Executive Director, Global Head of HR Shared Services & People Technology

Gilead HR is undergoing an exciting period of transformation. Work is underway to modernize our employee experience, streamline our existing processes, and align our service delivery on a global scale while retaining the ability to provide personalized support during the moments that matter to employees. This is an exceptional opportunity to partner with HR leadership to shape and influence how we provide services to all Gilead employees and drive excellence and innovation in HR.

As the Executive Director, Global Head of HR Shared Services & People Technology, reporting to the VP of HR Strategy & Operations, you will play a pivotal role in defining and leading the ongoing evolution and adoption of our HR tiered delivery model. Additionally, you will oversee the People Technology team (Workday) and manage a new team of People Partners focused on the U.S. and helping to shape a support model globally. This role requires a strategic, forward-thinking leader who can solve complex problems, prioritize effectively, and design global HR processes that balance operational excellence with an outstanding employee experience. You will lead growing teams based in North America, APAC, and EMEA hubs, driving innovation, collaboration, and scalable solutions. Your ability to inspire change, influence across the organization, and operate with transparency will be crucial to success.

Job Location: Office Based - Foster City, CA

SPECIFIC JOB RESPONSIBILITIES

• Build a deep understanding of Gilead’s HR organization, develop and implement communications strategy with HR partners to get alignment on cross-functional projects and increase customer service satisfaction.

• Partner with COEs, HRBPs and external vendors to actively shape the HRSS transformation roadmap in alignment with the HR strategy and drive the vision and strategy of these initiatives while balancing both end-user experience and operational needs.

• Lead the end-to-end transition plan from our current operations approach to the future tiered delivery model.

• Oversee the People Technology team (Workday) to ensure effective and innovative use of technology in delivering HR services. Align technology initiatives with the broader HRSS strategy to enhance employee experience and streamline HR processes.

• Lead and grow a team of People Partners focused on the U.S., developing a support model that addresses local needs while creating frameworks that can scale globally over time.

• Supply oversight and structure to ensure effective delivery of HRSS solutions/projects/programs, including portfolio management, influencing, and managing initiative prioritization, cost tracking and change management.

• Work with HR COE leaders, HRBPs, and employees to identify and execute HRSS process improvement opportunities.

• Focus on building a culture of continuous improvement ensuring efficient and consistent employee experience and delivering operational excellence and simplification across our Shared Services.

• Establish governance to ensure optimal prioritization of team resources and to manage stakeholder expectations.

• Lead the end-to-end transition plan for new work coming into the HRSS team. Manage the team that partners with HRBPs/COEs for training, shadowing, documentation, resources mapping. Leverage dashboards to help report details, risks of ongoing transition status.

• Support our focus to become a metrics driven organization by taking accountability for the day-to-day performance metrics of HRSS, ensuring clear SLA's and KPI's align to effective and positive employee experience; utilize metrics to demonstrate and communicate HRSS; create and share reports/metrics/dashboards that are meaningful to stakeholders and measure performance against SLA's, volumes, customer satisfaction & quality.

• Establish strong standards for ongoing training and documentation for all processes and activities within the scope of work.

• Maintain business relationships with vendors to understand their strategic path for the future. Ensure delivery of agreed-upon support and service level agreements, act as the point of escalation to resolve any vendor issues. Participate in annual vendor review and strategic planning.

• Leverage effective recruiting, training, coaching, team building, and succession planning to build an engaged, diverse, high performing team.

KNOWLEDGE

• 14+ years w/Master's or 16+ w/Bachelor's of progressive experience, with 10+ years of relevant leadership experience within global HR Shared Services and HR Technology.

• Superior leadership and people-management skills, with a proven track-record of building and retaining high-performing teams

• Deep expertise in leveraging technology and process improvement to deliver exceptional employee experiences

• Experience with leading HRSS changes including operating design, change management, systems, and process for a large, globally diverse organization

• Strong ability to inspire confidence from leadership and team members while driving clarity, alignment, and accountability throughout a fast-paced, complex matrix environment

• Background in HR technology, particularly Workday, with the ability to integrate and optimize tech solutions to enhance HR service delivery

• Exceptional communication skills and the ability to translate shared services concepts to others, with impeccable customer service skills, positive attitude in challenging situations; ability to communicate effectively and work with confidential and sensitive information at all levels

• Ability to manage a portfolio of projects in a fast-paced environment, adapting to shifting priorities

• Experience on managing virtual, cross culture teams

• Strong analytical skills, initiative, and ingenuity to solve complex problems and implement remedial measures

• High degree of structure and self-organization and result orientation

• Excellent MS PowerPoint and Excel skills

• Ability to build relations across various teams / countries / cultures

Preferred

• Agile/Lean Sigma/Six Sigma quality and process improvement experience

• Expertise in leading HR Service Delivery platforms, specifically Workday and ServiceNow.

• Multi-lingual/English +1