Director, Talent Strategy

CDW•Chicago, IL

4d•$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 integrates leadership assessment and succession, strategic workforce planning, skills, and performance management to improve decision-making, accountability, and readiness for future business needs. It calls for an enterprise talent mindset, strong business acumen, and the ability to turn strategy into practical tools and resources for HR Business Partners and business leaders. The Director is expected to use AI fluently and embed it in talent work across the function. The Director owns the enterprise approaches to leadership assessment and succession and performance management; builds strategic workforce planning as an enterprise capability; and leads CDW’s shift toward a skills-based talent organization. The role equips leaders and HR Business Partners with practical resources, tracks progress and talent outcomes, and uses data and AI to make talent processes and decisions more effective. It also leads a team, influences senior stakeholders, and works across a matrixed, multinational organization. CDW describes itself as a Fortune 500 technology solutions provider serving business, government, education, and healthcare organizations. It promotes a collaborative, learning-oriented environment and is committed to equitable, transparent, and respectful hiring. The role’s 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 vary by geographic differential.

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, including making 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 accelerating analysis, synthesis, communication, content creation, and decision-making, with a perspective on where AI adds value.
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 CDW’s enterprise approach to leadership assessment and succession, establishing a clear view of leadership strength, readiness, and risk from front-line leaders through executives.
Equip HR Business Partners and leaders with practical talent-review guides, templates, and prompts that support meaningful differentiation, successor identification, gap identification, and committed follow-up actions.
Drive follow-through on succession outcomes with HR Business Partners, the Director, Learning Strategy & Design, and the Sr Director, Talent Acquisition, including targeted development and external pipeline building where needed.
Track and report leadership readiness, bench strength, and completion of talent actions, providing useful views that make accountability visible over time.
Build strategic workforce planning as an enterprise capability, translating business priorities and growth plans into future role, skill, and capability needs and identifying gaps against the current workforce.
Provide practical planning tools and clear outputs to help leaders assess workforce implications, risks, and tradeoffs involving capacity, capability, build-versus-buy decisions, 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 by advancing a skills framework and taxonomy, creating a common language for skills, and building workforce capability visibility.
Progress the multi-year skills infrastructure roadmap and effective use of supporting technology, such as Workday Skills Cloud, while keeping user 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 emphasis from activity to outcomes and reinforcing accountability for results.
Ensure performance is evaluated on both what is achieved and how, anchored in CDW leadership expectations and values.
Build the foundation for continuous coaching, regular feedback, and ongoing performance conversations, and provide practical resources to support them.
Simplify and standardize performance practices across teams and geographies with clear expectations, timing, outputs, and lightweight resources.
Develop scalable talent practices and put practical tools, templates, and enablement in the hands of HR Business Partners and leaders to encourage adoption.
Improve talent data and insight, communicate a clear talent story to senior leaders, and drive accountability for talent outcomes and progress against actions.
Use AI to accelerate analysis, synthesis, communication, content creation, and idea testing; model AI-enabled work for the team and embed AI across succession, workforce planning, skills, and performance processes.