Associate Vice President, Talent & Organizational Effectiveness

About the Foundation

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), located in Princeton, N.J., is a leading national philanthropy dedicated to taking bold leaps to transform health in our lifetime. To get there, we must work to dismantle structural racism and other barriers to health. Since 1972, we have focused on developing and promoting innovations in health and healthcare to improve the lives of millions. Through funding, convening, advocacy, and evidence-building, we work side-by-side with communities, practitioners, and institutions to achieve health equity faster—ultimately, paving the way, together, to a future where health is no longer a privilege, but a right.

We take seriously our responsibilities, and we pledge to work in ways that reflect our Guiding Principles. These are rooted in equity and influence everything we do at RWJF. Equity, diversity, inclusion (EDI), and collaboration enable our staff’s wide range of experiences, passions, and perspectives to strengthen our ability to address our nation’s most pressing health issues and support a culture of belonging. Part of this work includes actively shaping an inclusive, antiracist organization where all staff members thrive as we build and use our capabilities, voice, and power to advance health equity. RWJF offers a collaborative, collegial, and creative work environment.

With a career at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, you will make a difference.

RWJF Guiding Principles

• We seek bold and lasting change rooted in the best available evidence, analysis, and science, openly debated.
• We treat everyone with fairness and respect.
• We act as good stewards of private resources, using them to advance the public’s interest with a focus on helping the most vulnerable.
• We cultivate diversity, inclusion, and collaboration.
• We speak out as leaders to promote health and wellbeing.

Generational Goals

At RWJF, we’re committed to acting now so that change will be realized and sustained over the course of generations—so that our children, and their children, will live in a world where:

• All families have the resources they need to raise children who will thrive.
• Public health and healthcare systems prioritize individual and community wellbeing—and remain accountable to them; and
• Communities foster the conditions that allow all residents to reach their best possible health and wellbeing.

Purpose of Position

In this newly envisioned role, the Associate Vice President, Talent & Organizational Effectiveness (AVP) reports to the Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer and serves as the CHRO’s strategic deputy and thought partner, translating organizational priorities into talent, leadership, and organizational effectiveness outcomes while ensuring disciplined execution across the employee lifecycle.

As a member of the HR leadership team, the AVP is expected to operate with enterprise perspective to represent the function internally and externally. This leader will oversee key people leaders and strengthen RWJF’s long-term leadership bench through succession planning, organizational effectiveness, and disciplined talent stewardship.

The AVP will have five (5) direct reports with broad enterprise influence: 

• (1) Director, Employee Engagement 
• (1) Senior Director, Talent Development 
• (3) People Partners 

Success in this role requires the ability to lead in a highly collaborative, hybrid, flexible-purpose environment through influence, trust, thoughtful presence, and strong relationship management. As a trusted extension of the CHRO, the successful candidate will demonstrate enterprise thinking beyond HR, build alignment across decentralized leaders through influence rather than hierarchy, and create conditions where teams are empowered while maintaining accountability. This leader will operate with transparency, sound judgment, and follow-through, representing the function when needed and balancing visibility, accessibility, and outcomes to drive organizational effectiveness.

Key responsibilities include

Talent Strategy, Workforce Planning & Leadership

• Owns and evolves RWJF’s foundation-wide talent management strategy including talent acquisition, performance management, employee relations, succession planning, and promotion processes, ensuring these systems operate as an integrated ecosystem
• Ensures talent management strategy is aligned with organizational priorities, including workforce planning, capability building, and future talent needs. Serves as a trusted advisor to executive leadership and leads a high-performing talent function
• Serves as a senior thought partner to leadership on talent, engagement, and culture, not an advisor from the outside, but a partner sitting beside the program and operations units

 Team Leadership & Capability Building

• Leads and develops a high-performing talent team, setting clear expectations and fostering collaboration, accountability, and functional excellence. Serves as People Leader of People Partners (3 roles); Director, Employee Engagement; Sr. Director, Talent Development
• Models RWJF’s culture in how they work, flat and informal, no walls, right over easy
• Drives continuous improvement through data, candid feedback, experimentation, and continuous learning 
• Establishes standards, practices, and capability expectations for the People Partner function, ensuring consistent, high-quality strategic support across the Foundation
• Embodies and reinforces the values and principles that define RWJF’s culture and ways of working

Leadership Development & Succession Planning

• Designs and oversees all aspects of professional development and strategies to build a strong, diverse leadership, enhanced organizational skills, including identification and advancement of high-potential talent
• Reviews, revises (as necessary) and advances how RWJF develops its leaders and managers at every level
• Builds a scalable, high-impact approach to executive coaching and leadership development
• Acts as a coach to senior leaders and key talent
• Oversees foundation-wide learning priorities, holding themselves and their team to RWJF’s standard: relevance, rigor, and real impact 
• Leads foundation-wide succession planning and talent mapping, improving visibility into leadership pipelines and readiness across the organization
• Elevates the quality and forward-looking nature of talent discussions with senior leadership
• Partners with departments and people leaders to ensure succession and development plans are actionable and actively managed—at RWJF, succession planning is viewed as an ongoing strategic responsibility that strengthens organizational continuity and leadership readiness

