Chief People Officer

Barge Design Solutions • Nashville, TN

6d • Hybrid

About The Position

The Chief People Officer (CPO) is an executive leader at Barge Design Solutions, reporting directly to the Chief Executive Officer and serving as a strategic partner to the executive team and other leadership to ensure alignment between the firm’s people strategy and its business operations and growth objectives. As a member of the executive leadership team, the CPO is responsible for designing and executing a comprehensive human capital strategy that enables Barge’s annual business plans and long-term strategic plan, strengthens internal leadership pipelines, enhances retention, and supports profitable growth. This role ensures the firm attracts, develops, engages, and retains top talent while reinforcing Barge’s culture, values, and commitment to service. The CPO oversees the full employee lifecycle, including talent acquisition, career pathways, leadership development, succession planning, total rewards, employee engagement and belonging, HR operations, safety, and people technology. The role ensures that Barge’s employee value proposition is compelling, competitive, and aligned with the firm’s mission and CARES values.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, Organizational Development, or related field required
• Minimum 15 years of progressive HR leadership experience, including executive-level strategic responsibility.
• Demonstrated experience aligning people strategy with business growth in a professional services or architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) environment preferred.
• Proven ability to influence executive leadership and lead organizational transformation initiatives.
• Demonstrated ability to shape and execute multi-year people strategies that directly support Barge’s ongoing operations, growth objectives, operational scalability, and long-term business plan.
• Strong understanding of professional services, including workforce planning, compensation modeling, benefits cost management, and the financial impact of talent investments.
• Ability to translate enterprise vision into clear workforce frameworks, leadership pipelines, succession strategies, and measurable talent initiatives.
• Proven ability to influence and align executive stakeholders; skilled in leading high-level strategy discussions and facilitating decision-making across the leadership team.
• Strong analytical capability with the ability to leverage workforce data, people analytics, and systems thinking to inform decisions and improve organizational effectiveness.
• Strong collaborative mindset with operations, finance, marketing, and business development leaders to ensure alignment between people strategy, client delivery, and growth initiatives.
• Exercises strong judgment in balancing short-term operational needs with long-term leadership development, retention, and cultural sustainability.
• Leads and develops a team of HR professionals with clarity of expectations and performance standards.
• Delegates effectively while holding leaders accountable for results.
• Coach’s managers within the HR function to strengthen technical and strategic capability.
• Builds bench strength within the People function.
• Engages executive leadership to align operational strategies and people programs and demonstrates executive presence while interfacing with and presenting to the Board of Directors.
• Walk, sit for extended periods of time, and stand. Occasionally reach with hands, stoop, kneel, or crouch. Occasionally lift to 40 lbs. Visual acuity is sufficient to read alpha/ numeric symbols for comprehension and editing.
• Ability to travel up to 25%.

Nice To Haves

• Master’s degree or MBA preferred.
• Senior HR certification (SHRM-SCP or equivalent) preferred.

Responsibilities

• Aligns people strategy with Barge’s ongoing operations, growth, and long-term strategic plan.
• Understands professional services planning (utilization, margins, workforce management).
• Partners effectively with the executive team to drive enterprise results.
• Connects talent investments to measurable business outcomes.
• Builds strong internal talent pipelines and succession plans.
• Leads talent acquisition as a strategic pillar of the organization’s growth, ensuring the attraction and hiring of high-caliber talent aligned with business needs.
• Strengthens leadership capability across all levels.
• Drives engagement and retention, particularly among high performers.
• Coaches and advises senior leaders with credibility and influence.
• Designs competitive, performance-driven compensation strategies.
• Aligns benefits and rewards with financial sustainability and retention goals.
• Ensures the employee value proposition supports attraction and engagement.
• Uses data and workforce analytics to guide decisions.
• Leverages HR systems and digital tools to improve employee experience.
• Drives operational efficiencies through process improvement and automation.
• Ensures compliance and risk management standards are upheld.
• Champions Barge’s CARES values: Collaboration, Authenticity, Responsibility, Excellence, and Service.
• Fosters a high-performance, accountable employee-owned culture.
• Represents Barge through active engagement in community and nonprofit initiatives.

Benefits

• Employee-owned company

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Executive