People Partner (Tech Teams: Engineering, Research & Product) at Luma AI – Palo Alto, California

About Luma AILuma's mission is to build multimodal AI to expand human imagination and capabilities. We believe that multimodality is critical for intelligence. To go beyond language models and build more aware, capable and useful systems, the next step function change will come from vision. So we are working on training and scaling up multimodal foundation models for systems that can see and understand, show and explain, and eventually interact with our world to effect change.
Where You Come In:This is a rare opportunity to join Luma as a foundational People Partner and strategic architect, shaping the "people operating system" for our deeply technical and highly autonomous Engineering, Research, and Product teams. You will build people foundations that support innovation without getting in the way, enabling world-class researchers and engineers to invent a new medium.
What You'll Do:

• This is an opportunity to build and shape our people practices, not just maintain them.
• Partner with Engineering, Research & Product leaders as a trusted advisor, coaching managers on feedback, expectations, team health, and leadership growth.
• Support org design, team structure, and role clarity as technical teams scale, helping leaders navigate change and ambiguity.
• Design and introduce practical tools for goal setting, feedback, and growth conversations that resonate with technical teams, in partnership with the Head of HR.
• Serve as the first point of contact for employee relations matters, conducting investigations and recommending outcomes grounded in consistency, empathy, and sound judgment.
• Identify friction points across the employee lifecycle for technical employees and help design improvements that ensure people processes scale smoothly and reliably.
• Bring structure where it adds clarity and alignment, and actively avoid it where it introduces unnecessary friction, always aiming to scale without slowing teams down.

Who You Are:

• 6–10 years in HRBP, People Partner, or Senior People Ops roles.
• Direct experience supporting Engineering, Product, and/or Research teams.
• Experience building or evolving performance management practices for technical roles.
• Background in high-growth tech or startup environments strongly preferred.
• Strong coaching and influencing skills with highly technical leaders.
• High judgment and discretion in sensitive situations.
• Solid understanding of U.S. employment law and HR best practices.
• Comfortable operating in ambiguity and helping technical leaders do the same.
• Pragmatic, thoughtful, and not overly process-driven.

What Sets You Apart (Bonus Points):

• Enjoy partnering with deeply technical teams.
• Believe performance is about clarity, growth, and impact.
• Appreciate rigor, direct feedback, and intellectual honesty.
• Can translate people concepts into language that resonates with engineers and researchers.
• Communicate clearly, directly, and thoughtfully.