Director, Human Resources - Manufacturing

fender; Corona (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Fender seeks a Director of Human Resources - Manufacturing to partner with plant leadership in Corona and San Bernardino, driving people strategy aligned with production realities. This role emphasizes hands-on, visible leadership on the factory floor, workforce planning, and cultural transformation across shifts and functions.

The ideal candidate will bring 10–15 years of progressive HR experience; 5+ years in manufacturing, CA employment law expertise, and bilingual English/Spanish are a plus.

Qualifications

• Proven experience leading HR in a manufacturing setting.
• Strong knowledge of CA employment laws and workforce planning.
• Ability to translate production realities into a people strategy.

Responsibilities

• Maintain a visible HR presence on factory and distribution floors.
• Partner with site leadership to align HR with production and operations.
• Lead workforce planning, skill development, and staffing pipelines.
• Drive engagement, accountability, and performance across shifts and departments.
• Oversee investigations and HR governance in collaboration with Legal and Safety teams.

Skills

Manufacturing HR

HR leadership

Staffing & workforce planning

Employee relations

Change management

Bilingual English/Spanish

Education

Bachelor's degree in HR/Business

PHR/SPHR/GPHR certification preferred

Tools

HRIS

Job description

An American icon, Fender was born in Southern California and has built a worldwide influence extending beyond the studio and the stage. A Fender is more than an instrument; it's a cultural symbol that resonates globally.

This is a highly visible, strategic leadership role. Reporting to the Interim Chief Talent Officer, the Director, Human Resources - Manufacturing will be the senior HR partner embedded with plant and distribution leadership in Corona and San Bernardino, and is expected to bring genuine fluency in manufacturing operations, production cycles, and distribution workflows to the table. This is not a back-office HR role: this leader translates operational and production realities into a people strategy that keeps staffing, skills, and workforce readiness ahead of the business, and keeps HR processes moving at the pace the plant and distribution center require.

With direct leadership of the onsite HR team and responsibility for HR at FMIC's manufacturing facility in Corona, CA and distribution center in San Bernardino, CA, you will serve as a hands-on, transformational HR business partner to site leadership and employees. We are looking for an experienced manufacturing HR leader who believes great HR happens as much on the factory floor as it does in an office, someone who is visible, accessible and knows the people and the operation. You will build relationships at every level, help drive organizational transformation, strengthen leadership and accountability, improve engagement and culture, and translate business needs into practical people solutions. This transformational role requires someone who is comfortable challenging the status quo, leading through change and helping both our people and operations perform at their best.

Essential Functions:

• Maintain a highly visible presence on the factory and distribution center floors, building trusted relationships with employees across shifts, functions, and levels and developing a firsthand understanding of the people, processes, and issues affecting daily operations.
• Serve as a trusted, embedded strategic partner to site leadership, bringing HR into operational, production, workforce, and shift-planning decisions and translating business priorities into effective people strategies.
• Lead the people side of operational transformation, helping leaders and employees understand, adopt, and sustain new ways of working while identifying and removing organizational barriers to change.
• Own workforce planning and people readiness, forecasting headcount and skill requirements against production and distribution needs and ensuring strong pipelines for hourly, skilled, technical, and leadership talent.
• Build a culture of accountability, performance, and engagement, establishing clear expectations, addressing performance issues, recognizing strong performance, strengthening culture, and ensuring consistent standards across departments and shifts.
• Strengthen frontline leadership capability, coaching supervisors and managers to become stronger people leaders with particular focus on communication, decision-making, accountability, employee engagement, and performance management.
• Partner with Operations, Finance, Quality, and Continuous Improvement to improve workforce effectiveness, using data to address labor productivity, staffing, overtime, absenteeism, turnover, training, direct and indirect labor, and other workforce factors affecting operational performance.
• Build the talent and organizational capabilities required for the future, including retention strategies, succession planning, knowledge transfer, organizational design, workforce deployment, and development of critical manufacturing and distribution talent.
• Serve as a strong advocate for employees and the organization, proactively identifying employee concerns, morale and cultural issues, workforce risks, and opportunities to improve employee experience before they become larger problems.
• Provide strong HR governance and employee-relations leadership, overseeing investigations in partnership with Legal, organizational changes, leaves and accommodations, workers' compensation, and compliance with applicable employment, labor, safety, and workplace requirements.

Qualifications:

• 10-15 years of progressive HR management experience, including 5+ years as an HR leader in a manufacturing setting.
• Deep, hands-on knowledge of manufacturing operations required; experience supporting larger, complex sites strongly preferred.
• Bachelor's Degree in HR Management, Business Administration, Organizational/Industrial Psychology, or a related area of study.
• PHR, SPHR, GPHR, or similar certification are strongly preferred.
• Bilingual fluency (English | Spanish) a plus.
• Demonstrated competence in high-volume employee relations and performance management in a fast-paced, production environment.
• Fully versed in CA state employment laws, in addition to working knowledge of all pertinent Federal la