Director, Human Resources

Job Description

Director of Human Resources

Ashland, Oregon | In-office

The Mission

At Blue Marble, employee decisions aren't a box-checking exercise.

We are building a powerhouse company, and we need a Director of Human Resources who can take responsibility for the whole HR function. That means getting the essentials right—payroll, employee relations, benefits, policies, compliance, and HR systems. You'll work closely with our founder and leadership team on issues that matter to the business.

You will protect our standards, help shape our organization, and ensure our HR operations match the excellence we expect throughout our entire company. We are looking for a senior leader with the talents and discipline to turn HR operations into a high-performance engine for our company.

What You'll Do

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• Lead the HR Function. Take responsibility for day-to-day HR work, the team, and the processes behind it. Make sure employees and managers get clear answers and the important details don't fall through the cracks.
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• Payroll. Maintain ownership over payroll, timekeeping controls, reviews, approvals, and reconciliations. Partner seamlessly with Finance to ensure absolute accuracy and ironclad financial controls.
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• Help Shape the Organization. Work with the founder and senior leaders on workforce planning, team structure, and leadership needs to support business growth.
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• Handle People Issues with Empathy and Precision. Lead employee-relations investigations, performance strategies, and difficult conversations with absolute fairness, clear documentation, unwavering discretion, and follow through.
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• Forge Stronger Leaders: Coach managers to own their teams, set high expectations, deliver candid feedback, and resolve friction early rather than throwing every employee issue over the fence to HR.
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• Ensure Compliance. Maintain sound employment practices across wages, leave, accommodations, employee records, and related requirements. Know when to bring in legal, C-suite, or other outside expertise.
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• Build and Scale our Company: We want someone who will improve what needs to be improved. Review and own all our processes and make things better to help us build and scale a world-class organization.
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What You Bring

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• True Functional HR Breadth. Hands-on mastery across payroll controls, employee relations, compliance, manager coaching, and all core HR operations. You don’t need to memorized every regulation, but you need to know how to find the answer or engineer the solution.
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• Sound Judgment. You can work through difficult personnel decisions and explain why you recommend a particular course of action. You can turn challenging moments into growth opportunities that make our team stronger.
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• The Confidence to Speak Up. The courage to tell any leader when you spot a risk or disagree with a proposed direction—delivering hard truths constructively and professionally.
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• Relentless Follow-Through. You don't stop at giving advice. You ensure execution, close loops, and permanently fix broken processes so they never fail twice.
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• Business Acumen. You have an innate understanding that great HR decisions must serve the business, the managers, and the employees simultaneously—never just looking good on paper.
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• Respect for People. You handle sensitive matters with care, treat people fairly, and handle personnel situations with ironclad confidentiality.
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What It Takes

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• Senior HR Leadership: Significant, documented experience leading core HR functions—including employee relations, operations, performance frameworks, compliance, and benefits management.
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• Payroll Command: Direct accountability for overseeing payroll processing, inputs, verifications, and issue resolution, with a track record of maintaining rigorous internal controls.
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• Legal & Regulatory Fluency: Solid working knowledge of federal and Oregon employment standards, wage and hour laws, leave mandates, and accommodation protocols.
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• System Fluency: High comfort level with modern HRIS and payroll platforms, data analytics, and confidential record-keeping.
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What Sets You Apart

High-Growth / Scale Experience: Proven background scaling HR operations inside rapid-growth or founder-led environments rather than merely maintaining legacy procedures.

Experience with compensation analysis, benefits, organizational design, leadership development, or multi-state employment practices.

SHRM-SCP, SPHR, or a similar credential is welcome, but it isn't required.

What matters most is the quality of your judgment and the work you've actually led.

Benefits

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• Competitive salary and performance-based bonus opportunities
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• Comprehensive health benefits (medical, dental, vision, life)
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• 401(k) to help you plan for the future
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• Flexible paid time off—we trust you to recharge when you need it
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• Employee Assistance Program
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Is Blue Marble Right for You?

We're intentionally building a culture of people who lead by example, challenge one another respectfully, take ownership of their work, and want to continue learning and improving.

Blue Marble may be exactly the place you're looking for if...

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• You take ownership of your words, actions, and work product.
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• You value honest, hard conversations and long-term progress over short-term comfort.
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• You enjoy solving meaningful problems and seek purposeful work.
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• You see feedback as an opportunity to improve and grow.
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• You naturally look for ways to make things better and help others succeed.
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• You ask questions when something isn't clear.
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• You believe character matters as much as competence.
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• You proactively bring solutions to problems.
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On the other hand, you probably won't enjoy working here if...

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• You spend more time making excuses or pointing fingers than solving problems.
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• You consistently avoid difficult conversations.
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• You believe your responsibility ends with your job description.
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• You need someone to constantly tell you what to do.
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• You become defensive when receiving constructive feedback.
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• You believe being right is more important than finding the best solution.
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• You consistently wait for instructions rather than taking appropriate initiative.
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• You have difficulty acknowledging mistakes and learning from them.
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• You're primarily looking for a paycheck rather than an opportunity to meaningfully contribute.
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We're not looking for perfect people.

We're looking for high-performance people who are lifelong learners and have an internal engine and are self-motivated to push themselves towards growth and expansion.

We value people who are committed to bringing their best self to work, and want to make a difference doing purposeful, fulfilling work in their career.

If this sounds like you, let's make great things together.

Please include a cover letter with your submission. Start your cover letter with the following header: "I love toys!" That will show us you pay attention to details. ;-)

This description isn't exhaustive; responsibilities may evolve as Blue Marble grows.

Blue Marble is an equal opportunity employer. We consider qualified applicants without regard to any characteristic protected by applicable law and provide reasonable accommodations throughout the hiring process.