Director, Agentic Talent Capability & Skills Strategy

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Job Category

Employee Success

Job Details

About Salesforce

Salesforce is the #1 AI CRM, where humans with agents drive customer success together. Here, ambition meets action. Tech meets trust. And innovation isn’t a buzzword — it’s a way of life. The world of work as we know it is changing and we're looking for Trailblazers who are passionate about bettering business and the world through AI, driving innovation, and keeping Salesforce's core values at the heart of it all.

Ready to level-up your career at the company leading workforce transformation in the agentic era? You’re in the right place! Agentforce is the future of AI, and you are the future of Salesforce.

Salesforce is building the world's first Agentic Enterprise — and that requires a fundamentally new approach to talent intelligence. This role leads the shift from a static, job-based skills model to a dynamic Skills Capability Intelligence architecture grounded in Skills Graphs. The Director, Agentic Talent Experience Capability & Skills Strategy will own the design, governance, and operationalization of the foundational capability framework that the agentic enterprise runs on — treating skills data as the core infrastructure for both human talent experiences and autonomous work orchestration.
This role will report to the Senior Director, ATE Enterprise Skills & Skilling and partner closely with ES Product, Workforce Innovation, Talent Intelligence, Talent Management, and the Skills COE to build the plumbing that powers hyper-personalized, agent-driven talent experiences and smart task-routing at scale.
 

What You'll Own

Capability Intelligence Architecture, Governance & Orchestration

• Lead the strategic pivot from a static skills taxonomy to a dynamic, machine-readable Skills Graph model.

• Define and govern the enterprise Skills Capability Framework — positioning composable capabilities as the north star organizing unit required to deploy both human and digital workforce capacity effectively.

• Partner with the Job Architecture team to ensure the Capability Framework aligns with, updates, and is anchored to the enterprise job architecture.

• Lead the cross-functional Skills COE / Skills Guild driving governance on capability definitions, proficiency thresholds, and verification standards.

• Own the semantic language and data model decisions that distinguish the relationships between Skills, Proficiencies, and future Capabilities — ensuring strict alignment across HR Tech, ES Product, Blueprint, and Talent Intelligence teams.

Skills to Capability Verification & Proficiency Standards

• Define "verified" capability criteria: establish the technical and behavioral logic where a capability is demonstrated (e.g., when Eightfold's inference engine detects skill signals at a defined proficiency level AND at least one project signal confirms applied use).

• Own the binary flag framework (inferred vs. verified states), evidence triggers (performance ratings, credentials, manager sign-off, 360 signals), and the four-step verification workflow through to the verified (V) indicator on the talent profile.

• Govern the Eightfold confidence threshold (≥0.80) and collaborate with Workforce Intelligence and Talent Intelligence to establish and maintain committed verification standards.

• Own behaviors/outcomes frameworks for Manager, Exec, and ESBP/PC proficiency levels; drive GTM strategy and enablement for loading capabilities into Career Connect.

Skills Graph & Data Architecture Partnership

• Partner with ES Product, Talent Intelligence, and Workforce Blueprint to operationalize the Skills Graph — structuring skills as dynamic data nodes (with proficiency levels and evidence signals) that autonomous agents use as live telemetry to orchestrate, route, and match work to the right resource.

• Own the strategic boundary relationship with Workforce Blueprint: Blueprint defines the target destination (future-state business capabilities); the Skills Capability Strategy closes the distance (measuring and mapping current workforce position).

• Drive Phase 1 delivery: design the capability framework and build the foundational "queryable" intelligence layer required to fuel Phase 2 agent-facing experiences and automated workflows.

• Partner with HR Tech on implementation of capability flags in Eightfold — ensuring inference, performance signals, and credentials create an automated evidence trail and reliable systems write-back.

Skills Integration into the Talent Value Chain

• Drive the strategy to embed skills & capabilities into the FY27 performance cycle — quarterly check-ins, mid-year and EOY reviews, promotions, and peer feedback moments — in partnership with VP, Agentic Talent Management & Performance Systems.

• Lead skills-based hiring integration with Talent TA — connecting AI Fluency capability signals directly to recruiting and interview loops.

• Own the Job Skills Validation process: build a repeatable, scalable methodology for validating capabilities by job family using Work IQ data, SME surveys, and AI-assisted analysis; partner with Workforce Innovation Redesign to formalize and scale.

