Head of HR and Talent Development

Talent Development Manager/Palo Alto, CA

Shift: 20 hours per week, onsite in Palo Alto every Monday (Tuesday when Monday is a holiday), remainder flexible
A publicly traded data security and enterprise AI company headquartered in Palo Alto, with roughly 3,000 to 4,000 employees globally and more than 20 offices worldwide. This role sits inside the global Talent Development and Inclusion team, working alongside HR Business Partners and People Partners at the Palo Alto headquarters. Survey and feedback instrument design and administration, including cycle management and clean data flows
People and program data analysis, scorecard and dashboard building, and turning feedback data into recommendations
Learning Management System (LMS) administration
Facilitate in person New Hire Orientation in Palo Alto every Monday, a 45 minute session, and act as the Day 1 face of the company for Americas new hires
Redesign orientation content so it reflects current culture, AI direction, and the full product platform
Own the global New Hire Orientation strategy and playbook, codify how orientation runs, and train a volunteer facilitator bench from across functions
Build and run the measurement strategy for the Talent Development and Inclusion team
Administer talent development, inclusion, and periodic 360 feedback surveys, including building instruments, managing cycles, and maintaining data quality
Analyze feedback and usage data to produce insights on learner experience and recommend changes that increase engagement
Produce quarterly learning events for Palo Alto and the Americas, including local development sessions and manager programs
Advise HR Business Partners, People Partners, and local leaders on how to apply existing talent development offerings to their team needs
Apply generative AI tooling across the work to speed up design, analysis, and content production
Bachelor's degree in a related field and 5 or more years of relevant experience
Hands on experience with data management and data analysis tools, including building and maintaining recurring reporting
Experience administering a Learning Management System
Working knowledge of Google Workspace and spreadsheet based analysis, plus practical experience using generative AI assistants in day to day work
Bonus If You Have

Workday experience
survey, surveys, Qualtrics, feedback, measurement, metrics, analytics, analysis, insights, scorecard, dashboard, reporting, LMS, Docebo, elearning, learning, curriculum, onboarding, orientation
Top 3 LinkedIn Job Titles

Talent Development Program Manager
Learning and Development Program Manager
People Analytics Manager
Market context for a comparable Learning and Development Program Manager in the Palo Alto area: salary.Glassdoor's general Palo Alto program manager band runs from roughly $152,000 at the 25th percentile upward, though that pool skews technical and runs higher than L&D specifically.
Translating to contract, a candidate facing rate in the $65 to $85 per hour range would land roughly at market for a 5 plus year talent development professional in this market. The 20 hour per week structure is the real pricing wrinkle. Strong candidates will treat a part time contract as a partial income and will either want a premium hourly rate or the freedom to hold other work. Confirm the rate before heavy outreach.
Local talent pool, Peninsula and South Bay employers with real Talent Development and People Analytics functions:

Palo Alto Networks
VMware (Broadcom)
Adobe
Google
This person owns the global New Hire Orientation strategy and the measurement strategy for the entire Talent Development and Inclusion function. They are the first company face every new Americas hire sees, and they partner directly with HRBPs and senior leaders in Palo Alto.
The team is actively using Claude and Gemini in the work, which is a resume builder for anyone trying to move into AI enabled People Operations.
This is a part time contract at a Palo Alto cost of living. Anyone who needs full time income will churn.
Facilitation charisma and survey/data rigor rarely sit in the same person. Expect to trade off, and decide with the hiring manager which side matters more before sourcing heavily.
Five to ten years in Learning and Development, Talent Development, Onboarding, or People Analytics, most likely at a technology company.
Currently either an independent L&D consultant, a contractor between engagements, or someone deliberately working reduced hours (parent returning to work, portfolio careerist, semi retired corporate L&D leader).
Comfortable standing in front of a room of new hires on Monday morning and comfortable cleaning survey data on Wednesday afternoon.
Likely has Qualtrics or a comparable survey platform on their profile, plus at least one named LMS.
LinkedIn Recruiter as the primary channel, using the Boolean below and the location coverage lists.
Target Talent Development and People Analytics teams at the local employers listed above, especially companies that have had recent layoffs or hiring freezes in their People function.
Independent L&D consultants and fractional People Operations practitioners, who fit the 20 hour structure naturally.
ATD (Association for Talent Development) Bay Area chapter networks and Qualtrics or Docebo user community groups.
Alumni of the peer vendor set (Cohesity, Veeam, Druva) who already understand the data security space.
LinkedIn Location Coverage: Palo Alto, CA
drive time from Palo Alto LinkedIn recognition confidence
Union City
Verification note: drive times for San Francisco, Oakland, Fremont, Pleasanton, Santa Cruz, Gilroy, Berkeley, and Half Moon Bay were confirmed against published route data, then widened into ranges to account for Peninsula commute traffic. Broad LinkedIn location coverage list

Union City
Lean LinkedIn location coverage list

onboarding OR "on-boarding" OR orientation OR L&D OR "talent development" OR "learning and development") AND (survey OR surveys OR measurement OR metrics OR analytics OR analysis OR scorecard OR dashboard OR dashboards OR reporting OR insights OR LMS OR "learning management" OR elearning OR "e-learning") AND (Qualtrics OR SurveyMonkey OR "Culture Amp" OR Docebo OR Cornerstone OR SuccessFactors OR Workday OR Jira OR Confluence OR "Google Workspace" OR facilitation OR facilitator OR facilitating OR curriculum OR "instructional design" OR "360 feedback" OR "employee experience" OR "people analytics" OR GenAI OR "generative AI" OR ChatGPT OR Copilot)