Director, HR Projects & Transformation - Chicago or Decatur, IL

Decatur

IL
- Illinois

Human Resources

Job Description

Director, HR Strategic Projects & HR Transformation
- Chicago or Decatur, IL

The Director, HR Strategic Projects & HR Transformation is responsible for leading enterprise-wide initiatives that strengthen organizational performance, workforce effectiveness, operational excellence, and the employee experience. This role serves as a strategic partner to senior leaders, driving the development and execution of HR strategies, organizational effectiveness initiatives, HR and payroll transformation programs, process optimization efforts, and merger and acquisition integration activities.

The Director will lead complex, cross-functional projects that align people, processes, technology, and organizational capabilities with business priorities. This position plays a critical role in enabling business growth, improving operational efficiency, modernizing HR and payroll systems, and ensuring successful organizational change and integration outcomes.

• Lead strategic HR initiatives and transformation programs that improve organizational effectiveness, employee experience, scalability, and operational performance.
• Develop business cases, implementation roadmaps, governance structures, and success metrics for enterprise HR initiatives.
• Identify opportunities to simplify, standardize, and enhance HR service delivery and operating models.
• Provide strategic counsel to HR leadership and business leaders on workforce, organizational, and operational challenges.
• Lead cross-functional teams and influence stakeholders across HR, Payroll, Finance, Technology, Legal, and business functions.

• Lead strategic planning initiatives for HR, ensuring organizational structures, resources, and capabilities are aligned with evolving business requirements, service delivery expectations, and enterprise priorities.
• Evaluate and optimize the operating model across HR to improve efficiency, scalability, and service quality.
• Assess organizational structures, reporting relationships, resource allocation, and team capacity within HR to ensure effective service delivery and operational excellence.
• Develop workforce and capacity planning models that support growth, transformation initiatives, service expansion, and changing business demands across HR.
• Establish and monitor operational metrics, workforce analytics, and service delivery measures to evaluate organizational effectiveness, productivity, customer experience, and operational performance.
• Lead assessments of HR processes, roles, and governance frameworks, recommending organizational improvements that enhance accountability, collaboration, standardization, and decision-making effectiveness.
• Support the design and implementation of organizational changes associated with HR transformations, service delivery model enhancements, system implementations, acquisitions, and divestitures affecting HR.
• Drive continuous improvement of organizational capabilities within HR by identifying opportunities to enhance skills, processes, technologies, and service delivery models.
• Partner with HR leadership to ensure the HR organizations are appropriately structured and resourced to deliver sustainable, efficient, and globally consistent HR services.

• Lead enterprise HR transformation initiatives focused on operational excellence, scalability, and continuous improvement.
• Assess and improve end-to-end HR and payroll processes to improve efficiency, controls, compliance, and customer experience.
• Identify opportunities to automate, standardize, simplify, and optimize business processes.
• Establish governance frameworks, operating procedures, and performance metrics to ensure sustainable improvements.
• Drive implementation of continuous improvement methodologies and best practices.
• Measure and report on transformation outcomes, productivity improvements, and operational performance.

• Lead payroll system upgrades, implementations, integrations, and optimization initiatives.
• Partner with Payroll, HRIS, Information Technology, and Finance teams to establish technology strategies and priorities.
• Define business requirements and oversee process redesign associated with system enhancements and technology deployments.
• Ensure payroll and HR systems support business…