Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO)

Key Responsibilities

Executive Leadership & Strategic HR Integration

• Serve as a core member of the Executive Leadership Team, shaping organizational strategy alongside the CEO and fellow executives.

• Own the integration of all strategic HR work into the broader organizational agenda, ensuring people strategy and business strategy move in lockstep.

• Partner with the CEO and executive peers to translate organizational vision into HR strategy and implementation plans.

• Act as a trusted advisor to leadership on all matters affecting the employee and staff experience.

• Demonstrate strong business acumen and financial literacy to support executive decision-making.

Employee Relations & Staff Experience

• Own full representation of employee and staff issues, ensuring every voice across the organization has a clear, credible channel to leadership.

• Serve as a genuine collaborator in employee relations, working alongside managers and staff rather than directing from a distance.

• Build and maintain a workplace culture where staff and teams feel supported, heard, and treated fairly at every site.

• Lead and continuously improve the organization's approach to employee relations, coaching, and conflict resolution.

• Administer regular staff/service satisfaction surveys across every site to measure the employee experience, track progress over time, and translate findings into concrete action plans.

• Oversee staff communication channels and mechanisms, including Senior Leadership Team meetings; Monthly All-Staff Meetings; Annual All-Staff Meeting; All-Staff communication messaging.

Statewide Presence & Implementation Strategy

• Develop and execute an implementation strategy that brings HR priorities to life consistently across all PPIL locations statewide.

• Maintain an onsite, visible presence across the state, with significant travel expected to health centers and administrative sites throughout the first year.

• Build direct relationships with staff and leadership at each site to understand local needs and ensure statewide consistency.

Culture, Diversity & Cultural Competency

• Champion cultural competency across the organization, ensuring HR policies, programs, and practices reflect and support a diverse employee population.

• Build inclusive people practices that resonate across PPIL's full range of staff, from clinical to administrative to advocacy teams.

Accreditation Leadership

• Own accreditation and licensure readiness across all PPIL sites, ensuring HR-related standards including personnel files, credentialing, training records, and competency documentation meet or exceed requirements from relevant accrediting bodies (e.g., AAAHC, Joint Commission, NCQA).

Labor & Employee Relations Strategy

• Bring informed judgment to the organization's approach to labor relations, including familiarity with union environments, even where affiliates remain union-free today.

• Proactively prepare the organization's employee relations practices and policies for the possibility of future organizing activity.

• Ensure consistent, legally sound employee relations practices across all affiliate sites, unionized or not.

Required Qualifications

• Progressive HR leadership experience within a nonprofit healthcare organization, ideally within ambulatory care settings or institutions that include ambulatory operations.

• Demonstrated experience advancing cultural competency and supporting a diverse employee population.

• Experience navigating complex healthcare-adjacent environments, such as a foundation, public policy organization, or an organization with an advocacy/marketing function alongside healthcare operations.

• Experience with multi-site ambulatory systems, such as federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) or similarly structured multi-site healthcare delivery structures.

• Familiarity with the geography and healthcare landscape across Illinois, with the ability to build relationships statewide.

• Familiarity or direct experience working within or alongside unionized environments; comfort operating in currently non-union settings with the understanding that organizing activity may arise.

• Strong business acumen and a demonstrated ability to align HR strategy with organizational and financial priorities.

• Proven track record building and shaping organizational culture and change management.

• Solid working knowledge of employment/HR law and its application to a multi-site organization.

• Demonstrated vision paired with the ability to execute — a leader who can set direction and also do the work of implementation.

• Approachable, visible leadership style; comfortable being a hands-on presence with staff at all levels.

• Strong employee relations skill set, with experience operating within a complex, multi-entity system rather than a single-site or single-entity organization.

• Experience partnering directly with a CEO, Board, or executive committee on culture, labor relations, and workforce strategy.

• Proven experience in leading and design of talent training and development initiatives.

• Experience supporting accreditation processes such as AAAHC or Joint Commission surveys.

Skills & Competencies

Business & Organizational Acumen

• Understands the financial and operational levers of the organization and connects HR strategy directly to business outcomes.

• Brings a CFO-caliber sense of ROI and prioritization to HR investment decisions.

Culture Building

• Has personally built or reshaped organizational culture, not just maintained it.

• Uses concrete tools — surveys, listening sessions, manager toolkits — to measure and shift culture over time.

Employment Law & Risk Management

• Applies working knowledge of federal, Illinois, and local employment law to day-to-day decisions and policy design.

• Partners appropriately with legal counsel on higher-risk matters while retaining ownership of HR practice.

Vision & Execution

• Sets a clear point of view on where HR needs to go and personally drives implementation rather than delegating it away.

• Balances big-picture strategy with the discipline to see initiatives through to completion.

Approachability & Presence

• Builds trust quickly with staff across all levels and locations; is seen as accessible rather than distant.

• Shows up in person — especially during the critical first year — rather than leading primarily from behind a desk.

Employee Relations Depth

• Comfortable engaging directly in complex, sensitive employee relations matters, not solely overseeing from a distance.

• Builds manager capability so employee relations issues are caught and addressed early and consistently.

Complex, Multi-Entity System Experience

• Has operated within a system of multiple affiliated entities or sites rather than a single, self-contained organization.

• Understands how to standardize practices across sites while respecting local variation and site-specific needs.

What Success Looks Like

• Staff across every PPIL site describe HR as approachable, credible, and responsive to their concerns.

• HR strategy is fully integrated into the organization's broader strategic plan, with the CHRO recognized as a core member of the Executive Leadership Team.

• The organization's employee relations practices are consistent, well-documented, and prepared for a range of scenarios, including potential union organizing.

• By the end of year one, the CHRO has established a visible, trusted presence at PPIL sites across the state.

• Cultural competency and inclusion are measurably reflected in HR programs, policies, and the day-to-day employee experience.

Reporting Relationship

This role reports to PPIL’s Chief Executive Officer and serves as a member of the Executive Leadership Team.

Location & Travel

This is a hybrid onsite/remote role based in Illinois, assuming at least 3 days on site at any of the PPIL site locations. Position should be prepared to have at least half of the ‘on-site’ time in the Chicago administrative offices each month. The CHRO is also expected to travel extensively across the state to establish an in-person presence at PPIL health centers throughout downstate Illinois and metro Chicago locations. Additional travel may occasionally be required for regional affiliate or national Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) meetings.

Compensation & Benefits

Target a base salary range of $220,000–$260,000,  depending on candidate experience.

Just a few of the Benefits enjoyed by PPIL employees...

• Company-subsidized premiums on Medical, Dental, and Vision Insurance
• Up to 12 weeks Paid Parental Leave for eligible emplpyees
• Generous Paid Time Off (PTO) and paid holidays
• Mission-focused work
• 401k with employer matching
• 100% company-paid Life Insurance
• 100% company-paid Short- and Long-Term Disability Coverage
• Robust Employee Assistance Program
• Professional Development awards and opportunities
• Flexible Spending Accounts
• Free Medical Services at PPIL
• Pet Insurance