Head of People & Talent

Acumen has retained a search partner, Bridge Partners, to lead this search. 
Candidates are advised to follow this link and apply directly to: 

Tory Clarke                                                               Malissa Brennan

Partner, Bridge Partners                                      Associate Partner, Bridge Partners

[email protected]                  [email protected]

About Acumen
Acumen is a global force of entrepreneurs, investors, philanthropists, and social innovators working together to build a world based on dignity. We were founded by Jacqueline Novogratz on the radical idea that business, when cultivated with moral imagination, can break the cycle of poverty. We invest in transformational companies, build sustainable markets, and prepare leaders with the tools they need to create a more just and inclusive future. Since 2001, we have scaled companies and shaped markets in some of the hardest-to-reach communities on the planet, impacting over half a billion lives. To learn more, visit acumen.org.

About the Role
Acumen is seeking a Head of People & Talent to strengthen the organization’s approach to care for its people and development of talent, in line with a strong organizational culture, at an important point in its evolution. With approximately 250 people across the Acumen ecosystem, and many in senior roles, the organization is complex in structure and reach, spanning multiple global offices, remote and semi-remote teams, several investment funds with dedicated teams, multiple programs and a range of legal, regulatory, and cultural contexts.  

Acumen is advancing a broader “One Acumen” effort: pursuing greater integration across programs, funds, offices, and teams while maintaining the local ownership and initiative that are central to Acumen’s success. The addition of new programs has added a significant new pool of people with needs for cultural onboarding and integration, and support for new people managers.  For People & Talent, this inflection point means anticipating people and talent needs and driving initiatives as we reinforce stronger visibility and communication, common standards, and shared practices and accountability across the growing organization.

Dual reporting to the President and General Counsel, and working closely with senior leaders across Acumen, the Head of People & Talent will serve as the organization’s senior talent leader and a trusted thought partner on people, organization, and culture.

The objective of the role is not about building a large, centralized HR operation - administration is relatively lean, as befits Acumen’s entrepreneurial culture. This opportunity is to identify - and drive forward - what the people and organization need now and, in the future, to attract and develop talent, care for its people and effectively evolve so that the strength of Acumen’s people and leadership continues to match the ambition of its mission, while reinforcing a culture that combines purpose with excellence.

Key Responsibilities:

• Serve as a strategic thought partner and trusted advisor to the leadership team. Partner closely with the executive team and leaders across Acumen on both thematic initiatives and specific people development issues to strengthen organizational effectiveness, navigate growth, support a healthy and high-performing culture, and proactively identify opportunities and challenges as the organization evolves.
• Support the development of an integrated One Acumen talent model. Help increase visibility, connection, knowledge sharing, and accountability across Acumen’s global offices, funds, and affiliated entities. Establish opportunities for shared standards, information, and practices to strengthen Acumen, while preserving flexibility, nimbleness, and appropriate regional and fund-level autonomy.
• Promote a proactive talent strategy. Translate Acumen’s mission, strategy, and evolving organizational model into an integrated talent agenda. Establish clear priorities and operating rhythms across the employee lifecycle, proactively anticipating future needs.
• Strengthen succession and leadership pipelines. Bring a disciplined approach to succession planning, director-level pipelines, internal mobility, promotion paths, and leadership development. Help leaders identify critical roles and emerging talent, and fill capability gaps.
• Advance performance and accountability. Enable performance management and feedback practices so expectations are clear, high performance is recognized, underperformance is addressed, and leaders are equipped to have direct and constructive conversations.
• Bring rigor to global compensation and talent analytics. Oversee compensation benchmarking and develop useful talent data/insights that enable leaders to make informed, equitable and responsible decisions.
• Ensure excellence in core talent processes. Ensure recruiting, onboarding, performance, promotion, development, total rewards, exits and employee relations matters are well designed and consistently executed, with a mindset for constant improvement. Partner effectively with the local team members and local leaders who manage day-to-day HR administration in individual countries.
• Innovate and improve HR and talent software systems, performance management models and tools, workflows, and service delivery. Identify opportunities responsibly to leverage artificial intelligence and automation that will build and drive organizational capability and efficiency across the people team and the enterprise.
• Team leadership and development. Lead, mentor, and develop a globally distributed people team, with 4 direct reports. Build organizational capability and foster high-performance and accountability.

The Leader:
Acumen seeks a strategic people and culture leader who can help build One Acumen, raise performance standards, strengthen succession and leadership pipelines, identify organizational risks before they emerge, and help a complex global institution become more integrated, effective, and accountable.

The successful candidate will be an experienced talent leader who combines strategic range with a strong bias toward action. They will be drawn to Acumen’s mission while also recognizing that this is an entrepreneurial, ambitious, high-performing culture that operates with for profit discipline and accountability.

• Substantial experience leading talent, people, or human resources work in a global organization, with broad command of talent management, performance, succession, leadership development, compensation, global workforce planning, operations and organizational effectiveness.
• A demonstrated record of change management experience, guiding high-performing, talent-dense, evolving organizations through robust talent systems and processes, clear expectations, leadership development, shared accountability, and cultural reinforcement.
• Global and cross-cultural dexterity, with the ability to operate effectively across different countries, cultural competencies, working styles, and institutional contexts. Experience in or with geographies in Acumen’s global footprint is valuable.
• Strong organizational judgment with the ability to anticipate, identify, diagnose, and address team, culture, and performance issues.
• Experience serving as a trusted advisor to senior executives, with the confidence to offer a point of view and the pragmatism to help leaders act on it.
• Analytical strength and comfort with quantitative, data driven work, including experience with compensation benchmarking, talent data, and evidence-based decision-making.
• High EQ to support the people and culture implications of a fast-paced organization in a period of growth, with a direct, grounded, caring and low-ego leadership style paired with a commitment to culture of excellence.
• Genuine passion for Acumen’s mission and for the challenge of building an organization capable of delivering on it at greater scale.
• Sector background is flexible. Candidates may come from mission-driven organizations, B Corps, financial services, investment organizations, or values-led for-profit companies. More important than sector is evidence of pace, rigor, cultural adaptability, and a strong performance orientation.

Location, Travel & Work Authorization:  

• This position will be based in the New York City office.
• Acumen maintains a hybrid work schedule, with employees expected to work on-site at Acumen's New York headquarters at least 3 days per week. As such, we are seeking candidates based in the New York City metropolitan area who are able and willing to commute regularly.
• Readiness to travel internationally, to build relationships and remain close to Acumen’s teams and work.
• Candidates must possess valid authorization to work in the United States that does not require employment visa sponsorship.

Compensation & Benefits:

• The salary range for this role is $200,000 - $225,000 per year, with exact salary based on qualifications, experience, and market alignment.
• Acumen determines the salaries of its employees based on comparable pay in comparable markets, for comparable accountabilities, experience, and education. Compensation is structured around clearly defined levels of accountability, each with an associated pay band informed by market data within local geographies. Acumen benchmarks pay bands based on local salary ranges for both the impact investing and nonprofit sectors. Employees are further eligible to receive performance-based bonuses.

Priority will be given to applications submitted by November 23, 2026 although we will continue to receive and review applications until the position is filled.