Staff People Business Partner

Clio is the global leader in legal AI technology, empowering legal professionals and law firms of every size to work smarter, faster, and more securely. 

We are transforming the legal experience for all by bettering the lives of legal professionals while increasing access to justice.

Summary:

We're seeking a Staff People Business Partner to lead People partnership across Clio's G&A function — Finance, People, and the Office of the CEO — working directly with our Chief Financial Officer and Chief People Officer as their People advisor. This role sits at the centre of how Clio is run: the functions that set financial discipline, build organizational capability, and drive company-wide strategy and execution.

As a Staff level PBP, you are not simply executing People strategy, you are shaping it. You serve as a principal advisor to C-suite leaders and their leadership teams, influence Clio's People programmes at a company-wide level, and set the standard for what exceptional People partnership looks like. You bring a multi-year lens to organizational health, talent strategy, and business transformation, anticipating challenges before they surface and driving proactive, lasting solutions.

Because your client groups include the functions that steward Clio's financial plan, its People strategy, and its executive agenda, your work has unusual reach. A structural insight in Finance shapes how the whole company plans headcount. A capability gap in the People org shapes how every other function is supported. Work coming out of the Office of the CEO becomes the company's priorities. You will need the judgment, discretion, and executive credibility that comes with operating this close to the centre.

This role is ideal for a seasoned People leader who speaks the language of Finance fluently, who can partner the People function itself with peer-level credibility and candour, and who brings enterprise-level thinking, executive presence, and deep practitioner craft to every engagement.

Who You Are

You are a senior-level People partner who operates seamlessly between the strategic and the structural — capable of shaping system-level organizational thinking while remaining grounded in the realities of execution. You have a proven track record of advising C-suite and frontline leaders with confidence, and you bring a point of view that goes beyond process and compliance to genuine organizational insight and business impact.

You understand how Finance enables scale, discipline, and financial accountability; how the People function builds leaders, capability, and culture at scale; and how the Office of the CEO converts strategy into company-wide execution. You move fluidly between these contexts, building trusted relationships at every level while holding the organizational People perspective.

You are comfortable being a genuine peer and challenger to executives, including inside your own function. You can hold confidence absolutely, deliver hard messages without hedging, and separate what a leader wants to hear from what the organization needs.

You are known for your strong judgment. You navigate the most complex organizational situations with clarity, calm, and principle. You are a trusted voice across both People and business leadership, and you elevate everyone around you.

What Your Team Does

The People Business Partner team at Clio is responsible for enabling leaders and teams to do their best work while ensuring Clio scales sustainably, equitably, and compliantly. PBPs partner closely with leaders, People Centers of Excellence (Talent, Total Rewards, TD&L, People Ops), and cross-functional teams to deliver thoughtful, data-driven people solutions that align with Clio's business strategy and values.

Together, we help Clio build human and high-performing teams, and exceptional leaders.

What You'll Work On

Strategic Business Partnership

• Serve as the principal People advisor to the CFO and CPO — operating as a true thought partner on the most consequential organizational decisions facing their functions and, through them, the company.

• Partner with the Office of the CEO on company-wide priorities, operating rhythm, and executive-level initiatives, ensuring the People implications of strategic decisions are surfaced early and addressed deliberately.

• Drive the People strategy for Finance, People, and OCEO with a multi-year lens, connecting business trajectory, organizational health, and talent imperatives in a coherent, integrated plan.

• Influence company-wide People priorities by surfacing patterns, risks, and opportunities from across your groups — translating local insight into org-level recommendations.

• Anticipate second- and third-order organizational effects of strategic decisions before leaders see them, and proactively shape plans accordingly.

• Prepare and support your executives for board, audit committee, and leadership forums where people, organizational, or workforce topics are in scope.

Organizational Architecture & Transformation

• Lead complex, multi-phase organizational design efforts — including operating model transformation, large-scale restructures, and integration of newly formed or acquired teams across your client groups.

