Vice President, People Operations

About Hawke Media

Hawke Media is an outsourced CMO and marketing consultancy built on the belief that every modern business deserves access to exceptional marketing expertise. We develop customized, data-driven strategies that help brands launch, scale, and strengthen their businesses.

Our integrated teams work across the customer journey, bringing together strategy, creative, media, lifecycle marketing, content, web, analytics, and other specialized capabilities. We put client success first and value accountability, collaboration, curiosity, and measurable impact.

The Opportunity

We are seeking a hands-on Vice President, People Operations to lead the People function for our approximately 150-person organization during a period of significant growth and acquisition activity.

As the company’s senior People executive, the VP will serve as a strategic advisor to the leadership team while overseeing the full employee experience, including People Operations, talent acquisition, employee relations, payroll, benefits, compliance, performance management, compensation, organizational development, and culture.

A critical part of this role will be building the people infrastructure required to support continued growth. This includes leading the people side of acquisitions, integrating acquired teams, aligning titles and job levels, establishing career paths, standardizing job descriptions, developing a scalable compensation framework, and helping shape the company’s future organizational structure.

The VP will lead, mentor, and develop a team of two HR professionals and one recruiter and must be comfortable moving between executive-level strategy and hands-on execution. The ideal candidate is a practical, business-minded leader who can build for the future while ensuring that the company’s day-to-day People operations remain effective, compliant, and responsive.

Responsibilities

Executive Leadership and People Strategy

• Serve as the company’s senior People executive and a trusted advisor to the executive leadership team, managers, and employees.
• Develop and execute a People strategy aligned with the company’s business objectives, growth plans, and acquisition activity, including workforce planning, organizational development, and key People initiatives.
• Participate in company planning and decision-making, bringing a workforce, organizational, and cultural perspective to key business decisions.
• Identify and advise leadership on organizational, talent, retention, compliance, and workforce risks.
• Develop executive-level reporting and recommendations related to headcount, organizational health, retention, compensation, talent, and People investments.
• Support board or investor discussions regarding organizational health, leadership, workforce risks, executive compensation, and other People matters as needed.
• Develop and manage the People Operations budget in partnership with Finance, ensuring resources and investments align with organizational priorities and business objectives.

Mergers, Acquisitions, and Integration

• Lead the People workstream for acquisitions, including due diligence, workforce assessment, risk identification, integration planning, and post-close execution.
• Assess the organizational structures, talent, compensation, benefits, employment practices, policies, and cultures of potential acquisition targets.
• Develop a repeatable People integration playbook that can support the company’s ongoing acquisition strategy.
• Lead the integration and harmonization of acquired employees, including titles, job levels, compensation, benefits, policies, systems, reporting structures, and employment practices.
• Partner with executives and functional leaders to make thoughtful organizational and talent decisions during integrations.
• Develop employee communication, retention, and change-management plans that create clarity and maintain engagement throughout the acquisition process.
• Track integration milestones, risks, employee sentiment, and retention outcomes and provide regular updates to leadership.

Organizational Design, Job Architecture, and Career Development

• Partner with the executive team to design an organizational structure that supports the company’s current needs and future growth.
• Advise on leadership layers, spans of control, decision rights, workforce capabilities, and organizational effectiveness.
• Develop and maintain a company-wide job architecture encompassing job families, levels, titles, competencies, and consistent job descriptions.
• Establish clear career paths, promotion criteria, and internal-mobility practices across functions.
• Create tools and guidance that help managers make consistent decisions regarding hiring, leveling, development, promotions, and organizational changes.
• Lead succession planning and talent-review processes for leadership and other business-critical roles.
• Identify organizational capability gaps and recommend development, hiring, or restructuring solutions.

