Senior Director, People Strategy and Engagement

BlueRock Therapeutics; Cambridge (MA); On-site; USD 232,000 - 247,000; Full time

Job summary

BlueRock Therapeutics in Cambridge, MA, is seeking a Senior Director, People Strategy and Engagement to guide enterprise talent strategy and organizational design. This leadership role partners with senior executives to translate business priorities into people solutions while embedding DEIB and scalable processes.

You will lead the People Strategy team, drive cross-functional collaboration, and accelerate leadership capability as BlueRock expands its pipeline.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Human Resources, or a related field preferred.
• Minimum of 12+ years of progressive human resources experience, including experience partnering with senior leaders in a complex, matrixed environment.
• Ability to travel up to 25% to BlueRock locations.

Responsibilities

• Serve as a strategic thought partner to senior leaders, translating business priorities into people strategy and design.
• Lead the People Strategy team to shape a more integrated, high-performing function with clear priorities and rhythms.
• Partner to design scalable approaches to talent management, engagement, development, DEIB, and employee experience.
• Embed DEIB and company values into leadership practices and employee lifecycle moments.

Skills

Leadership

Stakeholder management

HR analytics

Communication

Education

Bachelor's degree in Business or HR

Tools

HR systems

PowerPoint

Excel

Job description

BlueRock Therapeutics, a wholly-owned and independently operated subsidiary of Bayer AG, is a leading engineered cell therapy company pioneering a new generation of cellular medicines. Utilizing our proprietary CELL+GENE™ platform, we direct cellular differentiation and genetically engineer cells to create transformative therapies for patients suffering from neurological and ophthalmological diseases.

Founded in 2016, BlueRock is at the forefront of the convergence of cell biology and genetic engineering. Our mission is to harness pluripotent stem cell technology and gene editing to deliver authentic, functional cell therapies that address the root causes of disease and offer hope to millions of patients worldwide.

What Are We Doing?

Our foundational science enables the generation and directed differentiation of universal pluripotent stem cells into authentic, functional cells for allogeneic cellular therapies.

We are passionate about realizing the promise of cell and gene therapy, shaping the future of regenerative medicine, and delivering new therapies to patients with limited or no treatment options.

BlueRock Therapeutics is looking for a Senior Director, People Strategy and Engagement to join our People and Culture team, reporting to the SVP, Head of People and Culture. This enterprise-minded leader will help translate business priorities into a sharper people strategy, strengthen organizational effectiveness, and advance the culture, leadership practices, and ways of working needed for BlueRock’s next phase.

The role requires a strategic partner who can look across the enterprise, connect talent and organization decisions to business outcomes, and bring constructive challenge to legacy practices. The Senior Director will help the People Team move from strong functional execution to a more integrated, forward-looking model that enables clearer priorities, faster decisions, stronger leadership capability, more agile organizational design, and disciplined resource choices as BlueRock grows its pipeline without simply adding headcount.

As a People Team leader, this role will lead and develop members of the People Strategy team, partner closely with Talent and Learning, People Rewards and Operations, and other centers of excellence, and provide strategic leadership for BlueRock’s internal DEIB efforts. Success will require curiosity, judgment, bold thinking, and the ability to turn complex organizational needs into practical, scalable solutions.

Key Deliverables

• Advance an integrated talent strategy that raises the bar for performance, development, succession, engagement, and retention.
• Strengthen organizational effectiveness by clarifying priorities, decision rights, operating rhythms, and cross-functional ways of working.
• Design more agile organization and talent models that increase fungibility across existing capabilities, enabling BlueRock to support pipeline growth with greater resource discipline.
• Help modernize the People Team’s service model through better use of systems, data, process improvement, AI-enabled capabilities, and scalable tools.
• Embed DEIB and BlueRock’s values into leadership practices, employee lifecycle moments, culture-building efforts, and team behavior commitments.

Key Responsibilities

• Serve as a strategic thought partner to the SVP, Head of People and Culture and senior leaders, connecting business priorities to people strategy, organization design, leadership capability, and culture.
• Lead the People Strategy team and help shape a more integrated, high-performing People function with clearer priorities, stronger operating rhythms, and less siloed execution.
• Partner across People centers of excellence to design scalable approaches to talent management, engagement, development, succession, compensation alignment, DEIB, and employee experience.
• Apply organizational effectiveness expertise to help leaders clarify structures, decision rights, role accountabilities, operating models, and change implications as BlueRock evolves.
• Partner with leaders to assess capability needs, talent supply, capacity, and tradeoffs in a data-driven way, helping the organization redeploy existing talent against the highest-priority work and make disciplined decisions about when new roles are truly required.
• Use data, workforce insights, and external trends to identify opportunities that improve organizational health, talent outcomes, employee experience, and business readiness.
• Coach and challenge leaders to build stronger teams, make clearer talent decisions, increase accountability, and create the conditions for sustainable high performance.
• Provide strategic leadership for internal DEIB efforts, ensuring principles of inclusion, belonging, and equity are embedded into People practices and leadership behaviors.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Human Resources, or a related field preferred.
• Minimum of 12+ years of progressive human resources experience, including experience partnering with senior leaders in a complex, matrixed environment.
• Ability to travel up to between BlueRock locations up to 25%.
• Strong business acumen and a “business leader first” mentality, with experience supporting scaling organizations and translating business strategy into practical people solutions.
• Proven prioritization skills in a complex environment, with the ability to pivot quickly while expertly managing all stakeholders and their interests.
• Demonstrated ability to serve as a People Team leader through effective cross-team consulting, partnering, and influence.
• Strong leadership aptitude, judgment, emotional intelligence, and coaching skills, with the ability to build trust and credibility across levels.
• Demonstrated skill in building relationships at senior levels, influencing, and driving to consensus.
• Strong data and detail orientation, with the ability to use insights to inform business and talent decisions.
• Highly proficient in HR systems and MS office tools with a focus on PowerPoint and Excel.
• Thoughtful, adaptable, and clear communicator with the ability to tailor messages for a range of audiences.
• Deep knowledge of HR compliance, employment law, and regulatory requirements.
• Life sciences experience a plus. Prior experience managing direct reports is preferred.

The estimated compensation range for this position is $ 232,000.00 - $ 246,600.00 per year.

Equal Opportunity Workplace: At BlueRock, we welcome and support differences and diversity and we are proud to be an equal opportunity workplace. Please let us know if you require disability-related accommodation or other grounds protected by human rights legislation during the recruitment process so that we can work with you to meet your needs.

We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.