Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. (AQN), parent company of Liberty, is a diversified international generation, transmission, and distribution utility. AQN is committed to providing safe, reliable, and cost-effective energy and water solutions through our portfolio of utility investments to over one million customer connections, largely in the United States and Canada.
At Algonquin, our vision is to be the most trusted utility service provider in North America – a premium regulated utility, known for our customer focus, commitment to sustainability, and strong community partnerships. Our employees are at the heart of that vision. We believe that when people are empowered to learn, grow, and contribute their ideas, we can achieve remarkable results together.
We are building a culture that values integrity, inclusivity, and innovation. By joining Algonquin, you’ll be part of a team that is shaping the future of energy and water, while creating long-term value for our customers, communities, employees, and shareholders.
Purpose
The Director of Talent leads an integrated talent strategy that ensures the organization can attract, develop, and retain the people and capabilities required to operate a safe, reliable, customer-focused utility business during a period of business and workforce transformation.
The role is responsible for creating an integrated talent strategy spanning talent acquisition, leadership development, succession management, performance management, career development, and organizational capability building. Working closely with executive leaders, HR Business Partners, and function leaders, the Director will shape the future workforce, strengthen leadership capability, build talent pipelines for critical roles, and accelerate organizational readiness for change.
This is a hands-on leadership role requiring both strategic leadership and direct execution. While responsible for leading and developing a team, the Director is expected to personally lead critical talent initiatives, facilitate executive talent discussions, design talent solutions, and drive outcomes. Success requires a builder-operator who is equally comfortable shaping enterprise strategy and rolling up their sleeves to execute.
As a member of the HR Leadership Team, the Director serves as a trusted advisor to executives on leadership effectiveness, organizational capability, succession risk, engagement, and talent investment decisions.
Accountabilities
Enterprise Talent Strategy and Leadership
- Develop and execute a multi-year talent roadmap aligned with business strategy, workforce needs, operating plans, and financial commitments.
- Partner with senior leaders to identify future workforce and leadership capability requirements and develop plans to address critical gaps.
- Lead enterprise workforce capability assessments and translate findings into practical talent, development, succession planning actions.
- Build integrated talent programs that connect attraction, development, performance, succession, and internal mobility into a cohesive employee experience.
- Establish clear talent priorities, governance, accountability, and measurement across all talent disciplines.
- Manage talent budgets, vendors, and technology investments; simplify processes and demonstrate the value of talent programs through business outcomes.
Talent Acquisition
- Lead talent attraction strategies and delivery across skilled trades, field operations, engineering, customer service, professional, and leadership roles.
- Develop long-term workforce and talent pipeline strategies for critical and difficult-to-fill positions.
- Strengthen employer branding, candidate experience, assessment methods, and hiring manager capability in partnership with Communications and HR.
- Strengthen employer brand positioning, candidate experience, selection methodologies, and hiring manager effectiveness.
- Leverage data driven talent attraction approach for hiring quality, speed, cost, and retention; coordinate with Labor Relations on hiring practices involving represented roles.
Learning and Development
- Establish enterprise learning strategies for leadership development, learning, and workforce capability building.
- Design and implement development approaches that strengthen leadership effectiveness, succession readiness, and future workforce capabilities.
- Lead initiatives that support organizational transformation, technology adoption, and evolving business requirements.
- Measure success through demonstrated capability growth, readiness, performance, and business impact.
Talent Management
- Lead enterprise talent reviews and succession planning for executive, leadership, and business-critical roles; assess readiness and address succession gaps.
- Establish clear competency and leadership capability frameworks, career pathways, and internal mobility practices that support business needs and employee growth.
- Identify leadership pipeline risks and implement targeted actions to strengthen bench strength and readiness.
- Translate organizational capability assessments into practical talent strategies that support workforce transformation and business performance.
Education and Experience
- Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources, Business, Organizational Development, Education, Psychology, or a related field, or an equivalent combination of education and relevant experience.
- Typically 10 or more years of progressive HR or talent experience, including at least five years leading teams and enterprise programs.
- Demonstrated leadership across Talent Acquisition, Learning and Development, and Talent Management, with the ability to integrate these functions into a cohesive strategy.
- Experience supporting a geographically dispersed workforce with operational, technical, and corporate roles; utility, energy, infrastructure, or another regulated industry experience strongly preferred.
- Experience working with unionized and nonunionized employee populations and partnering effectively with HR and Labor Relations.
- Demonstrated success in leadership development, succession planning, talent assessment, recruitment strategy, and organizational change.
- Experience managing budgets, vendors, applicant tracking systems, learning management systems, and talent or performance platforms.
- Master’s degree and relevant HR, talent development, coaching, or change management credentials are assets.
Core Capabilities
- Strategic business judgment: Connects talent priorities to safety, reliability, customer outcomes, operational performance, and financial discipline.
- Executive influence: Builds credibility, offers constructive challenge, and turns talent discussions into clear decisions and follow-through.
- Integrated talent leadership: Connects hiring, onboarding, development, performance, succession, and mobility across the employee lifecycle.
- People leadership: Builds capable teams, develops future leaders, and holds the function accountable for quality and service.
- Change leadership and execution: Anticipates workforce implications, prioritizes effectively, and delivers practical solutions in a changing environment.
- Data and technology fluency: Uses evidence to identify risks, improve decisions, evaluate program value, and strengthen the user experience.
- Collaboration and inclusion: Works across functions and employee groups with sound judgment, discretion, and commitment to fair opportunity.
Measures of Success
Success will be assessed through agreed measures such as critical role hiring and retention, hiring manager and candidate experience, succession coverage and readiness, internal movement, demonstrated learning application, leadership effectiveness, talent process quality, and delivery within budget. Targets will be established against business priorities and baseline performance.
Location and Travel
The position is based in Chicago, Illinois, with travel to operating locations and corporate offices as required. Work arrangements and travel expectations will be confirmed by the organization.
Our purpose is sustaining energy and water for life, and it is demonstrated in everything we do as a business and as an employee team.
As the successful candidate
Our Mission
We provide safe, secure, reliable, cost-effective and sustainable energy and water solutions. Our mission is how we create value as an organization - it is what drives us every day to fulfill our purpose.
Our Vision
We better the lives of our customers and communities. Our vision is what we see as possible. It's where we aspire to be, what we want to achieve and how we'll make an impact. It guides and keeps us on the right path as we work towards fulfilling our purposes.
Our Guiding Principles
- Customer Centric
- Integrity
- Entrepreneurial
- Teamwork
- Owner mindset
- Outcome focused
- Continuous learning
What we offer
Collaborative environment with a genuine flexible working policy
401k Plan with matching
Share purchase/match plan
Leadership Development Program
Volunteer paid days off
Employee Assistance Program
Achievement fund
Free parking
Variety of Health & Wellness programs
Discount and Perks program
We are focused on building a diverse and inclusive workforce. If you are excited about this role and are not confident you meet all the qualification requirements, we encourage you to apply to investigate the opportunity further.
We are an equal opportunity employer and value each person's unique background, diversity, experiences, perspectives and talents.
Full participation of all employees in a safe, healthy and respectful environment is key to individual and company success. We are committed to fully utilizing the abilities of all our employees and expect each of our employees to honour this commitment in their daily responsibilities.
