Senior Director of People & Culture | Growth & Experience

HPA; Clovis (CA); On-site; USD 115,000 - 127,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Dental & Vision insurance

Paid time off

Holidays & sick leave

401(k) retirement

Job summary

High Performance Academy (HPA) in California seeks a Senior Director of People to serve on the Senior Leadership Team. This role covers talent acquisition, employee relations, leadership development, performance management, compensation and benefits, compliance, HR technology, organizational effectiveness, workforce planning, and employee experience.

You will shape the People strategy, build and scale the People team, drive staffing readiness, onboarding, retention, engagement, and ensure

Qualifications

• 7+ years of progressive Human Resources / People experience, including 3+ years in a senior leadership role with a seat at the executive table.
• Demonstrated ability to build and lead a genuine employee‑experience and culture strategy, with measurable outcomes — not just employee relations administration.
• Strong working knowledge of California employment law and multi‑site workforce compliance.
• Proven experience building and scaling HR/People systems, processes, and teams in a growing organization across multiple regions.
• Experience leading talent acquisition, employee relations, performance management, and compensation programs.
• Executive presence: excellent judgment, discretion, and communication skills, with the ability to operate as a peer at the senior leadership table, not just support it.
• SHRM‑SCP, SPHR, or equivalent HR certification.
• Experience in youth services, education, sports, or other multi‑site, hourly‑workforce environments.
• Experience with HRIS platforms and HR analytics.
• Experience working in a modern operations and collaboration stack — Paycor, Deputy, Microsoft 365, HubSpot CRM, Slack, and Asana, or comparable systems.
• Familiarity with EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System) or similar operating frameworks.

Responsibilities

• Lead People Strategy: Shape organization‑wide strategy as a member of the Senior Leadership Team and advise executive leadership on workforce capacity, organizational design, and growth.
• Build & Develop Teams: Lead and scale the People team while creating leadership development, succession planning, and internal career pathways
• Own Employee Experience: Drive staffing readiness, recruiting, onboarding, retention, engagement, performance management, and employee‑voice initiatives across HPA.
• Protect & Strengthen Compliance: Provide leadership over California and federal employment compliance, employee relations, investigations, workplace safety, and partner compliance requirements.
• Oversee Compensation & Benefits: Lead compensation architecture, benefits strategy, incentive structures, open enrollment, and labor‑cost planning in partnership with Finance.
• Build Scalable Systems: Own HPA’s HR technology and employee lifecycle processes while driving automation, data accuracy, documentation, and consistent execution across regions.
• Strengthen Culture & Organizational Identity: Steward HPA’s culture and employee experience while ensuring the organization’s people practices support its mission, growth, and long‑term success.

Skills

Senior leadership

Employee experience

HR strategy

Change management

Communication

Executive presence

Education

HR certification

Tools

Paycor

Deputy

Microsoft 365

HubSpot CRM

Slack

Asana

EOS framework

Job description

High Performance Academy (HPA) in California seeks a Senior Director of People to serve on the Senior Leadership Team. This role covers talent acquisition, employee relations, leadership development, performance management, compensation and benefits, compliance, HR technology, organizational effectiveness, workforce planning, and employee experience.

You will shape the People strategy, build and scale the People team, drive staffing readiness, onboarding, retention, engagement, and ensure