Role:
The Senior Vice President / Chief People Officer is a member of Gulf Winds Credit Union's Executive Leadership Team and leads enterprise people strategy and the employee experience. Reporting to the President and Chief Executive Officer, this executive builds the talent, leadership, culture, total rewards, and people systems needed to support growth and make Gulf Winds a place where high-performing people choose to build a career.
This role is accountable for attracting, developing, and retaining exceptional talent; embedding a culture grounded in Integrity, Care, Growth, and Innovation; and ensuring People and Development programs deliver measurable business value. Success is reflected in a strong leadership bench, an engaged and accountable workforce, scalable people practices, and readiness for growth, merger and integration activity, and regulatory review.
Primary areas of value creation:
Workforce Strategy: Establishes metrics-based workforce priorities, plans, and budgets aligned with credit union strategy, growth, and member service. Builds the workforce and leadership pipelines needed for organic growth, new locations, and merger and integration activity.
Culture and Leadership: Partners with the Chief of Staff and Executive Leadership Team to translate Integrity, Care, Growth, and Innovation into leadership expectations, workplace standards, recognition, and management practices that strengthen engagement, accountability, retention, and leadership effectiveness.
Talent and Organizational Capability: Leads talent acquisition, selection, onboarding, development, succession planning, and internal mobility to build a high-performing, values-aligned workforce and strong leadership bench. Advances People and Development as an internal center of excellence across the employee lifecycle.
Risk and Trust: Manages conduct, insider risk, employment law, and culture drift as enterprise risks in partnership with the Chief of Staff, Risk Management, Compliance, and Internal Audit.
Essential Functions and Responsibilities:
25% Strategic Leadership
• Serve on the Executive Leadership Team and advise the President and Chief Executive Officer on people strategy, organizational effectiveness, workforce planning, and leadership matters.
• Lead training and development programs that build capability, support career growth, and strengthen the leadership pipeline.
• Lead the multi-year people plan for asset growth, branch expansion, digital delivery, and merger and integration activity. Establish organizational design, spans of control, and role architecture that support efficient growth.
• Partner with the Chief of Staff to bring appropriate people matters to the Board and relevant committees, including succession planning, compensation philosophy, culture health, and leadership risk.
• Direct People and Development strategy, policies, budget, vendors, HRIS, and service delivery. Develop the People and Development and Training teams to provide exceptional service and continuous improvement.
• Exercise authority with the President and Chief Executive Officer on pay positioning, director-level and above hiring, leadership appointments within the function, and external search engagements.
• Use data and analytics to evaluate workforce programs and guide decisions.
25% Culture and Leadership
• Partner with the Chief of Staff and executive leaders to define values-based behaviors and embed them in leadership expectations, recognition, and management practices.
• Lead development for executives, vice presidents, and emerging leaders, including 30-60-90 onboarding and succession plans for critical roles.
• Set and uphold clear, fair, and consistent standards for conduct, dress, and member-facing presence.
• Guide business leaders through restructures, leadership transitions, merger and integration activity, and other growth-related change.
• Develop workforce plans for branch growth, specialty lending, risk, technology, and member experience.
• Build an employer brand that attracts bankers, lenders, and specialists across Florida and Alabama to a member-owned institution.
25% Talent and Rewards
• Lead talent acquisition, including executive and hard-to-fill searches, using external partners selectively.
• Establish disciplined selection practices through structured interviews, job-relevant assessments, and a consistent candidate experience.
• Direct compensation philosophy, salary structures, incentive and retention plans, and executive compensation recommendations benchmarked to credit union and community bank peers.
• Oversee benefits strategy and vendors, emphasizing plans employees understand and use.
• Lead performance management that aligns individual goals with credit union priorities and supports meaningful differentiation.
• Oversee onboarding, internal movement, employee relations, investigations, and offboarding with clear, defensible documentation.
• Ensure HRIS, payroll partnerships, policies, and employee records are accurate, private, and audit-ready.
20% Risk and Compliance
• Manage people risks-including conduct, insider risk, employment law, and culture drift-in partnership with the Chief of Staff, Risk Management, Compliance, and Internal Audit.
• Partner with Risk Management and Fraud on hiring screens, access-related conduct, investigations, and insider risk indicators.
• Maintain employment practices that meet federal and Florida requirements and NCUA expectations for governance, compensation, and succession planning.
• Support enterprise resilience through hurricane staffing and critical-role coverage.
