Chief Human Resources Officer

Crucial Hire; Salt Lake City (UT); On-site; USD 230,000 - 320,000; Full time

Job summary

Crucial Hire is assisting a major Salt Lake City-based client in seeking a Head of Human Resources. This executive leader will own the entire people function, sit on the executive team, and partner with the CEO to modernize and scale a distributed workforce.

The role requires building a next-generation HR operating model, overseeing talent, rewards, development, compliance, analytics, and culture across multiple states and international footprint.

Qualifications

• Fifteen or more years in human resources, with at least five leading a full function end to end.
• Enterprise ownership of a workforce of 10,000 or more, or clear readiness to step up to that scale.
• Has led a large HR organization — a function of roughly 100 or more, or the demonstrated capability to lead one.
• HR leadership over a distributed or remote workforce across multiple states.
• Direct ownership of total rewards, talent acquisition, and organizational development — not oversight of one lane while the others reported elsewhere.
• A track record building or rebuilding an HR leadership bench, with named successors who advanced.

Responsibilities

• Define enterprise people strategy for a large distributed workforce.
• Scale talent acquisition to multiple hiring populations nationwide.
• Establish a structured total rewards framework.
• Lead learning, leadership development, succession and mentoring.
• Ensure multi-state compliance and international footprint.
• Oversee HR technology and people analytics.
• Design workforce planning tied to demand forecasts.
• Partner with executives and report to board.
• Foster culture and engagement across distributed workforce.

Skills

Tech industry background

Empathy

Executive influence

People development

Competitive drive

Compensation structures

High-volume hiring

SHRM-SCP or SPHR

Industry versatility

Job description

A large, nationally recognized company headquartered in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area, with more than 10,000 employees and annual revenue in the billions. Technology sits at the center of how this company runs and how it serves its customers. The culture reads far more like a technology company than the industry label on the door. Fast, data-driven, product-minded, and genuinely competitive about talent. The workforce is distributed. A headquarters campus anchors the company, with additional US hubs and an international technology center. Growth has been sustained and significant, and the people function has to keep pace with it. This is a confidential search. Full details are shared with candidates under NDA after an initial conversation.

About the Role

The Head of Human Resources owns the entire people function, an HR team of more than 100, sits on the executive leadership team, and reports to the CEO. What the executive team wants is a builder. Someone who can take a function that already works and scale it for what this company becomes next. The mandate is progressive: modernize, push, raise the bar, and design a people operating model built for a distributed workforce rather than one retrofitted from an office-era playbook. On-site five days a week in Salt Lake City.

Responsibilities

• Enterprise people strategy — the operating model for how a large distributed workforce is hired, paid, developed, and retained.
• Talent acquisition at scale — multiple hiring populations that share almost nothing with each other. Technology and product talent competing in a national remote market. High-volume customer-facing teams. Specialized professional staff. Corporate functions. Different markets, different funnels, different close rates.
• Total rewards — a defined, structured compensation framework that has to hold under pressure from remote-first competitors paying above it. Benefits and retirement included.
• Learning, leadership, and development — this matters more here than in most seats at this level. Succession, executive talent review, mentoring, and building the internal bench are core to the role, not a delegated lane.
• Employee relations and multi-state compliance — employment law exposure across every state where the company employs people, plus an international footprint. At this scale it is one of the heavier compliance loads in the market.
• HR technology and people analytics — the full stack and the data that drives workforce decisions.
• Organizational design and workforce planning — headcount tied directly to demand forecasts, where a forecast miss becomes a staffing problem fast.
• Executive partnership and board reporting.
• Culture and engagement across a workforce that gathers in person only occasionally.

Qualifications

• Fifteen or more years in human resources, with at least five leading a full function end to end.
• Enterprise ownership of a workforce of 10,000 or more, or clear readiness to step up to that scale.
• Has led a large HR organization — a function of roughly 100 or more, or the demonstrated capability to lead one.
• HR leadership over a distributed or remote workforce across multiple states.
• Direct ownership of total rewards, talent acquisition, and organizational development — not oversight of one lane while the others reported elsewhere.
• A track record building or rebuilding an HR leadership bench, with named successors who advanced.

Required Skills

• Technology or IT company background. The executive team is explicitly open to — and interested in — people leaders who come from tech. Industry experience is not required.
• Genuine empathy. People here stay for reasons that go well beyond compensation, and the leader has to understand that in their bones.
• The ability to influence change across a strong executive team through credibility rather than positional authority.
• A real passion for developing people — mentoring and growing the HR team, not just running it.
• A competitive streak. This company plays to win on talent and expects its people leader to do the same.
• Experience inside a company with a defined compensation structure.
• High-volume hiring alongside executive hiring.
• SHRM-SCP or SPHR.
• Industry background is open: technology, healthcare, financial services, direct sales, retail, and large service companies are all in scope.

Pay Range and Compensation Package

Compensation is competitive for an executive people leader at this scale. Base salary, annual incentive, and a full benefits and retirement package are included. The specific range is shared directly with candidates during the first conversation.

Equal Opportunity Statement

Our client is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants receive consideration without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. Crucial Hire is committed to presenting diverse, fully qualified slates on every search we conduct. The best leadership teams are built from the widest possible view of the market, and we go looking accordingly.