Sr. Human Resources Business Partner Manufacturing

About the role

The work we do matters. Every day, the equipment built inside our 250,000-square-foot Oklahoma City facility goes to work in some of the toughest environments on earth — mobile and stationary generators, blenders, and switchgears. Behind every piece of that equipment is a team of 280+ welders, machinists, engineers, assemblers, and leaders who take fierce pride in building things that last. We're part of Kirby Corporation (NYSE: KEX), a publicly traded industrial leader with a century-long legacy of operational excellence, safety, and doing right by our people.

Responsibilities

• Be the partner leaders can’t run the business without
• Sit shoulder-to-shoulder with our plant leadership, helping them think bigger about their people, coach harder on performance, and navigate the messy middle of running a fast-paced manufacturing operation
• When a leader has a tough call to make, you’re the first call they make
• Build the workforce that builds the equipment
• From sourcing and onboarding to apprenticeships, upskilling, and succession — you’ll help us attract the next generation of skilled trades talent and develop the frontline supervisors and future leaders who will run this place for the next 20 years
• Champion a Culture Employees Brag About
• You’ll be visible. Boots on the floor, hard hat on, hearing what’s really going on
• You’ll shape engagement, recognition, and the everyday moments that make people want to stay
• When tough conversations or investigations are needed, you’ll handle them with judgment, fairness, and care
• Turn data into decisions
• Turnover trends, safety signals, engagement scores, staffing risk — you’ll translate the numbers into clear, actionable insights that help leaders run smarter
• You don’t just report what happened; you tell us what to do next
• Keep us strong on the fundamentals
• You’ll make sure we’re rock-solid on compliance, leave programs, ADA, FMLA, workers’ comp, attendance, and the HR operational backbone that lets everything else work

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in HR, Business, OD, or related field
• 5+ years of progressive HR experience — bonus points if it’s in manufacturing, energy, distribution, or another operationally intense environment
• Real fluency in employee relations, investigations, performance, talent, and org effectiveness
• An analytical brain and a coach's heart
• Experience supporting hourly/skilled trades workforces and frontline leaders
• Comfort with AI, workforce analytics and modern HR tech