Position Title: Senior Director Human Resources and People Operations
Location: This position requires three days per week of on-site work in the Atlanta, GA HQ office
Reports To: Chief Operating Officer
Salary Range - $150 - $160K About The CDC Foundation The CDC Foundation helps the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) save and improve lives by unleashing the power of collaboration between CDC, philanthropies, corporations, organizations, communities and individuals to protect the health, safety and security of America and the world. The CDC Foundation is the go-to nonprofit authorized by Congress to mobilize philanthropic partners and private-sector resources to support CDC’s critical health protection mission. Since 1995, the CDC Foundation has raised over $1.9 billion and launched more than 1,300 programs impacting a variety of health threats from chronic disease conditions including cardiovascular disease and cancer, to infectious diseases like rotavirus and HIV, to emergency responses, including COVID-19 and Ebola. The CDC Foundation managed hundreds of programs in the United States and in more than 90 countries last year. Visit for more information.
Overview The Senior Director of Human Resources serves as the senior leader responsible for guiding, strengthening, and advancing the organization’s Human Resources function. This role provides strategic and operational leadership across employee relations, HR operations, compliance, risk mitigation, performance management, compensation and benefits, employee engagement, and people analytics.
The Senior
Director will serve as a trusted advisor to senior leadership, a coach to managers, a builder of HR team capability, and a steward of consistent, compliant, people-centered practices across the enterprise. The role requires the ability to support a geographically dispersed workforce, including headquarters-based, hybrid, remote, field-based, and program-based employees performing a wide range of job functions. Reporting directly to the Chief Operating Officer, the Senior Director of HR plays a pivotal role in how organizational decisions are made.
Your voice will shape how this organization treats its people, structures its work, and sustains its culture through a period of meaningful growth and change.
Duties And
Responsibilities
Executive HR Leadership and People Strategy Provide strategic leadership for the Human Resources function in alignment with the organization’s mission, values, operating model, and enterprise priorities. Serve as a strategic advisor to executive leadership on employee relations, talent needs, organizational risk mitigation, culture, compliance, and people-related business decisions. Lead the development and execution of HR goals, initiatives, and performance indicators that advance operational excellence and mission delivery.
Represent HR as an enterprise partner that supports both people-centered leadership and disciplined operational execution. Partner with senior leaders and managers to cultivate a positive, respectful, inclusive, high-accountability workplace culture. HR Function Leadership, Team Development, and Operational Oversight Strengthen HR operations across the employee lifecycle, from hiring and onboarding through development, retention, transition, and offboarding.
Ensure that the function delivers timely, consistent, responsive, and high-quality support across the organization. Provide direction, coaching, performance feedback, and professional development for HR team members while clarifying roles, decision rights, escalation paths, and standard operating procedures. Establish consistent HR workflows, service levels, and intake processes to reduce duplication, improve prioritization, and ensure appropriate follow-through.
Foster a team culture within HR that reflects professionalism, confidentiality, change management discipline, accountability, responsiveness, continuous learning, and partnership. Facilitate organizational design initiatives, including defining team structures, reporting lines, and role alignment across the organization. Establish and maintain a scalable job architecture framework, including job families, levels, and standardized role definitions.
Partner with leadership in designing roles and team structures that support performance, clarity, and long-term organizational growth.
Employee
Relations, Risk Management, and Manager Advisory Serve as a senior advisor on complex employee relations matters, including investigations, workplace concerns, conflict resolution, performance issues, disciplinary actions, and separations. Assess incoming matters for urgency, complexity, legal risk, reputational risk, and required escalation. Partner with legal counsel, compliance, finance, operations, and senior leadership.
Design, implement, and o
