Manager, HR Effectiveness

Durham School Services; Warrenville (IL); On-site; USD 80,000 - 100,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, vision

Basic life insurance

Holiday pay

PTO accrual

Retirement savings plan

Job summary

Summit School Services seeks an experienced HR Operations lead to drive people initiatives aligned with business priorities. You will guide projects from concept through planning, communication, implementation, and adoption, partnering with HR leaders, specialty teams, and stakeholders to improve employee and leader experiences.

The role focuses on employee engagement, retention programs, performance culture, and HR process improvements, delivering practical solutions across the organization.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent practical experience.
• 5+ years of HR experience with both generalist and specialist exposure.
• Experience managing projects or initiatives within HR or related functions.
• Working knowledge of HR operating models and structure.
• Experience leading change, transformation, or process improvement.

Responsibilities

• Identify people-related priorities with leaders to improve outcomes.
• Lead HR initiatives from planning to adoption and follow-up.
• Create and manage project plans, timelines, and milestones.
• Coordinate work across HR specialty teams and stakeholders.
• Develop change management plans to drive adoption and sustainment.
• Prepare clear communications for leaders, employees, and teams.

Skills

HR project management

Change management

Cross-functional collaboration

Executive communication

HR programs

Data-driven HR

Stakeholder alignment

Education

Bachelor’s degree

Tools

Excel

PowerPoint

Teams

Microsoft Project

Job description

Summit School Services companies share a strong commitment to provide the highest level of transportation safety, quality transportation, outstanding customer service and positive employee relations. Our corporate headquarters, located in Warrenville, Illinois, houses the administrative and corporate support functions for the organization. Our 250+ local customer service centers (CSCs) are supported by regional operations teams located throughout North America.

This role reports to the VP, HR Operations and leads HR people initiatives that support business priorities and improve how HR delivers programs across the organization. The person in this role will often serve as both the project lead and hands‑on contributor, moving initiatives from concept through planning, communication, implementation, and adoption. Key areas of focus may include employee engagement and retention programs, building a performance culture, compensation‑related programs, HR process improvements, and HR transformation projects. The role partners closely with HR leaders, HR specialty teams, HR business partners, and business stakeholders to organize work, align priorities, manage change, and deliver practical solutions that improve the employee and leader experience.

How You’ll Make An Impact

• Work with HR and business leaders to identify people‑related priorities that improve business and employee outcomes.
• Lead HR initiatives from start to finish, including planning, execution, communication, and follow‑up.
• Create and manage project plans, timelines, milestones, status updates, and success measures.
• Coordinate work across HR specialty teams, including Talent Acquisition, Compensation and Benefits, HRIS/People Systems, Learning and Development, Talent Management, HR Compliance, and Analytics.
• Develop and execute change management plans that help leaders and employees understand, adopt, and sustain new programs or processes.
• Prepare clear communications for different audiences, such as toolkits, policies, announcements, leader talking points, FAQs, and project updates.

The annual salary range is $80,000 - $100,000.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent practical experience.
• 5+ years of HR experience, with a mix of generalist and specialist exposure that provides a broad understanding of HR programs and operations.
• Experience managing projects or initiatives within HR or a closely related business function.
• Working knowledge of how HR functions are commonly structured; ability to quickly learn an organization’s specific HR operating model.
• Experience supporting or leading change, transformation, or process improvement initiatives.
• Strong communication skills, including the ability to create clear, audience appropriate materials for leaders, employees, and project teams.
• Experience working with cross‑functional and geographically distributed teams.
• Strong proficiency with Microsoft tools, such as Excel, PowerPoint, Teams, and Microsoft Project or similar planning tools.
• Excellent facilitation, organization, and problem‑solving skills; ability to manage ambiguity and drive decisions.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in a service delivery business with a field‑based, customer‑facing workforce.
• Experience using AI‑enabled tools or other technology to improve productivity, communication, or project execution.

Core Competencies

• Stakeholder management: Builds trust with HR leaders, HR Specialty teams, HRBPs, and partner functions; influences without authority.
• Structured delivery: Brings rigor to planning, tracking, and reporting while staying pragmatic.
• Change leadership: Anticipates adoption barriers and drives clear actions to support lasting change.
• Executive communication: Synthesizes complex information into concise updates, recommendations, and decision points.
• Continuous improvement mindset: Uses data and feedback to refine processes and improve outcomes.

Summit School Services has a zero‑tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with its policies and values, including sexual exploitation and abuse, harassment, abuse of authority, and discrimination. Summit School Services is committed to promoting the protection and safeguarding of all children and passengers.

• We offer medical, dental, vision, basic life insurance coverage, holiday pay, and PTO accrual.
• Additionally, employees are able to enroll in a retirement savings plan.

At Summit School Services our goal is to be a diverse workforce that is representative of the communities we serve. All employment decisions are based on business needs, job requirements and individual qualifications, without regard to race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy (including childbirth, lactation and related medical conditions), national origin, age, physical and mental disability, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, genetic information (including characteristics and testing), military and veteran status, and any other characteristic protected by applicable law.

Summit School Services LLC’s independent subsidiaries and affiliates are an equal employment opportunity (EEO) employer.

The pay rate range, along with most all of the other terms and conditions of employment, vary between different sites, geographical markets, customer/ contractual terms and positions.