About Northleaf Capital Partners
Northleaf is a global private markets investment firm focused on mid-market companies and assets. With over US$30 billion in capital commitments raised to date, Northleaf has an established, long-term track record as an investor in private equity, private credit and infrastructure globally.
Northleaf’s 300+ person team, located in Toronto, Chicago, London, Los Angeles, Melbourne, Menlo Park, Montreal, New York, Seoul and Tokyo, is focused exclusively on sourcing, evaluating and managing private markets investments. Northleaf manages closed and open-end funds across a range of global private markets strategies and a series of separately managed accounts with customized investment strategies tailored to meet the specific needs of leading institutional investors and family offices. As part of its ambitious growth strategy, Northleaf is also developing specific private markets products and investment solutions for insurance and wealth management clients.
Position: Operating Partner – Human Resources
We are seeking a seasoned Operating Partner – Human Capital to drive strategic HR initiatives to support our Infrastructure platform and its portfolio companies. This role is designed for a high-impact leader with global experience, capable of influencing executive teams and boards, optimizing organizational design, and embedding a culture of excellence to create value across diverse asset types within the infrastructure portfolio. The ideal candidate will bring a sophisticated approach to talent, culture, and governance, as a key contributor to leadership development and enterprise-wide value creation.
Key Responsibilities
Talent Management & Organizational Design - Align organizational structures with strategic objectives across diverse portfolio companies
- Develop and implement a framework to assess senior management teams and Northleaf Operating Partners:
- During Due Diligence: Including strategies for evaluating founder-led businesses, evaluating leadership capability and organizational maturity
- Post-Close: For successful acquisitions, ensuring alignment with value creation plans
- Ongoing: Participate in quarterly portfolio company reviews, focusing on talent, HR effectiveness, strategy and culture
- Lead strategy and execution for management team changes:
- Timing, communication, compensation packages, legal considerations
- Change management planning for both personnel and strategic shifts
- Co-develop role profiles and job descriptions aligned with value creation strategy
- Manage recruiter relationships, pre-screen candidates, and coordinate interviews with deal teams
- Establish mentorship or coaching programs, leveraging relationships with external vendors
- Support onboarding programs for new executives to accelerate integration into portfolio company
- Design and implement succession planning frameworks and strategies
- Partner with portfolio company HR teams to design and implement performance management processes that foster a culture of excellence
Governance & Compensation Strategy - Create and maintain compensation guidelines and frameworks:
- Annual bonus scorecards and KPI alignment
- Long-term incentive structures tailored to sector and company size
- External compensation benchmarking
- Advise on complex compensation committee matters and special projects
- Lead board composition reviews, ensuring balanced and complementary skill sets
- Potentially serve on Boards or compensation subcommittees
HR Operational Efficiencies
- Leveraging breadth of experience to identify and implement HR operational efficiencies across the portfolio, including opportunities for shared services, vendor consolidation, scalability and cost optimization (e.g. health benefits review)
Relationship Management - Maintain and leverage relationships with:
- PE-focused executive recruiters
- Executive assessment firms
- HR Operating Partners at peer firms to stay abreast of evolving practices
- Act as a strategic HR advisor to both the infrastructure deal team and portfolio company leaders
Portfolio-Wide Engagement
- Coordinate symposiums and networking events for executive functions (e.g., CEO, CFO, CTO, CHRO)
- Help identify and onboard additional functional Operating Partners across the portfolio
- Host learning sessions for portfolio company HR teams to share insights, benchmarks, and best practices
Qualifications & Capabilities
- 15+ years of experience in senior HR leadership roles, ideally within private equity, private infrastructure/real assets or multi-entity/asset-heavy environments
- Familiarity with PE-style incentive structures beyond cash compensation (e.g., equity, option plans, profit interest plans, performance-linked bonuses)
- Proven experience in supporting C-suite leadership development and transitions
- Expertise in succession planning, organizational design, governance, and performance management
- Strategic thinker with operational execution capability
- Ability to influence and guide senior leadership teams
- Analytical mindset with a focus on value creation
- Collaborative and adaptable across diverse organizational cultures
Location
Toronto, ON is ideal, but anywhere in North America – willingness to travel extensively
What Sets Us Apart
At Northleaf Capital Partners, you’ll be joining a leading global private markets investment firm with a differentiated platform across mid-market private equity, private credit, and infrastructure. Our integrated approach and long-term perspective have made us a partner of choice to a global base of institutional investors – and that begins with our exceptional team of professionals.
At our core, our culture is built on the foundation of trust, openness, respect, integrity, and professionalism. These values guide every interaction with our investors, our partners, and one another. We are focused on building long-term relationships and creating a collaborative, professional environment where everyone feels supported and valued.
We foster a collegial and non-hierarchical workplace where ideas are valued, decision-making is grounded in data, and individuals are empowered to contribute meaningfully. Our success depends on an engaged and inclusive workforce, and we invest in fostering that culture. We celebrate the diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences of our team members and are committed to ensuring a workplace built on inclusion and shared success.
We celebrate achievements, encourage teamwork, and work hard to cultivate a sense of community to achieve strong results.
Contact
Interested candidates are asked to apply on Northleaf Careers. Only those selected to be interviewed will be contacted.
Northleaf Capital Partners is committed to providing an inclusive and accessible candidate experience. Should you require accommodations during the selection process, please do not hesitate to let us know and suitable arrangements will be made.
