Senior HR Business Partner

Gooch & Housego Pal Alto; Fremont (CA); On-site; USD 110,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

Gooch & Housego Pal Alto is seeking a Senior HR Business Partner to lead people strategies for the Fremont, CA operation during a period of growth and change. You will partner with site leadership to translate business needs into workforce plans, and coach leaders on organizational design, talent, and engagement.

This hands-on role requires strong California employment knowledge, experience supporting manufacturing environments, and the ability to drive scalable people programs across hourly and

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, Organizational Development, or related field.
• 7+ years of progressive HR experience including HR Business Partner or senior HR generalist roles.
• Experience in manufacturing, aerospace/defense, technology, or similarly complex environments.
• Experience supporting growth, transformation, or introduction/transfer of new work.
• Strong knowledge of California and federal employment laws and compliance.

Responsibilities

• Serve as trusted HR partner to Fremont leadership, understanding priorities and workforce needs to provide practical people solutions.
• Coach leaders on organizational structure, leadership capability, and workforce decisions while balancing short-term needs and long-term health.
• Use data and insights to identify trends, risks, and actions to improve organizational effectiveness and productivity.
• Translate growth and production priorities into workforce plans, including staffing, structure, and leadership needs.
• Support scaling, new work, and change initiatives with alignment of people, communication, and implementation.

Skills

HRBP

Change Management

Employee Relations

Workforce Planning

Leadership Coaching

Education

Bachelor's degree in HR/Business

Job description

Description

ABOUT US

Join a Global Photonics Leader Engineering Solutions from the Deep Ocean to Outer Space!

G&H is a global leader in the design, engineering, and manufacture of advanced photonic technologies. As experts in the technology of light, we partner with customers to deliver optical systems, assemblies, and components for demanding applications across aerospace and defense, life sciences, industrial, and other high-performance markets.

With operations across the United States and Europe, G&H brings together deep technical expertise, precision manufacturing, and more than 75 years of innovation. Our success is built on the capability of our people and our ability to translate complex customer requirements into high-quality, reliable solutions.

As we continue to grow and evolve, we are investing in the people, leadership, and organizational capabilities required to scale our operations and support our customers.

THE OPPORTUNITY

The Senior HR Business Partner will serve as the dedicated HR partner to our Fremont, California operation during an important period of growth, organizational change, and capability expansion.

This is a highly visible, hands-on role for an experienced HR professional who can move comfortably between strategic business partnership and day-to-day execution. The Senior HR Business Partner will develop a strong understanding of the operation, translate business and production requirements into workforce priorities, coach and challenge leaders, navigate complex employee matters, and help ensure the site has the people, structure, leadership, and capabilities required to deliver against its business objectives.

Based onsite in Fremont, this role will work closely with site leadership and employees while operating as part of the broader U.S. HR organization. The successful candidate will bring strong business acumen, sound judgment, and the ability to support a manufacturing organization as it scales while ensuring consistent, compliant, and effective people practices.

Must be able to commute to our Fremont, CA site on a daily basis. Relocation assistance is not available for this role.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Business Partnership & Organizational Effectiveness

• Serve as a trusted HR partner to Fremont leadership, developing a strong understanding of business priorities, operational challenges, customer requirements, and workforce needs to provide practical, commercially grounded people solutions.
• Coach, advise, and appropriately challenge leaders on organizational structure, leadership capability, workforce decisions, performance, employee engagement, retention, and other people matters, balancing immediate operational requirements with longer-term organizational health.
• Use workforce data, business insights, and sound judgment to identify trends, challenge assumptions, anticipate people risks, and recommend actions that strengthen organizational effectiveness, leadership accountability, workforce productivity, and continuous improvement.

Workforce Growth & Change

• Partner with leadership to translate business growth, production demand, capacity requirements, and operational priorities into workforce plans, including staffing levels, organizational structure, critical capabilities, role clarity, leadership needs, and succession considerations.
• Support the effective scaling of the Fremont operation, including the introduction or transfer of new work, capabilities, technologies, teams, and organizational structures, ensuring people, leadership, communication, and change considerations are incorporated into implementation plans.
• Partner with Recruiting and business leaders to develop effective hiring and workforce strategies across hourly, technical, professional, and leadership populations while identifying opportunities to strengthen retention, internal capability, and organizational readiness.

Employee Relations & Talent

• Provide leadership on employee relations matters, including workplace investigations, performance concerns, corrective action, attendance, conduct, conflict resolution, and other complex employee situations, ensuring decisions are consistent, well documented, and compliant with applicable requirements.
• Coach leaders on performance management, feedback, accountability, talent development, and employee engagement while supporting annual performance, talent, succession, and development processes.
• Build trusted relationships across all levels of the organization, maintaining a visible and approachable HR presence while balancing employee advocacy, business requirements, company policy, and sound HR judgment.

HR Operations & Governance

• Provide hands-on HR support across the employee lifecycle, including onboarding, employee changes, leaves and accommodations, compensation, performance management, employee relations, and separation processes.
• Partner with the broader U.S. HR team and shared services to ensure HR programs, policies, processes, and systems are implemented consistently and effectively while contributing to U.S. HR projects and continuous improvement initiatives.
• Maintain strong knowledge of California and federal employment requirements, ensure appropriate documentation and HR practices, and support HR reporting, compliance, audits, and workforce analytics as required.

QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE

• Bachelor's degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, Organizational Development, or a related discipline, or an equivalent combination of education and relevant experience.
• 7+ years of progressive HR experience, including experience operating as an HR Business Partner or senior-level HR generalist.
• Demonstrated experience supporting a manufacturing, engineering, aerospace and defense, technology, or similarly complex operational environment.
• Experience supporting a manufacturing or operational organization through meaningful growth, transformation, expansion, organizational change, or the introduction or transfer of new work.
• Strong working knowledge of California and federal employment laws and HR compliance requirements.
• Demonstrated experience managing complex employee relations matters, workplace investigations, performance management, corrective action, and other sensitive employee situations.
• Experience with workforce planning, organizational design, staffing strategies, talent management, succession planning, and organizational capability development.
• Demonstrated ability to partner with, coach, influence, and appropriately challenge leaders across multiple organizational levels, including frontline supervisors and senior leadership.
• Strong business acumen, analytical capability, communication skills, and judgment, with the ability to translate operational and business requirements into practical people solutions.
• Ability to operate independently in a fast-paced environment while collaborating effectively within a broader HR organization; experience supporting both hourly and salaried populations and PHR, SPHR, SHRM-CP, SHRM-SCP, or similar HR certification preferred.

Notes:

This job description is not intended to be exhaustive in every respect, but rather to clearly define the fundamental purpose, responsibilities and dimensions for the role. Therefore, this job description does not describe any individual role holder. In addition to the contents of this job description, employees are expected to undertake all other reasonable and related tasks allocated by their line manager.

The Company is committed to providing equal employment opportunities for all employees and applicants for employment. The Company does not discriminate in employment opportunities or practices on the grounds of gender, race, religion or belief, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by national laws under which the Company operates.

Please note that this position will involve having access to items and technical data that may be controlled under U.S. export laws and regulations ("U.S. Export Control Laws"), including but not limited to the Export Administration Regulations ("EAR") and the International Traffic in Arms Regulations ("ITAR"). To comply with the U.S. Export Control Laws, and in conjunction with the review of candidates for those positions within G&H that may present access to export-controlled technical data, G&H must assess whether candidates are "U.S. persons" as defined under the EAR (15 C.F.R. Part 772) and the ITAR (22 C.F.R. § 120.15). Certain questions asked during the application