Virginia, United States, January 2026 — Appian has announced the appointment of Sarah Smart as Senior Vice President, Global Talent Acquisition and Workforce Strategy, entrusting her with leading the company’s global hiring architecture, workforce strategy, and future-ready talent transformation agenda.
Sarah Smart joins Appian after building a highly influential career shaping large-scale global recruitment, workforce strategy, and AI-driven hiring transformations. Most recently, she served as Managing Partner at HorizonHuman, advising CHROs and C-suite leaders on modern workforce design, talent strategy, and enterprise change programs.
Prior to this, she spent over three years at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in senior managing director roles, including Managing Director – Product Manager, New Joiner Experience, and Managing Director – CCB & Firmwide Operations Recruitment, where she led transformative global hiring initiatives, launched multi-million-dollar recruitment platforms, accelerated engineering hiring cycles, and implemented JPMorgan’s first generative AI use case in HR.
Before JPMorgan Chase, Sarah held senior global recruitment leadership roles at Hilton, serving as Vice President – Global Recruitment and Vice President – Global Executive & U.S. Corporate Recruitment, where she led enterprise-wide executive and corporate hiring programs supporting Hilton’s global expansion.
Earlier in her career, she held executive recruitment leadership roles at Accenture as Associate Director – Global Leadership Recruitment, at Freddie Mac as Director – Executive Recruiting, and at Russell Reynolds Associates, where she built consumer practice recruitment operations in New York. She began her career with JPMorgan Partners in human capital advisory roles.
About Appian
Appian is The Process Company, delivering a unified software platform that enables organizations to design, automate, and optimize critical business processes. Appian serves leading enterprises across industries, helping them reduce costs, improve customer experiences, and gain strategic advantage through operational excellence.
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