VP of People Operations & Growth

Hawke Media; Santa Monica (CA); On-site; USD 155,000 - 175,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health and Wellness

401(k) with Company Match

Unlimited PTO

Paid Holidays

Paid Paternal/Maternal Leave

Career Path Progression

Ongoing Training and Learning

Job summary

Hawke Media in Santa Monica, CA invites a hands-on Vice President, People Operations to lead the People function through growth and acquisitions. You will partner with the executive team to shape strategy, manage talent, payroll, benefits, compliance, and organizational design across our ~150-person organization.

The role blends strategic leadership with hands-on execution, directing two HR professionals and one recruiter while building scalable people programs and a strong employee experience.

Qualifications

• Significant progressive experience in Human Resources or People leadership.
• Experience supporting mergers and acquisitions, including due diligence, workforce assessment, integration planning, employee communications, and post-close execution.
• Experience developing or implementing job architecture, including job families, levels, titles, competencies, and career paths.
• Experience designing compensation structures, salary bands, incentive programs, and pay-governance practices.
• Strong organizational-design, workforce-planning, succession-planning, and change-management capabilities.
• Experience building and scaling People programs, processes, systems, and teams in a changing environment.
• Demonstrated experience leading, mentoring, and developing HR or People teams, with a focus on fostering professional growth, expanding leadership capabilities, and creating opportunities for internal career advancement.
• Strong working knowledge of California employment practices and HR compliance.
• Experience overseeing payroll, benefits, retirement-plan administration, and related vendors and controls.
• Experience handling complex employee relations matters and coaching senior leaders and managers.
• Experience overseeing recruiting and talent-management processes.
• Strong business and financial acumen, with the ability to connect People decisions to business outcomes.
• Excellent judgment, discretion, communication, and executive presence.
• A collaborative and practical leadership style, balancing strategic oversight, hands-on support, and empowerment of team members to own operational responsibilities.
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent relevant experience.
• SPHR or SHRM-SCP certification is preferred.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the company’s senior People executive and a trusted advisor to the executive leadership team, managers, and employees.
• Develop and execute a People strategy aligned with the company’s business objectives, growth plans, and acquisition activity, including workforce planning, organizational development, and key People initiatives.
• Participate in company planning and decision-making, bringing a workforce, organizational, and cultural perspective to key business decisions.
• Identify and advise leadership on organizational, talent, retention, compliance, and workforce risks.
• Develop executive-level reporting and recommendations related to headcount, organizational health, retention, compensation, talent, and People investments.
• Support board or investor discussions regarding organizational health, leadership, workforce risks, executive compensation, and other People matters as needed.
• Develop and manage the People Operations budget in partnership with Finance, ensuring resources and investments align with organizational priorities and business objectives.
• Lead the People workstream for acquisitions, including due diligence, workforce assessment, risk identification, integration planning, and post-close execution.
• Assess the organizational structures, talent, compensation, benefits, employment practices, policies, and cultures of potential acquisition targets.
• Develop a repeatable People integration playbook that can support the company’s ongoing acquisition strategy.
• Lead the integration and harmonization of acquired employees, including titles, job levels, compensation, benefits, policies, systems, reporting structures, and employment practices.
• Partner with executives and functional leaders to make thoughtful organizational and talent decisions during integrations.
• Develop employee communication, retention, and change-management plans that create clarity and maintain engagement throughout the acquisition process.
• Track integration milestones, risks, employee sentiment, and retention outcomes and provide regular updates to leadership.
• Partner with the executive team to design an organizational structure that supports the company’s current needs and future growth.
• Advise on leadership layers, spans of control, decision rights, workforce capabilities, and organizational effectiveness.
• Develop and maintain a company-wide job architecture encompassing job families, levels, titles, competencies, and consistent job descriptions.
• Establish clear career paths, promotion criteria, and internal-mobility practices across functions.
• Create tools and guidance that help managers make consistent decisions regarding hiring, leveling, development, promotions, and organizational changes.
• Lead succession planning and talent-review processes for leadership and other business-critical roles.
