Chief People Officer

Chief People Officer, Anchor Innovation

Virginia Beach, VA

Anchor Innovation is a maritime operations support company growing quickly across the defense and federal contracting space. As we scale, we need a senior people leader who can build the strategy, structure, and systems to match where this company is headed, not just where it's been.

We're looking for a Chief People Officer to own our people strategy end to end. This is not an administrative HR role. You'll build workforce planning tied directly to our contract pipeline, own compensation strategy across a workforce that spans a small HQ team and a large distributed presence on base, manage compliance risk specific to government contracting, and act as a direct strategic partner to our President, COO, and ownership group. You'll also manage our HR Manager and future people team hires, setting the standard for how this function operates as we grow.

The right person has built or significantly scaled a people function before, ideally inside government contracting, defense, or another regulated industry. You know how to operate at the executive level, you're comfortable owning risk, and you think in terms of workforce planning and organizational design, not just policy enforcement.

What you'll own:

• Multi year people strategy tied to growth and contract pipeline
• Compensation strategy and job architecture
• Compliance risk across federal contracting labor requirements
• Leadership development for a largely site based manager population
• Management and development of the existing HR team

What we're looking for:

• 8 plus years in HR or people leadership, including senior level experience
• A track record of building people infrastructure during a period of company growth
• Government contracting or defense industry experience strongly preferred
• Executive level communication and presence

If you've built a people function before and you're ready to build one that can carry a growing defense contractor through its next stage, we want to talk to you.