; you assess situations using data while drawing from experience Outstanding interpersonal and influencing skills across all levels — from ICs to founders Deep California employment law fluency (CFRA, FEHA, FMLA) and US employment practices Demonstrated ability to c