From Talent Development to Head of HR: Julie Rodda’s Journey and Culture Transformation

In this episode, host Andy Storch welcomes Julie Rodda, SVP and Head of Culture and People at iRhythm Technologies, to the Talent Development Hot Seat Podcast. Julie’s career path is a compelling story of curiosity, adaptability, and embracing unexpected opportunities—starting as an organizational psychologist, moving through consulting and internal talent development leadership roles, and ultimately stepping up to lead all of HR at a fast-growing medical technology company.

Together, Andy and Julie explore what it really means to pivot from being a specialist in talent development to overseeing the entire people function, especially in an environment of rapid organizational growth and change. Julie candidly shares her personal uncertainties about taking on the head of HR role, how she navigated steep learning curves—working with the board, tackling executive compensation, and more—and why her passion for creating real impact fueled her willingness to say “yes” to new challenges.

The conversation digs deep into the nuts and bolts of scaling culture and leadership development while doubling organizational size and offshoring critical functions. Julie lays out practical strategies for listening-driven culture transformation, rolling out new company values, and activating them across a remote and global workforce. She also discusses building foundational leadership development programs that bring managers together virtually from around the world, and how iRhythm measures the retention impact of these investments.

Whether you’re an L&D practitioner aspiring to broader HR leadership, wrestling with engagement survey strategy, or leading change in a global, distributed company, this episode is packed with useful tactics, reflections, and framework-level thinking. Tune in for a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to enable both business success and human growth during times of transformation.

In this episode, Julie shares:

• How she transitioned from an organizational psychologist and strictly talent-focused leader to head of HR role, including the emotional “identity shift” and the importance of embracing new challenges as learning opportunities.
• What she’s learned from years of engagement survey work, including why action—rather than just listening—is the real differentiator for building trust and culture.
• The story of orchestrating a company-wide culture transformation at iRhythm: resetting core values, designing a focused activation campaign, and weaving values into hiring, recognition, and performance management—even across a largely remote workforce.
• Lessons and hurdles from leading HR at a public company, like managing executive compensation and navigating board relationships, plus real talk about lessons learned when public “say on pay” votes don’t go as planned.
• How to successfully integrate offshore teams, foster inclusivity across continents and time zones, and develop leaders to thrive in a matrixed environment—supported by targeted education on leading dispersed teams.
• The design and measurable impact of iRhythm’s “Ignite” leadership development program, which blends virtual, cohort-based learning for new and mid-level managers and is already showing significant retention benefits.
• Foundational work in career development, such as implementing quarterly check-ins, leveraging HR tech nudges, and building job architecture frameworks from the ground up to support employee progression in a scaling company.

Julie also opens up about the challenges and opportunities emerging from rapid tech advances, especially AI, and the sometimes-daunting realities of keeping pace with new tools and the practicalities of implementation in partnership with IT.

This episode is a must-listen for anyone leading people strategy in dynamic, high-growth environments, or considering making the leap from specialist to enterprise HR...