Vice President, People Strategy and Enablement

Proofpoint•Sunnyvale, CA

About The Position

The VP, People Strategy and Enablement is a senior executive role responsible for scaling the operational infrastructure of the People function. Reporting to the Chief People Officer, this executive owns operations globally, overseeing all processes across the employee lifecycle—from onboarding through offboarding, including the responsible deployment of AI. This is a builder role with a clear mandate: turn a collection of People systems and manual processes into a connected, measurable, AI-enabled platform that makes every People team and every people leader faster and better informed. The role sits at the intersection of People, IT, Security, Privacy, and Legal, and calls for someone equally comfortable in setting architecture direction and shipping working programs quarter by quarter.

Requirements

15+ years of progressive experience in HR, HR operations, or people analytics, including 5+ years leading global teams at director level or above.
Proven ability to lead through leaders and scale high performing global teams.
Experience driving transformation, including process, technology, and service delivery evolution.
Demonstrated ownership of an enterprise HR technology portfolio.
Hands-on experience deploying AI or machine learning capability in an HR or workforce context, with a working command of the governance, fairness, and regulatory questions it raises.
Strong people analytics fluency - able to set the data strategy and translate analysis into executive decisions.
Track record operating across multiple regions, including EMEA and APAC, with practical knowledge of global employment data and privacy requirements.
Proven executive communication skills, including experience presenting to C-suite and Board audiences.
Experience managing significant budgets and complex vendor relationships.
Systems thinking - sees the whole employee lifecycle rather than isolated processes and tools.
Executive influence - builds credibility and alignment across functions and regions without formal authority.
Pragmatic innovation - distinguishes AI capability that creates real value from capability that only demonstrates well.
Detail orientation with a focus on accuracy, efficiency, and operational excellence.
Ethical judgment - holds a clear line on fairness, transparency, and employee trust in automated decisions.
Bias to delivery - ships working programs while holding a longer-term direction.

Responsibilities

Architect the global People operating model, including systems, service delivery, and digital enablement.
Oversee People operations across the full employee lifecycle, ensuring consistency, quality, and scalability.
Lead the evolution of the People technology ecosystem to enable automation, self-service, and an improved employee experience.
Develop and execute roadmap to modernize and scale People shared services globally.
Define and own the AI strategy for the People function: where AI is applied and where it is deliberately not applied.
Build the governance framework for AI, covering use-case intake and approval, bias testing, human-in-the-loop requirements, explainability standards, vendor AI due diligence, and ongoing monitoring of deployed models.
Deploy and scale AI assistants and agents for employee and manager self-service, measuring deflection, accuracy, satisfaction, and time saved.
Lead AI fluency and enablement for the People organization so HR professionals can use these tools well and explain them credibly to the business.
Serve as the People function's voice in enterprise AI governance forums, and advise the CPO and executive team on the workforce implications of AI adoption.
Establish people analytics frameworks and key performance indicators (KPIs) to guide executive decision-making.
Advance the function from descriptive reporting toward predictive and prescriptive insight on attrition risk, skills supply and demand, and organizational health.
Ensure compliance with global employment laws, risk management standards, and data governance.
Redesign core People processes for simplicity and scale before automating them, holding a high bar for employee and manager experience.
Define the service delivery model across People operations, shared services, centers of excellence, and People business partners, with clear SLAs and escalation paths.
Build the annual People operating calendar and run the governance rhythm that keeps global programs aligned across regions.
Establish the measurement framework for the People function: adoption, cycle time, cost per transaction, data quality, and business impact.
Build, lead, and develop a global team spanning operations, shared services, analytics, People technology and AI enablement.
Act as a senior thought partner to the CPO and the People leadership team on strategy, prioritization, and investment.
Influence and align stakeholders across IT, Finance, Legal, Privacy, Security, and regional People leadership without direct authority.
Represent the People function to executive leadership, the Board, works councils, and employee representative bodies as required.