Chief People Officer (CPO

Chief People Officer (CPO)

Johnson Lambert is a progressive public accounting firm, specializing in providing audit, tax, and advisory services to the insurance, not-for-profit and employee benefit plan industries. From our eight offices we provide services to clients on a national scale. Our highly trained professionals bring a unique depth of knowledge and specialization to our industry clients. We are proud of our 40 year history and excited about our future.

Johnson Lambert's core values: agility, trust, and respect guide us as an organization and an employer. Our mission is to provide the highest quality services within the distinct industry markets that we serve, and to earn our clients' trust as a valued business partner. We aim to be the choice employer for our profession's most innovative and dedicated talent.

Johnson Lambert is searching for a Chief People Officer (CPO) to serve as a strategic executive leader. This role aligns human capital initiatives with overall firm growth objectives. The CPO leads a team spanning human resources, talent acquisition, and learning and development (L&D), driving strategy while empowering the team to execute with excellence. The position focuses on cultivating a high-performance culture, scaling internal technical capabilities, and positioning the firm as a premier employer in the accounting industry.

• Executive Leadership & Governance:
  Partner with the COO, Managing Partner, and Executive Committee to align people strategies with business growth and service objectives, providing vision and foresight on critical people-related opportunities and challenges before they impact the firm.
• Risk Mitigation:
  Ensure total compliance with federal, state, and local employment laws.
• Data Intelligence:
  Develop analytics-based approaches to track engagement, turnover risk, and operational workforce costs, translating findings into targeted action that improves retention and workforce efficiency.
• Culture Cultivation:
  Foster a strong, inclusive, and values-driven internal culture that keeps top talent engaged and committed to the firm.

• Recruiting & Hiring Strategy:
  Set the firm's overall hiring strategy—rethinking who we hire and how at every career stage in light of the impact of technology on the profession, evolving screening approaches, and evaluating the right mix of outsourced/offshore resources to balance economics while maintaining workforce continuity through retirements and evolving work demands. As needed, take a hands-on role in unique, specialized, and executive-level hires, while providing light-touch oversight of standard recruiting programs (including campus recruitment) led by the team.
• Employer Branding:
  Build and promote the firm's external reputation and market presence to attract high-caliber tax, audit, and advisory professionals.
• Onboarding Excellence:
  Standardize automated integration processes to accelerate new-hire productivity. Own onboarding strategy in partnership with other leaders across the full first year of employment.

• CPE Compliance:
  Ensure the L&D team maintains compliance automation so all professional staff meet mandatory state board credit requirements.
• Technical Upskilling:
  Own the strategic vision for how AI and automation should reshape our training priorities—determining what we train, who needs it, and when, as the profession evolves. Ensure L&D partners closely with practice leaders to translate that vision into training on tax changes, audit methodologies, and software/tool adoption that genuinely upskills staff.
• Leadership Pipelines:
  Create structured programs preparing high-potential seniors and managers for Partner/MD track positions.
• Performance Frameworks:
  Continuously improve and modernize performance cycles and goal-tracking systems, and design how feedback from performance management informs L&D programming through macro trend analysis.

Required Skills/Abilities/Characteristics

• Performance Drive:
  High level of personal accountability with a consistent orientation toward achieving measurable business results.
• Relationship…