Principal HR Business Partner

Principal HR Business Partner

Quest Software builds the foundation for enterprise AI with solutions in data governance, cybersecurity, and platform modernization. More than 45,000 companies — including 90% of the Fortune 500 — trust Quest to solve their most critical IT challenges. From securing identities and modernizing platforms to preparing data for AI, we help enterprises unlock their full potential.

The Principal HR Business Partner is a senior strategic advisor responsible for partnering with executive and senior business leaders to translate business strategy into people, organization, and talent priorities that drive performance and growth.

Operating with a high degree of autonomy, the Principal HR Business Partner brings deep business acumen, organizational expertise, sound judgment, and a commercial mindset to complex business challenges. This role goes beyond traditional HR partnership—challenging thinking, identifying organizational opportunities and risks, and helping leaders make effective decisions related to organization design, talent, leadership, workforce strategy, performance, and change.

The Principal HR Business Partner serves as a trusted advisor to senior leaders while also acting as a connector across the People organization, ensuring HR strategies and solutions are practical, scalable, and aligned with business priorities.

Reports To: Vice President, Human Resources Location: Austin, TX

Responsibilities

Strategic Business Partnership

• Serve as a trusted strategic advisor to executive and senior leaders, developing a deep understanding of the business strategy, operating model, financial priorities, customers, and competitive environment.
• Translate business priorities into actionable people, talent, and organizational strategies that enable growth, productivity, and business performance.
• Anticipate organizational opportunities, workforce risks, and talent needs and proactively develop solutions with business leaders.
• Provide independent perspective and constructive challenge to leaders, balancing business objectives, employee considerations, financial discipline, and organizational risk.
• Use data, business insights, and organizational trends to influence decision-making and recommend action.

Organization & Workforce Strategy

• Advise leaders on organizational structure, operating models, spans and layers, role clarity, workforce composition, and capability requirements.
• Lead complex organization design and transformation initiatives from diagnosis through implementation.
• Partner with leaders on strategic workforce planning, including identifying critical capabilities, talent gaps, succession risks, and future workforce requirements.
• Evaluate organizational effectiveness and recommend changes that improve accountability, decision-making, productivity, and execution.
• Support business restructuring, integrations, acquisitions, workforce changes, and other significant organizational transitions as needed.

Talent & Leadership

• Partner with leaders to build strong leadership teams and sustainable talent pipelines.
• Facilitate talent reviews, succession planning, performance calibration, and leadership assessments.
• Identify critical talent and organizational capability gaps and develop strategies to address them.
• Coach senior leaders on leadership effectiveness, team dynamics, organizational health, performance, and talent decisions.
• Partner with leaders to strengthen accountability and differentiate performance and potential.
• Identify opportunities to improve leadership capability and organizational effectiveness across the business.

Transformation & Change Leadership

• Serve as a strategic change partner during significant business and organizational transformation.
• Assess organizational readiness, stakeholder impact, and potential barriers to successful change.
• Partner with leaders to develop change strategies that strengthen adoption, accountability, and business outcomes.
• Help leaders navigate ambiguity and effectively lead teams through periods of significant change.
• Identify patterns across the organization and influence broader solutions where systemic challenges exist.

Employee & Organizational Effectiveness

• Use employee sentiment, engagement, retention, performance, workforce, and business data to identify trends and organizational priorities.
• Partner with leaders to build high-performing, accountable, and inclusive teams.
• Provide senior-level guidance on complex employee relations, performance, leadership, and organizational matters in partnership with Employee Relations and Legal where appropriate.
• Balance thoughtful risk management with pragmatic, commercially sound decision-making.
• Identify root causes behind organizational challenges rather than relying solely on transactional or policy-based solutions.

People Team Leadership & Partnership

• Serve as a senior thought partner across the HRBP organization, helping raise the strategic capability and effectiveness of the broader team.
• Mentor and coach HR Business Partners and other People team colleagues, providing guidance on complex business and organizational matters.
• Partner closely with Talent Acquisition, Total Rewards, Talent Management, Learning & Development, Employee Relations, People Operations, and People Analytics to deliver integrated solutions.
• Represent business needs within the People organization and influence enterprise People programs and priorities.
• Lead or contribute to cross-functional and enterprise-wide People initiatives.

Qualifications

Qualifications:

• 12+ years of progressive Human Resources experience, including significant experience as a strategic HR Business Partner supporting senior executives.
• Demonstrated experience partnering with complex, global, or rapidly changing organizations.
• Strong experience in organization design, workforce planning, talent management, succession planning, performance management, and organizational transformation.
• Demonstrated ability to coach and influence senior leaders while building credibility and trusted relationships.
• Strong business and financial acumen with the ability to connect people decisions to business performance.
• Experience leading complex organizational change and workforce transformation.
• Strong analytical skills with the ability to translate workforce and business data into insights and recommendations.
• Demonstrated ability to operate independently, navigate ambiguity, and exercise sound judgment in complex situations.
• Experience working across global and/or matrixed organizations strongly preferred.
• Bachelor's degree in Human Resources, Business, Organizational Psychology, or related discipline required; advanced degree preferred.

Leadership & Behavioral Capabilities

The successful Principal HR Business Partner demonstrates:

• Business Acumen: Understands how the organization makes money, serves customers, operates, and competes, and connects people strategy directly to business outcomes.
• Strategic Thinking: Moves beyond immediate HR issues to identify broader organizational implications, patterns, risks, and opportunities.
• Executive Influence: Builds credibility with senior leaders and can constructively challenge thinking, navigate competing perspectives, and influence decisions without relying on authority.
• Commercial Judgment: Balances employee experience, business priorities, financial considerations, organizational effectiveness, and risk.
• Organizational Diagnosis: Identifies underlying organizational issues and develops practical solutions rather than treating symptoms.
• Change Leadership: Helps leaders and organizations successfully navigate transformation, ambiguity, and evolving business priorities.
• Courage & Judgment: Raises difficult issues, provides candid counsel, and makes sound recommendations in complex or sensitive situations.
• Enterprise Mindset: Looks beyond an individual function or business unit and considers what is best for the broader organization.
• Relationship Leadership: Builds authentic, trusted relationships while maintaining independence and objectivity.
• Execution: Converts strategy into practical action and holds stakeholders accountable for delivering outcomes.

Why This Role

This is a rare chance to grow from system caretaker to strategic partner while the roadmap is still being drawn. We won't pretend every day is thrilling, but we can promise your ideas will count and your growth won't stall. If you're driven by curiosity, energized by change, and ready to grow alongside a team doing real transformation, this is your chance!