Director, Global People Business Partner - GTM

DDN is at the center of one of the most consequential shifts in technology: the rapid buildout of AI infrastructure. As the business scales, our Go-to-Market organization has to evolve just as quickly—how we organize, where we invest, how we lead, and the talent and capabilities we build to capture the opportunity in front of us.

We’re looking for a Director, HR Business Partner — Go-to-Market to partner directly with our President and Chief Revenue Officer and his leadership team that spans Sales, Marketing and our broader commercial organization.

This person will own the people and organizational agenda for GTM and serve as a critical member of its leadership team. While the role is US-based, our customers, teams and growth ambitions are global. Success will require thinking globally and partnering closely with People leaders across regions to build a connected talent and organizational strategy.

This role is for a strategic operator who understands that great People partnership starts with understanding the business. They can connect growth strategy, customer and market dynamics, and business performance to what it means for the organization—and then build the plan and make it happen. The best person for this role can operate at 30,000 feet and at ground level. They can help a leadership team rethink its organization, build the project plan to get there, and roll up their sleeves to execute it. No handoff required.

What You’ll Do

• Own the people agenda for GTM. Partner with GTM leadership on organization design, workforce planning, talent strategy, leadership capability and where and how we invest in the organization.

• Operate as part of the GTM leadership team. Develop a deep understanding of our business, customers, markets, growth strategy and talent so you can bring a real point of view—not simply an HR perspective—to business decisions.

• Own performance and employee relations end-to-end. Help leaders identify underperformance early, establish clear expectations, give direct feedback and navigate the path forward. When a manager needs more hands-on support, provide it. Own formal performance processes and complex employee relations matters through resolution, partnering with Legal and regional People teams where needed.

• Shape the organization for what comes next. Help leaders make thoughtful decisions about structure, roles, spans and layers, capabilities and where we need to build, buy, develop or reorganize talent as the business evolves.

• Build and differentiate talent. Lead talent reviews, succession and critical-talent discussions. Help leaders understand where the bar needs to move, where we have leadership or capability gaps, and where exceptional performance should be recognized and accelerated.

• Build stronger leaders and teams. Coach executives and managers through growth, change, team effectiveness and difficult talent decisions. Help leaders raise the performance bar while building teams where talented people can do their best work.

• Help build DDN’s People playbook. GTM won’t just consume People programs—this role will help create them. Partner across the People team to build and continuously improve global practices like performance management, onboarding, manager enablement, talent reviews and other foundational People programs. Bring what you learn from the business back into how DDN operates globally.

• Turn strategy into execution. Take complex organizational problems, break them into workstreams, build the plan, connect the right people and drive through to completion. Great ideas that never make it out of the meeting aren’t particularly useful.

• Connect a global GTM organization. Partner directly with regional People leaders across DDN’s footprint to create a cohesive approach to talent and organization while accounting for legitimate local differences in employment practices, culture and market.

• Bring the broader People organization to GTM. Partner with Talent Acquisition, Compensation, People Operations and regional teams to connect the dots across talent, rewards, hiring, systems and the employee experience.

What You Bring

You understand that people decisions are business decisions, and you want to be accountable for the strength and performance of the organization alongside the leaders you support.

We’re looking for:

• Significant experience as a senior HR Business Partner or People Partner, ideally supporting Sales, Marketing, Revenue or another complex Go-to-Market organization.

• A track record as a true thought partner to senior executives and a meaningful contributor to their leadership teams—shaping decisions rather than waiting to be asked.

• Strong commercial instincts. You’re curious about customers, markets, growth and how the company makes money, and you connect those things naturally to talent and organization decisions.

• Deep strength in organization design, talent strategy, performance management, employee relations and leadership effectiveness.

• Experience personally owning performance and ER matters from early diagnosis through resolution. You don't need another team to step in and do the hard part.

• Experience operating in high-growth, transformation or 0→1 / 1→2 environments where the organization and processes were evolving quickly.

• Experience in performance-oriented environments where talent differentiation, accountability and moving quickly on performance matter.

• An operator’s brain. You naturally turn ambiguity into a plan, create structure around messy work, track the details and drive things across the finish line. Formal project management experience is welcome; an informal obsession with a good project plan works too.

• The ability to connect dots. You can see how a performance issue connects to leadership, organization design, incentives, hiring or something changing in the business.

• Meaningful global experience. You know how to operate across countries and cultures and partner effectively with regional People teams.

• The ability to move from executive-level strategy to hands-on execution without ego.

• A clear point of view, strong judgment and the confidence to respectfully challenge senior leaders when needed.