About this role
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Position Summary
Guggenheim Investments is looking for a Vice President, Strategic Business Partner to be the senior people advisor to the leaders of an assigned client group. The Business Partnership function connects business strategy to people strategy: it advises leaders, shapes organizations, plans the workforce and makes sure talent decisions strengthen business performance. This role does that work for its client group, day to day.
You will sit with business leaders as a trusted advisor, not a service provider. You will understand how the business makes money, where it is heading and what that means for its people: the organization it needs, the capabilities it lacks, the leaders it must develop or replace, and the risks building in its teams. You will turn that understanding into clear people priorities, then drive them through to execution with the HR centers of expertise.
In a relationship-driven investment firm, the quality of your judgment, your discretion and your willingness to tell senior leaders what they need to hear matter as much as your technical HR knowledge. This role is based in our Santa Monica, CA office, full-time.
Responsibilities
Key Responsibilities:
Business Partnership
- Act as strategic advisor to the client group's leadership team and take part in its business planning and leadership discussions.
- Translate business strategy into a small number of clear people priorities each year, and hold the plan to deliver them.
- Consult leaders on leadership, team and organization questions, from a single difficult hire to a full restructuring.
- Support talent and workforce decisions with data, market context and a clear recommendation.
- Drive execution of the enterprise people strategy within the client group, adapting it to the business without diluting it.
Workforce Planning
- Lead annual and in-year headcount and workforce planning with business leaders.
- I dentify the capabilities the business will need in two to three years, and the gap between those and what it has today.
- Advise on workforce composition and location: the mix of levels, roles, locations and build-buy-borrow choices.
- Analyze talent supply and demand, internal and external, to shape realistic plans.
- Partner with OOP on workforce investments, so headcount and people decisions line up with financial plans.
Workforce Planning
- Lead organization design work for the client group: structures, roles, reporting lines and decision rights.
- Review spans and layers and recommend changes where the organization is too deep, too narrow or unclear.
- Assess whether the operating model is working and where it creates friction, duplication or risk.
- Plan and lead organizational change, including communications, sequencing, people impact and follow-through.
Talent Advisory
- Run leadership talent reviews for the client group using the firm's talent frameworks, and make sure the conversation leads to decisions and actions.
- I dentify succession gaps and talent risk, especially in critical roles, and build plans to address them.
- Lead critical role planning: which roles matter most to the strategy, who holds them, and who is ready next.
- Advise leaders on performance and advancement decisions, including year-end calibration and promotions.
- Design targeted retention strategies for key talent and act early when flight risk appears.
Employee & Organization Health
- Spot organizational trends and risks early, using engagement data, attrition, exit feedback and what you hear directly.
- Help leaders improve the effectiveness of their teams and leadership groups.
- Turn engagement insight into a short list of actions that leaders own and follow through on.
- Assess change readiness before major initiatives and adjust plans accordingly.
- Escalate systemic employee issues to the Head of Business Partnership and the right HR, Legal or Compliance partners.
Qualifications
Basic Qualifications:
- 8-10+ years of HR experience, including at least 5 years as a business partner advising senior leaders (managing director, business head or C-suite level).
- Strong business acumen: can explain how the client business makes money and what drives its results and connects people decisions to them.
- Hands-on experience leading organization design, spans-and-layers reviews and restructuring, from analysis through to implementation.
- Experience leading workforce and headcount planning in partnership with business and finance leaders.
- Has run leadership talent reviews and succession planning and turned them into concrete actions.
- Has led significant organizational change with measurable outcomes.
- Analytical and comfortable with people data: builds or interprets workforce analytics and uses them to make a case.
- Executive presence and the confidence to challenge senior leaders, with sound judgment and absolute discretion.
- Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience in asset management, investment banking, private markets or other financial or professional services.
- Has supported both investment (front-office) and corporate (back-office) client groups.
- Experience with Workday HCM and people analytics tools.
- Exposure to integrations, separations or setting up a new business or operating model.
- Coaching qualification or formal training in organization design.
We are not seeking agency assistance with this role.
We are unable to consider candidates who require current or future visa sponsorship for employment in the United States. Candidates must be authorized to work in the US without current or future visa sponsorship or transfer.
The benefits offered for this position:
- 401k with matching contribution
- Healthcare and wellbeing programs
- Paid leave
- Learning and development opportunities
- Family and caregiving support
- Employee assistance program
Salary Range
Annual base salary between
$165,000.00-$170,000.00
The base salary range represents the low and high end of the anticipated base salary range for this position. Actual base salaries may vary depending on factors such as location and experience. The range listed reflects base salary only, and the total compensation package may include other components such as incentive compensation.