Human Resources Manager

James Hardie is the industry leader in exterior home and outdoor living solutions, with a portfolio that includes fiber cement, fiber gypsum, composite and PVC decking and railing products. Our family of trusted brands includes Hardie, Timber Tech, AZEK Exteriors, Versatex, fermacell, and Stru Xure.

With over 8,000 employees and our U.S. operating entities headquartered in Chicago, we boast 31 operating sites, 6 recycling facilities, and 6 research and development centers globally. Powered by a dynamic workforce, we’re united by our purpose of Building a Better Future for All through sustainable innovation, a Zero Harm culture, and a commitment to empowering our people and communities.

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The Human Resource Manager plays a critical role in shaping and executing the people strategy in alignment with business objectives. This role is designed for an HR leader who can operate strategically while ensuring operational rigor, partnering closely with business leaders to drive performance, strengthening leadership capability, and fostering a high‑engagement culture. The successful candidate will be viewed as a business and functional leader for the manufacturing site.

This position goes beyond traditional HR administration. It is accountable for anticipating workforce needs, identifying organizational risks and opportunities, and delivering integrated people solutions that enable operational continuous improvement and sustainable growth. The HR Manager acts as a trusted advisor to leaders, a coach to managers, and an advocate for employees, while ensuring compliance, consistency, and fairness across business and HR practices.

• Partner with senior leaders to understand business strategy, operational challenges, and workforce implications.
• Translate business priorities into people strategies across talent, organization design, leadership capability, and culture.
• Provide data‑driven insights using workforce and people metrics (safety, turnover, engagement, performance, absenteeism) to influence decision‑making.
• Participate actively in leadership meetings, strategic planning sessions, and operational reviews.
• Support Lean management principles and standard work to support continuous improvement in the business and function.

• Lead workforce planning efforts to ensure the organization has the right talent, skills, and structure to meet current and future needs.
• Develop and drive overall retention strategies and action plans.
• Partner with leaders to identify critical roles and develop robust succession plans and internal pipelines.
• Partner with Learning & Development to identify leadership and capability gaps and drive targeted development solutions.

• Serve as a steward of the organization’s values, culture, and leadership standards.
• Coach and influence leaders to strengthen people management capability, accountability, and inclusive leadership behaviors.
• Lead engagement initiatives, analyze employee feedback, and partner with leaders to create actionable improvement plans.
• Develop and promote strategies to improve employee engagement.

• Lead and support organizational design, restructuring, and transformation initiatives.
• Assess change impacts and develop people‑focused change strategies to support business initiatives.
• Partner with leaders to manage transitions related to growth, integration, technology, or process changes.

• Provide guidance on employee relations matters, including performance issues, investigations, policy interpretation, and corrective action.
• Identify and proactively mitigate people‑related risks.
• Ensure compliance with employment laws, internal policies, and regulatory requirements.

• Ensure effective execution of core HR processes, including performance reviews, compensation cycles, engagement surveys, onboarding, and exits.
• Partner with HR Centers of Excellence to deliver seamless and integrated people solutions.
• Monitor HR…