Fractional HR Business Partner (California Employment Law Expertise)

Position Overview

We are building our bench of fractional HR Business Partners with deep California employment law expertise to support portfolio companies operating in California within our client's growing, multi-brand, multi-location organization. This organization owns and operates businesses across 40 states and completes approximately 10–15 acquisitions per year; the California-based (or California-operating) businesses in the portfolio need an HRBP who can serve as the trusted, on-the-ground HR point of contact — advising local business leaders and the corporate Business Operations leader on California-specific employee relations, compliance, and post-integration HRIS and payroll training, while building feedback channels that surface field-level insight back to the corporate HR team. Given the pace of acquisition activity, this HRBP will regularly onboard newly integrated California entities and guide them from integration into stable, steady-state operations.

Responsibilities

Partner Communications & Operational Relationship Management

• Serve as the primary HR point of contact for assigned California-based portfolio companies, working alongside local managers and the corporate BizOps leader as an extension of their leadership team
• Represent corporate HR to portfolio company managers and employees post-integration — fielding questions, routing issues, and maintaining a visible, trusted presence in the field
• Partner with BizOps leaders to implement organizational changes, including operating model shifts, role redesigns, and cultural interventions, ensuring they land smoothly with managers and employees
• Keep corporate HR leadership informed on field conditions, emerging issues, and portfolio company-level developments across the assigned California portfolio

California Employee Relations & Compliance

• Manage employee relations matters end-to-end — investigations, conflict resolution, disciplinary actions, and corrective action — in accordance with California-specific requirements across distributed locations
• Own resolution of California compliance issues flagged by corporate HR or surfaced through HRIS monitoring, including wage and hour, meal and rest break, and PAGA exposure, working with portfolio company leadership to remediate
• Apply working knowledge of CFRA, FEHA, Cal/OSHA, California pay transparency requirements (SB 1162), final pay timing rules, and relevant local ordinances (e.g., San Francisco, Los Angeles, and other municipal requirements), with the judgment to know when to escalate to legal versus resolve in the field
• Participate in cross-functional task forces addressing recurring or systemic California compliance issues
• Ensure consistent application of HR policies and practices across assigned California portfolio companies, adapted as needed for state-specific requirements

Training, Learning & HRIS Systems Support

• Deliver HRIS training and rollout communications to portfolio company managers and employees for new modules, SOPs, and system process changes
• Provide ongoing user support and troubleshooting at the portfolio company level; escalate system or configuration issues to the appropriate corporate resource
• Serve as the primary feedback channel on gaps in SOPs, training materials, or system configuration uncovered through field use, with particular attention to California-specific policy language

Employee Experience & Feedback Channels

• Build structured feedback channels with portfolio company employees to surface what is and isn't working at the ground level
• Bring field-level patterns and signals back to the broader HR team to drive improvements to SOPs, training, and HR services
• Identify and escalate workplace culture or operational issues that warrant corporate HR attention
• Analyze feedback data to spot trends and develop actionable recommendations that improve the overall employee experience

Talent Strategy & Workforce Planning

• Support annual talent planning for California portfolio companies — identifying critical roles to add, retention risks, high-performer development opportunities, and management bench strength against each business's operating plan
• Support seasonal workforce planning — sizing W-2 and 1099 hiring needs for peak cycles and ensuring recruiting capacity is in place, with attention to California-specific worker classification rules
• Contribute to succession and key-person risk plans for GMs, lead coaches, and other roles where founder or single-person dependency creates business risk
• Flag compensation drift from California market benchmarks and recommend org structure adjustments as portfolio companies grow
• Identify and recommend improvements to labor and staffing models alongside BizOps leaders to ensure financial targets are met and California people operations remain compliant and efficient

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, or related field
• 5+ years of HRBP experience, with substantial hands-on application of California employment law
• Experience supporting multi-site or multi-state organizations with California operations
• Deep working knowledge of California employment law — wage and hour, meal and rest breaks, PAGA, CFRA, FEHA, Cal/OSHA, pay transparency, and relevant local ordinances — with the judgment to know when to escalate to legal versus handle in the field
• Demonstrated ability to manage employee relations cases end-to-end, including investigations, documentation, and disciplinary actions across distributed California locations
• Experience working directly with clients in a consulting, professional services, PEO, or agency capacity, or as an embedded/fractional HRBP
• Strong operating partnership skills — able to function as a working member of a business leadership team, not just an HR resource called in for problems
• Direct, clear communication with leaders, managers, and frontline employees, including the ability to deliver difficult messages without ambiguity
• Comfort with decentralization and ambiguity — portfolio businesses vary widely, and the HRBP adapts rather than imposes uniformity where it isn't needed
• Comfort working in flexible, project-based engagements
• High integrity and discretion when handling sensitive employee and business information

Preferred Qualifications

• Located in the Bay Area or Silicon Valley, near the California clients supported (a plus, not required)
• Hands-on HRIS experience
• Experience in M&A-driven environments — comfortable absorbing newly acquired entities, working with founder-led operators, and supporting integration-to-steady-state transitions
• Experience in multi-location, multi-brand environments with decentralized field operations
• Familiarity with seasonal and part-time workforce populations
• PHRca, SHRM-SCP, SPHR, or equivalent certification
• Willingness to travel occasionally as client needs require

What You Can Expect

livingHR engages contract consultants on a project-by-project basis. Engagement timing, scope, and duration vary based on client needs. Consultants may be considered for multiple opportunities over time as part of our long-term talent community.