People and Talent Partner

JOB SUMMARY

At Burning Man Project, our year-round staff provides the foundational infrastructure that allows a global cultural movement and a temporary desert city to thrive. We are looking for a People & Talent Partner to serve as the ultimate steward for how we attract, hire, and welcome talent into our year-round community.

This is a dynamic, dual-focus position designed for a culture-aligned HR professional who thrives on end-to-end ownership of the talent acquisition ecosystem. This is not a high-volume corporate recruiting grind; rather, it is a balanced role focused on a steady, intentional pipeline of strategic year-round hires and their integration into the organization. Because we maintain a highly stable, values-aligned year-round team of 100+ employees, our focus is entirely on quality over quantity. This deliberate pace allows you to dedicate real time to creative talent campaigns, database matching, complex calendar coordination, and a spectacular first 30 days for new hires, while dedicating your remaining capacity to employee lifecycle activities.

This is a regular full-time role, located in San Francisco, CA . Working hours will be based on Pacific Time.

  The deadline to apply for this role is 5:00 pm Pacific on 07/08/26.

DUTIES & ESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS

PERCENTAGE OF TIME SPENT

End-to-End Talent Acquisition & Strategy (50%)

• Full-Cycle Year-Round Recruitment: Own the end-to-end recruitment process for our steady pipeline of strategic year-round roles, acting as a trusted partner to hiring managers from initial intake to offer generation.
• Intake & Recruitment Alignment: Facilitate kickoff meetings with hiring managers to align on candidate profiles and expectations for the open role. Tap into our extensive internal talent database and networks to identify candidates, providing support with targeted external outreach if a specialized role requires additional visibility.
• Interview Design & Process Logistics : Partner with teams to design clear interview loops and facilitate candidate debrief sessions. Manage the day-to-day logistics of the interview lifecycle, including coordinating panel availability and scheduling meetings across staff calendars to ensure a seamless internal and external experience. During predictable Q1 hiring spikes, you will partner with leadership to balance active pipelines and establish realistic expectations.
• Modern Talent Campaigns: Develop innovative strategies, plans, and creative recruitment campaigns for year-round, temporary, and seasonal hiring to capture underutilized talent pipelines.
• Candidate Experience: Orchestrate an authentic, high-touch candidate journey that reflects Burning Man Project's distinct culture, values, and community ethos through timely, transparent communication.
• ATS Optimization & Administration: Serve as the hands-on subject matter expert for our Applicant Tracking System (JazzHR), optimizing workflows, maintaining data integrity, and training hiring teams on best practices.

Comprehensive Onboarding & Program Evolution (20%)

• Onboarding Champion: In close collaboration with and under the oversight of People Ops leadership, help own and architect the onboarding process. Work closely with managers to ensure their employees get the richest experience in their first 30 days of joining Burning Man and receive the tools they need to be successful.
• Orientation Delivery: Facilitate and continuously improve the logistics of onboarding, including leading new hire orientation presentations. During peak hiring windows, you will utilize a cohort-based onboarding model to streamline logistics across IT, Payroll, and department leads.
• Program Feedback & Iteration: Actively collect feedback on the onboarding process to continuously evolve, refine, and improve the program as needed.

Key Organizational Projects & Infrastructure (25%)

• The JD Ecosystem Overhaul: Partner directly with hiring managers to develop honed, purposeful, evaluable job descriptions. Take the operational lead on auditing, formatting, and completely rebuilding our year-round job description database (~100+ roles) to ensure consistency and organizational alignment.
• Job Family Development: Develop, maintain, and regularly evaluate distinct job families across the entire organization to build long-term scalability.
• Job Leveling & Compensation Framework: In tandem with regular salary benchmarking and market analysis tools, spearhead the long-term project of building a clear, transparent job leveling framework aligned with our nonprofit structure.
• Seasonal Sourcing Strategy Consultant: Act as a strategic advisor to our seasonal hiring managers (e.g., DPW, NVO, GPE) as they navigate shifting talent markets. While you won't manage their high-volume pipelines or scheduling, you will collaborate with leadership to provide innovative sourcing guidance and talent attraction strategies (such as targeting student demographics or recent graduates for early-summer build crews).
• Talent Ops SOPs: Own, document, and refine Talent Ops Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to ensure operational consistency and scalability.

