Senior Director, People - Americas & Global People Operations

Acast; New York (NY); Hybrid; USD 165,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Acast, a leading podcast marketplace, seeks a seasoned HR leader to own Americas People Strategy. You’ll partner with executives, design regional organization models, and guide data-informed workforce planning across the region.

Lead our Global People Operations COE, shape AI-enabled people systems, and steer M&A integration and change management, ensuring governance, compliance, and employee communications across global markets.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of HR leadership and HRBP experience.
• Hands-on M&A integration in a fast-growth setting.
• Strong data fluency and workforce analytics mindset.
• Ability to define metrics and dashboard specs.
• Deep governance, compliance and executive ER knowledge.

Responsibilities

• Strategic Regional Business Partnership: advise Americas leaders on organizational design and workforce planning using data.
• Global People Operations & Systems COE: own infrastructure, policies, and tech roadmap for global People Ops.
• M&A Integration & Change Leadership: lead people-related elements of regional M&A and transformations.
• Talent Management & Workforce Analytics: run enterprise talent programs and headcount diagnostics.
• Governance, Compliance & Executive ER: oversee HR policies and risk mitigation with Legal.

Skills

People leadership

HRBP leadership

M&A integration

Data-driven HR

HR systems

Strategic advisory

Governance & compliance

Change management

Tools

Lattice

Job description

About AcastSince 2014, Acast has been building the world’s most valuable podcast marketplace, creating the technology that connects podcast creators, advertisers, and listeners. Its marketplace spans more than 140,000 podcasts, 3,300 advertisers, and one billion quarterly listens. Crucially, those listens are monetized wherever they happen—across any podcast app or listening platform.

About The RoleThis high-impact leadership role sits at the intersection of strategic HR advisory, global operational excellence, and enterprise governance. Serving as a trusted partner to Americas leadership, you will drive human capital strategy for the region while leading our Global People Operations Center of Excellence (COE).

You will bridge the gap between high-level executive strategy and scalable operational execution—leading regional HRBP work, championing data-backed workforce planning, steering M&A integrations, and building modern, AI-enabled People systems to support Acast’s global growth.

What You'll Do

• Strategic Regional Business Partnership: Serve as the primary HRBP to Americas leaders. Advise on organizational design, workforce planning, and performance management using actionable data—such as attrition drivers, promotion velocity, and span-of-control benchmarks—to proactively diagnose team health before escalations occur.
• Global People Operations & Systems COE: Own the infrastructure, policies, and tech roadmap for global People Operations. Standardize service levels across regions, drive HRIS and platform integrations (including Lattice and adjacent tools), manage vendor relationships, and partner with the CPO to shape the company’s AI strategy for HR.
• M&A Integration & Change Leadership: Lead people-related elements of regional M&A activity and business transformations. Oversee cultural alignment, compensation structures, retention strategies, and transparent employee communications during periods of transition.
• Talent Management & Workforce Analytics: Direct enterprise-wide talent programs, including succession planning, high-potential development, and annual compensation and performance cycles. Lead workforce planning analytics, including headcount modeling and organizational design diagnostics.
• Governance, Compliance & Executive ER: Oversee company-wide HR policies, employee handbooks, and compliance frameworks across all operating jurisdictions. Manage complex, sensitive employee relations matters and partner with Legal to mitigate employment risk.

Who You Are

• Experienced People Leader: You bring 10+ years of progressive HR experience spanning HRBP leadership, People Operations/COE ownership, and hands-on M&A integration—ideally within media, adtech, or a high-growth tech environment.
• Data-Fluent & Systems-Minded: You don’t just consume HR data; you interrogate it. You are comfortable defining metrics, building dashboard specifications, evaluating survey methodologies, and making platform architecture decisions.
• Strategic Advisor & Hands-on Executor: You seamlessly pivot from advising senior executives on high-level organizational strategy to diving into operational process design and execution in a fast-paced, globally matrixed environment.
• Compliance & Governance Expert: You possess deep expertise in employment law, compliance, and governance frameworks, with the executive judgment needed to navigate complex workforce issues.
• Proven Builder & Innovator: You have a track record of scaling HR operations, building manager effectiveness programs, and introducing modern tools and practices that simplify processes for leaders and employees alike.

Salary Range: $165,000 – $190,000 per year

Location: SoHo, New York City (Hybrid)

CultureAcast is committed to creating a diverse environment and is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, national origin or any of the other wonderful characteristics that make us different.

Culture is our number one priority as a business. We believe people come first, and we work every day to enable autonomy, continuous improvement and bring out the best in people. We’re global and have remote teams, so it’s even more important that we strive for an open, inclusive and caring environment where everyone feels visible and welcome.

We consider ourselves a modern organization driven by strong values to create the best, most fulfilling and nurturing culture.

We very much look forward to finding the next great person to join our cause!