Key Responsibilities
Workforce Planning & Labor Strategy — Lead comprehensive workforce planning for the vertical, ensuring the right talent, in the right roles, at the right cost. Model labor demand against production forecasts, identify capability gaps, and build hiring, development, and retention strategies that protect operational continuity and support financial commitments.
Performance & Retention — Design and implement approaches to manage, differentiate, and reward employee performance. Connect performance management to development — ensuring feedback, coaching, and growth opportunities are built into the rhythm of the business. Work closely with site leaders to build a high-performance culture and reduce turnover, with particular attention to the cost impact of attrition in a manufacturing environment.
Employee & Labor Relations — Provide counsel to employees and management on employment matters, in partnership with Legal as needed. Ensure compliance with federal and state labor and employment laws. Conduct investigations, guide performance and conduct matters, and interpret company policy. Navigate both union and non-union environments with equal fluency — fostering the kind of culture, communication, and leadership presence that drives engagement and trust across all plant locations. Where CBAs exist, manage labor relationships transparently and cost-effectively, partnering with Legal on contract negotiations and dispute prevention.
Productivity & Labor Cost Management — Develop and implement strategies that measurably improve workforce productivity across manufacturing sites. Analyze how labor deployment, organizational design, scheduling, and staffing ratios impact unit costs and throughput. Partner with operations and finance leaders to identify productivity levers, set targets, and track performance against plan.
HR Analytics & Decision Support — Leverage data across attrition, recruitment, engagement, performance, and talent development to inform business decisions. Build and present workforce metrics that connect HR activity to operational and financial outcomes.
Talent Development & Bench Strength — Build and execute a talent development strategy that grows capability at every level of the organization — from frontline employees to senior leaders. Identify high-potential employees early, create intentional development paths, and ensure the vertical has a deep, ready bench for critical roles. Partner with business leaders to make talent reviews actionable, not administrative — turning assessment into real acceleration plans.
Succession Planning — Own succession planning for key leadership and technical roles across the vertical. Ensure that bench depth is tracked, actively developed, and refreshed. Reduce organizational dependency on single individuals and build resilience into the leadership pipeline.
Leading & Developing the HR Team — Lead, coach, and develop the HR team supporting the vertical — setting clear expectations, providing ongoing feedback, and creating individual growth plans that build both current performance and future capability. Model the same talent development discipline for your own team that you expect of business leaders across the organization. Partner with the CHRO and HR peers to build a bench within the HR function so the team is never dependent on any single person and is continuously developing the next generation of HR leadership.
Organizational Design & Effectiveness — Assess and design organizational structures, roles, and team configurations that drive efficiency and accountability on the plant floor and in support functions. Identify organizational redundancies, spans of control gaps, and structural improvement opportunities that drive greater efficiency and accountability across the business
Culture & Change Leadership — Champion and actively advance Graham's Blue Culture of excellence and accountability — translating its core pillars into observable, everyday behaviors across the business unit. Partner with leaders to embed clear behavioral expectations that shape how people lead, decide, and execute across the vertical. Ensure plants are culturally aligned and moving in the same direction as the broader organization. Create an environment where developing people is a core leadership expectation, and serve as a change agent who leads the people side of organizational change with clarity and conviction.
HR Initiative Execution — Lead and support the rollout of enterprise HR initiatives with a focus on consistency and alignment across all Graham business verticals.