Organizational Effectiveness & Performance Management

• Provides senior level oversight in the design of performance management strategy and works with the CHRO to finalize and approve. Ensures alignment with organizational priorities
• Leads the development, implementation, and ongoing evolution of a foundation-wide competency framework that defines the leadership, behavioral, and functional capabilities required for success across levels and roles and serves as a foundational input into hiring, performance management, development, succession, and career growth
• Provides strategic oversight for the biennial employee engagement survey process, including survey design, administration, insight generation, action planning, and organizational follow-through to strengthen culture, leadership effectiveness, employee experience, and organizational performance
• Establishes and leverages talent analytics, KPIs, and dashboards to inform decision-making, assess program effectiveness, and guide strategic adjustments 
• Partners with leaders to strengthen workforce capability and readiness for emerging technologies, including AI, while supporting responsible adoption and new ways of working
• Leads organization design and workforce planning efforts to ensure structures, roles, and capabilities align with evolving strategic priorities 
• Supports leaders through change by strengthening change management, communication, and capability enablement
• Partners closely with People Partners and Centers of Excellence (COE) ensure alignment and disciplined execution across the talent ecosystem through insight, influence and credibility, not mandate. COEs include compensation and benefits, People Analytics and HR Technology, Learning & Leadership Development, Organizational Effectiveness, Employee Experience & Engagement, HR operations and Workforce Planning, as applicable

Talent Acquisition Alignment

• Partners with Talent Acquisition to ensure recruitment, selection, and onboarding strategies align with long-term workforce plans and organizational goals

Other duties as assigned

Professional Experience/Qualifications

The ideal candidate brings a broad, enterprise-wide perspective on talent, organizational effectiveness, and people strategy, with a track record of designing and implementing inclusive, high-impact approaches that strengthen organizational performance and workforce outcomes. They have significant experience in organizational design, building the structures, capabilities, and operating models that enable organizations to adapt and achieve strategic priorities. They are a thoughtful, action-oriented leader and trusted partner who can navigate complexity, align teams around shared priorities, and translate strategy into measurable outcomes.

This leader has demonstrated success developing purposeful leadership and employee development programs that build leadership capability, strengthen succession pipelines, and foster a culture of continuous growth and engagement. They bring deep expertise in people partnership, including establishing clear frameworks, standards, and practices that drive consistency, quality, and accountability across HR/People Partners supporting diverse divisions and functions. Comfortable operating in dynamic environments, they possess the judgment, agility, and execution focus needed to advance organizational goals, strengthen organizational effectiveness, and deliver meaningful talent outcomes.

Specific qualifications, knowledge, skills and attributes include:

• Minimum of ten (10) years of progressive HR experience, including leadership responsibility across multiple talent disciplines.
• Proven track record in leading HR business partnering and/or talent functions.
• Experience designing and driving enterprise-wide talent functions, including HR business partnering, talent acquisition, organizational development, leadership development, employee development, and talent management. 
• Proven ability to implement and lead an HR Partner (Business Partner) model, establishing consistent practices, service delivery standards, and capability development across People Partners serving multiple divisions. 
• Strong strategic orientation with the ability to translate organizational priorities into actionable talent and workforce strategies. 
• Demonstrated ability to serve as a strategic deputy or second-in-command to a senior HR executive, exercising sound judgment, enterprise perspective, and the ability to represent the function internally and externally. 
• Experience leading leaders and building leadership capability through others.
• Established proficiency in organizational design, workforce planning, and building the organizational structures, capabilities, and "muscle" needed to support transformation, and long-term success. 
• Demonstrated ability to influence senior leaders and operate as a trusted advisor on complex organizational, leadership, and people-related matters. 
• Experience leading cross-functional teams and driving alignment across multiple HR disciplines while fostering consistency and collaboration across decentralized teams. 
• Strong organizational development capability, including culture, engagement, change management, team effectiveness, and organizational effectiveness. 
• Proven success designing and implementing purposeful leadership and employee development programs that strengthen leadership capability, accelerate talent growth, and support succession planning. 
• Advanced judgment and decision-making skills in high-impact, ambiguous environments. 
• Strong commitment to equity-focused systems, inclusive talent practices, and creating equitable employee experiences across the organization.

Educational Background

A combination of education and experience equivalent to a bachelor’s degree required.

Physical Requirements/Working Conditions

The incumbent performs job duties in a normal business office environment. Tasks are generally carried out with no specific or unusual physical or environmental demands.

While performing the duties of this job, the incumbent is regularly required to work at a desk with a computer for extended periods of time. Specific physical abilities required by this job include operating basic office equipment such as personal computers, duplicating machines, fax machines, and standard office telephones. The incumbent is to attend meetings, both on-site and off-site, via phone or videoconference. RWJF is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Position Location

This position is assigned to our Princeton, N.J. headquarters offices.

Hybrid: Flexible Purpose (HFP)

• HFP Explained: As of January 1, 2023, the Foundation has implemented a model we call Hybrid: Flexible Purpose (HFP). RWJF’s innovative operating model is the infrastructure (e.g., policies, practices, protocols, procedures, systems) that form the basis for how the day-to-day operations are managed, culture is built and nurtured, and mission is delivered. This model is designed to give employees as much flexibility as possible while meeting the needs of the organization.
• Office Attendance Requirements: All RWJF employees will be required to come into Foundation offices during the year for purposes related to their position such as critical tasks (e.g., building operations, grantee meetings), organizational events (e.g., training and development), and internally focused team activities. The number of required meetings in Princeton is subject to change as we continue to evaluate and improve the model.
• Office Availability: All RWJF offices remain open for all Foundation employees for focused work, optional organizational activities, and connecting with colleagues informally as needed for work purposes.
• Travel to Office Responsibility: While employees have flexibility where they live, employees are responsible for covering any expenses incurred from commuting to their assigned office for any and all required meetings.

Compensation

The starting salary for this position is $222,200 to $244,420. Candidates whose experience and qualifications significantly exceed the minimum requirements for the role may be considered for compensation at the higher end of the range, consistent with the Foundation’s compensation philosophy and practices. 

Benefits

RWJF offers comprehensive health and retirement benefits to employees, generous paid time off, and more.

How to Apply

Applicants should submit a resume and required letter of interest to Korn Ferry.

Application Deadline

The position will remain open until filled.