Chief Human Resources Officer

MS Walker•Norwood, MA

8d•$225,000 - $300,000•Hybrid

About The Position

M.S. Walker is a family-owned importer, distributor, and wholesaler of wine and spirits with over 90 years of operation. The company is making a significant, multi-year investment in its people function and strategic technological advancements. This newly defined Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) role is central to this initiative. The CHRO will define and lead the people strategy during a period of transformation for the HR function, focusing on modernizing infrastructure and data, professionalizing talent and leadership development, strengthening labor and employee relations, and elevating total rewards and compensation strategy. The successful candidate will bring enterprise-level structure, judgment, and expertise to attract, develop, reward, retain, and partner with employees, with a genuine scope to shape the function.

Requirements

15+ years of progressive HR leadership, including senior executive (CHRO / VP HR) accountability for a multi-site enterprise.
Demonstrated HR leadership in an asset-intensive, operational industry — distribution, logistics, wholesale, manufacturing, transportation, or similar — with a substantial hourly / non-exempt workforce.
Direct labor relations and collective bargaining experience, including leading or co-leading union negotiations and contract administration.
Multi-state employment law and compliance fluency (wage and hour, classification, leave, pay transparency).
Experience building or modernizing core HR infrastructure — HRIS, data, and process — not solely operating a mature function.
Strong business and financial acumen; able to partner credibly with Finance and frame people decisions in P&L and risk terms.
Executive presence and communication skills to influence at the ownership / principal level.

Nice To Haves

Self-funded health plan strategy and total rewards design experience, ideally in close partnership with Finance.
Compensation architecture and pay equity experience across a distributed, mixed-classification workforce.
Experience operating within a family-owned and/or private-equity-backed business, with the maturity and judgment to navigate ownership dynamics and influence family / principal stakeholders constructively.
SHRM-SCP, SPHR, or equivalent certification.

Responsibilities

Develop and lead a multi-year people strategy aligned with business goals and growth plans.
Assess workforce needs across functions and locations, ensuring the organization is structured to scale effectively.
Provide data-driven insight and recommendations to executive leadership and ownership.
Serve as the senior strategic owner of the company's labor relations strategy across all represented locations.
Lead or oversee collective bargaining preparation, negotiations, and contract administration, partnering with outside labor counsel.
Proactively manage grievances, arbitrations, and union relationships to minimize disruption and risk.
Build management capability and consistency in handling both represented and non-represented employee matters.
Partner with Finance and the benefits broker to shape and govern health and welfare strategy, including self-funded plan design, stop-loss strategy, and multi-year cost management.
Develop the company's compensation philosophy, job architecture, pay bands, and incentive structures.
Ensure pay equity and market competitiveness across a multi-state, multi-classification workforce.
Serve as a strategic advisor to the executive team and ownership on all people-related matters.
Provide guidance on organizational challenges, talent gaps, and leadership effectiveness.
Align leadership decisions with long-term workforce strategy.
Evaluate and optimize organizational structure, reporting relationships, and role design.
Lead change management to support the organization's evolution.
Identify opportunities to improve efficiency, clarity, and scalability.
Own leadership development strategy and long-term talent and succession planning.
Partner with the Director of Learning & Development to build leadership capability at every level and strengthen succession processes.
Oversee talent acquisition strategy to attract and retain talent across corporate and operational roles.
Develop and implement a performance management system to better drive internal career progression.
Establish and lead a company-wide employee communication strategy.
Improve consistency, transparency, and clarity in how priorities, decisions, and expectations are shared.
Strengthen alignment between corporate and operational teams.
Define and support cultural priorities and employee experience initiatives.
Identify and address engagement gaps and communication breakdowns.
Ensure employees experience consistency in leadership, messaging, and support.
Provide executive oversight of the HRIS/payroll platform and the data foundation for workforce decision-making.
Drive operational maturity, process standardization, and reporting and analytics across the function.
Provide strategic oversight of multi-state employment law compliance (wage and hour, classification, leave, pay transparency, and related areas).
Oversee workplace safety, workers' compensation, and operational people-risk in an asset-intensive, multi-site environment.
Partner with legal and outside counsel on high-risk, labor, and governance matters.