Other Functions and Responsibilities (5%)

• Perform other duties as assigned.

LEARNING AND TEACHING

• Documentation - Assists in the creation, publishing, and maintenance of process documentation related to their assigned duties.
• Knowledge sharing – Helps acculturate and educate junior staff in Burning Man culture and business processes.
• Training development - Collaborates with the education team to develop training materials in their area of expertise, as requested.
• Learning – Pursues ongoing learning in their area of expertise, working to stay current on emergent knowledge, skills, and processes.

 
QUALIFICATIONS

REQUIRED

• 3+ years of progressive experience blending full-cycle recruiting with foundational HR or People Operations responsibilities. You genuinely enjoy switching contexts between database-driven talent selection, sensitive conversations, and meticulous operational logistics.
• Proven ability to manage the complete talent acquisition lifecycle independently, including complete comfort with managing your own interview scheduling, panel coordination, and daily administrative tracking.
• Solid experience or strong structural aptitude for building HR infrastructure—specifically writing job descriptions, working with role competencies, or maintaining operational data.
• High emotional intelligence, sharp attention to detail, and the ability to keep multiple projects, talent campaigns, and candidate pipelines moving forward autonomously.
• Ability to adjust schedule seasonally to work at the Burning Man event held in Nevada.

PREFERRED

• Deep, hands-on familiarity with modern Applicant Tracking System, ideally JazzHR, with a knack for auditing and optimizing digital workflows.
• Experience auditing, designing, or elevating onboarding programs and 30-day integration plans for new hires.
• It is helpful if the candidate has previously been to Burning Man and/or is familiar with its culture.

Note: If you have gained the necessary experience to succeed in this role and have acquired this experience in other ways, we encourage you to apply and share all relevant experience in your application.

REQUIRED LICENSES/CERTIFICATIONS

• Valid Driver’s License and good driving record

PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS/WORK ENVIRONMENT

• Off-playa: Work is primarily sedentary in nature, no special demands are required.
• On-playa:  Work is primarily sedentary but will also include the need to find and meet with department representatives who may not be in the vicinity therefore this could include walking or using some form of transportation.  Some of the work will be in outside weather conditions and will be exposed to fumes or airborne particles as well as possible extremes in temperature.

WHAT’S IN IT FOR YOU?

We are certain that working for Burning Man Project is unlike any other job on the planet! In addition to the unique opportunity to participate and contribute to our global community and culture within a creative, fun, and inspiring work environment, we’re also thrilled to provide the following:

COMPENSATION:

Individual compensation decisions are dependent on a variety of factors, including prior experience and geographical location. The anticipated salary range for this position is $90,000 to $110,000 annually.

ADDITIONAL BENEFITS:

• Health benefits: medical, dental, vision insurance for employees and dependents.
• Long term disability and life insurance.
• 401k retirement plan with voluntary employee contribution.
• Accrued vacation and sick time: Up to 10 days vacation per 12 months on assignment.
• Additional annual paid time off in accordance with policy guidelines; 7 paid holidays annually, in addition to paid office closure during December 24th - January 1st.
• Paid parental and bonding leave.
• Communications benefits for remote employees; reimbursement of up to $120/month for home office internet and phone expenses.
• Commuter benefit program.
• Mental health support, life coaching, financial and legal consultation services through our employee assistance program.
• Professional development fund along with unique leadership and learning opportunities. 
• Equipment and tools necessary to succeed in a remote friendly workplace.

PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS/WORK ENVIRONMENT

• Off-playa: Work is primarily sedentary in nature; no special demands are required.
• On-playa: Work is primarily sedentary but will also include the need to find and meet with department representatives who may not be in the vicinity therefore, this could include walking or using some form of transportation.  Some of the work will be in outside weather conditions and exposed to fumes or airborne particles, as well as possible extremes in temperature.

NOTICE FOR ALL APPLICANTS:

• Burning Man Project celebrates the importance of creating a diverse environment and enthusiastically encourages Black, Indigenous, Peoples of Color, LGBTQIA+, Immigrant, women, and people with disabilities, of all ages, to apply.
• Burning Man Project provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation and training.
• Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.