VICE PRESIDENT, EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE

Location: Washington,District of Columbia,United States Summary: The Vice President, Employee Experience serves as a senior people leader of U.S. Travel Association, responsible for architecting and delivering a cohesive, mission-aligned employee experience for the association's staff. Critically, this leader will play a central role in positioning U.S. Travel for sustainable organizational growth-ensuring that a resilient, scalable personnel foundation is in place upon which the association's broader strategic ambitions can be built. This is a dual-natured role: the VP must bring enterprise-level strategic vision to every dimension of human capital-from culture and talent to total rewards and organizational design-while also functioning as a hands-on leader and individual contributor who provides daily operational HR support. The VP will serve as both a supervisor and a practitioner, comfortable moving between long-range strategy and day-to-day employee relations without losing effectiveness in either. U.S. Travel seeks a leader who is as comfortable presenting a multi-year workforce strategy to the executive team as they are resolving a complex employee relations matter, managing an open enrollment cycle or coaching a first-time manager. This leader will be a credible voice to the executive team and a trusted resource for every member of staff. Responsibilities: Strategic Leadership & Organizational Design • Serve as the organization's primary architect of people infrastructure for growth-anticipating the talent, structural and cultural requirements of a growing organization and building the systems, processes and capabilities needed to scale effectively. • Develop and execute a multi-year employee experience strategy aligned with U.S. Travel's strategy, mission and values. • Advise senior leadership on organizational design, workforce planning and the structural conditions required to achieve business goals. • Anticipate workforce trends, identify emerging capability gaps and bring a forward-looking perspective to executive conversations. • Balance near-term execution with medium-term capability building and long-range organizational vision. • Serve as a steady, credible advocate for the employee voice in organizational decision-making. Culture & Engagement • Architect and steward an intentional organizational culture that reflects U.S. Travel's values- strategic, curious, ambitious, high-performing and collaborative-across the full employee lifecycle. • Embed employee listening into the rhythm of the organization's management practices including, but not limited to, conducting pulse checks, stay conversations and exit interviews as a natural part of ongoing team engagement and using the data gathered to make informed decisions and drive meaningful action. • Champion a culture where employees feel confident self-advocating and advocating for one another, taking risks and contributing fully. • Set clear, behavioral expectations for what a welcoming workplace looks like in practice, partnering with leaders to build environments where every employee feels valued and connected. • Connect culture to measurable business outcomes, including retention, productivity and organizational performance. Talent Acquisition & Retention • Oversee and as needed, directly execute full-cycle talent acquisition for a mission-driven, 60-person and growing organization. • Build broad talent pools and pipelines through intentional sourcing strategies and partnerships with organizations that connect the association to candidates it might not otherwise reach. • Design structured, consistent hiring processes that comply with federal and D.C. employment law. • Design and oversee a structured onboarding program that accelerates new hire integration, connects employees to the organization's mission and culture from day one and equips managers to set their teams up for early success. • Implement differentiated retention strategies by employee segment; build internal mobility as a retention lever. Learning & Professional Development • Design and champion a learning ecosystem-encompassing formal programs, coaching, mentoring, peer learning and stretch assignments-that builds organizational capability and supports individual growth. • Translate business strategy into capability requirements; connect learning investments to workforce planning and talent retention goals. • Develop manager capability as the organization's highest-leverage learning multiplier. • Build a culture of continuous learning where growth is recognized, rewarded and embedded in daily work. Rewards & Benefits Administration • Oversee the design, governance and continuous evolution of U.S. Travel's total rewards strategy, including compensation, benefits, recognition and well-being programs. • Ensure rewards programs are competitive, equitable and experienced as meaningful by a diverse workforce; examine whether benefits programs serve the full staff across life stages, family structure and health need. • Conduct pay analyses grounded in market data, job qualifications, performance, internal equity and budget realities, ensuring compensation decisions reflect the organization's values and commitment to fairness. • Manage benefits administration, open enrollment and vendor relationships with strategic rigor and operational discipline delivering the best overall value for the association. • Ensure employees understand and value the full scope of their total compensation through clear communication and manager enablement. HR Operations & Compliance • Build and govern the operational infrastructure that makes the employee experience reliable, consistent and trustworthy-including HR systems, workflows, data management and policy administration. • Maintain a comprehensive, current understanding of relevant employment law; in partnership with counsel, proactively manage compliance across all HR practices. • Lead workplace investigations with confidentiality, fairness, thoroughness and impartiality. • Partner closely with Legal to ensure employment law and regulatory requirements are continuously embedded in existing and new HR processes, policies and programs. • Ensure HR technology, data governance and people analytics capabilities support effective, evidence-based decision-making. Performance Management • Design and govern a performance management philosophy and system that drives individual and organizational excellence while ensuring equity and developmental richness. • Build manager capability to deliver honest, timely, behaviorally grounded feedback and to differentiate performance fairly; develop inclusive leadership skills across the management team. • Oversee the design, governance and continuous evolution of U.S. Travel's promotion process, including eligibility, success metrics, position leveling and skills analysis • Connect performance outcomes to total rewards and advancement decisions with transparency and consistency. Employee Relations & Conflict Resolution • Maintain an employee relations philosophy grounded in fairness, dignity, transparency and accountability. • Build conflict resolution capability across a continuum, deploying the right approach for each situation. • Diagnose systemic patterns in employee relations data and advocate for structural interventions that address root causes, not just individual incidents. • Develop manager capability to address conflict constructively at the earliest stage. Supervisory Responsibility: • Supervise and develop a small team of HR professionals, providing direction, coaching, performance management and professional growth opportunities. • As of the posting date of this role, direct reports may include an HR Generalist or HR Coordinator; the structure may evolve with organizational needs. • Foster a collaborative, high-performing team culture that models the values U.S. Travel aspires to embody organizationally. Key Attributes: • A natural relationship builder who earns trust across every level of an organization-equally credible with the executive team and an individual contributor navigating daily HR functions-and brings the interpersonal range to shift fluidly between those dynamics in a single day. • Brings warmth, directness and emotional intelligence to every interaction; skilled at delivering feedback, mediating conflict and holding difficult conversations in ways that preserve dignity and keep relationships intact. • Excellent interpersonal, communication and presentation skills; ability to engage credibly with staff at all levels, including at the executive level. • Demonstrated ability to navigate ambiguity, make sound decisions with incomplete information and maintain composure under organizational pressure. Education, Experience and Skills: • 15 or more years of progressive HR or employee experience leadership, with at least 4-5 years in a senior leadership role (Director level or above). • Experience working within or for organizations with 50 or more employees, where the HR function requires significant individual contributor work alongside strategic leadership. • Demonstrated experience functioning as both a strategic HR leader and a hands-on HR practitioner, including direct execution of operational HR responsibilities. • Deep expertise across multiple HR functional areas: talent acquisition, total rewards, performance management, employee relations and HR operations. • Strong command of employment law; proven track record of proactive compliance management. • Experience supervising and developing HR professionals. Other: · Position based in Washington, DC. U.S. Travel staff work in the office Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays with the option to work remotely on Mondays and Fridays. · Limited travel (up to 4 times per year) is required. · Salary: 215-230K with bonus potential. · Other Duties: Please note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities and activities may change at any time with or without notice. Benefits: · Comprehensive healthcare package with fertility coverage. · Generous paid leave including family leave. · Routine staff functions and opportunities for social connection. · Transportation and cell phone benefits. · Robust wellness initiatives and Employee Assistance Plan (EAP) Apply to this job