Wende Smith

Owned HR systems strategy/optimization, compliance, and people analytics, overseeing the full employee experience lifecycle. Led a 9-member People Operations & Facilities team supporting 1,400+ U.S. staff and launched onboarding and leadership development programs, including a Policy Management System to support key SaaS certifications.

Led a 5-person Total Rewards team covering global compensation, benefits, mobility, LOA, wellness, and employee recognition. Developed and rolled out Pay Transparency and implemented Workday modules plus a self-service global HR portal to support pay planning across the UK, Germany, the US, and Japan.

Oversaw People Operations including acquisition integration, HRIS administration, global mobility, LOA, wellness, benefits, recognition, employee records, and HR analytics/reporting. Partnered with IT and HR to improve global total rewards programs and implement recognition, I-9 automation, merit/bonus support in Workday, and background checks via Sterling.

Managed a 42-member global HR team spanning compensation, HR operations, HR systems, HR services, and HR outsourcing. Served as HR functional leader on a $40M Workday deployment across 59 countries for 60,000 employees, drove multi-region consolidation achieving $15M savings over 5 years, and deployed Salesforce Service Cloud for HR service centralization (140K+ transactions annually).

Managed a team of 25 employees and contractors delivering Employee Success services globally for a 20K-employee CRM organization. Implemented Tier 0/1/2 support for high-volume LOA, wellness, benefits, recognition, and reporting; earned the company’s first “Leadership in HR compliance” award; and helped deliver Workday Time and Labor plus a new “Day One” onboarding experience.

Led talent acquisition, benefits, compensation, HR technology, and HR operations, directing a team of 7 plus 9 indirect recruiters and coordinators. Managed an $18M budget and drove $1.5M in annual benefits administration savings through automation and vendor/cost restructuring, including a PeopleSoft-to-Oracle Fusion HCM modernization and SuccessFactors performance/process improvements that reduc

Directed the HR PMO office and supported over 6 annual HR technology implementations, managing a team of 7 project managers and business analysts. Delivered multiple process improvements, including a $1M SAP open enrollment self-serve solution, a $1.2M Nucleus LOA case management rollout centralized for 27 locations with a 3-year NPV of $1.5M, and an $800K Plateau LMS replacement to expand trainin

Built a scalable, centralized HR Operations model for a 10K-member workforce, improving employee relations, benefits administration, vendor management, and internal communications. Led HR Steering Committee governance for HR program deliverables and drove HR systems roadmap planning, budgeting, goal-setting, and change management for HR technology impacts and process implementations.

Completed 1 year of Bachelor of Arts degree studies at Seattle Central Community College.