Associate Director, Employee Relations and Labor Strategy

The Center for Justice Innovation is a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing community safety and racial justice. Since 1996, we’ve worked alongside communities, courts, and those most directly affected by the justice system to build stronger, healthier, and more equitable neighborhoods. With a team of over 900 staff and an annual budget of $130 million, the Center carries out its mission through three core strategies:

• Operating Programs that pilot new ideas and address local challenges;
• Conducting original research to evaluate what works—and what doesn’t; and
• Providing expert assistance and policy guidance to reformers across the country and beyond

Learn more about our work ovatingjustice.org.

The People Department is seeking an experienced and strategic Employee Relations leader to serve as Associate Director, Employee Relations and Labor Strategy within the People Department. Reporting to the Director of Employee Relations, this role will provide senior-level employee and labor relations leadership across assigned portfolios and organizational functions, serving as a strategic partner to program leadership and the broader People department.

The Associate Director will serve as the lead advisor on complex employee relations matters, labor relations strategy, workplace investigations, organizational risk mitigation, leadership coaching, and performance management practices. This role will partner closely with program leadership to support operational effectiveness, strengthen workplace culture, ensure equitable and legally compliant practices, and reinforce the Center’s mission, values, and restorative justice-informed approach to employee relations.

The candidate brings deep experience navigating unionized environments, managing high-risk and high-volume employee relations matters, and influencing leaders through complex organizational dynamics with professionalism, credibility, and sound judgment.

• Serve as a senior Employee Relations leader for the organization, providing strategic guidance on complex employee and labor relations matters across multiple portfolios within a highly operational and unionized environment;
• Advise senior leadership on organizational risk, progressive discipline, performance management, conflict resolution, workplace culture concerns, and employee engagement strategies;
• Lead high-risk and sensitive employee relations matters, including workplace investigations, employee misconduct concerns, leadership escalations, and complex performance management processes;
• Partner with the Director of Employee Relations, Legal, HR Operations, and program leadership to ensure consistent and equitable application of organizational policies, collective bargaining obligations, employment law requirements, and People practices;
• Provide strategic coaching to leaders regarding accountability, documentation, difficult employee conversations, organizational change management, and team effectiveness;
• Identify systemic employee relations trends and operational risks through case tracking, workforce data, and recurring themes; develop proactive interventions, leadership training strategies, and culture stabilization efforts in response;
• Partner with the Director of Employee Relations and Legal Department in preparation for collective bargaining initiatives, contract interpretation, and labor-management strategy discussions;
• Support labor relations strategy by advising leaders on union-related matters, grievance trends, workplace practices, and employee engagement approaches within represented environments;
• Serve as an escalation point and thought partner to People Partners and Employee Relations Specialists…