Senior Human Resources Manager

About Us

South Bay Solutions is a high-precision machine shop, making parts for semiconductor, medical devices, and advanced tech hardware. Our tolerances are measured in microns, our equipment is top-of-the-line, and our team is passionate about quality craftsmanship.

Position Summary

The Senior Human Resources Manager is the strategic leader of the Human Resources function and the primary people-business partner to the CEO and leadership team. This position owns the company’s people strategy and is accountable for workforce planning, training , talent acquisition, employee relations, leadership development, performance management, compensation programs, compliance, retention, and organizational effectiveness.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

HR Leadership and Business Partnership

• Lead the Human Resources function and establish clear ownership, priorities, service standards, operating processes, and accountability across the HR team.
• Partner with the CEO and leadership team to align HR strategy with business objectives, operational priorities, workforce requirements, and long-term growth plans.
• Develop annual and quarterly HR goals, metrics, and action plans and provide regular updates and recommendations to executive leadership.
• Lead, coach, and develop the HR team, including clear role definition, performance expectations, and career development.

Talent Acquisition and Workforce Planning

• Own recruiting strategy and workforce planning for skilled manufacturing, engineering, quality, operations, administrative, and leadership positions.
• Partner with department leaders to forecast staffing needs, prioritize requisitions, define candidate profiles, and maintain accountability for timely hiring decisions.
• Develop talent pipelines and partnerships with technical schools, colleges, industry groups, recruiting agencies, and community organizations.
• Use recruiting data to improve time to hire, cost per hire, offer acceptance, quality of hire, candidate-show rates, and new-hire retention.

Employee Relations and California Compliance

• Serve as the primary HR advisor for complex employee relations matters, workplace investigations, complaints, corrective actions, performance concerns, attendance issues, and separations.
• Coach managers and supervisors on consistent application of company policies, documentation standards, conflict resolution, and employee communication.
• Ensure compliance with federal, California, and local employment laws, including wage-and-hour, EEO, anti-harassment, leave, accommodation, and recordkeeping requirements.
• Oversee FMLA, CFRA, PDL, ADA/FEHA accommodation, and other protected leave processes in partnership with the HR Generalist.

Performance Management and Leadership Development

• Own the company’s performance-management framework, including goal setting, introductory reviews, annual reviews, performance improvement plans, talent reviews, and development planning.
• Create consistent tools and expectations for employee feedback, documentation, accountability, and recognition.
• Coach managers and supervisors on performance conversations, employee development, conflict management, and effective leadership practices.
• Develop and implement supervisor and leadership-development programs that strengthen frontline management capability and accountability.

Training and Organizational Development

• Own the company-wide training strategy and partner with Operations, Quality, Safety, and department leaders to identify workforce and leadership skill gaps.
• Ensure a current and effective training matrix is maintained for required compliance, safety, quality, technical, and leadership training.
• Oversee training program design, scheduling, records, completion tracking, and effectiveness measurement, with administrative support from the HR team.
• Support organizational development and change-management initiatives as the company grows.

Compensation, Benefits, and HR Programs

• Lead compensation planning and market benchmarking in partnership with Finance, including salary ranges, pay recommendations, promotions, internal equity, and retention adjustments.
• Partner with Finance and executive leadership on bonus and incentive-program design, administration, and communication.
• Provide strategic oversight of employee benefits, leave administration, workers’ compensation, payroll-related HR changes, and HRIS processes.
• Review benefits offerings and support annual renewal and open-enrollment decisions to balance employee value, competitiveness, and cost effectiveness.
• Ensure appropriate controls, approvals, documentation, and communication for employee status, compensation, payroll, and benefit changes.

HR Policies, Systems, Metrics, and Continuous Improvement

• Own the employee handbook, HR policies, standard operating procedures, forms, governance, and related communication.
• Ensure HR policies and practices remain current, compliant, practical, and consistently applied.
• Establish a focused HR scorecard and report meaningful workforce metrics, including headcount, turnover, retention, recruiting, attendance, training completion, performance reviews, employee relations, and workers’ compensation trends.
• Improve and digitize HR workflows, forms, surveys, records, and reporting through effective use of HRIS, applicant-tracking, payroll, and document-management systems.
• Ensure HR documentation and training records support company quality system, audit, and regulatory requirements.

Employee Engagement and Culture

• Develop practical initiatives to improve employee communication, engagement, recognition, retention, and workplace culture.
• Use exit interviews, employee feedback, turnover data, absenteeism trends, and workplace observations to recommend and implement improvement actions.
• Promote a professional, respectful, inclusive, accountable, and safety-focused workplace.
• Support company meetings, employee communications, engagement activities, recognition programs, and other culture-building initiatives.

Qualifications and Skills

• Strong working knowledge of California employment laws and HR compliance requirements.
• Demonstrated experience leading employee relations, workplace investigations, corrective actions, performance management, and terminations.
• Experience leading recruiting and workforce planning for difficult-to-fill positions.
• Data-driven approach to program management, with experience building KPIs and translating insights into action. Comfortable with AI tools and enthusiastic about putting them to work.
• Demonstrated ability to leverage business acumen and interpersonal savvy to influence senior business leaders.
• Excellent written and verbal communication, organization, analytical, coaching, and interpersonal skills.
• Proficiency with HRIS, applicant-tracking, payroll, reporting, and Microsoft Office systems.
• Proven experience managing HR operations in a fast-paced manufacturing environment supporting hourly and salaried employees across multiple shifts.

Education / Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Human resources, Business Administration, Organizational Development, or a related field, or equivalent relevant experience (advanced degree preferred).
• 7-10 years of progressive Human Resources experience, including leadership roles.
• At least 3 years of HR management or senior HR leadership experience.
• HR leadership experience in manufacturing, machining or another regulated operational environment is strongly preferred.
• Experience developing training matrices, leadership-development programs, performance-management systems, and HR metrics is preferred.
• Experience with ADP Workforce Now, BambooHR, or comparable HR and payroll systems is preferred.
• SHRM-SCP, SPHR, SHRM-CP, or PHR certification is preferred.
• Experience supporting ISO 9001, ISO 13485, or similar quality-management and audit requirements is preferred.

Work Environment

This is an on-site leadership position supporting a manufacturing operation.

Other Duties

This job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of every activity, duty, responsibility, reporting relationships, and organizational needs may change at any time, with or without notice, consistent with applicable law.

Benefits:

• Health Insurance (Medical/Dental/Vision)
• Safe Harbor 401(K) plan
• 401(K) match
• Paid time off (vacation/sick/holidays/floating holiday)
• Referral program