Senior Advisor, Workforce Planning & Organizational Effectiveness

WestJet Group; Calgary; Hybrid; CAD 110,000 - 155,000; Full time

Job summary

WestJet Group is seeking a Senior Advisor to lead workforce planning and organizational effectiveness across the indirect workforce. You will design tools, forecasting, and governance to align resources with financial and operational priorities, reporting to the Director of Planning & Analytics.

You will collaborate with Finance, HR, People Analytics, and Procurement to ensure consistent data, planning, and execution across the enterprise while strengthening accountability and leadership

Qualifications

• Undergraduate degree or equivalent combination of education and relevant experience.
• 7+ years of experience in workforce planning, organizational effectiveness or design, HR strategy, or business planning in a complex organization.
• Strong strategic thinking and business acumen, with the ability to connect people strategies to broader business objectives.
• Demonstrated experience building or improving enterprise workforce planning processes, forecasting approaches, tools, or governance frameworks.
• Experience applying organizational design principles, including decision rights, spans and layers, leadership structures, and delivery models.
• Strong data and analytical acumen with experience using workforce data, financial information, forecasting models, and HR systems.
• Strong communication and influencing skills, with the ability to present clear options and recommendations to senior leaders.

Responsibilities

• Lead the run-rate workforce process, including position tracking, contractor visibility in partnership with Procurement, approvals, and reconciliation against approved plans.
• Embed workforce planning in the annual budget and business planning processes, working with Finance, Corporate Planning, HR Business Partners, and leaders to align resources with priorities.
• Develop workforce strategies that identify future demand, available supply, capability gaps, and build, buy, or borrow options.
• Partner with direct workforce planning teams to align direct workforce planning approaches, assumptions, and insights with broader enterprise workforce plans.
• Establish practical organizational design standards, including decision rights, spans and layers, leadership structure, and delivery model choices.
• Review organizational structures, identify risks and exceptions, and recommend changes that improve accountability, efficiency, and agility.
• Maintain simple, consistent processes for workforce planning and organizational structure decisions
• Develop planning tools, dashboards, and reporting that provide clear visibility into workforce mix, cost, demand, organizational structure, and risk.
• Provide leaders with clear insights, options, and recommendations for workforce and organizational decisions, including HR resource planning.
• Maintain common workforce definitions, data standards, and reporting practices with People, Finance, and Procurement.

Skills

Strategic thinking

Data analysis

Communication

Influencing

Stakeholder management

Change leadership

Collaboration

Education

Undergraduate degree

Tools

Forecasting tools

HR systems

Job description

Position Overview:

The Senior Advisor, Workforce Planning & Organizational Effectiveness develops the tools, tracking, and strategies needed to ensure WestJet has the right indirect (non-operational) resources, and that work and teams are organized to use those resources effectively. This role supports the design, governance, and advancement of workforce planning across WestJet Group's indirect workforce, using data, forecasting, and business insights to align workforce supply and demand with financial and operational priorities. It also establishes organizational effectiveness practices that strengthen accountability, leadership structures, and delivery models.

Reporting to the Director, Planning & Analytics, the Senior Advisor works across Finance, Corporate Planning, HR Business Partners, Talent Management, Talent Acquisition, People Analytics, Total Rewards, Procurement, and enterprise leaders to support integrated workforce and organizational decisions.

Key Responsibilities include:

Workforce Planning

• Lead the run-rate workforce process, including position tracking, contractor visibility in partnership with Procurement, approvals, and reconciliation against approved plans.
• Embed workforce planning in the annual budget and business planning processes, working with Finance, Corporate Planning, HR Business Partners, and leaders to align resources with priorities.
• Develop workforce strategies that identify future demand, available supply, capability gaps, and build, buy, or borrow options.
• Partner with direct workforce planning teams to align direct workforce planning approaches, assumptions, and insights with broader enterprise workforce plans.

Organizational Effectiveness

• Establish practical organizational design standards, including decision rights, spans and layers, leadership structure, and delivery model choices.
• Review organizational structures, identify risks and exceptions, and recommend changes that improve accountability, efficiency, and agility.
• Maintain simple, consistent processes for workforce planning and organizational structure decisions

Governance, Analytics & Decision Support

• Develop planning tools, dashboards, and reporting that provide clear visibility into workforce mix, cost, demand, organizational structure, and risk
• Provide leaders with clear insights, options, and recommendations for workforce and organizational decisions, including HR resource planning
• Maintain common workforce definitions, data standards, and reporting practices with People, Finance, and Procurement

Experience and Qualifications:

• Undergraduate degree or equivalent combination of education and relevant experience

• 7+ years of experience in workforce planning, organizational effectiveness or design, HR strategy, or business planning in a complex organization
• Strong strategic thinking and business acumen, with the ability to connect people strategies to broader business objectives
• Demonstrated experience building or improving enterprise workforce planning processes, forecasting approaches, tools, or governance frameworks
• Experience applying organizational design principles, including decision rights, spans and layers, leadership structures, and delivery models
• Strong data and analytical acumen with experience using workforce data, financial information, forecasting models, and HR systems
• Strong communication and influencing skills, with the ability to present clear options and recommendations to senior leaders

• Organizational design and effectiveness
• Process design, governance, and disciplined execution
• Financial and workforce planning integration
• Executive communication and storytelling
• Collaboration, influence, and stakeholder management
• Change leadership and transformation mindset