Jessica Delgado-Hess Helps GoDaddy Redefine the Future of Work

The GoDaddy leader draws from her entrepreneurial roots to create inclusive, flexible workplaces for nearly six thousand global employees

Jessica Delgado-Hess, Senior Director, GoDaddy (Photo by Rachel Alves)

BY BILLY YOST, HISPANIC EXECUTIVE

Jessica Delgado-Hess believes the workplace should be more than just a space—it should be a strategy. As senior director of global real estate, workplace experience, and safety and security at GoDaddy, Delgado-Hess leads the end-to-end vision for how nearly six thousand employees show up authentically, connect, and do their best work.

GoDaddy, where Delgado-Hess has progressed through senior leadership roles since 2021, is more than just a career fit—it’s a mission match. After leading workplace and real estate strategies at LinkedIn, Hulu, and GOAT Group, she brought that experience into a role that connects deeply with her roots. GoDaddy’s focus on supporting resilient, sometimes scrappy, and often resourceful entrepreneurs mirrors the values and hustle mentality that shaped her early life, and it’s where her work in real estate, workplace strategy, and team development feels both strategic and deeply personal.

My mom didn’t have access to higher education, but she taught me about grit, self-reliance, and entrepreneurship,” Delgado-Hess says. “I carry that spirit with me in everything I do, and it’s why GoDaddy’s mission to empower entrepreneurs everywhere, making opportunity more inclusive for all, feels so personal. My mom is an entrepreneur who was able to get herself through truck-driving school and ultimately start her own trucking business. I spent my childhood riding beside her across the country, witnessing what it means to create something out of almost nothing.”

The corporate real estate leader’s mother repeatedly emphasized a desire for her children to get a good education. Delgado-Hess fulfilled that desire in an impressive way, pursuing doctorate-level studies in both business psychology and organizational leadership, and earning an MBA along the way. In 2022, she joined the International College of the Cayman Islands as an adjunct professor, where she teaches master’s level business and strategic human resources courses. In 2024, Delgado-Hess was awarded the university’s Teacher Excellence Award.

Jessica Delgado-Hess, GoDaddy (Photo by Rachel Alves)

Why the International College of the Cayman Islands? That’s easy.

“Many of my students come from underserved communities like the one I grew up in,” Delgado-Hess says. “They’re working hard to build something more for themselves and their families, and education can be the bridge to something better. It’s an honor to walk alongside them and support their journey.”

That service-minded mentality is on full display at GoDaddy. Delgado-Hess wants GoDaddy employees to know that when they come to work, whether that’s physically showing up or remotely signing in, they will be supported, celebrated, and cared for.

“It has taken me time to understand that by being in the room, I might be the representation that someone else is hoping to see.”

Many working in corporate real estate and workplace experience over the last five years encountered the evolution of the pandemic and post-pandemic environment. It created significant change in a short period of time.

One concept that Delgado-Hess and her team are implementing at GoDaddy is activity-based working, a design strategy that empowers employees to choose from a variety of spaces and tools based on their needs. It’s part of a broader transformation in how GoDaddy supports productivity, inclusion, and work/life balance across its global footprint. The focus is on flexibility and choice, allowing employees to select workplaces that function best for the activity or task at hand.

Jessica Delgado-Hess; GoDaddy (Photo by Rachel Alves)

“One of our biggest challenges—and opportunities—is supporting employees at home just as intentionally as we do in the office,” Delgado-Hess says. “From workplace furniture to ergonomic tools, we’re constantly identifying ways to improve work and workplace conditions. I honestly love ‘nerding’ out on this: testing solutions, gathering feedback, and adapting for what is now the most diverse and multigenerational workforce we’ve ever seen. Everyone works differently, and we’re just starting to tap into what flexible, inclusive design can look like at scale.”

That commitment to inclusion, to honoring difference and identity, is something Delgado-Hess has also had to embrace in her own life. Some may be surprised by the hyphenated name. That change, she shares, was a process years in the making.

“For a long time I went by ‘Jess Hess’ professionally because I felt it gave me a level of ambiguity, a little protection,” Delgado-Hess says. “I worried that having a Hispanic last name, paired with being a woman, might quietly work against me. Not through overt discrimination, but the kind of unseen bias that still shapes too many decisions.”

Like many in her generation, Delgado-Hess was raised by a parent who believed that speaking only English would give her a better shot in the world.

“It wasn’t out of erasure. It was out of love and survival,” Delgado-Hess shares.

In adulthood, Delgado-Hess has done the work of reconnecting with her full identity — embracing her language, bicultural heritage, her Hispanic roots, and the Indigenous ancestry passed down through her grandmother.

“I don’t have to be one or the other. I can identify as all of these things, and it has taken me time to understand that by being in the room, I might be the representation that someone else is hoping to see,” Delgado-Hess explains. “You don’t always want to be that person on the soapbox, but I’ve learned I can fight for it every day and still lead with a smile.”

Delgado-Hess continues to lead with that same clarity and intention, whether she’s shaping GoDaddy’s global workplace strategy or investing in the next generation of business leaders. Her story isn’t just about resilience or reinvention—it’s about showing up fully, owning complexity, and creating space for others to do the same.

“Education can be the bridge to something better. It’s an honor to walk alongside [my students] and support their journey.”

Jessica Delgado-Hess

Jessica Delgado-Hess embodies a new kind of leadership: rooted in identity, driven by purpose, and focused on creating space for others to thrive. A Chicago South Side native and bicultural voice in the future of work, she brings strategy, heart, and vision to every room she enters. Whether she’s designing global workplaces or mentoring the next generation, Delgado-Hess is redefining what it means to show up fully—and helping others do the same.

Hispanicexecutive.com