Chief Human Resouce Officer

Join the Our Talent Network•Lancaster, NY

6d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) is a business executive and trusted adviser to the Chief Executive Officer, Board, and executive leadership team. The CHRO translates Upstate Niagara Cooperative’s strategy and farmer-owned values into a disciplined people system that strengthens leadership, culture, capability, accountability, and performance across a complex, multi-site manufacturing organization. This leader will set clear direction, establish sound policies and standards, and ensure consistent execution. The CHRO must combine enterprise-level judgment with frontline credibility—knowing when to operate strategically, when to engage directly in a critical issue, and when to empower capable leaders to own the work. Success requires authenticity, confidentiality, courage, business and financial acumen, and an unwavering commitment to follow-through.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, Organizational Leadership, or a related field; advanced degree strongly preferred.
At least 15 years of progressive HR leadership experience, including enterprise responsibility in an organization of 1,000 or more employees.
Substantial leadership experience in a multi-site manufacturing, food, agriculture, consumer products, distribution, or comparably operational environment; unionized experience strongly preferred.
Demonstrated success changing culture, improving leadership quality, and building a sustained high-performance environment with measurable results.
Proven expertise in executive and critical-role succession, talent assessment, leadership development, organization design, performance management, labor relations, and total rewards.
Strong command of employment law, collective bargaining, investigations, HR governance, and policy development and administration.
Strong business and financial acumen, including the ability to interpret financial and operating results, build business cases, evaluate tradeoffs, and link people decisions to enterprise value.
Executive presence and communication skill sufficient to influence a Board, CEO, senior leaders, plant management, union leaders, and frontline employees.
Ability and willingness to travel regularly among company locations and maintain visible engagement in manufacturing operations.

Nice To Haves

Advanced degree strongly preferred.
Unionized experience strongly preferred.

Responsibilities

Develop and execute a multi-year human capital strategy aligned with the Cooperative’s business plan, operating model, growth agenda, and financial objectives.
Advise the CEO, Board, and executive leadership team on organization health, leadership effectiveness, workforce risk, executive talent, succession, compensation, culture, and organizational design.
Use business, operational, and financial insight to prioritize people investments and quantify their expected impact on productivity, retention, capability, risk, and profitability.
Translate strategy into annual priorities and SMART goals; establish owners, milestones, scorecards, and disciplined operating reviews to ensure completion.
Define, model, and embed the desired company culture through leader expectations, operating routines, talent decisions, recognition, performance management, and consequences.
Demonstrate the credibility to spend meaningful time in plants and with frontline employees, understand manufacturing realities, and translate those realities into practical people solutions.
Assess leadership behavior objectively; address ineffective or values-inconsistent leadership directly, fairly, and promptly, with a clear improvement standard and appropriate accountability.
Act as a leader, mentor, and coach to executives, HR leaders, plant leaders, and emerging talent; build their capability rather than creating dependence on HR.
Build an enterprise talent philosophy and pipeline for hourly, skilled-trades, professional, plant leadership, and executive roles, including workforce planning for hard-to-fill capabilities.
Lead rigorous talent reviews and succession planning for critical roles; identify readiness, development actions, retention risks, emergency successors, and longer-term successors.
Apply exceptional judgment in selecting and assessing talent; raise the quality, consistency, and speed of hiring and promotion decisions.
Design practical leadership development, onboarding, mentoring, and frontline supervisor programs tied to defined competencies and measurable business outcomes.
Ensure performance management differentiates performance, provides timely feedback, rewards contribution, and resolves persistent underperformance.
Establish, maintain, communicate, and consistently apply clear employment policies, standards, decision rights, and governance across all locations.
Ensure the HR team adheres to the same policies, service standards, controls, timelines, and accountability expected of the broader organization.
Build a capable, service-oriented HR team; set clear roles and outcomes, delegate real authority, remove barriers, and hold each leader accountable for doing the work of the role.
Know where to ‘play up’—personally engaging in high-risk, high-impact, confidential, executive, or precedent-setting matters—while empowering the team to resolve routine matters at the appropriate level.
Create disciplined workflows, service levels, dashboards, audits, and follow-up mechanisms for recruiting, employee relations, investigations, performance, development, payroll/HRIS interfaces, benefits, and compliance.
Use people analytics and external benchmarks to identify trends, test assumptions, anticipate risk, and improve decisions.
Champion the modernization of HR technology, data, analytics, automation, and service delivery by supporting strategic investment, removing barriers, and empowering functional leaders to drive transformation and execution.
Set the strategy for constructive labor relations and collective bargaining; ensure consistent contract administration and credible relationships with union representatives and operational leaders.
Ensure compliance with employment, labor, benefits, affirmative action, equal employment opportunity, privacy, recordkeeping, and other applicable laws and regulations.
Oversee fair, timely, well-documented investigations and employee-relations decisions; protect confidentiality and ensure consistent treatment without avoiding difficult conclusions.
Partner with Legal, Finance, Operations, Safety, and Quality to identify and mitigate workforce, conduct, compliance, and reputation risks.
Design and govern compensation, incentive, benefit, recognition, and wellness programs that are competitive, financially responsible, performance-oriented, and aligned with the Cooperative’s values.
Use engagement listening, retention data, site-level insight, and leader accountability to improve the employee experience and strengthen commitment.
Support the Board’s compensation and succession responsibilities with accurate analysis, sound judgment, clear materials, and strict confidentiality.
Serve on the company retirement committee and provide appropriate oversight of retirement-plan administration and fiduciary processes.
Represent the Cooperative professionally in relevant community, industry, and talent-market relationships.