Associate Director, HR People Operations & Governance

The Associate Director, HR People Operations & Governance is a senior individual contributor responsible for strengthening how the People Enablement function operates. The role leads the creation, improvement, and governance of scalable end-to-end HR processes; establishes practical standards, controls, and operating routines; and partners across HR and other functions to align stakeholders and improve the employee and manager experience. The Associate Director also applies disciplined program and project management to implement process improvements, governance priorities, and selected major HR cycles, including Open Enrollment and Year-End Rewards. Key Responsibilities • Lead the design, documentation, implementation, and ongoing improvement of scalable end-to-end People Enablement processes, clarifying ownership, decision rights, controls, handoffs, escalation paths, service standards, and downstream impacts. • Establish and maintain practical governance frameworks for People Enablement processes, procedures, and knowledge content, including ownership, approvals, version control, review cadence, and retirement of outdated materials. • Use operational data, stakeholder feedback, root-cause analysis, and implementation reviews to identify recurring issues, recommend improvements, and maintain a prioritized continuous-improvement roadmap. • Partner with HR Technology & Analytics and process owners to define reporting requirements and measures that assess process effectiveness, service quality, responsiveness, employee and manager experience, backlog, recurring issues, and operational risk. • Build strong cross-functional partnerships across HR and with Finance, Payroll, IT, Legal & Compliance, and external partners to align requirements, resolve issues, clarify accountability, and support effective end-to-end solutions. • Facilitate stakeholder alignment and readiness for process and policy changes, coordinating communications, training, implementation support, and adoption activities with accountable functional owners. • Strengthen operational risk management by documenting key controls, backup ownership, business-continuity considerations, data-protection requirements, and audit-readiness practices for critical People Enablement processes. • Apply disciplined program and project management to selected cross-functional initiatives and major HR cycles, including Open Enrollment and Year-End Rewards, from planning through implementation, operational transition, and lessons learned. • Maintain the People Enablement operating roadmap and annual calendar, tracking milestones, dependencies, risks, decisions, resource needs, and accountable owners for assigned priorities. • Provide the VP, People Enablement and functional leaders with clear analysis, status updates, risks, options, and recommendations to support prioritization and operating decisions. Qualifications • Bachelor's degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, Organizational Development, Operations, Project Management, or a related field, or an equivalent combination of education and experience. • Eight or more years of progressive experience in HR operations, process improvement, governance, HR service delivery, HR transformation, program management, or a related discipline. • Demonstrated experience designing and improving end-to-end HR processes and establishing practical governance, controls, ownership, and operating routines. • Experience leading complex, cross-functional work through influence and building alignment among stakeholders with different priorities and areas of expertise. • Experience supporting one or more major HR cycles, such as Open Enrollment, compensation planning, merit and promotion reviews, workforce planning, or similar programs. • Strong facilitation, analytical, organizational, communication, and problem-solving capabilities, with the judgment to escalate issues and present practical recommendations. • Working knowledge of HR systems, reporting, project-management tools, and process-documentation methods, with the ability to translate business requirements for HR Technology, Analytics, and functional partners. • Experience using Workday or another enterprise HCM platform to support HR processes, reporting, or requirements definition preferred; direct system configuration experience is not required. • Experience in biotechnology, pharmaceutical, life sciences, or another regulated and rapidly growing environment preferred; process-improvement or project-management certification is a plus. Skills and Attributes • End-to-end process thinking, with the ability to connect business needs, stakeholder experience, systems, data, controls, and operational outcomes. • Process design, governance, and continuous-improvement capability, including the ability to translate information into practical standards and sustainable solutions. • Cross-functional influence and facilitation, with a collaborative and pragmatic approach to resolving competing requirements and clarifying accountability. • Program and project-management discipline, including planning, prioritization, risk management, decision tracking, and execution in ambiguity. • Clear, concise, and executive-ready written and verbal communication. Sound judgment, discretion, attention to detail, and appropriate handling of confidential employee and business information. Travel This position requires up to 10% travel. US Salary Range: $165,000 - 172,000 #LI-Remote