Director, HR Business Partner

Overview: The HR Director provides enterprise-level HR leadership across all sites, partnering closely with senior leadership and site HR teams to ensure consistent, compliant, and operationally sound HR practices. This role blends strategic HR leadership with operational governance, ensuring that employee relations, compliance, HR systems, benefits, safety alignment, and core HR processes are standardized, scalable, and aligned with business objectives. The HR Director serves as a senior resource for complex employee matters while also strengthening the company’s HR infrastructure through process improvement, data governance, and cross-site alignment.

About AC: Come and join the Applied Composites team. We are a leading provider of complex composite components, assemblies, engineering and tooling to the aerospace, defense and space system markets. Our employees are treated with respect and given the support, knowledge, and resources they need to thrive. If you are looking for a company that values and develops its employees while offering engaging work, Applied Composites may be the place for you.

Key Responsibilities:

Enterprise HR Leadership & Strategic Partnership

• Partner with the VP of HR and executive leadership to align HR strategy with business priorities.
• Provide guidance, coaching, and oversight to site-level HR leaders.
• Support workforce planning, organizational design, and change initiatives.
• Serve as a senior escalation point for complex employee relations matters.

People Operations Leadership

• Establish and lead a centralized People Operations framework that supports consistent and compliant HR processes across all sites.
• Build scalable workflows, documentation standards, and operating procedures.
• Drive cross-site alignment and reduce variability in HR practices.
• Modernize HR operations through automation, systems optimization, and continuous improvement.

HR Compliance & Policy Governance

• Lead development, governance, and maintenance of HR policies, handbooks, and compliance documentation.
• Monitor employment law developments and guide multi-site compliance efforts.
• Establish audit-ready processes and compliance calendars.
• Partner with Legal on wage/hour, ADA, leave, documentation, and risk mitigation matters.
• Ensure consistent interpretation and application of policies across all locations.

HRIS & People Technology Strategy

• Provide strategic oversight of HR systems, ensuring data integrity, reporting consistency, workflow governance, and appropriate access controls.
• Develop unified HRIS standards across all sites.
• Partner with IT and vendors to optimize integrations and reporting capabilities.
• Deliver workforce analytics and dashboards to support leadership decision-making.

Benefits & Total Rewards Oversight

• Oversee benefits administration strategy and vendor partnerships.
• Ensure benefits processes are compliant, well-communicated, and consistently applied.
• Develop audit and documentation standards related to benefits and leave administration.

Payroll & Operational Standards

• Partner with Accounting and site teams to establish consistent payroll input standards and compliance expectations.
• Develop documentation and review processes to support wage/hour compliance and multi-state accuracy.
• Provide governance oversight without owning site-level payroll execution.

Safety Governance & Organizational Alignment - (Enterprise governance; not day-to-day site safety execution.)

• Provide organizational-level alignment of safety policies, documentation standards, and reporting expectations.
• Develop templates and governance structures that support compliance across sites.
• Partner with operations leadership to promote consistent safety practices and documentation readiness.
• Support reporting visibility and trend analysis to reduce organizational risk.

Recruiting Process & Workforce Governance

• Establish governance over recruiting workflows, approvals, documentation, and offer practices.
• Provide structure and standards in the absence of a dedicated Talent Acquisition function.
• Support workforce planning and talent review processes across sites.

Operational Excellence & Continuous Improvement

• Introduce best practices for process standardization and automation.
• Establish a People Operations Playbook outlining enterprise-wide workflows and compliance standards.
• Identify opportunities to reduce redundancy, improve data accuracy, and strengthen operational maturity.

Qualifications

Required

• Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources, Business, or related field.
• 8–12+ years of progressive HR leadership experience.
• Strong expertise in employee relations, HR compliance, and multi-site operations.
• Experience overseeing HR systems and operational governance.
• Demonstrated ability to operate strategically while maintaining operational discipline.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving capabilities.
• Excellent executive presence and communication skills.

Preferred

• Experience in manufacturing or operational environments.
• HR certification (SPHR, SHRM-SCP, etc.).
• Experience leading organizational or structural transitions.

Benefits: At Applied Composites, we recognize how important your career and benefits are to you and your family. We offer a full suite of benefits including medical, dental, vision, short and long-term disability coverage, accident insurance, critical illness insurance, basic and supplemental life insurance, employee assistance plan, retirement savings and matching, tuition reimbursement and other developmental opportunities. We are committed to supporting the way you live and work.

AC is an Equal Opportunity Employer Veterans/Disabled - Affirmative Action Employer.

This position requires the use of information which is subject to the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR). All applicants must be U.S. persons within the meaning of ITAR. ITAR defines a U.S. person as a U.S. Citizen, U.S. Permanent Resident (i.e. 'Green Card Holder'), Political Asylee, or Refugee.