Director, People Operations (Total Rewards & HRIS)

The Director of People Operations owns the infrastructure that makes employment with our client work: our HR systems, job structure, compensation and benefits, multi-state compliance, and the day-to-day service colleagues receive from the People function.

This is a build-and-consolidate role rather than a maintain role. You will inherit systems, processes, and practices that arrived through separate organizations, and your job is to turn them into one operating model - while continuing to absorb new acquisitions without disruption to a single paycheck or benefit. This role will report to the Chief People Officer.

What You Will Own:

• HR systems and data. Own the HRIS as the single system of record. Lead consolidation of inherited systems, govern data quality, and build reporting that leaders actually use.
• Payroll data and the Finance partnership. Payroll execution sits with Finance. This role owns everything that feeds it - accurate colleague records, timely status and pay changes, correct deductions and elections, and clean data at cutoff. You are accountable for the inputs; Finance is accountable for the run. Where errors reach colleagues, you jointly own the fix.
• Job structure and architecture. Maintain the job architecture: job families, levels, titles, career paths, and FLSA classification. Champion the harmonization of four legacy structures into one framework, and maintain it as the organization grows and acquires. This is the foundation compensation, performance, and career progression all depend on.
• Compensation and benefits. Own compensation administration and the full benefits program - annual open enrollment, carrier relationships and feeds, and leave administration. Benchmark against market, identify and cost inequities, and partner with Finance on affordability.
• Multi-state compliance. Maintain employment compliance across every state we operate in - wage and hour, leave, I-9 and work authorization, required notices, recordkeeping, and audit readiness. Partner with Legal on anything that requires counsel.
• Employee lifecycle operations. Onboarding through offboarding: the transactions, the systems access, the documentation, and the experience of each transition.
• M&A people integration. Build and run the playbook that moves acquired colleagues onto out client's systems, compensation structures, and benefits, coordinating with Finance on payroll transition. Engage during diligence, not after close.
• HR service delivery. Define how colleagues get help, set response standards, measure whether we meet them, and fix the recurring causes rather than the recurring tickets.
• Policy and documentation. Maintain the handbook and policy library across markets, and reconcile the legacy policies our acquisitions brought with them.

What you need:

• Seven or more years in HR operations, with at least three leading the function or a major component of it.
• Multi-site, multi-state experience - ideally in healthcare delivery , where clinical credentialing, licensure, and non-exempt workforce complexity are familiar rather than new.
• Demonstrated ownership of an HRIS implementation, migration, or consolidation , not participation in someone else's.
• Enough payroll literacy to be a credible partner to Finance - you will not run payroll, but you must understand how your data becomes someone's paycheck and be able to spot a problem before it does.
• Compensation experience - survey benchmarking, pay practice harmonization, and demonstrated ownership of a job architecture build or rebuild. Experience with clinical compensation models is a strong advantage.
• Practical multi-state employment compliance knowledge, and the judgment to know when to involve counsel.
• Experience integrating acquired employee populations, ideally including situations that were messy.
• Comfort with ambiguity, competing priorities, and a still-evolving organizational design.
• Based in or willing to relocate to Nashville.