HR Infrastructure
for Growing Companies.
I work with growing companies whose org chart does not match reality anymore: titles that no longer mean anything, pay set deal by deal, and no defensible job architecture or compensation framework behind any of it.
I build the organizational design, job architecture, and compensation frameworks that make hiring, pay, and advancement defensible long after I leave. I also build the accountability cadence and leadership practices that keep those systems working. When the answer is not in a policy manual, you get direct senior-level judgment on compensation exceptions, difficult terminations, cross-border issues, and other people decisions that require experience, not a template.
“The work is not finished when the engagement ends. It is finished when the structure still holds without me.”
I help growing companies build the people foundations that turn strategy into results.
Over 25 years I have partnered with CEOs, CFOs, COOs, and CTOs, mostly in technical and scientific organizations. I started on a Bechtel jobsite, where I learned to love project environments and saw firsthand why solid infrastructure matters. I later worked in project IT and infrastructure, which deepened my understanding of how systems, operations, and people have to work together. As Bechtel's Performance Management Strategist, I served as Program and Product Manager for a CEO- and CLO-sponsored performance management transformation across six global business lines and 17,000-plus employees. We delivered the new framework in eleven months, with 82% adoption in the first quarter. Senior leadership recognized the accomplishment, noting that comparable efforts had taken two to three years. That foundation shaped how I approach HR: practical, operational, and focused on building the structures and practices that help the business work better.
I focus on the work that sits between strategy and execution: organization design, job architecture, performance and talent systems, compensation governance, leadership frameworks, and operating model change. Recent examples include turning a professional services model into a scalable SaaS structure, building a company's first job architecture and career ladders, putting clear sales incentive plan governance in place, and designing an enterprise leadership competency framework.
My earlier roles included standing up HR operations for 2,500-plus global technology employees across 15 currencies and 61 locations, scaling a cybersecurity hiring effort from nearly zero to 40 hires in six months, and leading the people side of a 5,000-person business unit consolidation.
I am comfortable going first, working without a playbook, and staying until the work is actually built and working. That includes the harder conversations, backed by training through Cornell's Employee Relations Program and a mediation certification through the Institute for Conflict Management. My focus is creating measurable impact and helping organizations make better people investments as they grow.
People strategy is business strategy. I would like to hear how you are thinking about yours.
Also frequently in attendance: Max, an Abyssinian with strong opinions and a standing invitation to every call. This is a pet-friendly practice, you will meet him.
Ways we partner
You are scaling, and the structure that got you here is starting to show cracks: titles that do not mean anything anymore, pay decisions nobody can defend, and a leadership team fielding questions it does not have answers to yet. Most engagements start with the first service below. The second comes from the same twenty-five years of practice, applied at the individual level.
HR Business Partnership
Senior HR partnership for growing companies that need the right people infrastructure before a full-time senior HR hire makes sense, addressing unclear roles, inconsistent compensation decisions, manager variability, and disconnected talent practices before they become costly problems. Also available as an unbiased third party for workforce investigations when a situation calls for one. Delivered remotely, nationwide.
- Job Architecture & CompensationClear job families, levels, and compensation ranges that give leadership a practical framework for hiring, pay, promotions, and workforce investment, preventing internal inequities and giving employees a clearer view of career progression. Pay anchored to numbers that are not tied to market data cuts both ways: too low and you cannot attract or retain, too high and you are over budget with no way to explain it.
- Leadership & Talent FrameworkA practical, leveled framework built around your company's strategy, leadership expectations, and existing talent data, not an off-the-shelf list, creating a shared standard for evaluating performance, potential, and promotion readiness.
- The Accountability CadenceA repeatable rhythm for goals, check-ins, feedback, performance conversations, and talent decisions, so people decisions do not depend on individual management styles, personalities, or internal politics.
Make people decisions with the same discipline you apply to other business investments.
Executive Coaching for Business Impact
Individual coaching for executives and senior leaders who want to strengthen how they lead, make decisions, and get results through others. The work is practical and business-focused, connecting individual leadership behavior to the outcomes that matter most: execution, accountability, team effectiveness, and retention.
- Decision SpeedStrengthens how leaders evaluate information, make decisions, and move work forward without creating unnecessary bottlenecks or escalation.
- Organizational LeverageHelps leaders delegate more effectively, build stronger teams, and expand their impact without becoming the point of dependency for every decision.
- Talent LeadershipStrengthens how leaders assess performance, develop talent, set expectations, and make difficult people decisions with greater clarity and consistency.
- Leadership EffectivenessIdentifies the specific habits or behaviors creating friction, slowing execution, or affecting team engagement and retention, and builds practices that produce stronger results.
- Cost DisciplineStrengthens how leaders weigh headcount, compensation, and retention decisions against budget impact, not just team morale or urgency.
