Director of People Operations

Gray Residential is a multifamily owner-operator with communities across Indiana. We manage our properties directly, which means our people function sits close to the business - corporate teams, regional leadership, and the site-level employees who make the communities run every day.


We're looking for a Director of People Operations to help build out this function internally. This is not a policy-only HR role. We need someone who knows the fundamentals - compliance, employee relations, benefits, hiring, onboarding, documentation - but who also thinks like a culture builder and operator.


The right person will help make Gray Residential a stronger place to work: engaging onboarding, world-class training, consistent communication, stronger managers, and employees who feel seen, heard, and connected to the company even when they're working at properties spread across the portfolio.


What this role actually is:

• You'll own the day-to-day people function for Gray Residential, supporting both the corporate office and the property management organization. Most of our employees are in site operations - leasing, maintenance, management, and other hourly or field-based roles - so this role needs someone who is comfortable with the practical realities of a workforce environment.
• That means employee relations, hiring and termination support, performance management, manager coaching, handbook and policy administration, benefits coordination, compliance basics, and the documentation that keeps the company protected. It also means getting upstream of the problems: improving onboarding, reducing avoidable turnover, helping managers communicate better, and building touchpoints so employees don't feel like they're on an island.
• You'll also serve as a light recruiter and talent partner. You'll help shape job postings, screen candidates, coordinate interviews, improve hiring workflows, and make sure new employees get a first impression that reflects how we want the company to operate.
• Just as important, you'll be expected to bring ideas. We want someone who can look at how people are hired, trained, managed, retained, and developed - then help us build a more intentional system around it. This role will partner closely with ownership, property management leadership, and our existing fractional HR partner as we decide what should live internally over time.

• They've worked with hourly or field-based teams. Multifamily experience is a strong plus, but not an absolute requirement. Experience supporting multi-site operations, high-turnover workforces, or service-oriented hourly teams matters.
• They know HR fundamentals without hiding behind them. This person needs sound judgment on compliance, employee relations, documentation, benefits, hiring, and terminations - but they should not see the job as simply enforcing rules.
• They're a culture driver. They care about how people experience the company: how they are welcomed, trained, coached, recognized, heard, and held accountable.
• They're comfortable with managers and frontline employees. They can coach a regional leader through a hard conversation, then turn around and build trust with a maintenance tech or leasing consultant.
• They're practical and business-minded. They understand that people decisions affect performance, retention, resident experience, and NOI. They can connect HR work to operating outcomes.
• They communicate clearly and directly. This role requires judgment, discretion, and the ability to make complicated or sensitive topics easier for managers to act on.
• 5+ years of HR, people operations, recruiting, or employee relations experience is preferred, with meaningful exposure to hourly, distributed, or multi-location teams.

• A real opportunity to shape the people function at a growing multifamily operator - not just inherit a binder of existing processes.
• Direct access to ownership and operating leadership, with a short feedback loop between what you build and how the business runs.
• A company that wants HR to be more than compliance. We want better onboarding, stronger managers, lower avoidable turnover, and employees who understand why their work matters.
• Straight answers about comp, expectations, and how we measure success.