Human Resources Manager, People Programs

Vanguard Charitable; Malvern (Chester County); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Vanguard Charitable is seeking an HR Manager, People Programs to translate the organization's vision into a cohesive, enterprise‑wide people strategy. You will build scalable programs across engagement, onboarding, performance, learning, and leadership development, driving adoption and measurable outcomes.

The role combines strategic leadership with hands‑on execution, guiding priorities, executing roadmaps, and partnering with leaders to elevate organizational capability and culture.

Qualifications

• Strategic second‑in‑command able to translate executive vision into scalable, high‑impact people strategies and actionable roadmaps.

Responsibilities

• Partner with CHRO to shape and operationalize the organization’s people strategy with a multi‑year roadmap.
• Lead design, development, and evolution of scalable people programs linked to engagement, retention, and organizational effectiveness.
• Drive integration across onboarding, engagement, performance, learning, and development into a cohesive lifecycle experience.
• Create workplans, communications, leader enablement tools, feedback loops, and implementation disciplines for program delivery and adoption.
• Coach and develop HR team members to increase autonomy, accountability, and impact.
• Serve as strategic advisor to leaders on learning, engagement, performance, and change management.

Skills

Strategic leadership

Stakeholder management

Data-driven decision making

Employee engagement

Learning and development

Change management

Coaching and leadership development

Project management

People programs design

Education

Bachelor’s degree

Master’s degree (preferred)

Tools

Bridge

Cornerstone

Workday Learning

SuccessFactors

Moodle

Job description

The HR Manager, People Programs serves as a strategic partner, translating organizational vision into a cohesive, enterprise-wide people strategy and integrated multi-year roadmap. This role is responsible for building scalable, sustainable people programs across employee engagement, onboarding, performance, learning and development, leadership development, talent infrastructure, and organizational effectiveness. The role blends strategic leadership with hands‑on execution—shaping priorities, driving implementation, measuring outcomes, and ensuring adoption across the organization. The ideal candidate is a proactive thought partner who can manage up effectively, bring insights and recommendations, strengthen HR team capability, and materially increase the function’s capacity to deliver business‑aligned people solutions that support growth, performance, culture, and organizational effectiveness.

ESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS

• Partner with CHRO to shape and operationalize the organization’s people strategy, translating vision across learning, leadership development, engagement, onboarding, performance, and talent infrastructure into a prioritized, multi-year roadmap with defined priorities, sequencing, milestones, dependencies, and measurable outcomes. (25%)
• Lead the design, development, and continuous evolution of scalable people programs, ensuring initiatives are structured, repeatable, sustainable, and directly connected to business outcomes such as engagement, retention, leadership capability, employee experience, and organizational effectiveness. (20%)
• Drive integration across people programs, ensuring onboarding, engagement, performance, learning, leadership development, and talent initiatives operate as a cohesive employee lifecycle experience rather than disconnected or one‑time activities. (15%)
• Lead execution and adoption of key people initiatives by creating practical workplans, communication strategies, leader enablement tools, feedback loops, and implementation disciplines that move programs from concept through delivery, adoption, measurement, and continuous improvement. (15%)
• Lead, coach, and develop HR team members responsible for employee experience and related people programs, setting priorities, strengthening strategic thinking, raising execution quality, and building the HR team’s ability to operate with greater autonomy, accountability, and impact. (10%)
• Serve as a strategic advisor and proactive thought partner to leaders and HR partners, providing guidance on learning and development, engagement, performance, organizational effectiveness, change management, and people-program decisions that support business priorities. (10%)
• Leverage data, insights, employee feedback, lifecycle metrics, and external perspective to inform recommendations, define success measures, evaluate program effectiveness, and continuously improve people strategies and practices. (10%)

QUALIFICATIONS

Education & Training

• Bachelor’s degree required.
• Master’s degree in Human Resources, Organizational Development, Industrial/Organizational Psychology, Business, or related discipline preferred.

Licensure & Certification

• HR or talent‑related certification preferred (e.g., SHRM‑CP, SHRM‑SCP, PHR, SPHR, change management, coaching, learning and development, or organizational development certification).

Knowledge, Skill, and Ability

• Proven ability to operate as a strategic second‑in‑command and translate executive vision into scalable, high‑impact people strategies and actionable roadmaps.
• Strong expertise in employee engagement, learning and development, leadership development, performance management, organizational effectiveness, and employee lifecycle design.
• Demonstrated ability to build repeatable, sustainable people programs with clear governance, success measures, adoption strategies, and business‑aligned outcomes.
• Strong balance of strategic thinking and hands‑on execution; able to operate at altitude while driving work through implementation, adoption, and measurable impact.
• Excellent leadership, coaching, and team‑development capability, with a track record of raising functional capability, quality, accountability, and strategic maturity.
• Analytical and insight‑driven approach to decision‑making, with the ability to use employee feedback, lifecycle metrics, engagement data, and business context to inform recommendations.
• High level of influence and stakeholder‑management skill, including the ability to partner with senior leaders, navigate complex stakeholder environments, and constructively challenge or refine thinking.
• Proactive, business‑oriented mindset; brings insights and options, manages up effectively, connects people programs to organizational capability and growth.

Experience

• Minimum of 8–10 years of progressive HR experience, including demonstrated experience designing, scaling, and leading employee experience, engagement, onboarding, performance, learning and development, leadership development, talent management, or organizational effectiveness strategies.
• Proficiency with LMS platforms such as Bridge, Cornerstone, Workday Learning, SuccessFactors, Moodle, or similar systems.