---
title: 'HR Business Partner – Engineering at Forward'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/hr-business-partner-engineering-forward-santa-clara-g3c0ajbmpf1h'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-11-03'
---

# HR Business Partner – Engineering at Forward 

- **Company:** Forward 
- **Location:** Santa Clara, CA
- **Posted:** 2026-11-02
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-11-03
- **Apply:** https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/forwardnetworks/jobs/8081285003

## Job description

Forward was founded in 2013 by four Stanford Ph.D.s, building the industry's first network digital twin: a mathematically accurate model of the production network. It's the foundation for autonomous networking, giving engineers and AI agents the ability to know the impact of every change before it touches production. That founding instinct still defines how we work. We're accurate and evidence-driven, relentless about clarity, and we'd rather be certain than comfortable, building a groundbreaking platform that transforms how teams run and secure networks across every major cloud and vendor environment.

Global leaders like Goldman Sachs, PayPal, S&P Global, IBM, and Dell trust Forward, alongside fast-growing enterprises and government agencies, realizing an average of $14.2 million in annual benefits, according to IDC. Backed by top-tier investors, including A. Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Goldman Sachs, MSD Partners, Omega Venture Partners, Section 32, and Threshold Ventures, and headquartered in Santa Clara, we're most proud of our team: curious people who'd rather build what doesn't exist than accept how things have always been done.

## About the Role

Forward is looking for a HR Business Partner (HRBP) to serve as a strategic partner to our Sales organization. This role sits at the intersection of business strategy and people strategy, working directly with senior sales leaders (CRO, VPs of Sales, and Regional/Sales Directors) to build high-performing revenue teams, shape organizational design, and drive talent, culture, and change initiatives that scale with an evolving go-to-market motion. This role requires deep credibility with commercial leaders and fluency in the unique dynamics of a quota-carrying, commission-driven workforce.

## What You'll Do

- Serve as a trusted strategic advisor to Sales senior leadership, providing coaching and counsel on organizational design, territory/quota structure, workforce planning, and leadership effectiveness.
- Partner with sales leaders to translate revenue targets and go-to-market strategy into people strategies, including org design, span of control, and role architecture as the sales org scales or restructures.
- Lead full-cycle talent management for the client group: performance management, calibration, succession planning, promotion processes, and career pathing tailored to sales career ladders (RSD/AE, SDR/BDR, sales management, and sales enablement tracks).
- Use data and analytics (attrition, ramp time, quota attainment, rep productivity, pipeline health as it relates to headcount, promotion equity) to diagnose organizational health and recommend proactive interventions.
- Partner closely with Talent Acquisition on sales-specific hiring strategy, headcount planning, and workforce composition, including seasonal/quarterly hiring cycles tied to sales capacity planning.
- Lead or co-lead org design and change management efforts tied to territory realignments, reorganizations, M&A integration, or new market/segment launches.
- Coach sales managers and directors on leadership skills, performance conversations, managing underperformance in a quota-driven environment, and team motivation.
- Partner with Compensation on commission plan design, quota setting implications, and annual compensation planning cycles (merit, equity, promotions) to ensure competitiveness and pay-for-performance alignment.
- Own employee relations matters within the client group, including performance improvement plans and terminations tied to quota non-attainment, ensuring fair, consistent, and legally sound resolution.
- Champion diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives specific to the challenges of building diverse sales teams.
- Partner cross-functionally (Talent Acquisition, Legal, Sales Enablement) to design and deliver programs that meet the unique needs of a revenue organization.
- Act as a culture carrier, helping sales leaders build and reinforce an environment of high performance, accountability, and inclusion.

## What We're Looking For

- 7–10+ years of progressive HR Business Partner experience, with a significant portion spent directly supporting Sales, Revenue, or other quota-carrying/commission-based client groups.
- Proven experience operating at a senior level, partnering directly with CRO, VP, and Director-level sales leaders.
- Deep understanding of sales organizational structures, compensation plan design (base/commission/OTE), quota methodology, and the specific talent dynamics of hiring and retaining sales talent.
- Strong track record leading org design, workforce planning, and change management in a fast-paced, target-driven, high-growth environment.
- Excellent coaching skills with the credibility and presence to influence senior commercial leaders.
- Data-driven approach to HR — comfortable building and interpreting people analytics dashboards (attrition, ramp, productivity) to inform decisions.
- Sound judgment and experience navigating complex employee relations issues, including performance-based terminations; working knowledge of employment law.
- Experience partnering on incentive compensation design and annual compensation planning cycles.
- Exceptional communication, influencing, and relationship-building skills across all levels of the organization.
- Bachelor's degree required; advanced degree (MBA, HR, Organizational Psychology) or SHRM-SCP/SPHR certification a plus.