• Build internal capability so external partners are used strategically.
• Maintain consistent, defensible, and audit-ready people policies, controls, records, and decision processes.
5% Other duties as assigned.
Performance Measurements:
1. People Strategy and Scale: Achieve annually approved milestones for the multi-year people plan, growth, branch expansion, digital delivery, and merger and integration activity. Meet approved budget variance, vendor service levels, system reliability, spans-of-control, and role-architecture standards.
2. Leadership and Succession: Meet annual leadership-effectiveness targets and maintain documented succession coverage, readiness assessments, and active development plans for critical roles. Complete 30-60-90 onboarding milestones for new executives and leaders within established timeframes.
3. Talent and Workforce Pipelines: Meet annual targets for time to fill, quality of hire, offer acceptance, early retention, internal movement, and candidate experience. Maintain defined pipeline coverage for priority and hard-to-fill roles.
4. Total Rewards, Performance, and Employee Lifecycle: Maintain compensation and benefits within approved market, budget, governance, and participation standards. Complete performance cycles by established deadlines and meet defined service levels for employee-matter resolution and documentation compliance.
5. Culture and Employee Experience: Meet annual targets for engagement, regrettable turnover, accountability, leadership behavior, and recognition participation. Complete documented culture action plans by approved deadlines and verify adoption of values-based management practices.
6. Risk, Governance, and Operational Readiness: Meet defined standards for audit findings, payroll and data accuracy, policy reviews, issue-resolution timelines, control testing, and vendor oversight. Test succession, hurricane staffing, and critical-role coverage plans annually and resolve identified gaps within approved deadlines.
Knowledge and Skills:
Experience Fifteen or more years of progressive human resources and organizational leadership experience, including at least seven years leading a function at the director level or above and experience as a CHRO, CPO, or SVP/VP of Human Resources. Requires demonstrated leadership of culture, talent, total rewards, and employee relations in an organization of approximately 200 to 1,000 employees, preferably during growth or merger and integration activity. Financial institution experience and knowledge of employment law, compensation governance, and the regulatory environment are strongly preferred. A record of building durable internal capability is required; experience with a merger, core conversion, or multi-site expansion is preferred.
Education Bachelor's degree in Human Resources, Business, Organizational Development, or a related field required. SPHR, SHRM-SCP, or an equivalent senior credential is preferred. A master's degree or executive education in organizational leadership or human resources strategy is preferred.
Interpersonal Skills Demonstrates executive presence through clear communication, sound judgment in employee relations and conduct matters, and the ability to influence the President and Chief Executive Officer, executive peers, leaders, the Board and relevant committees, employees, counsel, regulators, and external partners. Requires discretion, diplomacy, trust, and fair, defensible decision-making in complex and sensitive situations.
Other Skills
• Enterprise People Strategy: Translates growth strategy into organizational, workforce, leadership, and employee experience priorities.
• Executive Leadership and Influence: Advises the President and Chief Executive Officer, influences peers, and, with the Chief of Staff, brings appropriate people matters to the Board and relevant committees.
• Culture Stewardship: Embeds Integrity, Care, Growth, and Innovation in standards, recognition, and daily management practices.
• Talent and Leadership Systems: Builds scalable talent acquisition, workforce planning, succession planning, leadership development, and internal mobility capabilities.
• Total Rewards and Governance: Applies sound judgment to compensation, incentives, retention plans, benefits, and executive compensation recommendations.
• Risk and Compliance: Understands employment law, people controls, insider risk, investigations, documentation, and financial institution governance. Familiarity with NCUA expectations, Florida employment requirements, and credit union advocacy is preferred.
• Operating Discipline: Uses data, technology, and clear decision rights to create accurate, private, scalable, and audit-ready People and Development operations.
• Credit Union Perspective: Credit union experience, or successful translation from banking to a cooperative model, is preferred.
Physical Requirements This position requires prolonged periods of sitting and working at a computer, along with the ability to access files, operate standard office equipment, and occasionally bend, stand, or move within the workplace. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
Work Environment This position is based in the Pensacola, Florida, market and requires consistent in-office presence. Work is performed primarily in an office setting using standard equipment and includes regular meetings and conference calls with credit union employees and vendors. The normal schedule is Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.; after-hours work or travel may be required for deadlines, conferences, seminars, or meetings. The position must follow all applicable safety rules and regulations.
This job description is not an exhaustive statement of all duties and responsibilities associated with the position.