• Identify organizational capability gaps and recommend development, hiring, or restructuring solutions.
• Develop and maintain the company’s compensation philosophy and overall compensation strategy.
• Establish salary bands, job-leveling standards, incentive structures, promotion guidelines, and pay-governance practices.
• Ensure compensation programs are competitive, equitable, financially responsible, and aligned with the company’s talent strategy.
• Lead annual compensation planning in partnership with Finance and executive leadership.
• Oversee the performance-management framework, including goal setting, feedback, performance reviews, calibration, development planning, and performance improvement.
• Help leaders differentiate and reward performance while maintaining consistency across the organization.
• Monitor pay practices and recommend actions to address compression, inequities, retention risks, and market changes.
• Lead, coach, and develop a People team consisting of two HR professionals and one recruiter.
• Define the future structure, capabilities, and operating model of the People function as the organization grows.
• Oversee the full employee lifecycle, including onboarding, development, performance, employee changes, leaves, and offboarding.
• Coach executives and managers on leadership, performance, employee relations, organizational effectiveness, and team dynamics.
• Establish consistent employee relations and investigation protocols, including documentation standards, escalation procedures, and manager guidance to support fair and compliant workplace practices.
• Develop scalable People policies, programs, processes, and systems that create a consistent employee experience across the organization.
• Balance strategic leadership with a willingness to remain close to the work and step in directly when needed.
• Partner with the leadership team to define and reinforce a positive, inclusive, accountable, and high-performing company culture.
• Lead cultural integration efforts across acquired and existing teams.
• Develop change-management and communication strategies for acquisitions, reorganizations, policy changes, and other significant company initiatives.
• Oversee employee listening, engagement, recognition, and communication programs.
• Translate employee feedback and workforce data into practical organizational improvements.
• Help leaders reinforce company values and create a consistent employee experience across teams and locations.
• Measure the effectiveness of culture and engagement initiatives and adjust programs based on business and employee needs.
• Oversee recruiting and talent-management processes.
• Build internal and external talent pipelines for critical and leadership roles.
• Provide executive oversight of payroll, benefits, retirement plans, HR systems, employee records, and People Operations.
• Establish appropriate controls to ensure payroll is accurate, timely, secure, and compliant.
• Oversee employee changes, bonuses, final pay, reconciliation, reporting, and coordination with Finance.
• Lead the strategic evaluation of benefits programs, annual renewals, costs, employee impact, and vendor performance.
• Oversee 401(k) administration and compliance in partnership with external providers and Finance.
• Establish consistent and scalable People Operations practices across multiple locations and acquired entities, ensuring compliance with applicable state and local employment requirements while addressing location-specific operational needs.
• Manage and evaluate payroll, benefits, retirement, recruiting, and other People vendors.
• Partner with existing People Operations team members to identify and implement opportunities to automate, centralize, or redesign administrative processes as the organization scales.
• Oversee compliance with applicable independent contractor regulations, including worker classification, agreements, documentation, and related employment practices.
• Ensure People systems provide reliable data, effective workflows, strong controls, and an appropriate employee and manager experience.
• Maintain People policies and practices consistent with federal, California, and applicable local employment requirements.
• Anticipate employment and workforce risks and advise leadership on appropriate mitigation strategies.
• Oversee leaves, accommodations, required training, employee records, notices, reporting, investigations, and other compliance requirements.
• Partner with outside counsel and advisors on complex employment, acquisition, and organizational matters.
• Develop People dashboards covering headcount, turnover, retention, hiring, compensation, engagement, organizational capacity, and other key workforce indicators.
• Use workforce data to identify trends, anticipate risks, evaluate People programs, and inform executive decisions.

Job description

Hawke Media in Santa Monica, CA invites a hands-on Vice President, People Operations to lead the People function through growth and acquisitions. You will partner with the executive team to shape strategy, manage talent, payroll, benefits, compliance, and organizational design across our ~150-person organization.

The role blends strategic leadership with hands-on execution, directing two HR professionals and one recruiter while building scalable people programs and a strong employee experience.