Vice President Human Resources

Miami City Ballet; Miami Beach (FL); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Miami City Ballet is seeking a Vice President of Human Resources to provide strategic leadership for people, culture, organizational structure, employment practices, and workforce systems. The role reports to the Executive Director and participates as a member of the senior leadership team.

This position acts as a trusted advisor, identifying workforce needs and organizational risks proactively and partnering with executives to align HR strategy with institutional goals.

Qualifications

• Significant progressive human resources leadership experience, including organizational structure, employee relations, compensation, benefits, talent acquisition and performance management.
• Demonstrated experience acting as a strategic partner to a CEO, Executive Director, or senior leadership team.
• Strong working knowledge of federal and Florida employment law and contemporary HR practices.
• Ability to translate organizational risks into practical recommendations and action.

Responsibilities

• Partner with the Executive Director and senior leaders to assess staffing needs and workforce priorities.
• Maintain clear reporting structures, roles, and decision authorities across the institution.
• Lead workforce planning aligned with strategy and budgets.
• Evaluate proposed positions based on need, financial capacity, and approvals.
• Surface workforce concerns with context, options, risks, and recommendations to the Executive Director.
• Provide managers with guidance on supervision, performance management, and employee development.

Skills

Strategic HR leadership

Executive partner

Employee relations

Performance management

Talent acquisition

Organizational design

Education

Master's degree in HR or related field

SHRM SCP or SPHR preferred

Job description

Reporting to the Executive Director and serving as a member of the senior leadership team, the Vice President of Human Resources provides strategic leadership for Miami City Ballet's people, culture, organizational structure, employment practices, and workforce systems.

This position serves as a trusted advisor to the Executive Director and senior leadership team and is expected to identify workforce needs and organizational risks proactively rather than solely responding to issues as they arise.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Organizational Strategy and Workforce Planning

• Partner with the Executive Director and senior leadership team to assess organizational structure, staffing needs, management capacity, and workforce priorities.
• Maintain a clear organizational structure that defines reporting relationships, levels of responsibility, titles, and decision authority across the institution.
• Lead workforce planning in coordination with organizational strategy and approved budgets.
• Evaluate proposed positions and hires based on institutional need, organizational structure, financial capacity, and established approval processes.
• Identify areas where responsibilities, workload, staffing levels, or management capacity may create organizational risk.
• Recommend changes to roles, reporting structures, staffing models, or management practices when organizational needs evolve.

Executive and Management Partnership

• Serve as a trusted advisor to the Executive Director and senior leaders on organizational structure, workforce matters, employee relations, performance, compensation, and culture.
• Provide managers with clear guidance and tools for supervision, performance management, employee development, and difficult personnel decisions.
• Ensure managers understand their responsibilities as people leaders and hold them accountable for fulfilling those responsibilities.
• Surface significant workforce concerns to the Executive Director promptly, with appropriate context, options, risks, and recommendations.
• Exercise independent judgment while recognizing when matters require executive, legal, financial, or board involvement.

Employee Engagement and Organizational Health

• Establish consistent mechanisms for understanding employee experience, workload, engagement, management effectiveness, and emerging areas of concern.
• Maintain appropriate contact with employees across departments and levels to identify workforce issues before they become crises.
• Monitor patterns in turnover, absenteeism, workload, employee relations, exit interviews, and other indicators of organizational health.
• Identify trends and recommend organizational responses when patterns suggest structural, management, cultural, or capacity concerns.
• Develop practices that support clear communication, professional growth, employee recognition, and a healthy workplace culture.
• Ensure employees affected by significant workplace changes receive timely, accurate, and appropriately coordinated communication.

Talent Acquisition and Organizational Capacity

• Lead an intentional hiring process based on clearly defined organizational needs and approved positions.
• Ensure job descriptions accurately reflect responsibilities, organizational level, required capabilities, reporting relationships, and compensation ranges.
• Partner with hiring managers to establish selection criteria and evaluate candidates against the capabilities required by the role.
• Develop onboarding practices that establish clear expectations, responsibilities, policies, and organizational context from the beginning of employment.
• Build succession and continuity planning for critical organizational roles

Compensation, Benefits and Employee Systems

• Develop and maintain a coherent compensation framework that establishes appropriate levels, titles, salary ranges, and internal relationships across the organization.
• Regularly assess compensation practices for internal consistency, external competitiveness, affordability, and compliance.
• Ensure benefits, including enrollment, eligibility, leave, and COBRA, are administered accurately and promptly.
• Proactively identify available options when employee benefit circumstances require individual attention or resolution.
• Partner with Finance to ensure alignment among compensation, payroll, benefits, staffing plans, and the approved institutional budget.
• Ensure performance evaluation and compensation processes are timely, consistent, documented, and connected to organizational expectations.

