Chief People Officer (California)

Chief People Officer

Full Time – Van Nuys, CA, US

Salary: $225,000.00 Annually

About Town & Country

Town & Country is a service and distribution business serving the greater Los Angeles market from its San Fernando Valley operations. Our workforce is predominantly frontline — warehouse, drivers, field service, and operations teams whose daily performance is the heart of how we serve customers. Our sales and sales support teams are equally vital, connecting customers with the right solutions and helping deliver a seamless customer experience.

We are hiring our senior-most people leader to build the culture, safety, and talent foundation that will carry the company through its next stage of growth.

The Opportunity

This role exists to elevate the culture of Town & Country — and safety is the #1 component of that culture. We are not hiring an administrator to maintain the status quo. We are hiring a leader to fundamentally strengthen how it feels to work here—for our employees, our vendors, and our customers. That starts on the floor and the road, where our drivers, warehouse, installation, and field teams do the work that defines the company, and extends to the client and vendor relationships and sales experience. A safer, productive workplace is where that culture change begins. When people know the company protects them, they are better equipped to serve customers with confidence. From there, everything else—trust, engagement, retention, performance, and stronger client relationships—follows.

You will own the full people agenda for a distributed, largely diversified workforce, and you will be measured first on whether the culture and the safety record visibly improve. Success looks like a workforce that is safer, more engaged, and more likely to stay, led by supervisors who set the right tone every shift. You'll be as comfortable on the warehouse floor, the loading dock, and around the fleet as you are in the boardroom — because the credibility of this role is earned where the work happens, not from an office.

Key Responsibilities

Culture & Safety — The Core Mandate

Safety is treated here as the foundation of culture, not a separate compliance box.

• Define and drive a company-wide culture strategy that reaches frontline and hourly employees on every shift — not just office staff.
• Make safety the visible #1 cultural priority: build a workplace where employees believe the company genuinely protects them, and where leaders are accountable to that belief.
• Own the company's safety performance in a physically demanding, equipment- and vehicle-intensive environment; direct the Injury and Illness Prevention Program (IIPP) and ensure full Cal/OSHA compliance.
• Lead DOT and fleet safety — driver qualification, hours-of-service, drug & alcohol program, CSA scores, telematics/behavior programs, and accident review — as a central, not peripheral, part of the safety agenda.
• Lead workers' compensation strategy — claims management, return-to-work programs, and cost containment — with a prevention-first mindset.
• Establish safety and culture metrics, incident reporting, root-cause analysis, and continuous-improvement routines; hold operating leaders accountable to outcomes.
• Design engagement, recognition, and communication programs that work across shifts, sites, and languages (English/Spanish).
• Own employee listening — surveys, floor walks, roundtables, exit-interview analysis — and convert findings into visible action.
• Build frontline leadership and supervisor capability, since shift supervisors are the single biggest driver of both safety behavior and daily culture.
• Serve as a trusted, visible presence to employees at every level of the organization.

Talent Acquisition & Retention

• Lead high-volume, time-sensitive hourly recruiting (warehouse, drivers, service/field roles) and reduce time-to-fill.
• Build sourcing pipelines and an employer brand that competes for talent in the LA labor market.
• Attack turnover with data — onboarding, early-tenure retention, career pathing, and competitive compensation.
• Develop workforce planning aligned to seasonal and operational demand.

HR Operations & Compliance

• Ensure airtight compliance with California employment law — wage & hour, meal/rest breaks, overtime, PAGA exposure, leaves (CFRA/PDL/paid sick), and multi-classification pay rules.
• Oversee payroll accuracy, benefits, HRIS, and the full employee lifecycle.
• Handle employee relations investigations and manager coaching with consistency and defensibility.

Executive Leadership & Strategy

• Serve as a strategic partner to the CEO and operating leaders; bring the people lens to business decisions.
• Build and lead a high-performing HR/Safety team.
• Own people metrics that matter to the business — turnover, time-to-fill, safety incident and cost trends, engagement, and labor cost.

What We're Looking For

Required

• 10+ years of progressive HR leadership, with meaningful time as the senior-most people leader (VP People, Head of HR, or CPO).
• Direct experience in service, distribution, logistics, wholesale, manufacturing, or a comparable operations-heavy industry with a diversified workforce.
• A demonstrated record of transforming or meaningfully improving culture in a frontline, multi-shift environment — this is the primary reason the role exists.
• Safety as a core competency: ownership of Cal/OSHA, IIPP, workers' compensation, and a track record of measurably improving safety outcomes and building a safety-first culture.
• DOT and fleet safety experience — driver qualification, hours-of-service, drug & alcohol programs, and accident/CSA management.
• Deep California employment law expertise; comfort managing wage-and-hour and PAGA risk in a high-exposure state.
• High-volume hourly recruiting and retention experience.
• Credibility with frontline employees and the presence to lead from the floor, not just from an office.

Strongly Preferred

• Bilingual English/Spanish, or experience leading a significant Spanish-speaking workforce.
• Experience in a private, family-owned, or PE-backed company navigating growth or professionalization.
• SHRM-SCP / SPHR certification.
• Bachelor's degree in HR, business, or related field; advanced degree a plus.

Ideal Candidate Profile

• Culture builder first — has visibly changed how it feels to work somewhere, on the frontline, not just refreshed a values poster.
• Safety-driven — treats employee safety as a personal and cultural priority, not a compliance obligation.
• Operationally credible — respected by warehouse, driver, and field leaders, not seen as “just HR.”
• Hands‑on and visible — spends real time where the work happens.
• Data‑driven — manages culture, safety, and people with metrics, not vibes.
• Builder mindset — thrives creating structure where little exists.
• Culture carrier — sets the tone others follow.
• Quarterly Bonus (based on KPIs)
• Comprehensive benefits package available, including medical, dental, and vision insurance. Employee premium contributions apply.
• 401(k) retirement plan with company matching
• Employer‑paid basic life insurance
• Unlimited Vacation

Town & Country is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.