Business Impact & Leadership Perspective
Results driven across scaling organizations, backed by feedback from the leaders who built alongside me.
“I had the pleasure of working with Jill for 3 years while she served as HR Director at PMG. Jill consistently demonstrated strengths in working cross functionally in a matrixed organization… One of her most significant contributions was creation of functional career ladders, which resulted in a significant increase in clarity on career trajectory for our team.”
“I partnered with Jill in my role as Compensation Center of Excellence lead when she built QuartzBio's first job architecture from scratch, across 11 functions and 80 roles… She grounded every leveling decision in market benchmarks and internal equity, which cut job description turnaround from three days to under one day and eliminated offer exceptions entirely.”
“Jill’s expertise in strategic program development and her ability to unite people were invaluable to our team… Her leadership was essential as we designed and launched a performance management application for our global workforce of over 17,000 employees. Jill listened to every idea, welcomed feedback, and made sure everyone felt included in the process.”
“Jill quickly grasped the business context and provided practical HR guidance that supported both leadership and operational teams… Jill also partnered with Legal, finance and Commercial leadership to establish the company’s first formal sales commission governance framework.”
“Jill was the HR Business Partner across a period of real growth and complexity for my Global Marketing team at Precision Medicine Group. She built job descriptions and salary structure where none existed, and handled compensation exceptions with judgment I could rely on without having to double check her work.”
“Working with Jill was a highlight of my time at Bechtel. I knew that she would ‘tell it to me straight’ and help navigate through any tricky HR situation. I found Jill also a good person to bounce non-HR ideas off of, using her knowledge of the business to identify improvements and potential risks.”
Featured Insights
Practical frameworks, talent strategy, and leadership execution principles drawn from 25 years of building people infrastructure for companies.
A $70,000 Spread Is Not a Pay Range
Pay transparency laws pushed companies to publish ranges before doing the leveling work underneath them. A spread that wide is not flexibility, it is several different jobs hiding under one title, and it leaves a CFO with no real number to budget, forecast, or decide from.
Read the full post →
Why Employee Surveys Fail Without Leader Ownership
Employee surveys do not fail because the data is wrong. They fail when leaders collect feedback and do nothing with it, and employees notice. The fix is an accountability cadence: review the results together, focus on what matters most, own the action items, then validate the plan with the team before calling it done.
Read the full post →
Title Inflation Is a Financial Problem, Not a Morale Win
Handing out titles feels generous and costs nothing in the moment, until the comp cycle arrives and every one becomes a market anchor, leaving a CFO holding a compensation liability nobody signed off on. The fix is not a title conversation. It is a real leveling framework tied to scope, decision rights, and impact.
Read the full post →Rethinking Organizational Design: Mapping the Informal Network
97% of HR leaders report their function is restructuring. Less than half say it is working. Job titles describe the formal hierarchy, not the informal network that actually determines execution speed.
Read the full post →The Art of Regular Check-ins: A Framework for Managers
70% of team engagement is explained by the manager alone. Capability does not improve through another training program, it improves when check-ins keep pace with the business and senior leaders model the behavior themselves.
Read the full post →Why Hiring More HRBPs Does Not Fix the Real Problem
Gartner research: 77% of HR Business Partners spend at least a quarter of their week on tactical requests. The fix is not more headcount, it is deciding upfront which metrics actually connect to business outcomes.
Read the full post →Loneliness Is a Business Problem, Not Just a Feelings Problem
That number has not moved despite years of wellness investment. Real psychological safety comes from everyday behavior, not another program, listening, staying present, and building trust before you need it. (There is a Big Bird lesson in here too.)
Read the full post →A clear path from first conversation to the right plan, timing, and investment
We start with a conversation about what you are trying to accomplish, where growth is creating friction, and where greater people structure or leadership support could make the biggest impact. From there, we determine the right scope and next step.
Assessment
I take time to understand how the organization actually works, including business priorities, workforce data, leadership practices, existing processes, and the people closest to the work.
The result is a clear view of what is working, where risk or friction exists, and what should be addressed first. You will know the priorities, scope, deliverables, timing, investment, and boundaries of the work before we move into implementation.
Design & Build
Once priorities are clear, we turn the plan into practical tools, structures, and ways of working that fit the business.
Through focused working sessions, ongoing collaboration, and hands-on support, I carry the work through implementation rather than stopping at recommendations. The people closest to the work are involved where it matters so what we build is practical, usable, and designed to last.
Retained Partnership
For companies that need continued senior HR support, the engagement can move into an ongoing partnership. Together, we review what is working, what has changed, where new needs are emerging, and what leadership should address next.
This provides continued access to senior HR expertise as the company grows without requiring a full-time senior HR hire before the business needs one.
Talk with me about your structure.
Whether your organization has outgrown its structure or you need a trusted sounding board for leadership challenges, or a plan you can defend to your board, the first conversation is unscripted.