Position SummaryThe Talent Planning Leader serves as the enterprise architect for the talent management lifecycle across ADUSA Distribution & Transportation. This role is accountable for designing, operationalizing, and continuously improving the integrated talent strategy that ensures workforce readiness, leadership pipeline strength, and organizational capability for the next 3-5 years.
Acting as a strategic advisor to senior executives and HR leadership, this role leads the development of scalable, data driven talent routines from associate through senior leader levels. This includes performance management, succession planning, leadership pipeline planning, talent reviews, and development pathways. The Talent Planning Leader drives enterprise consistency, measurable outcomes, and business adoption of talent practices while challenging the status quo and elevating the quality of talent decisions across the organization.
Operating with a high level of autonomy, this role influences senior leaders, builds cross functional alignment, and ensures that talent strategies directly support organizational growth, operational effectiveness, and culture aspirations. This position works in deep partnership with HR leadership Team, D&T Leadership team, HR Business Partners, Learning & Development, Organizational Effectiveness, and business leadership to build a modern, future ready talent ecosystem.
What You'll DoEnterprise Talent Strategy & Roadmap Leadership- Designs and leads the 3-5-year enterprise talent strategy and annual execution roadmap for all major talent lifecycle processes.
- Advises senior leaders on long-term capability needs, succession risk, and strategic workforce planning.
- Introduces fit-for-purpose talent frameworks, governance, and standards to ensure consistency, fairness, and business ownership.
- Shapes the future-state talent operating model to enable growth and readiness at scale.
Leadership Pipeline Development & Succession Architecture- Owns the end-to-end succession planning strategy, ensuring depth, balance, and readiness of leadership pipelines across all levels.
- Facilitates executive-level talent reviews, synthesizing insights, risks, and strategic recommendations.
- Builds and maintains leadership competency models, readiness profiles, and transparent career roadmaps.
- Leads senior leaders through high-impact talent decision-making, influencing placement, development, movement, and hiring.
Talent Lifecycle Design & Execution- Reimagines and modernizes annual talent routines (performance management, talent assessment, career progression, IDPs) to drive clarity, accountability, and simplicity.
- Establishes scalable routines for assessing and developing high-potential and critical-role talent.
- Ensures alignment between talent processes and the realities of operational environments.
- Partners with HRBPs to embed talent routines into business rhythms across sites and functions.
Organizational Effectiveness & Capability Building- Partners on organizational design initiatives, advising on spans/layers, role clarity, and capability models.
- Ensures leadership development, associate development, and training programs are aligned to career progression expectations and talent strategy.
- Identifies systemic barriers to talent mobility and proposes cross-functional solutions to improve organizational agility.
Talent Analytics, Metrics & Insights- Develops enterprise KPIs for talent effectiveness, including progression, bench strength, readiness, and succession coverage.
- Builds dashboards, scorecards, and predictive analytics to forecast risks and identify trends.
- Translates complex talent data into compelling insights and recommendations for HR and executive leadership.
- Ensures data integrity and enables evidence-based leadership decision-making.
Engagement & Top Talent Strategy- Drives senior leadership engagement with high-potential talent, including visibility programs, career conversations, and sponsorship models.
- Builds enterprise visibility and transparency into career paths and internal mobility opportunities.
- Supports strategic interventions to retain and accelerate critical talent segments.
Change Leadership & Continuous Improvement- Leads large-scale change management efforts to enhance adoption and maturity of talent processes.
- Continuously evaluates talent programs against business needs and emerging best practices.
- Introduces innovations that streamline processes, remove noise, and elevate leadership accountability for talent outcomes.
What You'll BringEducation:- Bachelor's degree in Human Resources, Business, Organizational Development, or related field required.
- Master's degree preferred.
- HR certifications (SHRM-SCP, SPHR) strongly preferred.
Experience:- 8-12+ years of progressive experience in Talent Management, Organizational Development, Workforce Planning, or HR Strategy.
- Proven experience leading enterprise talent processes in a complex, multi-site environment.
- Demonstrated experience influencing senior executives and driving enterprise adoption of new talent practices.
- Deep experience with talent analytics, dashboards, and enterprise talent systems (e.g., SuccessFactors).
- Experience in operational or distributed workforce environments strongly preferred
Kowledge:The Talent Planning Leader must possess deep, strategic-level knowledge across the full talent lifecycle, organizational effectiveness, and enterprise transformation. Familiarity with industry best practices and emerging trends in talent strategy. Required knowledge includes:
Integrated Talent Management & Succession Strategy- Expert knowledge of end-to-end talent management systems, including succession planning, leadership pipeline strategy, performance management, and talent reviews.
- Understanding of future-focused talent practices such as readiness modeling, high-potential identification, and critical role mapping.
Organizational Development & Workforce Capability- Advanced knowledge of organizational design principles, workforce planning methodologies, spans-and-layers optimization, and organizational health frameworks.
- Knowledge of career architecture models, capability frameworks, and competency-based progression.
Leadership Development & Career Pathing- Deep understanding of leadership capability models, leadership development strategies, and role-specific success profiles.
- Knowledge of designing transparent career roadmaps and structured development paths for associates, leaders, and senior leaders.
Change Leadership & Transformation- Strong knowledge of change management theories, enterprise adoption strategies, and stakeholder engagement approaches to drive behavior change and leader accountability.
- Understanding of how to design routines, governance models, and sustainable long-term talent operating rhythms.
HR Analytics, Predictive Talent Insights & Data Storytelling- Advanced knowledge of talent analytics, KPI design, and predictive modeling (bench strength, turnover risk, readiness indexes).
- Expertise in synthesizing complex talent data into insights and executive-ready storylines to influence decision-making.
- Strong understanding of HRIS and talent systems (e.g., SuccessFactors), data governance, and process automation.
Cross-Functional Business & Operational Understanding- Knowledge of distribution, transportation, and operational workforce dynamics to ensure talent strategies align with the realities of frontline, supervisory, and leadership roles.
- Understanding of enterprise strategy, business priorities, and how talent readiness impacts operational performance and growth.
Skills:- Executive communication, facilitation, and storytelling.
- Enterprise program design and strategy development.
- Data interpretation, insights storytelling, and KPI design.
- Influencing senior leaders and challenging assumptions.
- Scalable process design and continuous improvement.
- Data analysis and reporting.
- Problem-solving and continuous improvement mindset.
Abilities:- Ability to think strategically while executing operationally.
- Ability to influence without authority and drive alignment across a matrixed organization.
- Ability to design processes that work for both corporate and operational environments.
- Ability to simplify complexity and create clarity for leaders at all levels.
- Ability to anticipate future needs and build long-term talent readiness.
Other Requirements:- Travel required (approximately 15-40%) to distribution centers and transportation sites.
- Ability to work in both corporate and operational environments.
- Comfortable operating with enterprise visibility and senior leader interaction.
- Understanding of Supply Chain Talent and Performance expectations, comfortable visiting sites and connecting business objectives with talent needs.
Salary: $92,640 - $138,960, depending on experience
