Vice President, Human Resources

Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association•Chicago, IL

About The Position

The Vice President of Human Resources is a strategic leader responsible for shaping and executing enterprise-wide talent strategies that enable the organization’s future workforce needs. This role partners closely with the Chief People Experience Officer to drive innovation in HR, advance end-to-end talent strategies, and foster a culture of connection and belonging. The VP will oversee multiple HR functions, including Talent Management, HRIS, HR Business Partners, Talent Acquisition, and Community & Connection. As the workplace continues to evolve, the VP of HR will play a critical role in guiding the organization through digital transformation and shaping the future workforce. This includes integrating artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced technologies into HR practices, building AI-ready capabilities across the enterprise, and ensuring ethical, responsible use of emerging technologies in partnership with IT. Success is measured by business outcomes (growth, productivity, quality), workforce health (engagement, retention, skills readiness), and risk control (compliance, data privacy, regulatory adherence).

Requirements

AI & Digital Fluency Understanding of AI’s role in HR and talent management, including generative AI, predictive analytics, and automation.
Ability to evaluate AI solutions and integrate them responsibly into HR practices.
Skill in leading workforce AI upskilling, including change management and adoption strategies.
Strategic & Systems Thinking Ability to take a long-term, enterprise-wide view of workforce strategy in a dynamic, AI-accelerated environment.
Strong capability to translate strategy into executable, scalable employee programs.
Leadership & Influence Executive presence with the ability to influence senior leaders and serve as a trusted advisor.
Experience leading through ambiguity and driving transformation at scale.
People-Centric Design Commitment to designing human-centered programs that balance technology, empathy, and business outcomes.
Data-Driven Decision-Making Ability to use analytics, insights, and predictive tools to guide strategies across talent, culture, and workforce planning.
Change Management Proven skill in managing organizational change and enabling workforce adoption of new technologies and ways of working.
Program Management Proven skill in driving sustainable, documented processes across an Enterprise for sustainable results.

Responsibilities

Strategic Workforce Planning & Leadership : Collaborate with the Chief People Experience Officer to anticipate future workforce needs and design strategies that align with organizational goals.
Translates business strategy into a multi-year HR and workforce strategy, including skills, capacity, and productivity.
Defines and continuously improves the HR operational model with clear roles, SLAs, and governance.
Builds, creates and automates people analytics that supports the business and the people experience function in understanding how to best leverage the existing workforce and build flexible teams
Develops and executes a comprehensive strategy that drives organizational performance, fosters an inclusive culture, and supports business growth.
Partners with executive leadership to identify future workforce needs and builds strategies to attract, develop, and retain top talent.
Drives enterprise-wide change initiatives, particularly those related to digital transformation, automation, and adoption of AI-enhanced capabilities.
Serves as a trusted advisor to senior leadership on workforce trends, organizational design, and talent priorities.
Provides strategic HRBP support for the Chief People Experience Officer.
AI & Future of Work Leadership Champions the integration of AI into HR processes, including recruiting, onboarding, workforce planning, learning, talent management, and employee support.
Builds organizational readiness for AI by developing frameworks and upskilling strategies and guidelines for responsible and ethical AI use.
Collaborates with IT, Legal, and business units to evaluate and implement HR technologies, ensuring transparency, trust, and data privacy.
Monitors AI trends, emerging technologies, and future-of-work research to anticipate impacts and guide proactive organizational strategy.
Talent Strategy Leadership: Owns talent acquisition strategy and internal mobility programs.
Oversees recruitment and workforce planning to ensure the right talent is in place for today and tomorrow.
Provides strategic guidance for HR Business Partner and Employee Relations teams by ensuring fair and consistent practices that build trust and engagement, while aligning these efforts with the overall dynamic business strategy.
People Innovation & Enablement : Oversees the People Innovation & Enablement function, ensuring seamless delivery of HR services, operational excellence, and continuous process improvement across the employee lifecycle.
Oversees HRIS strategy, implementation, and optimization, ensuring an integrated systems architecture that supports data integrity, automation, and scalable HR service delivery.
Drives HR technology roadmap in partnership with IT, evaluating and implementing platforms for workforce management, employee experience, talent analytics, and AI-enabled tools.
Establishes governance frameworks for HR systems, ensuring compliance with data privacy regulations, security protocols, and ethical use of employee data.
Owns talent management and development strategy functions including succession planning, leadership development programs, performance enablement, and career pathing frameworks.
Oversees the design and delivery of learning strategies that build both foundational and advanced capabilities, ensuring workforce readiness for current and future business needs.
Leads enterprise-wide workforce enablement initiatives, including upskilling programs, competency frameworks, and change management strategies along with competency management.
Partners with cross-functional leaders to integrate talent development priorities with business objectives, measuring impact through workforce analytics and business outcomes.
Drives documentation and standardization of People Operations processes, creating scalable operating models that support growth and organizational agility.
Ensures HR systems and operations evolve to support AI-augmented work, including workflow automation, intelligent case management, and predictive workforce planning tools.
Community & Connection: Champion initiatives that strengthen employee engagement, inclusion, and organizational culture.
Drives initiatives that promote inclusion and belonging across the organization.
Supports the Chief People Experience Officer in the BCBSA Foundation Strategy and the delivery and support of our community partnership with our BCBSA affiliated partnership, as well as support and enable community impact and giving across the Blue System.
Fosters a values-driven and inclusive culture that embraces learning, innovation, ambiguity, and adaptability.
Evolves the employee value proposition (EVP) to reflect modern expectations, including flexible work, meaningful development, and purposeful work supported by intelligent technologies.
Drives employee experience across the lifecycle with measurable outcomes.
Team Leadership: Directs and develops a high-performing HR leadership team across multiple disciplines.
Enhances HR operations through automation, workflow optimization, and data-driven decision-making.
Ensures compliance with all federal, state, and local employment laws, as well as emerging regulations related to AI and data ethics.
Oversees the HR analytics strategies to provide actionable insights on organizational health, workforce trends, and talent performance.
Drives process documentation, process optimization and a scalable and adaptable talent organization.
Partners with compensation & benefits to ensure market-competitive, equitable and transparent total rewards.