Assistant Director - HR Service Center

Principal Financial Group • Des Moines, IA

4d • $127,000 - $171,000 • Hybrid

About The Position

We’re looking for an Assistant Director for our HR Service Center team. In this role, you'll provide global leadership for HR service delivery operations, ensuring consistent, high‑quality, and compliant services for employees and managers across regions. This role is accountable for the strategy and day‑to‑day performance of HR shared services, ensuring HR shared services are accurate, scalable, and embedded into digital and assisted service delivery. This leader partners closely with HR Centers of Excellence (COEs), regional HR teams, HR Technology, and Case Management leaders to standardize service delivery, enable self‑service, and continuously improve the employee experience through strong operational discipline and knowledge‑driven service design.
You'll have the opportunity to:
Provide operational leadership for global HR Shared Services, ensuring consistent service delivery, adherence to SLAs, and a positive employee and manager experience across regions.
Lead service performance management, including volume trends, resolution quality, cycle time, backlog, and customer satisfaction, using data to drive continuous improvement.
Serve as an escalation point for complex service delivery issues, ensuring timely resolution and appropriate coordination with HR COEs and regional stakeholders.
Accountable for global ownership and governance of the HR Service Knowledge Hub, including content standards, taxonomy, approval processes, lifecycle management, and audit practices.
Establish and enforce clear knowledge governance models, defining roles, decision rights, and responsibilities across HR COEs, regions, and service delivery teams.
Ensure HR service knowledge is accurate, compliant, accessible, and scalable, supporting both employee self‑service and HR case resolution globally.
Partner with HR COEs and regional SMEs to curate, validate, and maintain content while balancing global standards with local regulatory and policy requirements.
Ensure HR service knowledge is fully integrated into service delivery workflows, including ServiceNow HRSD, case management, virtual agent, and self‑service experiences.
Use service data, inquiry trends, and feedback loops to identify content gaps, outdated knowledge, and opportunities to improve deflection and first‑contact resolution.
Support AI‑enabled service delivery by ensuring knowledge is structured, governed, and maintained to be AI‑ready and compliant.
Drive standardization of HR service processes, documentation, and work instructions in partnership with HR Technology and Process Excellence teams.
Lead continuous improvement initiatives to reduce repeat inquiries, improve self‑service adoption, and increase service efficiency through better knowledge and process design.
Partner with HR Technology on platform enhancements, releases, and change enablement to ensure service readiness and adoption.
Operating at the intersection of financial services and technology, Principal builds financial tools that help our customers live better lives. We take pride in being a purpose-led firm, motivated by our mission to make financial security accessible to all. Our mission, integrity, and customer focus have made us a trusted leader for more than 140 years!

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, Information Systems, or related field.
• 8+ years of progressive HR experience, with at least 3 years in HR shared services, service delivery, or HR operations leadership roles.
• Demonstrated experience leading HR service delivery in a shared services or service center model.
• Strong working knowledge of HR service knowledge management, governance, and lifecycle practices.
• Experience with ServiceNow HR Service Delivery (HRSD) or comparable case and knowledge management platforms preferred.
• Experience operating in a global or multi‑regional HR environment preferred.
• Background in knowledge governance, content management, or digital self‑service enablement preferred.

Nice To Haves

• HR or Knowledge Management certifications (e.g., SHRM‑CP/SCP, PHR/SPHR, CKM) a plus.

Responsibilities

• Provide operational leadership for global HR Shared Services, ensuring consistent service delivery, adherence to SLAs, and a positive employee and manager experience across regions.
• Lead service performance management, including volume trends, resolution quality, cycle time, backlog, and customer satisfaction, using data to drive continuous improvement.
• Serve as an escalation point for complex service delivery issues, ensuring timely resolution and appropriate coordination with HR COEs and regional stakeholders.
• Accountable for global ownership and governance of the HR Service Knowledge Hub, including content standards, taxonomy, approval processes, lifecycle management, and audit practices.
• Establish and enforce clear knowledge governance models, defining roles, decision rights, and responsibilities across HR COEs, regions, and service delivery teams.
• Ensure HR service knowledge is accurate, compliant, accessible, and scalable, supporting both employee self‑service and HR case resolution globally.
• Partner with HR COEs and regional SMEs to curate, validate, and maintain content while balancing global standards with local regulatory and policy requirements.
• Ensure HR service knowledge is fully integrated into service delivery workflows, including ServiceNow HRSD, case management, virtual agent, and self‑service experiences.
• Use service data, inquiry trends, and feedback loops to identify content gaps, outdated knowledge, and opportunities to improve deflection and first‑contact resolution.
• Support AI‑enabled service delivery by ensuring knowledge is structured, governed, and maintained to be AI‑ready and compliant.
• Drive standardization of HR service processes, documentation, and work instructions in partnership with HR Technology and Process Excellence teams.
• Lead continuous improvement initiatives to reduce repeat inquiries, improve self‑service adoption, and increase service efficiency through better knowledge and process design.
• Partner with HR Technology on platform enhancements, releases, and change enablement to ensure service readiness and adoption.

Benefits

• Flexible Time Off (FTO) is provided to salaried (exempt) employees and provides the opportunity to take time away from the office with pay for vacation, personal or short-term illness. Employees don’t accrue a bank of time off under FTO and there is no set number of days provided.
• Pension Eligible

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Number of Employees: 5,001-10,000 employees