The VP of People role has transformed in the past five years. What was once primarily an HR administration position now sits at the intersection of business strategy, organizational design, and people analytics.
Organizations hiring for this role often struggle to define it. Should the VP of People focus on compliance and benefits? Culture and engagement? Talent acquisition and retention? The answer is increasingly "all of the above, plus things that didn't exist three years ago."
This template provides a comprehensive starting point. Adapt it based on your organization's size, growth stage, and specific challenges.
When You Need a VP of People
Most organizations don't need this role at 20 people. By 100, they typically do. The inflection points that signal readiness include:
Scale complexity. When the founder can no longer know everyone personally, systems must replace intuition. Someone needs to design those systems.
Manager multiplication. Once you have managers managing managers, development and accountability become organizational capabilities, not individual efforts.
Compliance burden. Multi-state or international operations introduce legal complexity that requires dedicated expertise.
Culture drift. When new hires outnumber tenured employees, culture stops transmitting automatically. It requires intentional reinforcement.
If several of these apply, the VP of People role becomes a leverage point for organizational performance.
VP of People Job Description Template
Position: VP of People / Head of People
Reports to: CEO or COO
Department: People Operations
Location: [City, State] / Hybrid / Remote
Salary Range: $180,000 - $280,000 (varies by market and company stage)
Position Summary
The VP of People leads all aspects of the employee experience from hiring through departure. This role combines strategic planning with operational execution, building systems that scale while maintaining the culture that made the organization successful.
The ideal candidate understands that people operations exist to enable business outcomes. They bring both strategic vision and willingness to handle tactical details when needed.
Key Responsibilities
People Strategy (30%)
- Develop and execute people strategy aligned with business objectives
- Partner with executive team on organizational design and workforce planning
- Build analytics capabilities to measure and improve people outcomes
- Lead compensation philosophy and ensure market competitiveness
- Own succession planning for critical roles
Talent Acquisition & Retention (25%)
- Oversee recruiting function and employer brand
- Design onboarding programs that accelerate new hire productivity
- Build retention strategies informed by data, not assumptions
- Create career paths that develop talent internally
- Manage relationships with external recruiting partners
Culture & Employee Experience (20%)
- Define and reinforce organizational values through systems, not slogans
- Design recognition and feedback systems that build the culture you want
- Monitor engagement and wellbeing indicators continuously
- Lead response to employee concerns and organizational challenges
- Champion diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives
Manager Development (15%)
- Build manager training curriculum for new and experienced leaders
- Create accountability systems for manager effectiveness
- Provide coaching resources and support structures
- Ensure managers have data to lead their teams effectively
Operations & Compliance (10%)
- Ensure legal compliance across all jurisdictions
- Oversee benefits administration and vendor relationships
- Maintain HRIS and people technology stack
- Manage team of HR business partners and specialists
Required Qualifications
Experience
- 10+ years in HR/People Operations with 5+ years in leadership roles
- Experience scaling people function through significant growth (2x-10x)
- Track record of building and developing high-performing teams
- Direct experience with organizational design and change management
Skills
- Strategic thinking combined with operational execution ability
- Data literacy: comfortable using analytics to inform decisions
- Executive presence: can influence at board and leadership level
- Written and verbal communication that inspires action
- Ability to balance employee advocacy with business needs
Knowledge
- Employment law fundamentals (partnering with legal as needed)
- Compensation design and benchmarking methodologies
- Modern HR technology landscape
- Performance management best practices
- Employee engagement measurement and improvement
Success Metrics
First 30 Days
- Complete listening tour with all department heads
- Assess current state of people operations
- Identify top three urgent priorities
- Build relationships with executive team
First 90 Days
- Present people strategy aligned with business goals
- Address most pressing operational gaps
- Establish baseline metrics for key outcomes
- Begin building relationships across organization
First Year
- Reduce regrettable turnover by measurable amount
- Improve manager effectiveness scores
- Build scalable systems for continued growth
- Demonstrate impact through leading indicators
Adapting This Template
For Earlier-Stage Companies (50-150 people)
Emphasize building from scratch. The right candidate has experience creating systems, not just maintaining them. Consider:
- Reducing the operations percentage (outsource more)
- Increasing hands-on recruiting involvement
- Looking for generalists over specialists
For Later-Stage Companies (500+ people)
Emphasize leadership of leaders. The VP will manage directors who manage teams. Consider:
- Adding explicit team-building responsibilities
- Emphasizing change management experience
- Looking for enterprise-scale experience
For Remote-First Organizations
Add explicit requirements for:
- Experience building culture in distributed environments
- Remote-specific engagement and connection strategies
- Timezone-spanning communication approaches
Common Hiring Mistakes
Hiring for credentials over capability. An impressive resume from a large company doesn't guarantee success in a scaling organization. Look for evidence of building, not just maintaining.
Over-indexing on culture fit. Someone who validates current thinking won't challenge the organization to improve. Look for candidates who ask uncomfortable questions during the interview process.
Underestimating the strategic component. If you hire someone who only wants to execute, you'll lack the strategic thinking that makes execution meaningful. The VP of People should shape strategy, not just implement it.
Ignoring data orientation. Modern people operations require analytics capability. Candidates who resist measurement will struggle to demonstrate impact or make evidence-based decisions.
Interview Questions That Reveal Fit
For strategic thinking: "Walk me through how you would diagnose whether our culture is working or just surviving."
For operational capability: "Tell me about a time you inherited a broken process. What did you do in the first 30 days?"
For people leadership: "Describe a manager you developed who surprised you. What did you do differently?"
For business orientation: "How do you decide which people initiatives to prioritize when everything seems urgent?"
For honest assessment: "What's a people strategy you championed that didn't work? What would you do differently?"
Key Takeaways
The VP of People role combines strategic vision with operational execution. The best candidates:
- Build systems that scale beyond their personal involvement
- Use data to inform decisions without losing human judgment
- Balance employee advocacy with business reality
- Develop managers as the primary leverage point for culture
Next Steps
Building a high-performance people function requires more than hiring the right leader. It requires giving them tools to measure and improve outcomes continuously.
Book a demo to see how Happily provides real-time visibility into engagement, manager effectiveness, and team health.
