Principal, Talent & Leadership Development

Smarsh•Atlanta, GA

13h•$160,000 - $180,000

About The Position

Smarsh is seeking an experienced, hands-on talent leader to build and scale talent and leadership practices across a global organization. This senior individual-contributor role has no direct reports and relies on influence, evidence, and expertise to partner with HR business partners, business leaders, and senior executives. The role combines talent-program design with organizational design and change management, and requires programs that account for cultural differences and plan for translation and localization across colleagues in 10 countries. The Principal will assess leadership capability and current talent practices, develop a multi-year roadmap tied to business priorities, refine the leadership model, and build programs and processes for identifying, developing, and promoting talent. The role includes designing and personally facilitating leadership programs, supporting senior leaders and executive-team effectiveness, strengthening talent assessment and succession processes, and partnering with Talent Acquisition, HR business partners, and business leaders. The role will also evaluate, select, implement, and manage AI-driven talent and people-analytics tools, including platforms that provide predictive talent forecasting. It focuses on selecting and deploying AI tools rather than building AI or machine-learning models. The Principal will establish responsible-use governance with Legal, Security, and Privacy, assess vendors and providers, track program impact, and manage day-to-day talent-development spending in partnership with the budget owner.

Requirements

10 or more years of experience in talent management, leadership development, or organizational development.
At least 5 years leading enterprise-wide programs or initiatives; people-management experience is not required.
Experience in organizational design and change management, with a record of leading large-scale change efforts that are sustained.
Record of building talent and leadership programs from the ground up.
Deep experience with best-practice assessment methods and leadership models and applying them to hiring, development, and promotion.
Experience designing high-potential and succession programs that accelerate internal promotion.
Experience designing and personally facilitating leadership programs and coaching senior leaders.
Track record evaluating, selecting, and implementing AI-driven talent and people-analytics platforms, including predictive insights, with a clear understanding of responsible use; building AI/ML models from scratch is not required.
Experience selecting and managing vendors, assessment providers, and talent platforms.
Strong consulting and influencing skills with senior leaders, and comfort with both setting strategy and executing the work.
Experience building talent or leadership content for a global, multicultural workforce, including planning for translation and localization and adapting content across cultural contexts.

Nice To Haves

Advanced degree in industrial-organizational psychology, organizational development, human resources, or a related field.
Accreditation in leadership assessments such as Hogan or DiSC, or a coaching certification such as ICF.

Responsibilities

Assess leadership capability and existing talent practices, and develop a multi-year talent roadmap aligned with business priorities.
Diagnose organizational design issues and lead change management for new structures, roles, and processes.
Refine the leadership model and use it to inform hiring, assessment, development, performance, and promotion.
Build core talent programs and processes, prioritizing the highest-impact needs.
Design programs and content for a global, multicultural workforce, including planning for translation and localization.
Equip leaders to assess talent through structured behavioral interviewing, clear success profiles, and calibrated talent discussions.
Introduce multi-method assessments, including 360 feedback, personality and cognitive measures, business simulations, and structured interviews, for hiring, development, and promotion decisions.
Partner with Talent Acquisition to attract and select strong candidates for critical roles.
Define evidence-based criteria for identifying high-potential talent and build accelerated development paths using stretch assignments, rotations, coaching, mentoring, and executive exposure.
Run talent reviews and succession planning for critical roles, identifying ready-now and ready-later candidates.
Track and improve promotion readiness, time-to-promotion, and retention for high-potential and critical talent.
Design, build, and personally facilitate leadership programs for first-time managers through senior leaders.
Build and facilitate programs to strengthen executive-team effectiveness and provide coaching support to senior leaders as needed.
Support onboarding and integration of new leaders.
Partner on performance management and calibration so development and promotion reinforce each other.
Identify and introduce AI-driven talent practices and select, implement, and manage AI and people-analytics platforms for predictive talent forecasting.
Bring AI-driven insights into talent reviews, succession, assessment, and development decisions.
Scout proven AI talent solutions, run pilots, and select and manage vendors to scale effective solutions.
Establish responsible-use governance with Legal, Security, and Privacy to ensure AI in talent decisions is transparent and checked for bias.
Work through HR business partners and business leaders to encourage organization-wide ownership and use of talent practices.
Inform build-versus-partner decisions and help identify, evaluate, and manage vendors, assessment providers, and coaches.
Report impact using measures such as leadership capability, internal fill rate for leadership roles, promotion speed, high-potential retention, and engagement.
Manage the talent-development budget day to day, including prioritizing spend, tracking ROI, and directing contracted vendors, coaches, and project-based contributors; partner with the budget owner on formal approval.