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Job Description
Vice President, Global People Operations
India, New Delhi
Department: People Operations
Level: Vice President
Reports to: Chief People Officer (CPO)
Organization Profile:
Founded in 2000 on the belief that World Change Starts with Educated Children®, Room to Read envisions a world free from illiteracy and gender inequality, where all children have room to read, learn and grow – creating lasting change. Through our Literacy Portfolio, we train and coach teachers of the early grades in literacy instruction; create and publish quality books and curricular materials in local languages; and establish children’s libraries filled with diverse children’s books that can be enjoyed at school and home. Our Gender Equality Portfolio supports adolescents, particularly girls, in developing life skills that promote gender equality, helping them to pursue lifelong learning and make informed decisions.
We support young people of all genders to overcome gender biases and build the knowledge and skills to create a gender-equal world. Room to Read collaborates with local communities, partner organizations, publishers, and governments to test and implement innovative models that can be integrated into the education system to deliver positive outcomes for children at scale. To date, Room to Read has benefited more than 50 million children in 28 countries.
Position Overview:
The Vice President (VP) of Global People Operations is a key leadership member of the People Department. Reporting to the Chief People Officer (CPO), the VP supports Room to Read’s mission through leading, directing, and providing technical insight and best practice guidance on all people operations functions of the organization, including payroll, global compensation and benefits, policies, handbooks, recruiting, assessment of compliance and employee registration, administration, onboarding, offboarding, insurances, Workday and regional HR oversight. The position oversees People Operations matters across various Room to Read geographies as well, via dotted line reporting relationships and the provision of central guidance and frameworks for the regional staff and country offices people operations staff. The VP joins with the CPO to be internal ambassadors for Room to Read’s values-in-action culture ensuring processes, policies and practices that foster a safe, diverse, equitable, inclusive, and joyful work environment for 1,100+ employees, volunteers, interns, contractors in over 20 geographies.
The VP is a highly strategic and accountable leader, and a versatile and capable project manager, experienced in managing change and its impact on people, policies, and systems. They are responsible for inspiring, developing, and leading a service-oriented team of People Operations professionals based in the US and India, as well as guiding and building a matrixed cohort of human resource managers based in nine program geographies. They bring deep functional and global expertise to the role and serve as a trusted advisor and business partner to the CPO and other Executive Leadership Team (ELT) members. A collaborative problem-solver and skilled communicator, the VP drives the implementation of People Operations strategies and initiatives through departmental operational excellence, strong inter-departmental partnership and employee engagement. The VP also harnesses best practices and builds constructive relationships among human resources, international development, and other relevant networks to position Room to Read as an employer of choice.
The VP is a member of the People Department Leadership Team with direct supervisory responsibilities of a multi-skilled team. The position is based in Delhi and works a hybrid in office and remote work schedule. The position requires an estimated 3-5 international trips per year to Room to Read’s program countries and/or global offices locations.
Duties and Responsibilities:
Key responsibilities will include (but are not limited to):
Leadership of human resource operations area: Leadsthe development and implementation of the worldwide People Operations annual plans, goals, policies, processes and practices in alignment with the Room to Read’s mission, values, and Global Strategic Plan; embraces best practices and innovations. Ensures operational excellence and efficiency.
Communication and Collaboration: Proactively communicates with individuals and stakeholder teams to ensure understanding of People Operations topics and intentions, to ensure timely decision-making and work momentum, and to influence and educate stakeholders as needed. Ensures timely completion of deliverables and processes with the highest levels of quality. Manages complex stakeholder and functional partnership relationships across all departments.
Organizational partnership: Serves as a strategic partner, advisor, and coach to senior leadership, departmental and country leadership, and other staff; builds positive relationships and holds regular consultations across the organization to understand human resource operational needs; provides insight, innovative solutions and best practices. Ensures decision-making is timely and appropriate. Unsticks difficult situations and solves problems.
Team leadership: Leads, coaches, and inspires a high-performing People Operations team based in the US and India as well as a matrixed cohort of human resource managers who provide country-level support to nine offices in Asia and Africa. Manages the People Operations budget in collaboration with the CPO and participates in decision-making regarding the programmatic and project-oriented global personnel budgets. Ensures team and individual development is planned and on course and coaches team members for performance and impact.
Functional leadership: Is responsible for leading the analysis, implementation and ongoing management of human resource systems, processes, practices, documentation, calendars and tools worldwide (main responsibility for global offices and dotted line responsibility/oversight/guidance for country offices) in the following areas, including ensuring quality of deliverables, operational excellence and operational efficiency:
- Organizational Development: workforce planning/future orientation, organization structure sustainability and redesign, staffing for budgeting context.
- Compensation and Benefits: external benchmarking criteria and sources; compensation processes such as salary benchmarking, salary adjustments, job evaluation, salary structure design, job analysis, benefits planning
- Policies and Compliance: handbooks, employee policies, investigations, cross-functional committees
- Recruiting: sourcing talent, hiring manager training, all supporting processes and documentation
- Payroll and Benefits Administration: payroll delivery, vendor management, broker management for benefits, benefits administration
- Insurances: central insurance policies for property and casualty matters, and other types of non-employee insurance as needed.
- Workday: process support, ongoing improvements and utilization, data management, systems training, systems integration
- People analytics: dashboards and insight-generation analyses, analytical focus on people impact and evidence bases
- Administration: employee set up, account management, employee changes, tactical onboarding and offboarding
Qualifications and Experience:
Required:
- Bachelor’s degree, and 12+ years of relevant professional experience
- 7+ years’ experience leading a global HR or People Operations function including working with varied geographies and project teams
- Strong business acumen, preferably in a non-profit or low overhead environment, and proven effectiveness acting as an advisor and working directly with executives to provide an HR perspective in organizational decisions
- Strong technical knowledge of the principles and best practices of human resources administration with deep technical expertise in several of the functional areas listed above
- Ambidexterity to operate at both the strategic vision-setting level and the tactical execution level
- Demonstrated ability to work effectively in a multi-cultural and global environment with cultural sensitivity
- Demonstrated ability developing and implementing organizational improvements with experience leading successful change management processes globally
- Solution-oriented and proven ability to problem solve complex HR challenges with limited resources
- Prior experience in a fast-paced, growth-oriented organization
- HRMS experience, Workday preferred, AI familiarity and foundational skills
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English with the ability to communicate effectively with audiences ranging from entry-level staff to executives
- Demonstrated ability of coaching and developing staff across functional areas and levels
Application Procedure:
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Room to Read is an equal opportunity employer committed to identifying and developing the skills and leadership of people from diverse backgrounds.
Read is a child-safe organization; all personnel must adhere to Room to Read’s Child Protection Policy, Child Protection Code of Conduct and Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA) Policy.
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