People Business Partner

Job Description: People Business Partner

Cartwheel is an early-stage company building a new kind of mental health program for kids that puts schools at the center. We see our role as supporting school staff who see kids every single day. Instead of going around them, we collaborate with them. This means:

• Earlier intervention
• Higher student and family engagement in care
• Better coordination among the trusted adults in a student’s life

Kids shouldn't just aspire to get out of bed and drag themselves to class. They should be able to experience joy. They deserve to envision and build a life they’re excited to live. If you join Cartwheel, you’ll help make this vision a reality for millions of students across the country. We’re backed by top investors including Menlo Ventures, Reach Capital, General Catalyst, BoxGroup, and Able Partners, and we're looking for mission-driven teammates to join our team.

ABOUT THE ROLE

As People Business Partner, you will serve as the strategic thought partner to leaders across the organization, helping them peak around corners, and enabling their teams to operate at top of license. This role will be responsible for building the foundations for consistent performance management, employee development, and managing employee relations as we move into our next phase of growth.

Role type: This is a W2, Full-Time, Salaried position

Start date: October 2025

WHAT YOU'LL DO:

• Design a lightweight performance review framework and support the next cycle end to end, covering timeline, communications, calibration, and final decisions so the process is clear, timely, and equitable.
• Build a consistent performance management framework and workflow Coach managers along the way and keep documentation clean and audit-ready.
• Work with leaders to develop and maintain Role & Responsibility documents with measurable outcomes for all corporate roles, and ensure managers use them in decision making and feedback conversations.
• Equip managers with a practical toolkit and impactful trainings on feedback, goals and metrics, effective 1:1s, and when to escalate to an HRBP. Track adoption and impact.
• Support employee-led ERGs with a simple cadence and clear governance, ensuring a safe path for escalation and reliable follow-through.
• Co-lead updates to the employee handbook and key policies with People Ops, prioritizing the sections that matter most to the business and to compliance.
• Extra Credit: Build scalable processes for our 1099 clinical network

What success looks like (first 12 months):

• By Month 6, ≥90% of corporate roles have R&R docs in place; by Month 9 we’re near 100%, and managers are using them.
• The performance cycle is delivered on time with clear ratings and outcomes, reduced admin friction, and visible bias checks.
• The manager toolkit is live, trainings score highly for usefulness, and we see behavior change in feedback, goals, and 1:1s.
• ERGs operate with a defined cadence and resources; issues surface safely and escalate promptly.
• Priority policy sections are refreshed and acknowledgments are captured.
• Team engagement improves, with score trending toward 8/10 and regrettable attrition down year over year.

WHO YOU ARE

Must have…

• You have 3–5+ years as an HR Business Partner with meaningful ER ownership.
• You’ve succeeded in high-growth or startup environments, with a bias to action and pragmatic guardrails.
• You’ve built and run performance and talent systems, including frameworks, cycles, and calibrations.
• You’re fluent in compliance and exercise sound judgment, right-sizing process and knowing when to escalate
• You manage programs and projects well, shipping from 0→1 and driving adoption.
• You communicate clearly and empathetically and influence stakeholders

Extra credit…

• Experience with large 1099/contractor or clinical networks (process design).
• Healthcare or education exposure.
• HR certifications (PHR/SPHR/SHRM) welcome but not required.

WHY YOU'LL LOVE CARTWHEEL

Our hope is that Cartwheel will be your best career decision! In addition to tackling one of the biggest challenges of our time, at a company well-positioned to do so, you'll have:

• Mission-oriented and inclusive colleagues who will go to bat for you
• Competitive annual compensation of $110k-130k
• Generous PPO medical, vision, and dental coverage
• Paid Parental leave
• Generous paid time off, including company closure from Christmas-New Years
• 401k with a company match
• Meaningful equity ownership stake in Cartwheel
• Flexible and remote role with in-person retreats
• Annual learning stipend
• Macbook