• Serve as the go-to expert on organizational architecture for G&A — advising on spans and layers, structural interdependencies, shared-service models, and team operating norms at scale.

• Partner with the CFO and CPO to design organizations that scale efficiently, balancing cost discipline with capability, and modelling the trade-offs explicitly.

• Partner with leaders to evolve their organizational models in anticipation of growth, market shifts, or strategic pivots.

• Apply a systems-level lens to organizational challenges, identifying root causes and structural solutions rather than addressing symptoms in isolation.

• Partner with Talent Management and TD&L to support leadership development, manager capability, and team effectiveness programmes.

Executive Coaching & Leadership Development

• Provide deep, ongoing executive coaching to senior leaders up to and including VP and C-suite across Finance, People, and OCEO on leadership effectiveness, team dynamics, stakeholder management, and organizational impact.

• Coach and support the CFO's and CPO's leadership teams as teams, not only as individuals — building shared operating norms, clarity of ownership, and healthy conflict.

• Identify leadership development needs at the senior-most levels and create tailored, high-impact development plans in partnership with Talent Development.

• Lead or co-design senior leadership team effectiveness engagements, including offsites, team diagnostics, and sustained effectiveness programs.

• Support succession conversations and contribute to executive talent assessments with depth and rigour.

• Model what exceptional coaching looks like for the broader PBP team, sharing frameworks, approaches, and lessons from the most complex leadership situations.

High-Stakes Employee Relations & Risk Leadership

• Advise on and lead sensitive, high-complexity, or high-risk employee relations matters across your client groups.

• Lead or oversee complex investigations, ensuring outcomes that are fair, legally sound, and consistent with Clio's values and obligations.

• Handle matters involving senior leaders and executive conduct with exceptional discretion, navigating the conflicts of interest that arise when the People function is itself a client group.

• Partner closely with Legal Counsel on matters of significant organizational risk, executive conduct, or legal exposure.

• Develop and champion ER frameworks, investigation standards, and escalation protocols that elevate practice quality across the People team.

• Maintain knowledge of employment law across all relevant jurisdictions, including cross-border and international employment contexts as Clio continues to grow globally.

People Strategy, Talent & Performance Architecture

• Shape the design and execution of Clio's most critical People programs — performance management, talent calibration, succession planning, and total rewards alignment — contributing an enterprise-level perspective in combination with Talent Development.

• Lead workforce planning for Finance, People, and OCEO, and partner with Finance leadership on the company-wide connection between headcount planning, organizational design, and the annual and long-range financial planning cycles.

• Serve as a key voice in talent reviews, contributing senior-level assessments of leader readiness, critical role risk, and organizational capability gaps.

• Translate executive-level strategy into talent implications with precision, defining what capabilities, headcount, and structures the organization will need 1–2 years out.

People Team Leadership, Mentorship & Operating Model

• Act as a senior practitioner role model within the PBP team, setting the bar for quality of thinking, depth of partnership, and standard of execution.

• Mentor and coach Senior and mid-level PBPs, sharing frameworks, reviewing approaches on complex cases, and actively developing the next generation of People partners.

• Contribute to the evolution of the People operating model — with a direct line to the CPO, you are uniquely placed to identify gaps, propose structural improvements, and pilot new approaches.

• Drive consistency in practice quality across the PBP team through the development of playbooks, standards, and shared tools.

• Serve as a connector between the People team and the business — translating what leaders need into team capability and capacity investments.

Data, Insight & People Intelligence

• Use people data with sophistication, moving beyond descriptive analytics to predictive insight, proactively identifying organizational risk before it surfaces in leadership conversations.

• Synthesize multi-source data (engagement, attrition, performance, DEI, workforce trends) to construct a full picture of organizational health across your client groups.

• Partner with Finance and People Analytics to connect people data to financial and operational metrics — cost of workforce, productivity, span efficiency — in a way executives trust and act on.

• Develop and present executive-ready people insights that influence business strategy, not just People programs.

• Establish and champion data standards and reporting practices across the PBP team.

