Senior Director, People Experience (Americas)

Location: United States, San Mateo, CA Why Sony Interactive Entertainment? Sony Interactive Entertainment isn’t just the Best Place to Play — it’s also the Best Place to Work. Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) is the company behind the PlayStation brand. As a subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation, we’re part of a proud legacy of innovation and excellence. SIE is a dynamic technology company, delivering cutting-edge hardware and network services to more than 100 million people and an entertainment leader, home to some of the most beloved and recognizable intellectual properties (IP) in the world. Our role at SIE is to create and nurture the experiences under the PlayStation brand, a name synonymous with entertainment excellence and creativity. Senior Director, People Experience, Americas San Mateo, CA | Hybrid - 2 days per week in our San Mateo office Role Summary: Sony Interactive Entertainment (PlayStation) is seeking a strategic, operationally strong, and people-centered Senior Director, People Experience, Americas to lead our regional People Experience (PX) organization, supporting approximately 7,000 employees across engineering, product, studios, and corporate functions. This leader will oversee a broad portfolio of employee-facing HR services, including HR advisory and generalist services, Employee Relations operations, Americas Payroll, HR compliance, recognition programs, and HR service transformation. Working closely with HR Business Partners, Centers of Excellence, Legal, HR Technology, and global PX leaders, they will translate people strategy into scalable, well-governed execution and a consistent employee experience. The ideal candidate combines strategic vision with hands-on operational leadership, bringing the ability to lead complex transformation while maintaining service excellence and business continuity. They will build on an established foundation, strengthen operational effectiveness, and guide teams through evolving business needs, technologies, and ways of working. Success requires a collaborative and thoughtful leadership style, sound judgment, commercial awareness, and the ability to influence across a global, highly matrixed organization. This leader will bring curiosity, humility, and a listen-and-learn mindset, balanced with the confidence to challenge constructively, make informed recommendations, and align stakeholders around shared priorities. What You'll Be Doing: Lead the Americas People Experience organization, setting regional strategy, operational priorities, and service standards aligned with global People & Places objectives while building on existing strengths and driving continued transformation. Lead and develop a multidisciplinary organization spanning HR advisory and generalist services, Employee Relations operations, Americas Payroll, HR compliance, recognition, and employee-facing HR services. Partner with HR Business Partners and senior business leaders to translate workforce, talent, organizational design, and change priorities into coordinated implementation plans and effective operational delivery. Oversee employee lifecycle services and complex workforce activities, including organizational changes, acquisitions and integrations, restructures, role eliminations, and workforce transitions, ensuring thoughtful execution and a consistent employee experience. Provide senior governance for Employee Relations operations, including case management, escalation, documentation, risk identification, and partnership with Legal, Compliance, and HR Business Partners. Oversee Americas Payroll and regional HR compliance, ensuring effective operational controls, regulatory alignment, risk management, audit readiness, and service continuity across multiple jurisdictions. Drive modernization and transformation of HR service delivery, leveraging Workday, ServiceNow, analytics, automation, and responsible AI to simplify processes, strengthen self-service capabilities, and improve the employee and manager experience. Establish clear service standards, KPIs, dashboards, and governance practices to measure operational performance, service quality, employee experience, risk, and team capacity, using insights to drive continuous improvement. Lead cross-functional transformation initiatives that simplify fragmented processes, clarify decision rights and accountability, strengthen documentation, and establish scalable, consistent practices across regions. Build strong partnerships with global PX leaders, HR Business Partners, Centers of Excellence, HR Technology, Finance, and Legal to operationalize people programs and align regional delivery with global priorities. Serve as a trusted adviser and escalation point for senior People leadership, navigating complex and sensitive matters, influencing decisions, and balancing employee experience, business needs, and organizational risk. Build and develop a high-performing leadership team, fostering accountability, collaboration, inclusion, succession planning, and the ability to navigate change with confidence and resilience. Manage regional budgets, vendors, workforce plans, and resource allocation to ensure effective, sustainable, and well-controlled service delivery. Represent the Americas in global People