Vice President, People Operations

Condé Nast is one of the world's most renowned media publishing companies, creating and distributing every type of media today, spanning print and digital publishing in all formats. With a portfolio of some of today's most influential brands, the company continues to grow its audience through a global operational and content infrastructure across its 12 owned and operated markets. Headquartered in New York City, the company's owned and operated markets include China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico & Latin America, Spain, Taiwan, UAE/Dubai, the U.K., and the U.S., with additional local license partners in over twenty additional markets across the globe. Lead brands include Vogue, The New Yorker, GQ, Architectural Digest, Condé Nast Traveler, Vanity Fair, Wired, Allure, Ars Technica, Bon Appétit, House & Garden, Pitchfork, Tatler, and Vogue Business.

Condé Nast employs approximately 4,500 people, principally located in the United States, United Kingdom, Europe, India, China, Japan, Taiwan, and Dubai. The company is owned by Advance, one of the top 50 privately held companies in the United States, with a portfolio that also includes major investments in Reddit and Warner Bros. Discovery.

About the role

The Vice President, People Operations, is a senior member of the company’s People Leadership Team and is accountable for workforce planning, human resources strategy and prioritization, and HCM technology optimization, AI transformation in HR practices and planning. The role translates People strategy into scalable global services, processes, technology, and data capabilities that enable an effective employee and manager experience. This leader will oversee a portfolio that may include global People service delivery, HR technology, People data and analytics, process governance, vendor management, and selected operational programs, payroll, and support workforce AI initiatives.

Working in a highly matrixed, multi-market environment, the Vice President will evolve common standards while ensuring that regional and local requirements are appropriately addressed. The successful candidate will be both strategic and hands-on: capable of shaping a multi-year operating roadmap, influencing senior stakeholders, and leading complex change, while also ensuring disciplined execution, service quality, controls, and continuous improvement.

Responsibilities

• Build upon and execute a multi-year global People Operations strategy aligned with business priorities and the broader People agenda.
• Clarify global, regional, and local accountabilities; establish service ownership, decision rights, escalation paths, and governance forums.
• Develop a transparent service catalogue, operating metrics, and capacity model for the function.
• Build, coach, and develop a geographically dispersed team with strong functional expertise, accountability, and customer orientation.
• Lead the evolution of People service delivery, including tiered support, case management, knowledge management, and employee/manager self-service.
• Improve service quality, responsiveness, and consistency through clear standards, service-level expectations, and root-cause problem solving.
• Identify work that can be standardized, automated through AI, centralized, or transitioned from People Business Partners so they can focus on higher-value advisory work.
• Ensure service design reflects employee needs, accessibility, inclusion, and the realities of a global workforce.
• Own the strategic roadmap for Workday and the broader People technology portfolio, ensuring platforms are secure, integrated, scalable, and fit for purpose.
• Prioritize enhancements and investments based on business value, user experience, regulatory requirements, risk, and total cost of ownership.
• Partner with Technology and Information Security on architecture, integrations, access controls, data privacy, release management, and business continuity.
• Lead responsible adoption of automation and AI-enabled capabilities within People processes, with appropriate governance and human oversight.
• Build on the People data quality, definitions, ownership, security, and retention across systems and markets workflows.
• Deliver accurate, timely workforce reporting and actionable analytics for senior leaders, People partners, and functional teams.
• Create dashboards and insights that support workforce planning, organizational effectiveness, talent outcomes, cost management, and employee experience.
• Ensure compliance with applicable data-protection, records-management, and employee-information requirements.
• Lead end-to-end process design and continuous improvement across priority People processes, eliminating unnecessary complexity and handoffs.
• Document and maintain global process standards, controls, and operating procedures; ensure readiness for audit and regulatory review.
• Partner with Payroll, Finance, Legal, and market teams to manage operational risk and ensure reliable, compliant execution.
• Use service data, employee feedback, and external benchmarks to identify improvement opportunities and measure impact.
• Sponsor and govern major global People transformation initiatives, ensuring disciplined scope, milestones, resourcing, risk management, and benefits realization.
• Manage strategic vendors and contracts in partnership with Procurement, including performance, service levels, innovation, security, cost, and relationship governance.
• Build stakeholder commitment through clear communications, practical change plans, training, and sustained adoption support.
• Present recommendations, trade-offs, and progress to senior leadership with clarity, candor, and strong business judgment.
• Lead the global payroll modernization initiative across 12 markets.
• Lead through influence across People, Finance, Legal, Technology, Procurement, and market leadership to deliver integrated enterprise solutions.

Requirements

• Approximately 12-15+ years of progressive human resources experience, including significant leadership of People/HR operations in a large, global, and matrixed organization.
• Demonstrated success leading shared services or employee service delivery, HR technology, HR process transformation, and operational governance at scale.
• Strong Workday expertise and experience shaping an integrated HR technology roadmap; familiarity with case management, knowledge platforms, analytics, and automation tools is highly desirable.
• Experience with People data governance, workforce reporting, and analytics, including translating data into business insight and action.
• Experience using AI tools and solutions with proficiency, preference for Gemini and ChatGPT modeling and use.
• Proven record of simplifying and standardizing global processes while navigating local legal, cultural, and operational requirements.
• Experience leading complex global programs, vendor partnerships, and geographically dispersed teams.
• Broad understanding of the People function and how People Operations enables People Business Partners, Talent, Total Rewards, Employee Relations, and other specialist teams.
• Experience in media, technology, digital, consumer, creative, or another fast-changing global industry is helpful but not required.
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent professional experience required; relevant professional certification is a plus.

Skills

• Enterprise and business orientation: Connects People Operations priorities to business strategy, workforce needs, risk, and value creation. Makes pragmatic choices and understands the operational and financial implications of decisions.
• Operational excellence: Creates clarity, discipline, and repeatability. Establishes standards, controls, and measures while continuously improving how work gets done.
• Technology and data fluency: Uses technology, automation, data, and analytics to improve experience and outcomes. Can engage credibly with technical experts without losing sight of users and business value.
• Change leadership: Sets a compelling direction, challenges legacy practices constructively, and translates strategy into practical adoption. Communicates what is changing, why it matters, and how success will be measured.
• Collaboration and influence: Builds trust across functions, geographies, and levels. Balances global consistency with local realities and can align stakeholders with different priorities.
• Judgment and integrity: Handles sensitive information responsibly, anticipates risk, and acts as an honest broker. Brings transparency, sound judgment, and appropriate challenge.
• Talent leadership: Builds diverse, high-performing teams; sets clear expectations; develops capability; and creates an inclusive environment with strong accountability.
• Learning agility and resilience: Thrives amid ambiguity and pace, rapidly absorbs new information, and remains constructive and focused through complexity and change.

Personal characteristics

• Low ego and highly collaborative
• Customer- and employee-centered
• Bias for action with strong follow-through
• Curious, practical, and solutions-oriented
• Clear, concise, and credible communicator
• Comfortable moving between strategy and detail
• Diplomatic, resilient, and calm under pressure

Success Measures

• Improved employee and manager satisfaction with People services, data, insights, and digital tools.
• Consistent service performance against defined quality, timeliness, and resolution standards.
• Higher adoption of self-service, automation, and standardized global processes.
• Improved People data accuracy, reporting confidence, and decision usefulness.
• Measurable productivity, cost, risk-reduction, and control improvements.
• Successful delivery and adoption of priority transformation initiatives.
• A strong, engaged, and increasingly capable global People Operations team.

Pay

The expected base salary range for this position is $250,000 - $300,000. Salary offers are based on a wide range of factors including but not limited to relevant skills, training, experience, and education.