Chief People Development Officer

1.  Workforce Capability Strategy

• 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.

2.  AI and Transformation-Era Learning

• Develop and implement a firm-wide AI learning strategy that builds employee fluency, confidence, and practical capability to work alongside AI tools — not as a one-time initiative, but 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 — adaptive, modular, and measurable rather than episodic. Stay connected to the business to develop proactive development solutions driven by their business transformations.

3.  Development Strategy and Curriculum Design

• 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.

4.  Leadership and Career Development

• Build and sustain leadership development programs that create a robust internal pipeline — from emerging leaders through partner-track candidates — reflecting Aprio's growth trajectory and succession needs.


• Partner with HRBPs and business leaders on individual development planning for high-potential and key talent, ensuring development is connected to real career paths and not siloed from talent review processes.


• Design compelling career development frameworks that serve as a retention lever — giving employees visible, credible pathways to growth within the firm.

5.  Technology, Operations, and Budget

• Own the learning technology stack — selecting, implementing, and evolving platforms that expand accessibility, personalization, and scale of learning delivery.


• Manage the L&D P&L, including annual budgeting, resource allocation, and ROI measurement. Make the investment case for initiatives in business terms.


• Ensure all programs meet relevant regulatory and compliance requirements (AICPA, PCAOB, and other applicable standards), integrated efficiently rather than treated as a standalone workstream.

The right candidate thinks like a business strategist who happens to own learning and development – not the reverse. Specifically:

• Demonstrated ability to connect development strategy to business outcomes in measurable terms, leading with business impact before program design.


• Experience building or scaling an L&D function in a high-growth, acquisition-active, or transformation-era organization. Stability-era CLO backgrounds are a poor fit for this moment.


• Credibility and fluency in workforce strategy conversations — comfortable presenting to and pushing back on senior business leaders, not just operating within the People function.


• A track record of building AI or emerging-technology learning programs — not studying it, doing it.


• Comfort with ambiguity and iteration. Aprio is actively building, not optimizing a mature system. The CPDO will need to make decisions with incomplete information and adjust quickly.


• Strong relationship-building capability in a matrixed organization where influence matters more than authority. Willingness to collaborate with other People + Culture leaders to deliver holistic support to our clients.