Sr MGR-HR Ops, CA Job 92.26

$125,000 - $160,000 per year

Description:  The Senior Manager, HR Operations leads, optimizes, and governs Dunn‑Edwards’ core Human Resources operations, ensuring they are compliant, scalable, and aligned to business objectives across the enterprise.

This role provides end‑to‑end leadership over Benefits & Leaves, HRIS/HR Technology, Compensation Administration, Recruiting Operations, HR data governance, and day‑to‑day HR operational processes.

The Senior Manager partners closely with the Vice President of Human Resources, Finance, IT, Manufacturing, Product Management, Product Development, Operations, and Sales to deliver a consistent, high‑quality employee and leader experience. This role is intentionally structured with enterprise‑level scope while preserving a clear and deliberate leadership hierarchy within the HR organization.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

Operational Leadership & Execution

• Own daily execution and continuous improvement of HR operations, including benefits, leaves of absence, HRIS, compensation administration, recruiting workflows, and employee data integrity.
• Establish service levels, operating procedures, and internal controls that ensure timeliness, accuracy, and consistency across all HR operational processes.
• Develop and monitor HR operational metrics and dashboards, drive accountability to accuracy, cycle time, compliance, and service standards.

HRIS/HR Technology & Data Governance

• Provide governance over HRIS strategy and roadmap, including configuration standards, integrations, workflows, security, and reporting.
• Partner with IT, Payroll, and Finance to maintain a single source of truth across systems.
• Lead HR data audits, remediation efforts, and ongoing data‑quality controls.

Benefits & Leave Administration

• Oversee benefits and leave administration, including vendor management, open enrollment, communications, and multi‑state leave compliance.
• Ensure accurate and timely administration of FMLA, ADA, state leaves, and return‑to‑work processes.
• Serve as escalation point for complex benefits or leave issues.

Compensation & Workforce Administration

• Oversee compensation operations including job architecture maintenance, pay change workflows, and range adherence.
• Support annual merit and market review processes in partnership with the VP of HR.
• Ensure wage‑and‑hour compliance across all jurisdictions.

Recruiting Operations

• Lead recruiting process design, requisition governance, approvals, and workflow optimization.
• Partner with Hiring Managers to improve time‑to‑fill, candidate experience, and compliance.
• Ensure recruiting operations integrate cleanly with HRIS and onboarding processes.

Employee Relations (Operational Escalation)

• Serve as escalation resource for employee relations matters.
• Ensure documentation quality, consistency, and alignment with policy and legal guidance.
• Support transition of routine ER casework to designated ER roles as organizational capacity evolves.

Supervisory Responsibilities

• Directly manages managers, supervisors, and HR Representatives supporting HR Operations; supervisory responsibilities may change as business needs dictate.
• Provides indirect leadership to specialists across Benefits, HRIS, and HR Operations functions.
• Builds bench strength, cross‑training, and succession coverage within the HR Operations team.

Education and/or Experience:

• Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, or related field required, Master’s preferred.
• 10+ years of progressive HR experience with multi‑state operational exposure.
• Demonstrated leadership of managers or senior‑level professionals.
• Strong HRIS experience (UKG preferred) and process‑improvement orientation.

Language Skills:  Ability to read, analyze, and interpret common scientific and technical journals, financial reports, and legal documents.  Ability to respond to common inquiries or complaints from customers, regulatory agencies, or members of the business community.  Ability to effectively present information to top management.

Mathematical Skills:  Ability to calculate figures and amounts such as discounts, interest, commissions, proportions, and percentages.  Ability to apply concepts such as fractions, percentages, ratios, and proportions to practical situations.  Ability to apply concepts of basic algebra.

Reasoning Ability:  Ability to define problems, collect data, establish facts, and draw valid conclusions.  Ability to interpret an extensive variety of technical instructions in mathematical or diagram form and deal with several abstract and concrete variables.  Analytical skills to troubleshoot and resolve system and/or operational issues.

Certificates, Licenses & Registrations:  A valid driver’s license for the state in which the Senior Manager, Human Resources Operations works.  SHRM-SCP, SPHR, SPHRi or GPHR designation a plus, but not required.

Additional Qualifications:

• Expert knowledge of HR operations, LOA, benefits, wage/hour, and multi‑state compliance.
• Systems thinker with strong analytical skills; able to build and interpret dashboards and audits.
• Skilled people leader who coaches, delegates, and holds teams accountable; adept at cross‑functional influence.
• Exceptional communication and documentation skills; clear, practical, and audience‑
• Strong decision-making skills.
• Strong project management, organization, and time management skills.
• High level of proficiency with MS Office applications.
• Requires handling of confidential information for employee’s and the organization’s private needs on a regular basis.
• Ability to travel (drive and fly; occasional overnight travel) to company facilities and occasional functions or events (less than 10%).
• Prior experience with UKG Pro HRIS system preferred.

Compensation:  Base Salary, Exempt, Bonus-eligible

Career Path Statement:

This role is designed as a Senior Manager position with enterprise scope. Progression to Director is based on sustained performance, demonstrated scope expansion, and organizational need. Advancement is not time‑based and does not imply automatic progression to Vice President roles.