HR Architect for Scale & Acquisition Integration

SkyWater Search Partners; Saint Cloud (MN); On-site; USD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

SkyWater Search Partners is partnering with a private-equity-backed company to hire their first HR Leader. This is a rare chance to design an HR function from the ground up with direct access to ownership and senior leadership in the Saint Cloud, MN area.

The role requires significant progressive HR experience, including leadership of a broad HR function, and the ability to support acquisitions, integrations, and multi-site operations.

Qualifications

• Significant progressive HR experience, including leadership of a broad HR function at the Director level or equivalent.
• Experience supporting acquisitions, integrations, organizational change, or multi-entity environments.
• Background in a multi-site, operationally complex business with a substantial hourly or blue-collar workforce.
• Strong knowledge of employee relations, compliance, performance management, compensation, benefits, and HR operations.
• Experience implementing or improving HR systems and workforce reporting.

Responsibilities

• Build and lead the HR function.
• Assess current HR processes, capabilities, and infrastructure, then create a practical roadmap for what comes next.
• Establish consistent policies and best practices across locations without creating red tape.
• Strengthen the core disciplines: employee relations, performance management, compensation, benefits, talent development, recruiting, retention, and compliance.
• Build a service-oriented HR team that gives managers and employees the tools they need to succeed.
• Partner with executive leadership on the people side of acquisition due diligence and integration.
• Create a repeatable playbook for onboarding acquired businesses and aligning policies, systems, and practices.
• Retain critical talent, communicate change clearly, and protect the culture that made each business successful.
• Coach operating leaders and front-line managers on employee relations, accountability, and team effectiveness.
• Translate growth goals into actionable people strategies.
• Bring consistency and structure while preserving the entrepreneurial spirit that got the company here.
• Lead recruiting and retention for drivers, dispatchers, and operational leaders, partnering with local managers to solve real workforce challenges.
• Track turnover, time-to-fill, and retention to show what’s working.
• Build HR approaches that fit a hands-on, operational workforce.
• Improve HR technology, employee data, and workforce reporting.
• Work with payroll and outside providers to tighten processes and controls.
• Support multi-state compliance, including wage-and-hour, workers’ compensation, and return-to-work coordination

Skills

HR leadership

Acquisitions

Employee relations

Policy development

Compliance

Talent development

Recruiting

HR operations

Multi-site management

HR data & reporting

Tools

HRIS

HR technology

Job description

SkyWater Search Partners is partnering with a private-equity-backed company to hire their first HR Leader. This is a rare chance to design an HR function from the ground up with direct access to ownership and senior leadership in the Saint Cloud, MN area.

The role requires significant progressive HR experience, including leadership of a broad HR function, and the ability to support acquisitions, integrations, and multi-site operations.