Executive People Partner

DEPARTMENT: People Operations

JOB TITLE: Executive People Partner

JOB CODE: EPP

REPORTS TO: Director Head of People Operations

FLSA STATUS: Exempt

EMPLOYMENT TYPE: Full-Time

JOB PURPOSE

This role at Arbitration Forums is as unique as it is rewarding because of the AF IPAAL Values (Integrity, Passion, Accountability, Achievement, Leadership) and TRI Model (Trust, Respect, Inclusion).

The Executive People Partner serves as a strategic advisor to senior leaders, translating organizational direction into workforce readiness, leadership accountability, and talent outcomes. This role embeds the People Operations strategy into the business by strengthening leadership effectiveness, reinforcing accountability for performance and talent decisions, and ensuring the employee experience reflects Trust, Respect, and Inclusion.

The Executive People Partner partners directly with leadership to surface workforce risks, facilitate talent assessment and readiness discussions, and ensure leaders consistently apply people practices in ways that strengthen culture, performance, and long-term organizational capability. This role is not intended to own HR operations, but to influence leadership behavior, improve decision quality, and help shape the organizational conditions required for business success.

DEPARTMENTAL EXPECTATION OF EMPLOYEE

• Adheres to AF Policy and Procedures and the AF IPAAL Values and TRI Model
• Acts as a role model within and outside AF.
• Performs duties as workload necessitates.
• Maintains a positive and respectful attitude.
• Communicates regularly with the departmental leader about department issues.
• Demonstrates flexible and efficient time management and ability to prioritize workload.
• Consistently reports to work on time, prepared to perform duties of the position.
• Meets Department productivity standards.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• Serve as a strategic advisor to senior leaders on the people implications of business priorities, organizational changes, and workforce risks.
• Translate the People Operations strategy into leadership expectations and practical actions that strengthen accountability, organizational health, and workforce readiness.
• Ensure workforce implications are considered in leadership decision-making related to growth, restructuring, team effectiveness, and capability planning.
• Provide leaders with insight and perspective that improve talent, structure, and people-related decisions across the organization.

Workforce Readiness and Talent Risk Ownership

• Lead structured workforce readiness discussions with leadership teams to assess organizational capability, bench strength, and alignment to business priorities.
• Facilitate enterprise talent assessments, including force ranking, opportunity gap identification, and readiness conversations across leadership and employee populations.
• Translate readiness findings into leadership actions tied to development, succession planning, talent movement, and performance expectations.
• Monitor readiness trends and surface enterprise-level capability risks that may affect execution, growth, or organizational stability.
• Partner with the Director, Head of People Operations to strengthen the organization’s long-term talent readiness and workforce planning discipline.

Leadership Accountability and Performance Alignment

• Influence and reinforce leadership accountability for establishing, communicating, and sustaining clear performance expectations that align to enterprise standards and desired employee experience.
• Facilitate leadership conversations related to performance differentiation, team effectiveness, and behavioral alignment to AF’s IPAAL Values and TRI Model.
• Reinforce manager ownership of performance management by ensuring leaders actively engage in assessment, development, and course correction discussions.
• Support calibration discussions by improving leadership judgment, consistency, and evidence-based evaluation.
• Coach leaders on how to address performance and leadership gaps early, clearly, and constructively.
• Partner with the People Partner Lead to ensure performance and calibration expectations are supported by operational readiness and consistent execution across the organization.

Decision Support and Organizational Insight

• Provide leadership with workforce insight that informs strategic decisions related to team design, growth, talent gaps, and organizational effectiveness.
• Identify people-related risks and opportunities before they materially affect business performance.
• Prepare leadership-ready summaries, talent insights, and recommendations to support senior-level conversations on people, culture, and organizational health.
• Use organizational patterns, talent data, and leadership themes to strengthen decision quality and reduce reactive responses.

Talent Assessment and Operating Rhythm Support

• Facilitate quarterly and annual talent readiness cycles aligned to enterprise performance timelines.
• Support SLT and manager-level talent and calibration discussions through structured insight, clear standards, and consistent facilitation.
• Reinforce the organization’s Talent Operating System by ensuring talent assessment, performance differentiation, and workforce readiness conversations are embedded into leadership rhythm.
• Help leaders connect talent outcomes to future planning, including development priorities and goal-setting readiness.

Organizational Experience and TRI Integration

• Reinforce Trust, Respect, and Inclusion as lived leadership behaviors rather than standalone initiatives.
• Partner with leaders to strengthen consistency in communication, decision-making, and employee experience across teams.
• Identify organizational patterns that affect trust, fairness, belonging, and accountability, and help leaders address them proactively.
• Support leadership in creating environments where expectations are clear, development is encouraged, and employees feel valued and respected.

Change Leadership and Organizational Alignment

• Partner with leaders during organizational change to ensure workforce clarity, leadership readiness, and consistent communication.
• Support organizational design and change discussions by helping leaders understand talent implications, readiness risks, and culture impact.
• Provide guidance that helps leaders navigate change in ways that protect trust, reinforce expectations, and maintain alignment to enterprise direction.

Cross-Functional Partnership

• Collaborate with the People Partner Lead and functional People Partners to ensure strategic priorities are supported by consistent execution, while maintaining clear separation from operational governance responsibilities.
• Partner across People Operations to ensure leadership-facing work aligns to established standards, rhythms, and organizational priorities.
• Perform other related duties as assigned in support of the People Operations strategy and enterprise talent priorities.

QUALIFICATIONS

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, Organizational Development, Psychology, or a related field required.
• Eight to twelve years of progressive experience in Human Resources, People Operations, Organizational Development, or a comparable strategic people partnership role.
• Demonstrated experience partnering directly with senior leaders on organizational effectiveness, leadership capability, workforce planning, or talent strategy.
• Experience facilitating talent assessment, calibration, succession, or workforce readiness discussions.
• Strong business acumen with the ability to connect people decisions to organizational priorities, performance, and risk.
• Ability to coach leaders, influence without formal authority, and navigate sensitive or high-impact conversations with discretion and sound judgment.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to synthesize people insights for executive audiences.
• High degree of integrity, credibility, confidentiality, and professionalism.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s degree in Human Resources, Organizational Leadership, Business Administration, or related field preferred.
• Professional certification such as SHRM-SCP, SPHR, or equivalent preferred.
• Experience supporting executive leadership teams or enterprise-wide organizational change initiatives preferred.
• Experience using people analytics, performance data, or workforce insights to inform leadership decision-making preferred.

Core Competencies and Skills

• Strategic Thinking and Business Acumen
• Executive Influence and Leadership Partnership
• Workforce Readiness and Talent Risk Assessment
• Performance Differentiation and Calibration Facilitation
• Leadership Accountability and Coaching
• Organizational Effectiveness and Change Leadership
• Judgment, Discretion, and Risk Awareness
• Talent Assessment and Succession Insight
• Communication, Facilitation, and Decision Support
• Alignment to AF IPAAL Values and the TRI Model

AMERICANS WITH DISABILITY SPECIFICATIONS

PHYSICAL DEMANDS

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job.

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is occasionally required to stand; walk; sit; use hands to finger, handle, or feel objects, tools, or controls; reach with hands and arms; climb stairs; balance; stoop, kneel, crouch, or crawl; talk or hear; taste or smell. The employee must occasionally lift and/or move up to 25 pounds. Specific vision abilities required by the job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception, and the ability to adjust focus.

WORK ENVIRONMENT

This is a fully remote position requiring reliable high-speed internet access and a dedicated workspace.

Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.