In this Letter we study the connection between the large-scale dynamics of the turbulence cascade and particle heating on kinetic scales. We find that the inertial range turbulence amplitude ($delta B_i$; measured in the range of 0.01-0.1 Hz) is a simple and effective proxy to identify the onset of significant ion heating and when it is combined with $beta_{||p}$, it characterizes the energy partitioning between protons and electrons ($T_p/T_e$), proton temperature anisotropy ($T_{perp}/T_{||}$) and scalar proton temperature ($T_p$) in a way that is consistent with previous predictions. For a fixed $delta B_i$, the ratio of linear to nonlinear timescales is strongly correlated with the scalar proton temperature in agreement with Matthaeus et al., though for solar wind intervals with $beta_{||p}>1$ some discrepancies are found. For a fixed $beta_{||p}$, an increase of the turbulence amplitude leads to higher $T_p/T_e$ ratios, which is consistent with the models of Chandran et al. and Wu et al. We discuss the implications of these findings for our understanding of plasma turbulence.
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