Director, People Relations

Strategic Leadership & Functional Oversight

• Lead the Company's People Relations function across Corporate and Community employee populations, establishing and executing the long-term vision, strategy, and operating model that supports organizational growth and business objectives.
• Transform the function from primarily reactive case management to a proactive workforce risk management and employee experience discipline through strategic planning, trend analysis, and targeted interventions.
• Establish People Relations goals, key performance indicators, executive dashboards, and reporting mechanisms that provide actionable workforce insights and inform business decision-making.
• Serve as the senior escalation point for complex, sensitive, and high-risk people relations matters, ensuring consistent, compliant, and business-minded solutions.
• Lead, develop, and provide strategic oversight to the People Relations team, including establishing investigation standards, case management practices, quality controls, and team capabilities that support scalable growth.
• Evaluate organizational needs and design future-state People Relations structures, processes, and resources to effectively support a rapidly expanding workforce.

People Relations & Investigations

• Direct and oversee all people relations matters, including performance management, corrective action, workplace conflict, policy violations, misconduct allegations, complaints, separations, and organizational transitions.
• Personally lead or oversee the most complex investigations involving senior leaders, executive employees, legal risk, ethics concerns, discrimination, harassment, retaliation, or other sensitive matters.
• Ensure investigations are conducted consistently, objectively, thoroughly, and in accordance with company policies and applicable laws.
• Partner with internal and external legal counsel regarding investigations, claims, litigation, agency charges, and pre-litigation risk management efforts.
• Ensure appropriate documentation, recommendations, and action plans are developed to support defensible employment decisions.

Corporate People Relations Leadership

• Serve as the primary People Relations partner for Corporate leaders, departments, and executives.
• Provide coaching and consultation to senior leaders and corporate managers on organizational challenges, performance concerns, restructures, and conflict resolution.
• Support executive-level decision making and organizational change initiatives requiring significant business judgment and risk assessment.
• Maintain direct ownership of Corporate people relations caseloads until future organizational growth supports the addition of dedicated Corporate People Relations resources.

Community People Relations Oversight

• Provide strategic oversight and leadership for people relations matters impacting the Community organization.
• Partner closely with the Associate Director, People Relations and operational leadership to ensure consistent practices, appropriate case management, and effective support of Community leaders.
• Act as an escalation point and advisor on complex Community investigations, terminations, accommodations, wage and hour concerns, and other high-risk matters.
• Support the development and execution of proactive strategies that improve employee experience, retention, and leadership effectiveness within Community operations.

Compliance, ADA & Workforce Risk Management

• Provide strategic guidance regarding ADA accommodations, leave-related matters, wage and hour compliance, employee complaints, investigations, and workplace policy administration.
• Partner closely with subject matter experts across Leave Administration, Benefits, Payroll, and Legal to ensure compliant and practical solutions.
• Monitor emerging employment law developments and organizational risk trends.
• Support policy development, handbook maintenance, SOX-related employment policies, and compliance initiatives.

Workforce Analytics & Strategic Insights

• Establish and maintain People Relations dashboards, metrics, and executive reporting to monitor caseload trends, workforce stability indicators, and emerging areas of people relations risk.
• Analyze data related to employee complaints, investigations, accommodations, turnover, retention, corrective action, involuntary separations, and other workforce trends to identify patterns and leading indicators of risk.
• Translate People Relations data into actionable insights, recommendations, and proactive interventions that support organizational leaders, strengthen workforce effectiveness, and reduce reactive case management.
• Present key findings, trends, risks, and recommended strategies to executive leadership to inform business decisions and support a more proactive workforce risk management approach.

Cross-Functional Partnership

• Partner with Talent Management, Talent Acquisition, Payroll, Benefits, Operations, and Legal.
• Support mergers, acquisitions, integrations, restructures, workforce reductions, and organizational changes.
• Drive consistency across corporate and community environments.
• Occasional travel may be necessary as needed.
• Perform all other duties and tasks as assigned by management.
• Must be able to complete all physical requirements of this role with or without a reasonable accommodation.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of progressive HR/People Relations experience, including at least 3 years leading people relations teams or functions within multi-state organizations (including California).
• Expert-level employee relations expertise, including complex investigations, performance management, workplace conflict resolution, accommodations, leave administration, wage and hour compliance, employment law, and workforce risk management.
• Demonstrated ability to advise, influence, and partner effectively with senior leaders and executives on complex, sensitive, and high-risk people matters, exercising exceptional judgment in ambiguous situations.
• Strong analytical capabilities, including workforce metrics, trend analysis, executive reporting, and translating data into actionable business recommendations.
• Experience supporting both corporate and operational workforces, with the ability to balance employee advocacy, legal compliance, and business objectives.
• Exceptional judgment, decision-making skills, and executive presence when navigating complex, sensitive, or high-risk situations.

Preferred Experience

• Experience supporting high-growth organizations within the student housing, build-to-rent, single-family rental, multifamily, hospitality, or other multi-site operational industries.
• Proven success leading and developing People Relations professionals while building, scaling, and evolving employee relations functions to support organizational growth, change, and increasing workforce complexity.
• Executive presence and the ability to confidently influence, challenge, and partner with senior leaders on complex employee relations, organizational effectiveness, and workforce risk matters.
• Experience presenting workforce trends, employee relations metrics, organizational risks, and strategic recommendations to executive leadership, translating data into actionable business decisions.
• Advanced expertise in ADA accommodations, leave administration, wage and hour compliance, multi-state employment law, and employment risk management, ideally including experience navigating California, Washington, and/or Oregon employment regulations.
• Demonstrated ability to balance strategic leadership with hands-on execution, effectively operating as both a player and coach in a fast-paced, evolving environment.
• Experience supporting a geographically dispersed workforce consisting of onsite, hybrid, and remote team members across multiple states and time zones.
• Strong systems and analytics acumen, including experience leveraging HRIS platforms (Paycom preferred), reporting tools, and workforce data to identify trends, mitigate risk, and drive proactive People Relations strategies.
• Experience implementing or utilizing People Relations case management systems to support investigation tracking, documentation standards, workflow management, and reporting.