Vice President of People Operations

Description

The Vice President of People Operations leads Cogir’s people strategy and day-to-day HR partnership across its communities and service center. Reporting to the Senior Vice President of Care, Compliance and People, this leader oversees talent acquisition, employee experience (CX), employee relations, learning and leadership development, and HR operations. The role builds practical systems that help leaders hire well, develop teams, retain employees, and manage people matters consistently.

Guided by Cogir’s pillars of Excellence, Human Focus, and Creativity, the Vice President partners closely with Operations and functional leaders to turn workforce data and field feedback into clear priorities. The position leads the People team, strengthens accountability and service to communities, and supports a culture in which employees and leaders can succeed.

Responsibilities:

People Strategy and Leadership

· Lead the People Operations, talent acquisition, employee experience, employee relations, and learning functions; set clear priorities, service standards, and measures of success.

· Build a consistent, responsive HR partnership for regional and community leaders, with regular communication, escalation paths, and follow-through.

· Advise senior leadership on workforce risks, organization design, staffing needs, leadership capability, and change management.

Talent Acquisition and Workforce Planning

· Partner with Operations on proactive pipelines for hard-to-fill and leadership roles, vacancy aging, recruiting capacity, and succession needs.

· Monitor time to fill, pipeline health, hiring manager responsiveness, candidate experience, and early retention; act on gaps.

Employee Experience and Retention

· Own the employee experience strategy from onboarding through development, recognition, engagement, and exit; use feedback and turnover trends to improve it.

· Partner with leaders to improve team culture, communication, belonging, and retention in communities with elevated workforce risk.

· Create consistent listening and action-planning practices, with accountability for measurable improvements.

Employee Relations and Compliance

· Provide oversight and coaching on investigations, corrective action, performance concerns, and complex employee relations matters in partnership with Legal and Compliance.

· Standardize policies, documentation, onboarding and offboarding, performance reviews, and manager guidance across states and communities.

· Identify trends and conduct appropriate HR process audits to reduce risk and strengthen consistent application of company standards.

Learning, Leadership Development and Succession

· Oversee learning strategy, required training governance, and leadership development in partnership with Care, Compliance, Operations, and subject matter experts.

· Build practical development paths for Executive Directors, department leaders, and emerging talent, including coaching, competencies, and internal advancement.

· Connect learning outcomes to retention, internal promotion, engagement, compliance, and operational performance.

HR Operations, Systems and Analytics

· Improve HR service workflows, response times, documentation, HRIS data quality, and the tools communities use to resolve people matters.

· Develop a reliable operating rhythm and dashboards for turnover, retention, vacancies, training, employee relations, engagement, and leader effectiveness.

· Use data to prioritize support for at-risk communities and report progress to executive and operational leadership.

Requirements

What you bring

You have substantial experience leading multi-site or regional operations, ideally in senior living. You have been accountable for people, service, and performance results, and you have led other leaders through difficult staffing and operational challenges.

You also bring strong working knowledge of HR practices. You know when to coach a leader, when to change a process, and when to bring in HR or Legal expertise. You can build trust with an Executive Director, challenge assumptions with data, and stay engaged until a community sees improvement.

Senior living experience is strongly preferred. We will also consider operators from healthcare, hospitality, or another service intensive business with a distributed workforce.

Education:

· Bachelor’s degree in human resources, business, or a related field required; advanced degree or HR certification preferred.

Experience:

• At least 10 years of progressive operations leadership experience, including direct responsibility for multiple communities, locations, or regions and the leaders who run them.
• Proven success improving staffing, retention, leader performance, and service outcomes in a distributed, people intensive business.
• Firsthand experience hiring and developing leaders, managing performance, addressing employee concerns, and building accountable teams.
• Ability to identify what is driving workforce challenges in the field, use operating and people data to set priorities, and follow through until results improve.