Chief People Development Officer

About This Role

This role is a strategic architect of Aprio's transformation from a people and capability standpoint, owning the firm's people development strategy. The Chief People Development Officer (CPDO) serves as a critical thought partner to the Chief People Officer on workforce strategy, bringing deep capability and skills expertise to inform how Aprio builds, develops, and deploys its talent in a profession being reshaped by automation and AI. The CPDO reports to the Chief People Officer and is a key driver of Aprio's Value Creation Plan, specifically the Unmatched Talent pillar.

Responsibilities

• Define the capability model Aprio needs to execute its business strategy, today and over a three-to-five year horizon, accounting for the impact of AI, automation, and evolving client expectations on the profession
• Advise and inform the CPO's workforce composition decisions, bringing a skills and capability lens to questions of onshore/offshore mix, technology displacement, and new role creation, and translating those decisions into learning and development architecture
• Serve as an internal subject matter authority on skills, capability gaps, and readiness for strategic initiatives including M&A integration, new service line development, and market expansion
• Develop and implement a firm-wide AI learning strategy that builds employee fluency, confidence, and practical capability to work alongside AI tools, as an ongoing and evolving program tied to adoption and business outcomes
• Design reskilling and upskilling pathways that address the real displacement and role-evolution risks facing staff at all levels as the profession transforms
• Ensure learning programs keep pace with the rate of change in the business, making them adaptive, modular, and measurable rather than episodic
• Stay connected to the business to develop proactive development solutions driven by their business transformations
• Design and execute a comprehensive, differentiated learning strategy that addresses the needs of diverse talent segments: campus hires developing foundational skills, experienced staff deepening technical expertise, and senior leaders navigating strategic complexity
• Build and oversee curriculum across technical, leadership, and professional development domains, ensuring content is relevant to Aprio's specific practices, segments, and client context, not generic
• Experiment with and establish new modes of learning to account for changes in the historical apprenticeship model
• Establish rigorous learning measurement: move beyond completion rates to demonstrable impact on performance, retention, and business outcomes using OKR methodology and defined KPIs
• Build and sustain leadership development programs that create a robust internal pipeline, from emerging leaders through partner-track candidates

About the Company