Compensation and Performance

• Develop and maintain the company’s compensation philosophy and overall compensation strategy.
• Establish salary bands, job-leveling standards, incentive structures, promotion guidelines, and pay-governance practices.
• Ensure compensation programs are competitive, equitable, financially responsible, and aligned with the company’s talent strategy.
• Lead annual compensation planning in partnership with Finance and executive leadership.
• Oversee the performance-management framework, including goal setting, feedback, performance reviews, calibration, development planning, and performance improvement.
• Help leaders differentiate and reward performance while maintaining consistency across the organization.
• Monitor pay practices and recommend actions to address compression, inequities, retention risks, and market changes.

People Leadership and Employee Experience

• Lead, coach, and develop a People team consisting of two HR professionals and one recruiter.
• Define the future structure, capabilities, and operating model of the People function as the organization grows.
• Oversee the full employee lifecycle, including onboarding, development, performance, employee changes, leaves, and offboarding.
• Coach executives and managers on leadership, performance, employee relations, organizational effectiveness, and team dynamics.
• Establish consistent employee relations and investigation protocols, including documentation standards, escalation procedures, and manager guidance to support fair and compliant workplace practices.
• Develop scalable People policies, programs, processes, and systems that create a consistent employee experience across the organization.
• Balance strategic leadership with a willingness to remain close to the work and step in directly when needed.

Culture, Engagement, and Change Leadership

• Partner with the leadership team to define and reinforce a positive, inclusive, accountable, and high-performing company culture.
• Lead cultural integration efforts across acquired and existing teams.
• Develop change-management and communication strategies for acquisitions, reorganizations, policy changes, and other significant company initiatives.
• Oversee employee listening, engagement, recognition, and communication programs.
• Translate employee feedback and workforce data into practical organizational improvements.
• Help leaders reinforce company values and create a consistent employee experience across teams and locations.
• Measure the effectiveness of culture and engagement initiatives and adjust programs based on business and employee needs.

Talent Acquisition and Workforce Planning

• Oversee the recruiting function and lead the company’s recruiter.
• Partner with leaders to identify critical capabilities, anticipate hiring needs, and prioritize talent investments.
• Establish consistent standards for job scoping, leveling, interviewing, candidate selection, compensation, and offers.
• Monitor recruiting effectiveness, including hiring progress, time to fill, quality of hire, candidate experience, and workforce-plan attainment.
• Build internal and external talent pipelines for critical and leadership roles.
• Ensure hiring and onboarding practices are effective, consistent, inclusive, and compliant.

People Operations, Payroll, Benefits, and Systems

• Provide executive oversight of payroll, benefits, retirement plans, HR systems, employee records, and People Operations.
• Establish appropriate controls to ensure payroll is accurate, timely, secure, and compliant.
• Oversee employee changes, bonuses, final pay, reconciliation, reporting, and coordination with Finance.
• Lead the strategic evaluation of benefits programs, annual renewals, costs, employee impact, and vendor performance.
• Oversee 401(k) administration and compliance in partnership with external providers and Finance.
• Establish consistent and scalable People Operations practices across multiple locations and acquired entities, ensuring compliance with applicable state and local employment requirements while addressing location-specific operational needs.
• Manage and evaluate payroll, benefits, retirement, recruiting, and other People vendors.
• Partner with existing People Operations team members to identify and implement opportunities to automate, centralize, or redesign administrative processes as the organization scales.
• Oversee compliance with applicable independent contractor regulations, including worker classification, agreements, documentation, and related employment practices.
• Ensure People systems provide reliable data, effective workflows, strong controls, and an appropriate employee and manager experience.

Compliance, Risk, and People Analytics

• Maintain People policies and practices consistent with federal, California, and applicable local employment requirements.
• Anticipate employment and workforce risks and advise leadership on appropriate mitigation strategies.
• Oversee leaves, accommodations, required training, employee records, notices, reporting, investigations, and other compliance requirements.
• Partner with outside counsel and advisors on complex employment, acquisition, and organizational matters.
• Develop People dashboards covering headcount, turnover, retention, hiring, compensation, engagement, organizational capacity, and other key workforce indicators.
• Use workforce data to identify trends, anticipate risks, evaluate People programs, and inform executive decisions.
• Maintain appropriate confidentiality, data security, and governance practices for employee information.