Employee Relations and Performance Management

• Provide leadership on employee relations matters, including performance concerns, workplace complaints, disciplinary actions, investigations, accommodations, and separations.
• Ensure employee concerns are addressed promptly, consistently, professionally, and with appropriate documentation.
• Coach managers in addressing performance issues early rather than allowing unresolved concerns to accumulate.
• Conduct or oversee workplace investigations as appropriate and engage employment counsel when circumstances warrant.
• Maintain appropriate confidentiality while ensuring relevant decision makers receive the information necessary to fulfill their responsibilities.

Employment Compliance and Workforce Risk

• Maintain current knowledge of applicable federal, state, and local employment laws and ensure MCB's employment practices remain compliant.
• Oversee compliance related to wage and hour requirements, FMLA, ADA, employment eligibility, Forms I 9, unemployment matters, required workplace policies, and other employment obligations.
• Identify employment related risks proactively and recommend appropriate corrective or preventive action.
• Understand relevant collective bargaining agreements and other employment related contractual obligations and ensure HR practices are consistent with those requirements.
• Partner with the Executive Director, Finance, legal counsel, and other leaders where employment risk intersects with broader organizational risk.
• Maintain appropriate documentation and internal controls for employment related decisions and processes.

Policies, Systems and Documentation

• Maintain an effective and current employee handbook and HR policies appropriate to MCB's workforce and operating environment.
• Establish repeatable HR processes that do not depend on individual memory or informal practice.
• Maintain accurate and confidential personnel records and ensure required documentation is complete and accessible to authorized personnel.
• Ensure institutional knowledge related to HR practices is appropriately documented and transferable.

Leadership and Accountability

• Establish annual HR priorities aligned with MCB's institutional goals and report progress to the Executive Director.
• Develop meaningful workforce indicators that allow leadership to understand organizational health, staffing trends, retention, compensation, recruitment, and other material people issues.
• Communicate significant issues promptly and distinguish between matters requiring immediate action and those requiring longer term attention.
• Follow through reliably on commitments, deadlines, executive directives, and required communications.
• Bring recommendations, not simply problems, to executive leadership whenever circumstances allow.
• Model sound judgment, discretion, accountability, empathy, and institutional stewardship.

QUALIFICATIONS

• Significant progressive human resources leadership experience, including responsibility for organizational structure, employee relations, compensation, benefits, talent acquisition, performance management, and employment compliance.
• Demonstrated experience operating as a strategic partner to a CEO, Executive Director, or senior leadership team.
• Strong working knowledge of federal and Florida employment law and contemporary HR practices.
• Demonstrated ability to identify organizational and workforce risks and translate them into practical recommendations and action.
• Experience developing compensation structures, organizational charts, job architecture, and workforce plans.
• Ability to navigate sensitive employee matters with judgment, empathy, discretion, and appropriate urgency.
• Strong project management skills with demonstrated ability to establish priorities, meet deadlines, and bring complex work to completion.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Demonstrated ability to operate effectively in an organization with varied employee populations, work schedules, employment arrangements, and professional disciplines.
• Experience working in a performing arts, nonprofit, unionized, educational, or similarly complex environment is preferred.
• SHRM SCP, SPHR, or comparable senior HR credential preferred.

LEADERSHIP EXPECTATIONS

Success in this position requires more than technical HR knowledge. The Vice President must be able to anticipate, advise, organize, communicate, and act.

The successful leader will:

• See patterns before isolated issues become institutional problems.
• Create clarity where roles, expectations, or processes are ambiguous.
• Balance employee advocacy with responsibility to the institution.
• Know when to act independently and when to elevate.
• Communicate difficult information clearly and constructively.