Vice President, Workforce Planning & Resourcing
ABOUT ORCHESTRA
Orchestra is a strategic communications and marketing company built for today’s complex and fragmented world. From decoding audiences to designing bold strategies, Orchestra integrates people, platforms, and stories that stick to help clients build lasting influence. The company offers programs that span from the highest level strategic business counsel through to tactical execution. Orchestra brings together 700+ people with experience across consumer and lifestyle, technology, nonprofit and philanthropy, real estate, sports, travel, hospitality, and more. Made up of leading firms BerlinRosen, Civitas Public Affairs Group, Derris, Glen Echo Group, Inkhouse, M18, Message Lab, Onward and Small Girls PR. It also launched Brightmode, a talent acquisition firm for communications professionals, and Versus Media Group, a strategy-first political media team. Learn more at www.orchestraco.com.
People of all backgrounds and abilities are strongly encouraged to apply. Orchestra is committed to building and maintaining a diverse staff, and recognizes that its continued success depends on hiring and retaining high-quality creative professionals with a variety of backgrounds and experiences. Opportunities for advancement exist and we are committed to helping all staff develop and grow.
ABOUT THIS ROLE
Orchestra is seeking a Vice President, Workforce Planning & Resourcing to lead and build our enterprise approach to how we plan, build and deploy teams across the organization. You will set Orchestra’s workforce planning and resourcing strategy, serve as a senior advisor to vertical and brand leaders and lead the resource managers responsible for bringing that strategy to life day to day.
You will partner with leaders to develop 12–18 month workforce plans that translate revenue forecasts, client demand, new business pipeline and growth priorities into talent and capacity strategies. You will also help leaders make critical decisions around team design, hiring, talent deployment and cross-brand collaboration, ensuring Orchestra has the right mix of skills and resources to support our clients and continued growth.
Reporting to the Chief Human Resources Officer and working closely with Finance, Operations, Talent and business leaders, this is a builder’s role. You will design the model, establish standards, develop the team and drive adoption of a consistent enterprise approach while accounting for the distinct needs of Orchestra’s brands.
Note: This role will ideally be hybrid in one of our Orchestra offices, or can be fully remote for the right candidate.
ACCOUNTABILITIES AND QUALIFICATIONS
As Vice President, Workforce Planning & Resourcing, you will…
Own the development of 12–18 month workforce plans with vertical and brand leaders, translating revenue forecasts, client demand, new business pipeline and growth priorities into talent and capacity strategies
Advise leaders on team design for major accounts and pursuits, including when to hire, redeploy, share talent across brands or bring in freelance support
Lead regular capacity and forecasting reviews with executive leadership and Finance, bringing a clear point of view on workforce needs and trade-offs
Identify current and future capability gaps across the organization and drive decisions around where to hire, develop, redeploy or restructure talent
Lead, develop and set strategic direction for resource managers across Orchestra’s brands
Build and scale a shared, enterprise-wide approach to staffing teams while respecting the distinct needs of each brand
Coach resource managers to act as strategic partners to the leaders they support and serve as the escalation point for complex, cross-brand staffing decisions
Drive adoption of Orchestra’s enterprise workforce planning and resourcing model, establishing clear accountability, governance and ways of working across brands
Create processes that enable Orchestra to assemble the strongest teams for clients by drawing on talent and expertise from across the organization
Optimize the mix of full-time, freelance, contract and offshore talent to balance flexibility, quality, utilization and profitability
Support new business opportunities by quickly identifying and deploying the right expertise across Orchestra
Own reporting and insights related to utilization, forecasting, workload and capacity, translating data into actionable workforce decisions
Establish governance and data standards for Orchestra’s resource management platform, including Kantata
Continuously evaluate and improve workforce planning and resourcing processes to increase efficiency, transparency and scalability as Orchestra grows
Essential skills:
10+ years of experience in resource management, workforce planning or talent deployment within communications, PR, marketing, advertising, consulting or another professional services organization
Demonstrated success building or scaling a resourcing or workforce planning function within a complex, multi-office, multi-brand or matrixed organization
Experience leading and developing a team of resource managers or similar operators
Proven ability to serve as a trusted advisor to senior leaders, challenge assumptions and influence workforce and staffing decisions across multiple stakeholders
Strong understanding of agency economics, including utilization, billability, realization, staffing mix and revenue forecasting
Strong change leadership skills and demonstrated experience driving adoption of new processes and ways of working across teams and stakeholders
Exceptional communication and relationship-building skills, with the executive presence needed to build alignment across diverse leaders and teams
Experience within a holding company, agency network, shared services environment or organization undergoing significant integration or rapid growth is preferred
Experience with Kantata or a similar resource management platform is preferred
Experience managing and deploying both onshore and offshore talent is preferred
WORKING AT ORCHESTRA
Salary range (commensurate with experience and skills): $150,000 - $175,000, plus bonus eligibility.
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