The base pay range for this role is between $210,000 and $265,000. Base pay will depend on your skills, qualifications, experience, and location

## About Forward 

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Forward Networks provides a vendor-agnostic "digital twin" software platform that creates a mathematically accurate model of an enterprise's entire hybrid network, enabling teams to verify changes, improve security, and accelerate troubleshooting.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Series D)
- **Headquarters**: Santa Clara, California, United States
- **Founded**: 2013
- **Founders**: David Erickson, Nikhil Handigol, Brandon Heller, Peyman Kazemian

## Core Business
- **Primary industry/industries**: Computer Networking Products, Network Management Software, Network Security
- **Target customers**: B2B, primarily large enterprises (including Fortune 50 institutions), financial services, global entertainment companies, and top-level US federal government agencies.
- **Mission or purpose statement**: To transform networks to be more reliable, agile, and secure by providing a single source of verified truth for how a network actually behaves.

## Products & Services
- **Forward Enterprise**: The core platform, a network digital twin. It builds a mathematically accurate model of every device, path, and policy across a hybrid network (on-premises and cloud). Used by networking, security, cloud, and compliance teams for change management, compliance audits, and troubleshooting.
- **Forward AI**: Built on the Forward Enterprise digital twin, this feature allows users to ask the twin questions in natural language to validate changes, understand network behavior, and act with confidence.
- **Forward Predict**: A newer offering built on the digital twin that allows users to predict the outcome of changes before they are implemented, answering "what if" scenarios.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly disclosed.
- **Key Metric**: **Total Funding**: $112.1 million across four rounds. **Annual Revenue**: Approximately $15.0 million (estimated).
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Andreessen Horowitz, Goldman Sachs, MSD Partners, Threshold Ventures. Customers include Goldman Sachs, PayPal, S&P Global, IBM, and Dell.
- **Growth Signals**: The company has been in the market for over 10 years, has won 25+ industry awards, and supports 30+ vendors. It has a presence in 6 countries (including India, United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, and France). Employee headcount is around 199 with monthly growth of +0.4%.

## Competitive Advantages
- **Mathematically Accurate Digital Twin**: The core technology is a mathematically precise model of the network, which is a significant differentiator from competitors that use simpler or less accurate modeling methods.
- **Vendor-Agnostic**: The platform works across all major cloud and vendor environments (e.g., A10, Arista, Cisco, F5, Fortinet, Juniper, Palo Alto Networks, AWS, GCP), providing a single source of truth for multi-vendor networks.
- **Strong Investor & Customer Base**: Backed by top-tier venture capital firms and trusted by some of the world's most demanding and complex networks, including major financial institutions and government agencies.

## Strategic Focus
- **AI and Predictive Analysis**: The company is heavily investing in AI capabilities (Forward AI) and predictive modeling (Forward Predict) to move from reactive troubleshooting to proactive network management.
- **Expanding Platform Capabilities**: Continuing to build out the digital twin platform to serve more use cases for different teams (networking, security, cloud, compliance) and to handle increasingly complex hybrid environments.
- **Market Penetration**: Leveraging a strong base of referenceable Fortune 500 and government clients to expand its footprint and grow its customer base.

## Why Work Here
- **Culture & Mission**: Described as a "people-centric, innovative culture" where "brilliant minds are shaping the future of network reliability, security, and AI-ready operations." The company emphasizes that it is an "agile team and early-stage company with plenty of opportunities to grow."
- **Remote/Hybrid Policy**: The company offers remote positions (e.g., a Customer Care Engineer role listed for Australia). The specific policy for all roles is likely flexible and depends on the team and location.
- **Notable Perks & Benefits**:
    - **Compensation**: Competitive pay and equity packages.
    - **Health & Wellness**: Top-grade medical, dental, and vision insurance for employees and their families.
    - **Time Off**: No tracked time off for vacations, holidays, and family days (with manager approval).
    - **Growth**: Opportunities for professional growth within an agile, early-stage company environment.
- **Engineering Culture**: Founded by four Stanford Ph.D.s, the company has a strong technical foundation. The work involves solving complex problems at scale for the world's most demanding networks, which would appeal to engineers who enjoy deep technical challenges.

## Sources
1. [forwardnetworks.com - Careers](https://www.forwardnetworks.com/careers/)
2. [forwardnetworks.com - About](https://www.forwardnetworks.com/about/)
3. [forwardnetworks.com - Homepage](https://www.forwardnetworks.com/)
4. [linkedin.com - Forward Networks](https://www.linkedin.com/company/forward-networks)
5. [job-boards.greenhouse.io - Forward Networks](https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/forwardnetworks/jobs/7714534003)

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