Director, Talent Strategy

CDW•Chicago, IL

6d•$184,000 - $220,600

About The Position

The Director, Talent Strategy & Planning strengthens CDW’s ability to make proactive, business-aligned talent decisions that support growth, transformation, and long-term organizational readiness. Reporting to the SVP, Head of Talent, this leader manages a team that develops simple, scalable, data-informed talent practices. The role connects leadership assessment and succession, strategic workforce planning, skills, and performance management to improve decisions, accountability, and organizational readiness. It also champions practical use of AI in the role and across the Talent function. The Director owns enterprise approaches to leadership assessment and succession, builds strategic workforce planning as a new enterprise capability, leads CDW’s shift toward a skills-based talent organization, and owns the enterprise performance management approach. The role equips HR Business Partners and leaders with practical resources, strengthens talent data and insight, and drives follow-through on talent outcomes. The Director partners across Talent Acquisition, Learning, Finance, and HR Business Partners to connect plans to hiring, development, and budget decisions. CDW describes itself as a Fortune 500 technology solutions provider serving business, government, education, and healthcare organizations. It emphasizes collaboration, learning, and an AI-fluent culture. The position’s stated U.S. pay range is $184,000–$220,600 depending on experience and skill set, with a 30% annual bonus target subject to plan terms and conditions. Salary ranges may be subject to geographic differentials; benefits information is linked in the posting.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources, Business, Organizational Development, Industrial/Organizational Psychology, or a related field.
10+ years of progressive experience in talent management, talent strategy, succession planning, leadership assessment, strategic workforce planning, performance management, skills strategy, organizational effectiveness, or HR business partnership in a multinational organization.
Experience leading teams, setting strategy, building capability, and driving execution.
Strong business acumen and ability to connect talent practices to enterprise strategy, growth, transformation, and performance outcomes.
Strong executive communication, facilitation, consulting, and stakeholder management skills; ability to make complex talent topics simple and usable for HR Business Partners and business leaders.
Experience using talent data, workforce insights, HR technology, or analytics to inform decisions and shape strategy.
Ability to lead through ambiguity, influence without direct authority, and drive change across a matrixed organization.
Demonstrated personal use of AI tools as a core part of work, including analysis, synthesis, communication, content creation, and decision-making, with a point of view on where AI adds value.
Strong curiosity and commitment to continuous learning in skills-based talent practices, workforce planning, talent transformation, and the future of work.
Experience leading enterprise talent strategy, succession and leadership assessment, performance management, workforce planning, skills strategy, or related HR work.
Experience operating in a large, complex, matrixed organization.
Experience leading teams and influencing senior stakeholders.
Strong business acumen and ability to translate business needs into talent strategies.
Experience using data and insights to shape talent decisions.
Hands-on use of AI in personal work and evidence of redesigning team processes or deliverables around AI.

Nice To Haves

Prior HR Business Partner experience.
Experience in a multinational organization.
Experience leading succession, leadership assessment, performance management, talent reviews, skills strategy, or strategic workforce planning.
Experience with Workday talent tools, Workday Skills Cloud, or related HR technology.
Experience leading enterprise transformation or adoption at scale.

Responsibilities

Own the enterprise approach to leadership assessment and succession, providing a differentiated view of leadership strength, readiness, and risk from front-line leader through executive levels.
Improve talent review discussions by providing HR Business Partners and leaders with practical guides, templates, and prompts that support differentiation, successor identification, gap identification, and committed actions.
Drive follow-through on succession outcomes with HR Business Partners; partner with the Director, Learning Strategy & Design on successor and high-potential development, and with the Sr Director, Talent Acquisition when external pipeline building is needed.
Track and report leadership readiness, bench strength, and completion of agreed talent actions, and provide usable views that make accountability visible over time.
Build strategic workforce planning as an enterprise capability, starting with a simple approach and maturing it over time.
Translate business priorities and growth plans into a forward view of required roles, skills, and capabilities, and identify gaps against the current workforce.
Provide planning tools and clear outputs that help leaders evaluate workforce implications, risks, capacity, capability, build-versus-buy choices, and readiness.
Partner with Talent Acquisition, Learning, Finance, and HR Business Partners to connect workforce plans with hiring plans, development investment, and budget cycles.
Lead CDW’s shift toward a skills-based talent organization and establish a common language and real-time view of workforce skills.
Advance the skills framework and taxonomy, organizing priority skills into usable groupings and integrating them with CDW Way values and commitments.
Progress the multi-year skills infrastructure roadmap and use supporting technology, such as Workday Skills Cloud, while keeping leader and coworker experiences simple and intuitive.
Embed skills into succession, workforce planning, development, and internal mobility so skills data informs decisions.
Own the enterprise performance management approach, shifting focus from activity to outcomes and reinforcing accountability for results.
Ensure performance is assessed on both what is achieved and how, anchored in CDW’s leadership expectations and values.
Build a foundation for continuous coaching, regular feedback, and ongoing performance conversations.
Equip HR Business Partners and leaders with resources for effective feedback and coaching conversations.
Simplify and standardize performance practices across teams and geographies, with clear expectations, timing, outputs, and lightweight resources.
Develop scalable talent practices and provide practical tools, templates, and enablement to HR Business Partners and leaders to support adoption.
Improve talent data and insight and communicate a clear talent story to senior leaders.
Drive accountability for talent outcomes, including leadership readiness, capability gaps, and progress against actions.
Use AI to accelerate analysis, synthesis, drafting, and idea testing, and model this approach for the team.
Embed AI in succession, workforce planning, skills, and performance practices to simplify processes, speed insight, and improve the usability of tools.