Experience forums and initiatives, influencing enterprise standards while ensuring regional requirements, local-market needs, and employee impacts are understood and addressed. What We're Looking For: 15+ years of progressive HR leadership experience, including significant responsibility for People Experience, HR Operations, HR Shared Services, Employee Relations, or HR transformation within a large, complex organization. Proven experience leading leaders and multidisciplinary HR teams, with accountability for operational performance, talent development, organizational effectiveness, and service delivery. Demonstrated success operating at the Senior Director level or equivalent, advising executives and influencing across a global, highly matrixed environment. Deep understanding of HR operating models and the distinct responsibilities of HR Business Partners, People Experience or People Operations, Centers of Excellence, Legal, and HR Technology. Strong systems thinking, with the ability to navigate dependencies across HR services, technology, processes, and stakeholders while balancing enterprise priorities with regional business needs. Broad knowledge of U.S. employment practices, HR compliance, employee lifecycle operations, and complex workforce matters, with the judgment to navigate sensitive employee situations and organizational change. Experience overseeing or governing payroll operations, including controls, compliance, issue management, systems, vendors, and cross-functional dependencies. Proven success leading complex HR transformation and change initiatives, translating strategy into execution across people, processes, technology, communications, and adoption while maintaining operational stability. Experience modernizing HR service delivery through Workday, ServiceNow, or comparable HR technology platforms, analytics, automation, and digital employee experiences. Strong analytical and commercial acumen, with the ability to define meaningful KPIs, evaluate operational performance, identify risks, and translate insights into actionable business decisions. Exceptional communication, relationship-building, and executive influencing skills, with the ability to navigate ambiguity, competing priorities, and differing perspectives. A collaborative, adaptable, and people-centered leadership style, demonstrating curiosity, humility, resilience, sound judgment, and the ability to balance strategic thinking with hands-on execution. Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience. Additional Experience That Would Be Valuable: Experience supporting employees across multiple Americas jurisdictions, including Canada and Latin America. Background in gaming, technology, media, entertainment, or similarly complex, fast-paced industries. Experience supporting diverse employee populations across engineering, product, creative, and corporate functions. Experience leading large-scale organizational transformations, mergers, acquisitions, integrations, or workforce restructuring. Experience with global HR service-delivery models, recognition programs, employee experience initiatives, and cross-regional transformation. Familiarity with AI-enabled HR solutions, digital employee experiences, and responsible AI adoption. Advanced HR certification or qualification, such as SPHR, SHRM-SCP, FCIPD, or equivalent. #LI-SF1 At SIE, we consider several factors when setting each role’s base pay range, including the competitive benchmarking data for the market and geographic location. Please note that the base pay range may vary in line with our hybrid working policy and individual base pay will be determined based on job-related factors which may include knowledge, skills, experience, and location. In addition, this role is eligible for SIE’s top-tier benefits package that includes medical, dental, vision, matching 401(k), paid time off, wellness program and coveted employee discounts for Sony products. This role also may be eligible for a bonus package. Click here to learn more. The estimated base pay range for this role is listed below. $273,500 — $410,300 USD Please note, Sony Interactive Entertainment conducts background checks at the offer stage for all new employees (which may include criminal background checks for some roles) and will need to process personal information to support these checks. Please refer to our Candidate Privacy Notice (where applicable) for more information about what personal information we collect, how we use it, who we share it with, and your data protection rights. Equal Opportunity Statement: Sony is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All persons will receive consideration for employment without regard to gender (including gender identity, gender expression and gender reassignment), race (including colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin), religion or belief, marital or civil partnership status, disability, age, sexual orientation, pregnancy, maternity or parental status, trade union membership or membership in any other legally protected category. We strive to create an inclusive environment, empower employees and embrace diversity. We encourage everyone to respond. Sony Interactive Entertainment is a Fair Chance employer and qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records will be considered for employment.