Head of HR

Standard Life; United States; Remote; USD 160,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Standard Life seeks a commercially minded Head of HR to partner the Pensions & Savings Executive Team and shape the future organisation. You will influence strategy, build leadership capability, and drive agile change, digital transformation and AI-enabled initiatives to deliver customer-focused outcomes.

You’ll lead HR partners, guide workforce planning and succession, and ensure leadership effectiveness across the business."

Qualifications

• Senior HR leadership in a complex, fast-paced environment.
• Partner executive-level leaders to deliver transformation and growth.
• Expertise in organisation design, workforce planning, leadership effectiveness.
• Experience with digital transformation and AI-enabled ways of working.
• Experience leading HR teams and building capability through others.
• Strong understanding of the opportunities and workforce implications of technology, data and AI.
• Exceptional influencing, coaching and stakeholder management.
• Commercial judgement linking people decisions to business outcomes.

Responsibilities

• Partner Executive Team members to shape and deliver people strategies aligned to business priorities, growth ambitions and customer outcomes.
• Provide strategic advice, challenge and coaching on organisational effectiveness, leadership, culture, talent and capability.
• Lead and develop HR Business Partners, ensuring high-quality support and delivery across your areas of responsibility.
• Shape organisation design, workforce planning, succession and leadership capability to build a future-ready organisation.
• Lead the people aspects of transformation, including digital change, AI adoption, operating model evolution and agile ways of working.
• Use workforce insights, external trends and data to influence decisions, identify risks and improve business performance.
• Partner with Centres of Excellence to deliver integrated talent, reward, learning and culture solutions., Help shape the leadership, workforce and culture needed to deliver the Pensions & Savings strategy.
• Build stronger organisational capability, succession pipelines and future workforce readiness.
• Enable successful digital transformation, AI adoption and agile ways of working across the business.
• Strengthen leadership effectiveness and organisational performance across your areas of responsibility.
• Deliver meaningful customer, colleague and commercial outcomes through effective people leadership.

Skills

Senior HR leadership

Executive partner

Organisation design

Workforce planning

Leadership development

Digital transformation

AI-enabled change

Stakeholder management

Commercial judgement

Job description

We're looking for an exceptional Head of HR to partner the Pensions & Savings Executive Team and help shape the future of one of the UK's leading pensions, savings and retirement businesses. As Pensions & Savings continues to evolve, transform and grow, we're looking for a strategic people leader to partner members of the Executive Team and help shape the future organisation. Reporting to the HR Director, Pensions & Savings, you'll be a trusted adviser, influencing business strategy and ensuring the organisation has the leadership, culture, capability and workforce needed to deliver its ambitions. Operating at the intersection of business and people strategy, you'll help leaders navigate transformation, organisational redesign, digital and AI-enabled change, and the continued evolution towards more agile, customer-focused ways of working. You'll play a central role in building future capability, strengthening leadership effectiveness and ensuring colleague and customer outcomes remain at the heart of decision-making.

What you'll do

• Partner Executive Team members to shape and deliver people strategies aligned to business priorities, growth ambitions and customer outcomes.
• Provide strategic advice, challenge and coaching on organisational effectiveness, leadership, culture, talent and capability.
• Lead and develop HR Business Partners, ensuring high-quality support and delivery across your areas of responsibility.
• Shape organisation design, workforce planning, succession and leadership capability to build a future-ready organisation.
• Lead the people aspects of transformation, including digital change, AI adoption, operating model evolution and agile ways of working.
• Use workforce insights, external trends and data to influence decisions, identify risks and improve business performance.
• Partner with Centres of Excellence to deliver integrated talent, reward, learning and culture solutions., Help shape the leadership, workforce and culture needed to deliver the Pensions & Savings strategy.
• Build stronger organisational capability, succession pipelines and future workforce readiness.
• Enable successful digital transformation, AI adoption and agile ways of working across the business.
• Strengthen leadership effectiveness and organisational performance across your areas of responsibility.
• Deliver meaningful customer, colleague and commercial outcomes through effective people leadership.

We want to hire the whole version of you. We're committed to ensuring that everyone feels accepted and welcome, and we encourage applications from people of all backgrounds. We know that strong candidates don't always follow the same career path or meet every requirement listed in an advert. If your experience looks different from what we've described, but you believe you can bring value to our team and ambition, we'd still love to hear from you. If you require any adjustments during the recruitment process, please let us know so we can help you perform at your best.

We're looking for a commercially minded HR leader who combines strategic thinking with deep organisational and transformation expertise.

You’ll bring:

• Significant experience operating in a senior HR leadership role within a complex, fast-paced environment.
• A strong track record of partnering executive-level leaders to deliver transformation, organisational change and business growth.
• Expertise in organisation design, workforce planning, leadership effectiveness, succession and talent strategy.
• Experience helping organisations adapt to digital transformation, AI-enabled ways of working and evolving workforce requirements.
• Experience leading HR teams and building capability through others.
• Strong understanding of the opportunities and workforce implications of technology, data and AI.
• Exceptional influencing, coaching and stakeholder management skills, with the credibility to support and challenge Executive leaders.
• Strong commercial judgement and the ability to connect people decisions to business performance, customer outcomes and long-term value creation.

We're Standard Life, a retirement specialist focused entirely on retirement savings and income. We champion the belief that everyone's journey to and through retirement can be better, and for more than 200 years, we've been helping our customers plan and prepare for their financial futures.

Life today is increasingly complicated, uncertain and unpredictable. People move through different careers, face unexpected moments and navigate important choices. We offer our colleagues flexibility, trust and benefits that work for whatever life brings. In return we expect curiosity, connection, accountability and high standards. We make room for what matters - so you can bring your best, every day.