Career Architecture Lead

S&C Electric Company•Chicago, IL

4d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Career Architecture Lead serves as S&C’s subject matter expert and advisor for career architecture. The role leads governance, maintenance, and evolution of job architecture, competencies, skills, and career pathways across the enterprise, supporting organizational effectiveness and workforce transformation for non-hourly and production hourly (Work Elements) populations. The Lead advises HR and business leaders on job architecture decisions, assesses gaps and inconsistencies, and conducts external research to support clear progression, leveling, and competency expectations. The role develops governance practices that sustain a consistent, scalable job architecture and ensures the competency and skills architecture aligns workforce capabilities, career progression, talent development, and future business needs. This position is based in Chicago, Illinois, and follows a hybrid work arrangement. The stated hours are 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. The role is eligible for S&C’s annual incentive plan, subject to eligibility criteria.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, Organizational Development, Industrial/Organizational Psychology, or a related field, or equivalent experience.
At least 7 years of progressive experience in job architecture, career frameworks, talent management, organizational effectiveness, workforce planning, or related disciplines.
Demonstrated experience implementing career frameworks and job architecture for both non-hourly and production hourly roles in a manufacturing or operations environment.
Working knowledge of job architecture components, including job families, job levels, job profiles/descriptions, and titling conventions, and how governance drives consistency.
Experience assessing role/profile alignment, identifying gaps or inconsistencies, and recommending practical improvements.
Demonstrated experience influencing and consulting with leaders across functions and organizational levels.
Ability to build consensus across HR and business stakeholders with diverse perspectives.
Ability to work independently with minimal supervision and support or train others as needed.
Effective communication skills to explain standards clearly and influence consistent adoption.
Strong analytical and documentation skills, including creating guidance, decision tools, and clear role/profile content.

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree in a related field.
Relevant HR, talent, compensation, or job evaluation certification, such as SHRM, HRCI, CCP, or equivalent.
Experience partnering with manufacturing or operations leaders on role clarity, progression expectations, and job structure questions for shop-floor organizations.
Experience aligning job profiles with talent processes, such as career development, internal mobility, and learning pathways, within a Talent Management context.
Experience working with HRIS/HCM systems where job structures, profiles, or competency frameworks are maintained.

Responsibilities

Own continuous improvement and maintenance of job architecture and career framework standards, including job families, levels, job profiles, titling alignment, competency and skills relevance, and career pathing across non-hourly and production hourly (Work Elements) populations.
Advise HR partners and leaders on job architecture and career framework decisions, such as role placement, leveling, and progression alignment, using established guidelines and governance practices.
Partner with Talent Management, Learning, and HR leaders to align career architecture with performance management, talent reviews, succession planning, career development, and internal mobility initiatives.
Partner with HR and operational stakeholders to ensure frameworks for production hourly roles reflect manufacturing and operational work and the shop-floor environment.
Assess framework opportunities and gaps, such as leveling drift, title inflation, inconsistent profiles, and irrelevant skills or competencies, and recommend improvements.
Lead competency and skills development and refinement by aligning expectations with role profiles and levels and ensuring consistent application across job populations.
Support organization design initiatives by analyzing organizational structures, role alignment, spans and layers, reporting relationships, and workforce composition.
Conduct external research and benchmarking on job architecture, career frameworks, and progression practices, and translate findings into practical recommendations.
Develop and maintain documentation and decision tools, such as role/profile guidance, titling guidance, and FAQs.
Provide training, coaching, and consultative support to improve understanding and adoption of job architecture, career frameworks, and governance.
Support special projects related to career frameworks, job profile quality, job catalog maintenance, and alignment of job architecture content with HR processes and systems, as applicable.