Assistant Deputy Director of Employee Relations and Organizational Culture - Operations Director I

Job Summary

The City of Baltimore's Department of Human Resources (DHR) is seeking a strategic, relationship-driven Assistant Deputy Director of Employee Relations and Organizational Culture (Operations Director 1) to help lead citywide efforts that strengthen trust, accountability, and engagement across Baltimore's workforce.

Essential Functions

• Set citywide standards, frameworks, and guidance for handling employee relations issues, ensuring consistency with City policy, civil service rules, and collective bargaining agreements.
• Serve as a strategic advisor and escalation point for agency leaders and HR liaisons navigating complex or high-risk employee relations matters.
• Provide executive oversight of DHR's ER investigation function, ensuring timeliness, consistency, and credibility across civil service and employee relations cases.
• Own the citywide organizational culture strategy, driving engagement, recognition, and belonging across all agencies.
• Translate workforce data (surveys, focus groups, exit trends) into actionable insight on culture and morale citywide.
• Embed diversity, equity, and inclusion principles into citywide HR strategy in partnership with relevant City offices.
• Develop long-term strategies and sponsor key initiatives to promote and achieve a culture of service excellence and employee engagement.
• Establish citywide metrics on engagement and retention to inform strategy and resourcing.
• Provide executive leadership for the CORE Team, a senior-level strategic advisory function deployed to agencies to help manage complex, high-stakes HR matters, including workforce planning, organizational design, and elevated employee relations issues.
• Represent DHR before City Council, cross-agency task forces, and executive leadership on workforce strategy.

CORE Team (Complex Organizational Resolution Experts)

• Provide executive leadership for the CORE Team, a senior-level strategic advisory function deployed to agencies to help manage complex, high-stakes HR matters, including workforce planning, organizational design, and elevated employee relations issues.
• Establish the vision, operating model, governance, and service standards for the CORE Team, ensuring consistent, high quality strategic support across City agencies.
• Develop enterprise criteria, engagement protocols, and service delivery standards that clearly distinguish the CORE Team's strategic advisory role from agency HR operations and DHR's transactional HR Service Delivery functions.
• Serve as the senior advisor to agency executives on workforce strategy, organizational design, workforce planning, executive coaching, change management, and complex employee relations matters.

Executive Leadership

• Direct and implement operational and work-process improvements to ensure efficiency, accountability, and timely completion of departmental priorities.
• Advise the City’s Director/Chief Human Capital Officer on workforce risk, climate, and strategic priorities at the enterprise level.
• Support continuity of operations during emergencies and perform other duties as assigned.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master's degree from an accredited college or university in Human Resources Management, Organizational Development, Business or a related field.
• At least 10 years of progressively responsible management experience, at least 5 of which are in key management role(s) in a large, complex, diverse enterprise.

Additional Information

• Background Check Eligible candidates under final consideration for appointment to positions identified as positions of trust will be required to complete authorization for a Criminal Background Check and/or Fingerprint.
• All persons, including current City employees, selected for this position must complete a 6-MONTH mandatory probation.
• This position is required to complete an Affidavit for Political Appointees and Public Officials as part of the City’s Residency Requirement.
• You will also be required to complete a Financial Disclosure pursuant to Sections 7-7, 7-8, and 7-9 of the City Ethics Law.
• Baltimore City Government is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer, and we are committed to a workplace that values diversity, equity, and inclusion.
• The City of Baltimore prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, age, sex, ancestry, creed, national origin, disability status, genetics, marital status, military service, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.