Capability Proof-of-Concept & Roadmap Execution

• Lead the Phase 1 capability proof-of-concept using the ESBP role as the template — defining capabilities from clustered skills, validating against the framework, and establishing the repeatable blueprint for additional job families.

• Lock Phase 1 scope decisions with ES Product regarding end-user capabilities in Career Connect, verification threshold commitments, and Blueprint boundaries.

• Publish the Q2 capability roadmap; manage stakeholder alignment across ES Product, Blueprint, Talent Intelligence, and the ATE LT.

Measurement & Business Impact

• Define and track updated V2MOM measures reflecting the shift to capability language — including capability verification rates, Skills Graph adoption, and downstream talent outcomes (retention, internal mobility, reskilling conversion).

• Develop proposed business impact metrics highlighting operational efficiencies: including productivity lift through AI Fluency activation, cost avoidance through targeted reskilling,

• and the velocity of skill-to-task matching.

What You Bring

• 8+ years in talent strategy, workforce development, skills/capability architecture, or HR technology — with deep exposure to skills intelligence platforms (Eightfold, Workday, Cornerstone, Lightcast or equivalent).

• Demonstrated experience designing capability, competency, or ontological frameworks at enterprise scale — directly connected to performance, hiring, or live technology systems.

• Ability to operate natively at the intersection of people strategy and data/product infrastructure — you can comfortably white-board a talent framework with a business leader and translate it into a graph data model conversation with a product engineer.

• Strong executive presence and a proven track record of driving cross-functional alignment across highly matrixed organizations (VP+ stakeholders, product teams, and HR partners simultaneously).

• Fluency with AI tools and a practitioner's mindset — you use AI to accelerate your own work and naturally bring that lens to the frameworks you build.

• A strong conceptual understanding of Skills Graph concepts, vector embeddings, talent intelligence infrastructure, or agentic enterprise design.

Why This Role

This role is the architectural center of Salesforce's transformation to an Agentic Enterprise. The foundation has been laid — Skills Guild launched, proficiency frameworks defined, Skills validation process mapped — and now the strategy is evolving into something entirely unprecedented: a dynamic Capability & Skills Intelligence infrastructure that agents and AI use as live signals to orchestrate work, surface hidden talent, and personalize development at scale. The person in this role will shape what that infrastructure becomes. The work directly influences how 80,000+ Salesforce employees grow, perform, and deliver value in an AI-first world — and it's visible at the SVP and VP level from day one.

Unleash Your Potential

When you join Salesforce, you’ll be limitless in all areas of your life. Our benefits and resources support you to find balance and be your best, and our AI agents accelerate your impact so you can do your best. Together, we’ll bring the power of Agentforce to organizations of all sizes and deliver amazing experiences that customers love. Apply today to not only shape the future — but to redefine what’s possible — for yourself, for AI, and the world.

Accommodations

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Posting Statement

Salesforce is an equal opportunity employer and maintains a policy of non-discrimination with all employees and applicants for employment. What does that mean exactly? It means that at Salesforce, we believe in equality for all. And we believe we can lead the path to equality in part by creating a workplace that’s inclusive, and free from discrimination. Know your rights: workplace discrimination is illegal. Any employee or potential employee will be assessed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications – without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender expression or identity, transgender status, age, disability, veteran or marital status, political viewpoint, or other classifications protected by law. This policy applies to current and prospective employees, no matter where they are in their Salesforce employment journey. It also applies to recruiting, hiring, job assignment, compensation, promotion, benefits, training, assessment of job performance, discipline, termination, and everything in between. Recruiting, hiring, and promotion decisions at Salesforce are fair and based on merit. The same goes for compensation, benefits, promotions, transfers, reduction in workforce, recall, training, and education.

In the United States, compensation offered will be determined by factors such as location, job level, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. Certain roles may be eligible for incentive compensation, equity, and benefits. Salesforce offers a variety of benefits to help you live well including: time off programs, medical, dental, vision, mental health support, paid parental leave, life and disability insurance, 401(k), and an employee stock purchasing program. More details about company benefits can be found at the following link: https://www.salesforcebenefits.com.

At Salesforce, we believe in equitable compensation practices that reflect the dynamic nature of labor markets across various regions.

The typical base salary range for this position is $164,000 - $261,500 annually. 

The range represents base salary only, and does not include company bonus, incentive for sales roles, equity or benefits, as applicable.