Senior Employee Relations Business Partner

PsiQuantum's mission is to build the first useful quantum computers: machines capable of delivering the breakthroughs the field has long promised. Since our founding in 2016, our singular focus has been to build and deploy million-qubit, fault-tolerant quantum systems. Quantum computers harness the laws of quantum mechanics to solve problems that even the most advanced supercomputers or AI systems will never reach. Their impact will span energy, pharmaceuticals, finance, agriculture, transportation, materials, and other foundational industries. Our architecture and approach is based on silicon photonics. By leveraging the advanced semiconductor manufacturing industry, including partners like GlobalFoundries, we use the same high-volume processes that already produce billions of chips for telecom and consumer electronics. Photonics offers natural advantages for scale: photons don't feel heat, are immune to electromagnetic interference, and integrate with existing cryogenic cooling and standard fiber-optic infrastructure. That approach has since been tested at the highest level of scrutiny the U.S. government applies to emerging technology, and it has held up. In 2025, PsiQuantum closed a $1 billion funding round that valued the company at $7 billion. In 2026, the U.S. Department of Commerce signed a $100 million Letter of Intent under the CHIPS and Science Act, followed by a $125 million agreement with DARPA under Stage C of its Quantum Benchmarking Initiative, PsiQuantum's most valuable U.S. government agreement to date. This year, we also broke ground on our utility-scale quantum computer in Brisbane, Australia, and continued building out our Chicago site. Victor Peng, our CEO, and co-founder Jeremy O'Brien, now Executive Chairman, lead a team and board that reflects how seriously the world is taking this build, joined this year by Intel's Lip-Bu Tan and Atomico's Niklas Zennström. PsiQuantum also develops the algorithms and software needed to make these systems commercially valuable. Our application, software, and industry teams work directly with leading Fortune 500 companies, including Airbus, Lockheed Martin, Mercedes-Benz, Boehringer Ingelheim, and Mitsubishi Chemical, to prepare quantum solutions for real-world impact. Quantum computing is not an extension of classical computing. It represents a fundamental shift, and a path to mastering challenges that cannot be solved any other way. The potential is enormous, and we now have the funding, the government validation, and the sites under construction to make it real. Job Summary: The Senior Employee Relations Business Partner serves as a strategic advisor to leadership and People teams, ensuring fair, consistent, and legally compliant employee practices while protecting company culture and minimizing organizational risk. This role leads complex workplace investigations, advises on high-risk employee matters, and designs scalable ER frameworks suitable for a rapidly growing, late-stage startup environment. Responsibilities: Strategic Advisory • Partner with senior leaders, HRBPs, Legal, and executives on sensitive employee relations issues. • Provide risk assessments and recommended actions aligned with company values, business goals, and employment law. • Identify systemic risks and recommend proactive solutions. Investigations & Case Management • Lead and document complex investigations (harassment, discrimination, retaliation, misconduct, ethics concerns). • Ensure investigative rigor, neutrality, and defensibility. • Draft investigation reports and executive summaries with findings and recommendations. • Manage internal reporting channels and escalation protocols. Policy & Compliance • Design and maintain employee relations policies, procedures, and frameworks. • Ensure compliance with federal, state, and local employment laws. • Partner with Legal on regulatory readiness and litigation prevention. Performance & Conduct Management • Advise on performance management, discipline, terminations, and RIF planning. • Coach managers on documentation, feedback, and corrective action strategies. • Support high risk exits and executive-level employee issues. • Ensure timely completion and quality of exit interviews; synthesize insights to identify trends, inform retention strategies, and proactively mitigate organizational risk. Data & Risk Insights • Partner with Data Analytics to track ER trends, themes, and hotspots. • Provide executive-level reporting and analytics. • Recommend systemic interventions based on trends. Training & Enablement • Develop manager training on best practices. • Build scalable ER toolkits for leaders and HR partners. Experience/Qualifications: Required • 3-5 years of employee relations, employment law, HR, or investigations experience. • Experience in high-growth or scaling organizations. • Demonstrated success handling complex, high-risk investigations. • Strong knowledge of U.S. employment law and HR best practices. • Exceptional judgment, discretion, and executive presence. Preferred • Experience supporting global teams. PsiQuantum provides equal employment opportunity for all applicants and employees. PsiQuantum does not unlawfully discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), gender identity, gender expression, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, age, physical or mental disability, military or veteran status, marital status, domestic partner status, sexual orientation, genetic information, or any other basis protected by applicable laws. Note: PsiQuantum will only reach out to you using an official PsiQuantum email address and will never ask you for bank account information as part of the interview process. Please report any suspicious activity to recruiting@psiquantum.com. We are not accepting unsolicited resumes from employment agencies. Base pay is one part of the total compensation package. Full-time roles are eligible for equity and benefits. Our compensation ranges reflect the cost of labor across multiple U.S. geographic markets, and we pay based on defined geographic zones. This position is located within the Zone 1 (Examples include Bay Area and NYC) salary range. Actual compensation within the stated salary range will depend on a variety of factors, including a candidate's qualifications, relevant education and training, competencies, experience, business needs, and internal equity. Your recruiter can provide additional information about the compensation for this role during the hiring process. This position includes the following benefits: competitive health coverage for you and your dependents, 401(k) with company match, equity grants, access to financial wellness tools and planning resources, wellness benefits, family support programs, life and disability insurance, paid leave programs, company-designated paid holidays, discretionary time off (DTO), and an end-of-year company shutdown. Some benefits have eligibility requirements and may vary based on role or employment status. Many of these benefits are subsidized or fully paid for by the company. The estimated annual base salary range for this role in Palo Alto, California is: Zone 1 $140,300—$164,900 USD