Temporary People Business Partner

UnitedMasters | Translation · Brooklyn, NY

  • Senior
  • Full-time
  • Posted 2026-10-27
  • Confirmed live on 10 November 2026

Apply at UnitedMasters | Translation

Job description

Who we are

We are an award-winning independent creative solutions company that aspires to be the most culturally-influential company in the world. We help ambitious brands harness the power of culture to solve their biggest challenges. As a unique mix of experts in culture, technology, and storytelling, we are united by a passion to grow brands in ways that advertising alone can never do.

We are an entrepreneurial business – not a traditional “ad agency.” That means we value resourcefulness and tenacity just as much as we value creativity and intelligence. We’re unapologetically ambitious!

We are looking for a Temporary People Business Partner to join Translation!

About the role

You will step into a senior, embedded PBP seat as the day-to-day people advisor to our agency leadership team while our PBP is on leave. This is not a placeholder role: you will be in the room for leadership decisions, bring a clear point of view on talent, performance and organizational questions, and handle difficult conversations with confidence. You will also own a live performance review cycle from calibration through delivery.

You will start in early January with three weeks of full-time onboarding alongside the current PBP, then take full ownership before the leave begins in February. You will keep a weekly update log so the transition back is seamless.

What you'll do

Senior leader partnership

• Serve as the day-to-day people advisor to the agency leadership team and their departments

• Contribute to the Senior Leadership Team agenda, which meets twice a week, in partnership with our VP of Agency Operations

• Drive progress on the agency leadership OKRs (our “big rocks”) as part of an agency-wide push, owning the people priorities and partnering closely with Finance and Operations where people, headcount and financial goals are tightly linked

Employee relations

• Proactively manage and resolve employee relations issues, from coaching conversations through performance plans and exits

• Guide managers through hard conversations and deliver difficult messages directly when needed

• Ensure compliance with company policies, and escalate to leadership and counsel appropriately

Talent and planning

• Stay close to the business to spot talent and skills gaps early, and plan full-time, temp and freelance needs hand in hand with Operations and Finance

• Advise on org design, workforce planning and headcount, and surface internal mobility and succession opportunities in critical roles

• Partner with Talent Acquisition, and external search partners for priority roles, to keep a steady pipeline and fill roles fast with the right talent

• Keep leaders informed on pipeline and hiring progress, so teams know when help is on the way

• Lead onboarding for incoming agency leadership hires, setting them up to build relationships and get up to speed quickly

Core people programs

• Help lead the Q1 performance review cycle across the agency, advising leaders on ratings, talent decisions and how to deliver feedback

• Facilitate calibration sessions with leaders, partnering with our VP of People Operations to challenge ratings and hold the bar

• Support compensation decisions tied to the review cycle, ensuring internal equity and clear rationale

• Support planning for the annual engagement survey, including question review and rollout timing

Continuity

• Keep a weekly update log covering decisions, open issues and next steps

• Partner closely with People Operations on processing people changes and with our UnitedMasters PBP on cross-company matters

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Strong coaching/ consulting capabilities.

• Demonstrated business acumen, organization savvy, judgment and decision making

• Collaborative style; positive can-do attitude. A team player with a strong drive to create a

• positive work environment.

• Excellent stakeholder management skills including ability to engage, influence and keep

• informed.

• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills. Ability to analyze data, understand trends

• and develop recommendations for action based on the analysis.

• Excellent communication skills – a strong verbal communicator and writer; ability to

• frame a message.

• Demonstrated change management capability.

Required

• 5+ years as an HR or People Business Partner supporting senior leaders

• Experience working across multiple business functions with first line and senior

• leadership

• Proven ability to handle employee relations matters across the spectrum, including performance plans and exits

• Confidence leading hard conversations with managers, employees and executives

• Ability to ramp quickly, work from existing plans, and make sound calls with limited history

• Strong judgment, discretion and written communication

Preferred

• Advertising agency experience, strongly preferred, ideally partnering with agency leadership

• Experience supporting creative talent and creative leader

Prepare for the interview

Nothing collected for this employer yet. The Blind 75 is what technical screens draw from; practice it here, with a coach, in Java or Python.

More at UnitedMasters | Translation

All open software jobs