Relay is a digital banking platform that gives self-made business owners the tools and know-how to be great with money—bringing clarity, confidence, and control to every dollar earned, so they can turn hard work into lasting success. We do this by replacing financial guesswork with real visibility, transforming cash flow from a constant source of stress into a clear signal owners can use to run stronger, more resilient businesses.
The Mission
Our People Team exists to build Relay into a company that high-performing, ambitious people actively choose and a place where they do career-defining work. We’re hiring a Sr. People Business Partner for our Go-To-Market teams to help make that true at scale.
We're building a team where our Business Partners operate as product managers for the people system, owning how talent, performance and impact, and leadership are designed, developed, measured, and improved in service of strategic business outcomes.
This person will partner closely with Managers, Directors, and VPs to design the conditions where high performers thrive: clear expectations, real ownership, fast feedback, high standards, and room to grow. This role requires a strong data foundation, first principles thinking, and strong judgment to shape teams that move quickly, raise the bar, and deliver meaningful results. This is not about maintaining programs. It’s about building an environment where great people do their best work.
We're a very collaborative team, so in addition to having ownership for your teams, you can expect to partner closely with the rest of the People team as we are a holistic system, and every decision we make affects the system.
What You'll Be Doing
Primary areas of ownership in this role include, but are not limited to:
People Strategy as Product
Treat performance, talent, and leadership effectiveness as products with clear problem statements, success metrics, and data-informed continuous iteration.
Implement a multi-quarter people strategy for your groups, setting priorities, sequencing work, and making tradeoffs to maximize business impact.
Use experimentation as the primary mechanism for change: form hypotheses, run pilots with clear decision points, and scale what works.
Build people products, tools, and automated workflows with AI that make our customers' (our people leaders') lives easier.
Strategic Business Partnership
Partner with Managers, Directors and VPs on org design, performance, succession, and leadership effectiveness.
Contribute to designing the systems that keep great talent performing, growing, and staying at Relay, in close partnership with the Talent Acquisition and Talent Enablement teams.
Use data and context to surface risks, patterns, and leverage points before they become problems, bringing forward insights that sharpen decision-making rather than reacting after the fact.
Bring clarity to ambiguous, high-stakes decisions by framing tradeoffs, pressure-testing assumptions, and focusing leaders on where action matters most.
Influence leadership thinking by combining data, judgment, and a clear point of view to improve decision quality in moments of growth, change, or tension.
Uphold a High Bar for Performance
Set and reinforce our high performance standards across your groups, shaping how leaders evaluate impact, potential, and role fit.
Improve the quality and timing of talent decisions by helping leaders diagnose issues early and act with clarity rather than delay.
Bring strong judgment to the most consequential People decisions, including role scope, succession, and exits, balancing fairness, team health, and business momentum.
Contribute to how performance is assessed and discussed across Relay by identifying gaps, testing improvements, and raising the bar for consistency and rigor.
Who You Are
You’re a strong fit for this role if the following are true:
You have 7+ years of experience in People Business Partnering or adjacent strategic People roles, including close partnership with senior leaders or executives.
You think in systems and outcomes, not tasks or programs. You naturally look for leverage and design solutions that scale.
You operate comfortably as a strategic owner, setting direction, making tradeoffs, and being accountable for results.
You bring strong business acumen and understand how talent, performance, and leadership decisions show up in execution, retention, and results.
You are fluent in using data and experimentation as a way of working. You know how to define a hypothesis, design a test, establish success metrics and tripwires, manage stakeholders and communication, and decide what to scale, change, or stop based on evidence.
You are comfortable holding tension and leading high-stakes conversations with clarity and empathy, including performance, role scope, and exit decisions.
You collaborate deeply and deliberately. You pressure-test ideas, align stakeholders, and evolve shared systems without operating unilaterally.
You move with urgency, follow through reliably, and take full ownership of outcomes, not just recommendations.
You’re energized by ambiguity and prefer building what’s needed next over applying what worked somewhere else.
This role is not a fit if:
You want to operate primarily as an advisor rather than owning problems end-to-end and pushing ideas all the way through to real change.
You reach for playbooks before first-principles thinking, or apply past solutions without testing whether they’re right for this context.
You’re uncomfortable being accountable for outcomes, making hard calls, or raising the bar when it creates tension.
The Interview Process
Stage 1: A 60-minute Google Meets video interview with the hiring manager covering both role and mission match, and a deep dive on skills and experience.
Stage 2: A 60 minute in person whiteboarding (collaborative problem solving) session with a few members of the People Leadership Team.
Stage 3: A 45-minute Google Meets video call with a member of our leadership team, behavioural in nature.
Stage 4: A take home case study assignment and a 60 minute share-back presentation to a few members of the People Leadership Team
Our Compensation Approach
We believe Relayers should feel rewarded for the impact they have on our mission and growth. Compensation follows impact. As impact increases, compensation grows, and we do not limit compensation changes to a once-a-year review cycle.
The annual salary range for this role is $153,000 - $178,500 CAD.
For candidates who demonstrate full readiness for the defined scope of the role, the starting salary is $170,000 CAD. Offers below this point reflect candidates we believe can grow into the full scope of the role with support and coaching. Offers above this point are rare and reflect impact that meaningfully exceeds the role’s defined expectations or an expanded scope from day one.
We encourage you to have a conversation with your recruiter and ask questions about compensation throughout the hiring process. For more information on our compensation philosophy and perks and benefits, visit our Candidate Hub.
Why Relay Might Be the Perfect Fit For You
You push relentlessly for reinvention: You're always asking "how can this be better?" -- in your work, in your craft, in yourself. Comfort is a signal to push harder, not coast. You'd rather build something better than defend something familiar.
You crave autonomy: We trust our team with big challenges and the freedom to solve them. If you’re someone who takes initiative, is comfortable taking risks, and seeks input when needed, you’ll find the freedom here empowering.
You own your work: You take pride in your work, follow through on commitments, and feel a deep sense of responsibility for outcomes, not just tasks.
You build with AI, not just use it: You're actively embedding AI into how you work, pushing what's possible, and bringing your team along with you.
You care about impact, not noise: You care deeply about the substance of your work. You measure success by results, not recognition, and you let your work speak for itself.
You’re energized by complexity and ambiguity: You enjoy tackling problems that don’t come with a playbook. You’re comfortable building from scratch, iterating as you go, and collaborating to shape the best path forward.
You seek out feedback: You see directness as respect, not criticism. You actively seek input, sit with hard truths, and use feedback as fuel for improvement.
Small businesses are why we're here: Relay exists to help them thrive -- and that mission has to resonate with you.
Join Us
We're looking for people who are relentless, curious, and care deeply about the work. You're encouraged to apply even if your experience doesn't perfectly match the job description -- your perspective and drive matter more. We welcome diverse backgrounds and people who think critically, challenge the status quo, and want to help small businesses thrive.
If you require accommodations at any stage of the hiring process, please reach out to your Talent Partner.
Disclaimer: For compliance reasons, all offers of employment at Relay are conditional upon a successful background check and employment verification through Certn.