What You'll Bring

• 10+ years of progressive HR / People Business Partner experience, with a substantial portion at a senior or Staff-equivalent level supporting complex, cross-functional organizations — specifically G&A or corporate functions such as Finance.

• A demonstrated track record of advising C-suite leaders directly, with confidence and impact, in high-growth SaaS or technology companies.

• Deep expertise across the full spectrum of People practice: organizational design, executive coaching, ER and investigations, workforce planning, talent strategy, and performance management.

• Strong business and financial literacy — you understand budgets, headcount plans, and planning cycles well enough to be a credible partner to a CFO, not just a translator of People processes.

• The judgment and self-awareness to partner the People function itself: peer-level credibility with fellow People leaders, clear boundaries with the CoEs, and the candour to challenge your own function.

• Superior knowledge of employment law across multiple jurisdictions, including cross-border and international employment contexts.

• Exceptional executive presence, communication, and influencing skills — you are equally credible in a boardroom, a sensitive employee conversation, and a People team workshop.

• Proven discretion in handling highly confidential executive, organizational, and board-adjacent matters.

• A systems thinker who sees organizational dynamics holistically, not in siloed functional areas.

• Strong data fluency with the ability to translate complex people analytics into executive-level narrative and strategic recommendations.

• High tolerance for ambiguity and a proven ability to lead through organizational change and transformation.

• A collaborative, values-driven approach combined with the confidence to challenge, push back, and hold a point of view when it matters.

• Demonstrated interest in and application of AI tools to elevate People practice and personal productivity.

Bonus Points

• Background supporting companies through major inflection points — pre-IPO scaling, post-merger integration, international expansion, or significant workforce transformation.

• Experience aligning workforce planning with financial planning cycles in a disciplined, high-growth environment.

• Experience supporting an Office of the CEO, Chief of Staff function, or corporate strategy team.

• Experience partnering the People function itself as a client group.

• Experience building and scaling People practices across multiple geographies and employment jurisdictions simultaneously.

• Background supporting G&A or corporate functions in a pre-IPO SaaS or technology company.

This is a new role.

What you will find here:

Compensation is one of the main components of Clio’s Total Rewards Program. We have developed a series of programs and processes to ensure we are creating fair and competitive pay practices that form the foundation of our human and high-performing culture.
 

Some highlights of our Total Rewards program include:

• Competitive, equitable salary with top-tier health benefits, dental, and vision insurance 

• Hybrid work environment, with expectation for local Clions (Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Dublin, London, New York City and Sydney) to be in office min. twice per week. 

• Flexible time off policy, with an encouraged 20 days off per year.

• $2000 annual counseling benefit

• RRSP matching and RESP contribution 

• Clioversary recognition program with special acknowledgement at 3, 5, 7, and 10 years

The expected salary range for this role is $122,800 to $184,200 CAD. Initial placement within the range is informed by geographic region, experience, and skillset, with room to progress as impact and tenure grow. Final offer amounts will vary based on candidate profile.

Diversity, Inclusion, Belonging and Equity (DIBE) & Accessibility 

Our team shows up as their authentic selves, and are united by our mission. We are dedicated to diversity, equity and inclusion. We pride ourselves in building and fostering an environment where our teams feel included, valued, and enabled to do the best work of their careers, wherever they choose to log in from. We believe that different perspectives, skills, backgrounds, and experiences result in higher-performing teams and better innovation. We are committed to equal employment and we encourage candidates from all backgrounds to apply.

Clio provides accessibility accommodations during the recruitment process. Should you require any accommodation, please let us know and we will work with you to meet your needs.

Learn more about our culture at clio.com/careers

We're a Human and High Performing AI company, meaning we use artificial intelligence to improve all of our operations. In recruitment, AI helps us streamline the process for greater efficiency. However, we've built our systems to ensure that a human always reviews AI-generated output, and we never make automated hiring decisions.

Disclaimer: We only communicate with candidates through official @clio.com email addresses.