Vice President Employee Relations

About the Role

Solairus Aviation is a leading US-based private aviation services company with annual revenue exceeding $1 billion, assisting aircraft owners with the safe, reliable, and efficient management and operation of their aircraft. The Vice President of Employee Relations will lead employee relations for all employees, partnering with senior leaders to support clients, crew, and corporate staff. Reporting directly to the EVPHR, this role is responsible for supporting recruiting, performance management, HR investigations, supervisory training, and compliance for all crew and corporate staff members. The VP will work with the executive leadership team to maintain Solairus’s unique culture and high morale while attracting and retaining top industry talent.

Responsibilities

• Employee Relations (ER):
  • Enforce a rigorous, fair, and legally defensible employee relations framework.
  • Partner with General Counsel and outside legal counsel on discrimination/harassment/retaliation, employment litigation, EEOC charges, wage and hour claims, regulatory investigations, and other legal employment activities.
  • Ensure HR policies are current, enforceable, and consistently applied across all states and employee segments.
  • Receive, triage, and manage all ER cases: harassment, discrimination, retaliation, misconduct, policy violations, and interpersonal conflict.
  • Conduct or oversee formal workplace investigations, including fact-finding interviews, document review, timeline construction, and written findings.
  • Maintain investigation independence; report findings directly to the EVPHR and partner with legal counsel as appropriate.
  • Manage the ER case tracking system: log, assign, track, and close cases with documented outcomes.
  • Identify patterns across investigations (recurring issues, problem leaders, structural vulnerabilities) and surface them to the EVPHR.
  • Train managers and HR generalists on ER matters: documentation, escalation triggers, and formal handling procedures.
• Multi-State Employment Law and Compliance:
  • Own the multi-state employment law compliance calendar: CFRA, PAGA, Cal-WARN, CCPA, mandatory training deadlines, posting obligations, and regulatory filings.
  • Monitor federal and state legislative changes; translate new requirements into policy updates, manager communications, and process changes.
  • Manage PAGA exposure proactively through periodic self-audits of wage/hour practices, meal/rest breaks, and classification decisions.
  • Own EEOC charge response, unemployment appeals, and agency complaint management in partnership with employment counsel.
  • Maintain and enforce WARN Act readiness; ensure ER review prior to any restructuring or reduction in force (RIF).
  • Work with legal counsel and outside vendors; monitor spend on ER matters.
• Culture and Engagement:
  • Steward the organizational culture: define what the company stands for, how it behaves, and how it holds itself accountable.
  • Build a recognition ecosystem that reinforces values and makes high performance visible at all levels.
  • Create feedback loops between employee experiences and leadership decisions using tools like Officevibe, stay interviews, exit data, and direct listening sessions.
• Performance Management and Progressive Discipline:
  • Advise managers on progressive discipline: verbal coaching, written warnings, PIPs, final warnings, and terminations, ensuring consistency across all states.
  • Review and approve all terminations prior to execution, with particular scrutiny on California cases due to PAGA exposure.
  • Design and maintain performance improvement plan (PIP) frameworks: structure, timeline, success criteria, and documentation standards.
  • Coach managers through difficult performance conversations, providing language, approach, and documentation support.
  • Ensure documentation standards are met across all employee segments: what belongs in the file, what doesn’t, and state-specific requirements.
  • Track and analyze termination reasons, PIP completion rates, and manager-level disciplinary patterns to identify training needs.
• Manager Training & ER Prevention:
  • Design and deliver ER-focused manager training: documentation habits, early intervention, recognizing harassment, accommodation triggers, and when to escalate to HR.
  • Build a manager early-warning system using ER data, engagement scores, turnover patterns, and HRBP feedback to identify at-risk leaders before formal complaints arise.
  • Partner with the OD & Training Manager to embed ER fundamentals into new manager onboarding, supervisor development programs, and leadership training.
  • Own California mandatory harassment prevention training: ensure completion within required timeframes and maintain records.
  • Develop a library of manager toolkits: difficult conversation guides, documentation templates, PIP frameworks, and accommodation checklists.
• ER Reporting, Metrics & Risk Visibility:
  • Define and maintain the ER metrics dashboard: open cases by type/state/segment, case age, investigation cycle time, substantiation rates, termination types, and repeat ER actors.
  • Produce monthly ER summaries for the EVPHR: active cases, material risks, trends, and recommended leadership actions.
  • Conduct quarterly ER risk reviews with the EVPHR and legal counsel: identify systemic patterns, structural risks, and proactive interventions.
  • Track EEOC charges, unemployment decisions, arbitration outcomes, and settlement history; maintain a litigation risk register.
  • Analyze ER data by manager, department, location, and workforce segment to inform talent decisions, training priorities, and org design.
  • Ensure ER records are maintained with attorney-client privilege where applicable, properly retained per state requirements, and fully audit-ready.

Requirements

• 10+ years of progressive HR or employment relations experience, with a minimum of 5 years in a dedicated Employee Relations role carrying independent investigation and compliance responsibility.
• Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, Employment Law, Organizational Psychology, or a related field.
• Demonstrated success leading organizations through growth, restructuring, or significant capability-building.
• Proven track record managing the full ER lifecycle: intake through investigation, findings, disciplinary action, and post-matter follow-through.
• Proven ability to operate as a true business partner, contributing to business strategy rather than solely executing ER programs.
• Strong data literacy with the ability to work with HRIS systems, define meaningful people KPIs, and use workforce data to inform decisions.
• Multi-state HR experience, with significant expertise in California employment law and familiarity with other complex employment law jurisdictions.
• Experience advising and influencing senior leaders, including delivering findings or recommendations that were unwelcome or politically difficult.

Preferred Qualifications

• SHRM-SCP, SPHR, or an equivalent senior HR certification.
• Experience in industries with mixed hourly/salaried workforce populations.
• Familiarity with Paycom or equivalent enterprise HRIS platforms.
• Experience or familiarity with aviation operators or the private aviation industry.
• Background working in organizations with mixed workforce populations (exempt/non-exempt, salaried/hourly, admin/operational, contingent, and temporary) at scale.
• Prior experience building or substantially redesigning ER infrastructure—policies, handbooks, investigation frameworks, and compliance calendars—from scratch or near-scratch.