Job Description

Amazing Opportunity with Gulf Winds Credit Union

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SVP, Chief People Officer

Gulf Winds Credit Union

Pensacola, FL

Position Summary

The Senior Vice President / Chief People Officer is a member of Gulf Winds Credit Union's Executive Leadership Team and leads enterprise people strategy and the employee experience. Reporting to the President and Chief Executive Officer, this executive builds the talent, leadership, culture, total rewards, and people systems needed to support growth and make Gulf Winds a place where high-performing people choose to build a career.

This role is accountable for attracting, developing, and retaining exceptional talent; embedding a culture grounded in Integrity, Care, Growth, and Innovation; and ensuring People and Development programs deliver measurable business value. Success is reflected in a strong leadership bench, an engaged and accountable workforce, scalable people practices, and readiness for growth, merger and integration activity, and regulatory review. 

Primary Areas of Value Creation

Workforce Strategy: Establishes metrics-based workforce priorities, plans, and budgets aligned with credit union strategy, growth, and member service. Builds the workforce and leadership pipelines needed for organic growth, new locations, and merger and integration activity.

Culture and Leadership

Partners with the Chief of Staff and Executive Leadership Team to translate Integrity, Care, Growth, and Innovation into leadership expectations, workplace standards, recognition, and management practices that strengthen engagement, accountability, retention, and leadership effectiveness.

Talent and Organizational Capability

Leads talent acquisition, selection, onboarding, development, succession planning, and internal mobility to build a high-performing, values-aligned workforce and strong leadership bench. Advances People and Development as an internal center of excellence across the employee lifecycle.

Risk and Trust

Manages conduct, insider risk, employment law, and culture drift as enterprise risks in partnership with the Chief of Staff, Risk Management, Compliance, and Internal Audit. 

Essential Functions and Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership

• Serve on the Executive Leadership Team and advise the President and Chief Executive Officer on people strategy, organizational effectiveness, workforce planning, and leadership matters.

• Lead training and development programs that build capability, support career growth, and strengthen the leadership pipeline.

• Lead the multi-year people plan for asset growth, branch expansion, digital delivery, and merger and integration activity. Establish organizational design, spans of control, and role architecture that support efficient growth.

• Partner with the Chief of Staff to bring appropriate people matters to the Board and relevant committees, including succession planning, compensation philosophy, culture health, and leadership risk.

• Direct People and Development strategy, policies, budget, vendors, HRIS, and service delivery. Develop the People and Development and Training teams to provide exceptional service and continuous improvement.

• Exercise authority with the President and Chief Executive Officer on pay positioning, director-level and above hiring, leadership appointments within the function, and external search engagements.

Culture and Leadership

• Partner with the Chief of Staff and executive leaders to define values-based behaviors and embed them in leadership expectations, recognition, and management practices.

• Lead development for executives, vice presidents, and emerging leaders, including 30-60- 90 onboarding and succession plans for critical roles.

• Set and uphold clear, fair, and consistent standards for conduct, dress, and member-facing presence.

• Guide business leaders through restructures, leadership transitions, merger and integration activity, and other growth-related change.

• Develop workforce plans for branch growth, specialty lending, risk, technology, and member experience.

Talent and Rewards

• Lead talent acquisition, including executive and hard-to-fill searches, using external partners selectively.

• Establish disciplined selection practices through structured interviews, job-relevant assessments, and a consistent candidate experience.

• Direct compensation philosophy, salary structures, incentive and retention plans, and executive compensation recommendations benchmarked to credit union and community bank peers.

• Oversee benefits strategy and vendors, emphasizing plans employees understand and use.
• Lead performance management that aligns individual goals with credit union priorities and supports meaningful differentiation.

• Oversee onboarding, internal movement, employee relations, investigations, and offboarding with clear, defensible documentation.

Risk and Compliance

• Manage people risks—including conduct, insider risk, employment law, and culture drift— in partnership with the Chief of Staff, Risk Management, Compliance, and Internal Audit.

• Partner with Risk Management and Fraud on hiring screens, access-related conduct, investigations, and insider risk indicators.

• Maintain employment practices that meet federal and Florida requirements and NCUA expectations for governance, compensation, and succession planning.

• Support enterprise resilience through hurricane staffing and critical-role coverage.
• Build internal capability so external partners are used strategically.

Performance Measurements

People Strategy and Scale

Achieve annually approved milestones for the multi-year people plan, growth, branch expansion, digital delivery, and merger and integration activity.

Leadership and Succession

Meet annual leadership-effectiveness targets and maintain documented

succession coverage, readiness assessments, and active development plans for critical roles.

Talent and Workforce Pipelines: Meet annual targets for time to fill, quality of hire, offer acceptance, early retention, internal movement, and candidate experience.

Total Rewards, Performance, and Employee Lifecycle: Maintain compensation and benefits within approved market, budget, governance, and participation standards. Complete performance cycles by established deadlines and meet defined service levels for employee-matter resolution and documentation compliance.

Culture and Employee Experience

Meet annual targets for engagement, regrettable turnover,

accountability, leadership behavior, and recognition participation. Complete documented culture

action plans by approved deadlines and verify adoption of values-based management practices.

Risk, Governance, and Operational Readiness

Meet defined standards for audit findings, payroll and data accuracy, policy reviews, issue-resolution timelines, control testing, and vendor oversight. Test succession, hurricane staffing, and critical-role coverage plans annually and resolve identified gaps within approved deadlines. 

Knowledge and Skills

Experience

Fifteen or more years of progressive human resources and organizational leadership experience, including at least seven years leading a function at the director level or above and experience as a CHRO, CPO, or SVP/VP of Human Resources. Requires demonstrated leadership of culture, talent, total rewards, and employee relations in an organization of approximately 200 to 1,000 employees, preferably during growth or merger and integration activity. Financial institution experience and knowledge of employment law, compensation governance, and the regulatory environment are strongly preferred. A record of building durable internal capability is required; experience with a merger, core conversion, or multi-site expansion is preferred.

Education

Bachelor's degree in Human Resources, Business, Organizational Development, or a related field required. SPHR, SHRM-SCP, or an equivalent senior credential is preferred. A master's degree or executive education in organizational leadership or human resources strategy is preferred.

Interpersonal Skills

Demonstrates executive presence through clear communication, sound judgment in employee relations and conduct matters, and the ability to influence the President and Chief Executive Officer, executive peers, leaders, the Board and relevant committees, employees, counsel, regulators, and external partners. Requires discretion, diplomacy, trust, and fair, defensible decision-making in complex and sensitive situations.

Other Skills

Enterprise People Strategy

Translates growth strategy into organizational, workforce, leadership, and employee experience priorities.

Executive Leadership and Influence

Advises the President and Chief Executive Officer, influences peers, and, with the Chief of Staff, brings appropriate people matters to the Board and relevant committees.

Culture Stewardship

Embeds Integrity, Care, Growth, and Innovation in standards, recognition, and daily management practices.

Talent and Leadership Systems

Builds scalable talent acquisition, workforce planning, succession planning, leadership development, and internal mobility capabilities.

Total Rewards and Governance

Applies sound judgment to compensation, incentives, retention plans, benefits, and executive compensation recommendations.

Risk and Compliance

Understands employment law, people controls, insider risk, investigations, documentation, and financial institution governance. Familiarity with NCUA expectations, Florida employment requirements, and credit union advocacy is preferred.

Operating Discipline

Uses data, technology, and clear decision rights to create accurate, private, scalable, and audit-ready People and Development operations. xhyhwjd

Credit Union Perspective

Credit union experience, or successful translation from banking to a cooperative model, is preferred. 

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