Director of People & Talent Strategy

Director of People & Talent Strategy

Position Summary

The Director of People & Talent Strategy serves as the strategic and operational HR leader for OVD Insurance, overseeing the full employee lifecycle while building a scalable people function that supports the organization’s growth across the nation. This role is ideal for an aspiring HR leader who thrives in a fast-paced, entrepreneurial environment and wants to join a winning team.

They will lead organizational design efforts, talent acquisition and workforce planning, HR operations, and employee experience initiatives. This leader partners closely with senior leadership to ensure HR practices reinforce business strategy, culture, and performance expectations.

Essential Duties & Responsibilities

Strategic People Leadership

• Aligns HR policies, programs, and talent strategies with organizational goals and growth plans.
• Leads organizational design initiatives to support scalability, role clarity, and operational efficiency.
• Acts as a trusted advisor and coach to executive team and business leaders, with deft stakeholder management capabilities.
• Solves problems creatively and consideration for nuances

Talent Acquisition & Workforce Planning

• Oversees full-cycle recruiting, managing the internal recruiting team and driving talent pipeline development.
• Leads workforce planning to ensure staffing needs align with business forecasts and departmental priorities.
• Builds external networks to strengthen employment branding and talent pipeline development.

HR Operations & Compliance

• Manage and develop team of two direct reports within HR, aligning their goals to company objectives, and holding them accountable for performance.
• Oversees HR programs including compensation, benefits, leave, investigations, employee relations, and compliance.
• Supports optimization of HRIS and ATS systems; promotes data-driven HR decision-making.
• Ensures compliance with federal, state, and local employment regulations.

Performance, Learning & Development

• Builds or procures best training, leadership development programs to support org-wide learning initiatives.
• Oversees performance management, goal-setting, feedback cycles, and succession planning.

Culture, Engagement & Retention

• Leads employee engagement strategies, recognition programs, and retention initiatives.
• Drives initiatives that promote OVD’s mission, values, and evolving culture.
• Creates internal change management capabilities and manages employee communication on organizational initiatives.

Financial & Business Partnership

• Collaborates with the CFO on salary/compensation budgets, workforce investment planning, and wage structure alignment.
• Able to proactively provide suggestions at an organizational and individual level for compensation models that are attuned to business goals, industry norms and motivations.
• Contributes to business strategy through people insights, labor forecasting, and HR metrics.
• Serve as the trusted face of OVD, in partnership with OVD agents, to partner with client executives who desire strategic coaching on HR topics.

Required Skills & Capabilities

• Strong Talent foundation with experience across workforce planning, recruiting, development and HR operations.
• Experience coaching leaders, facilitating discussions, and resolving complex organizational issues.
• Exceptional communication, consulting, negotiation, and relationship-building skills.
• Ability to thrive in a startup-like, high-growth, high-change environment.
• Strong project management skills with ability to lead cross-functional initiatives.
• Familiarity with HRIS and ATS platforms; data- and metrics-oriented approach.
• Insurance industry experience is a plus.
• In-person collaboration 80-100% weekly at new headquarters in Grand Rapids, MI.

Education & Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in HR, Business, Psychology, Communications or related field required
• Proven experience of progressive HR or talent consulting experience, including leadership of recruiting and generalist functions.
• Strong experience in organizational development, performance management, and leadership development strongly preferred.