VP of Talent and Culture

Location: Chicago, IL (Hybrid) – Consistent presence at our John Hancock location with occasional travel to Michigan

Compensation: $120,000 - $150,000 Base Salary + Performance Bonus

Reports To: Chief Integration Officer, CEO

Vertis Wealth and Law is redefining how affluent families receive advice.

We serve the "regular rich" through an integrated family office model that combines Wealth Management, Estate & Business Law Planning, and Tax Planning under one coordinated platform.

Unlike traditional firms where financial advisors, attorneys, and CPAs work independently, Vertis brings these disciplines together to help clients make better decisions regarding their wealth, businesses, families, and legacy.

The Vice President of Talent and Culture will be one of the firm's most influential executives. This is not a traditional HR-administration role. It is a recruiting-led, relationship-driven position for someone who can find extraordinary people, earn their trust over long periods, sell a compelling future honestly, build practical training systems, and hold leaders accountable for developing the people they manage.

• Own recruiting across the enterprise—from partner-level Wealth Managers, enterprise builders, attorneys, CPAs, and Financial Advisors to Account Managers, administrative professionals, reception, and interns.
• Build confidential pipelines of passive candidates before positions become urgent. A true Wealth Manager or firm-leader recruit may require 12-18 months of patient, thoughtful pursuit.
• Run direct outreach, referrals, research, networking, assessment, references, closing, and integration. This work is closer to executive search and business development than to posting jobs and processing applicants.
• Create a candidate experience that reflects Vertis: ambitious, direct, organized, warm, discreet, and honest.
• Partner with the CEO and CIO to identify, assess, and close the most consequential candidates.

• Build role-specific onboarding and 30/60/90-day development plans for critical positions.
• Translate the practices of Vertis's best performers into repeatable training, manager tools, and a usable knowledge library.
• Create career paths for high-performing advisors, Account Managers, professional staff, reception talent, and interns.
• Ensure training changes performance. A completed course is not the same as demonstrated readiness.
• Equip managers to coach effectively, then verify that the coaching and development actually occur.

• Lead quarterly talent reviews, succession planning, high-potential development, and early identification of retention risk.
• Help leaders maintain a high-performance, high-character culture where people work hard, tell the truth, keep commitments, serve clients and community, and support one another.
• Hold department leaders—including Wealth Managers—accountable for nurturing and developing their teams.
• Identify weak management or toxic behavior early and elevate it with evidence and judgment.
• Give exceptional employees a credible reason to build their careers at Vertis.

You will learn Vertis Partner Holdings (VPH) intimately. VPH is our strategy for building relationships with independent advisory-firm principals and aligning firms and professionals with the Vertis platform and long-term enterprise vision. You will help map and recruit potential principals and market leaders, assess their leadership benches, and build the talent-integration plan for affiliated teams.

This requires commercial sophistication. You must be able to understand a complex affiliation proposition, discuss it persuasively within approved boundaries, and know when the CEO and CIO must lead the conversation.

• The CIO is your direct manager and operating partner.
• The CEO is your strategic recruiting partner and will help close partner-level and enterprise-building candidates.
• The Controller partners on headcount budgets, compensation controls, benefits, and accurate administration.
• Functional leaders define business needs and manage employees daily; you ensure the people system works across…