Head of People & Talent

Position Overview

Acumen is seeking a Head of People & Talent to strengthen the organization’s approach to care for its peopleanddevelopmentoftalent,inlinewithastrongorganizationalculture,atanimportantpointin itsevolution.Withapproximately250peopleacrosstheAcumenecosystem,andmanyinseniorroles, 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 forculturalonboardingandintegration,andsupportfornewpeoplemanagers.ForPeople&Talent, this inflection point means anticipating people and talent needs and driving initiatives as we reinforce strongervisibilityandcommunication,commonstandards,andsharedpracticesandaccountability across the growing organization.

Dual reporting to the President and General Counsel, and working closely with senior leaders across Acumen,theHeadofPeople&Talentwillserveastheorganization’sseniortalentleaderandatrusted thought partner on people, organization, and culture.

Theobjectiveoftheroleisnotaboutbuildingalarge,centralizedHRoperation-administrationis relatively lean, as befits Acumen’s entrepreneurial culture. This opportunity is to identify - and drive forward-whatthepeopleandorganizationneednowandinthefuture,toattractanddeveloptalent, care for its people and effectively evolve so that the strength of Acumen’s people and leadership continuestomatchtheambitionofitsmission,whilereinforcingaculturethatcombinespurposewith 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. Helpincrease 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-levelautonomy.
• Promote a proactive talent strategy. Translate Acumen’s mission, strategy, and evolving organizational model into an integrated talent agenda. Establish clear priorities and operating rhythmsacrosstheemployeelifecycle,proactivelyanticipatingfutureneeds.
• Strengthen succession and leadership pipelines. Bring a disciplined approach to succession planning, director-level pipelines, internal mobility, promotion paths, and leadershipdevelopment. 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. Overseecompensationbenchmarking 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,totalrewards,exitsandemployeerelationsmattersarewelldesigned and consistently executed, with a mindset for constant improvement. Partner effectively with the localteammembersandlocalleaderswhomanageday-to-dayHRadministrationinindividual countries.
• Innovate and improve HRandtalentsoftwaresystems,performancemanagementmodelsand tools,workflows,andservicedelivery.Identifyopportunitiesresponsiblytoleverageartificial 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,anddevelopagloballydistributedpeople 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.

Thesuccessfulcandidatewillbeanexperiencedtalentleaderwhocombinesstrategicrangewitha strongbiastowardaction.TheywillbedrawntoAcumen’smissionwhilealsorecognizingthatthisis 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 organizationaleffectiveness.
• A demonstrated record of change management experience, guiding high-performing, talent-dense, evolving organizations through robust talent systems and processes, clear expectations,leadershipdevelopment,sharedaccountability,andculturalreinforcement.
• 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: ThispositionwillbebasedintheNewYorkCity 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 basedintheNewYorkCitymetropolitanareawhoareableandwillingtocommuteregularly.

• Readiness to travel internationally, to build relationships and remain close to Acumen’s teams andwork.
• 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.

If you have an interest in this opportunity, please share a resume and brief cover note here alternatively, youcan send to…
Tory Clarke
Partner,Bridge Partners tory.clarke@bridgepartnersllc.com

PrioritywillbegiventoapplicationssubmittedbyNovember23 rd 2026 althoughwewillcontinuetoreceiveandreviewapplicationsuntilthepositionisfilled.