Human Resources Director, Business Lead - Global Water

Ecolab; Naperville (IL); On-site; USD 137,000 - 205,000; Full time

Job summary

Ecolab in Naperville, IL seeks an HR Business Lead for its Global Water team to align people strategies with business priorities and drive growth. You will partner with senior leaders to shape workforce, culture, and organizational design for measurable outcomes.

Ideal candidates bring 10+ years of HR leadership experience, strong business acumen, and data-driven decision-making. This role emphasizes transformation, inclusion, and executive-level advisory capabilities.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources, Business, or a related field.
• 10+ years of progressive HR experience, including executive-level support.
• Ability to translate business strategy into talent, workforce, organization, and culture strategies.
• Strong business acumen, financial fluency, analytical capability, executive-level influence, and data-driven decision-making.

Responsibilities

• Serve as a trusted advisor to senior leaders, connecting talent, organization, culture, and workforce strategies to business priorities, financial outcomes, productivity, and customer impact.
• Use business insight, financial fluency, market perspective, and people analytics to identify talent risks, capability gaps, and organization opportunities that improve execution and performance.
• Translate business strategy into workforce plans, organization designs, succession actions, and talent moves that build leadership depth and ensure the right capabilities are in place to deliver the plan.
• Coach, challenge, and influence leaders with candor and credibility, helping them make better decisions, build accountable teams, and lead effectively through complexity and change.
• Lead organizational transformation, culture, inclusion, and change initiatives that improve agility, engagement, retention, innovation, and business resilience.
• Represent business needs across HR Centers of Excellence, HR Service Delivery, and the broader HR organization to deliver simple, scalable, consistent, and high-quality solutions.

Skills

Executive Influence

Data Analytics

Workforce Planning

Leadership Coaching

Strategic HR

HR Business Partner

Education

Bachelor's degree in HR or related field

Master's degree (preferred)

Job description

Want to build a brighter, bolder future and cultivate your career? Join Ecolab's team and help create a world in which we all thrive.

As the HR Business Lead for assigned businesses within Ecolab’s Global Water team, you will be a high-impact thought partner to senior business leaders who work with our most important customers, translating business priorities into people and organization strategies that accelerate growth, strengthen leadership capability, improve productivity, and deliver measurable financial and operational results. This role requires strong business acumen, enterprise perspective, data-driven judgment, and the ability to influence leaders through complex talent, organization, culture, and change decisions.

What You Will Do

• Serve as a trusted advisor to senior leaders, connecting talent, organization, culture, and workforce strategies to business priorities, financial outcomes, productivity, and customer impact
• Use business insight, financial fluency, market perspective, and people analytics to identify talent risks, capability gaps, and organization opportunities that improve execution and performance
• Translate business strategy into workforce plans, organization designs, succession actions, and talent moves that build leadership depth and ensure the right capabilities are in place to deliver the plan
• Coach, challenge, and influence leaders with candor and credibility, helping them make better decisions, build accountable teams, and lead effectively through complexity and change
• Lead organizational transformation, culture, inclusion, and change initiatives that improve agility, engagement, retention, innovation, and business resilience
• Represent business needs across HR Centers of Excellence, HR Service Delivery, and the broader HR organization to deliver simple, scalable, consistent, and high-quality solutions
• Advance new ways of working, including technology, automation, self-service, and process simplification, while mentoring HR talent and strengthening the strategic impact of the HR business partner organization

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources, Business, or a related field
• 10+ years of progressive HR experience, including experience supporting executive-level leaders
• Demonstrated ability to translate business strategy into talent, workforce, organization, and culture strategies that deliver measurable results
• Strong business acumen, financial fluency, analytical capability, executive-level influence, and data-driven decision-making skills
• Experience in workforce planning, succession planning, organization effectiveness, performance management, leadership development, and change leadership
• No immigration sponsorship available for this position

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, or a related field
• Experience partnering with senior/executive leadership in a large, matrixed, global organization
• SHRM-SCP or SPHR certification

Annual Or Hourly Compensation Range

The base salary range for this position is $136,600.00 - $204,800.00. This position is eligible for annual bonus and long-term incentives based on performance, per plan terms. Many factors are taken into consideration when determining compensation, such as experience, education, training, geography, etc. We comply with all minimum wage and overtime laws.

Benefits

Ecolab strives to provide comprehensive and market-competitive benefits to meet the needs of our associates and their families. Click here to see our benefits.

If you are viewing this posting on a site other than our Ecolab Career website, view our benefits at jobs.ecolab.com/working-here.

Potential Customer Requirements Notice

To meet customer requirements and comply with local or state regulations, applicants for certain customer-facing roles may need to:

• Undergo additional background screens and/or drug/alcohol testing for customer credentialing.

Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA)

Ecolab will provide reasonable accommodation (such as a qualified sign language interpreter or other personal assistance) with our application process upon request as required to comply with applicable laws. If you have a disability and require accommodation assistance in this application process, please visit the Recruiting Support link in the footer of each page of our career website.

Our Commitment to a Culture of Inclusion & Belonging

At Ecolab, we believe the best teams are inclusive. We are on a journey to create a workplace where every associate can grow and achieve their best. We are committed to fair and equal treatment of associates and applicants and recruit, hire, promote, transfer and provide opportunities for advancement based on individual qualifications and job performance. In all matters affecting employment, compensation, benefits, working conditions, and opportunities for advancement, we will not discriminate against any associate or applicant for employment because of race, religion, color, creed, national origin, citizenship status, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and expressions, genetic information, marital status, age, disability, or status as a covered veteran.

In addition, we are committed to furthering the principles of Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) through Affinit ... We will consider for employment all qualified applicants, including those with criminal histories, in a manner consistent with the requirements of applicable state and local laws, including the City of Los Angeles’ Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance, the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, and the New York City Fair Chance Act.