Kara Hamilton is the chief people and culture officer at Smartsheet, an enterprise collaboration software company headquartered in Bellevue, Washington.
In her current role, she leads and strategizes recruitment and retention, with the goal of creating a positive and fulfilling employee experience. As a result of her leadership in this area, Smartsheet has earned numerous awards for company culture, regularly being listed as a top place to work in both Seattle and Boston.
Hamilton joined the company in 2012. Prior to taking on her human resources role in 2016, she served in various leadership positions in the areas of finance, IT, and legal. During her tenure, Smartsheet has grown from 30 employees to over 1,500.
Before Smartsheet, she served as director of finance for GoAhead Software (later acquired by Oracle) where she headed up business operations for the U.S., India, and Poland. She also held roles in finance, operations, and development at Vigilos and spent three years as its vice president of finance.
Hamilton joined AlertMedia’s board of directors in January 2021, where she will work closely with their executive team to support strategic growth initiatives and pursue new market opportunities.
Hamilton holds her B.S. in commerce from Santa Clara University. She lives with her family in Seattle.