Director, Employee Relations & Compliance

X-energy•Rockville, MD

5d•$192,375 - $218,250•Onsite

About The Position

The Director, Employee Relations & Compliance is responsible for building and leading the systems, infrastructure, governance, and capabilities that support a rapidly growing and increasingly global workforce. This role will establish scalable Employee Relations and HR Compliance programs, including the policies, processes, technologies, controls, case-management capabilities, and reporting needed to ensure employee matters are handled consistently, efficiently, and in compliance with applicable laws, regulations, contractual requirements, and company standards. The Director will evolve Employee Relations from a primarily case-based function into a proactive, data-informed capability that identifies workforce risk, strengthens management practices, and enables organizational growth. The role will also build a systematic HR compliance framework that translates requirements into clear operating processes, controls, ownership, and accountability.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, Labor Relations, Law, or a related discipline.
Typically 12+ years of progressive experience in Employee Relations, HR Compliance, employment law, investigations, HR operations, or related disciplines.
Demonstrated experience building or transforming Employee Relations, HR Compliance, or related HR capabilities in a growing or complex organization.
Strong knowledge of U.S. employment requirements and experience translating legal, regulatory, or contractual requirements into practical operating processes.
Significant experience handling complex workplace investigations and sensitive employee matters.
Experience with compliance testing, audits, controls, policies, remediation, and regulatory reporting.
Demonstrated ability to work effectively with senior leaders, Legal, Compliance, HR, and business stakeholders.
Experience using technology, case-management systems, analytics, or automation to improve HR processes and outcomes.

Nice To Haves

JD, master's degree, or other advanced degree.
Experience supporting international workforce expansion or global HR compliance.
Experience in a high-growth, highly regulated, engineering, manufacturing, energy, government-contracting, or technology environment.
Experience implementing employee relations, compliance, or case-management technology.

Responsibilities

Build and lead the Employee Relations and HR Compliance operating model, including governance, roles and responsibilities, escalation protocols, service standards, and decision rights.
Design scalable processes, systems, technologies, and infrastructure to support significant workforce growth, new locations, and international expansion.
Establish a consistent employee relations case-management and investigation framework, including intake, triage, documentation, escalation, resolution, and record retention.
Lead or oversee complex, sensitive, and high-risk employee relations matters, workplace investigations, disciplinary actions, performance concerns, and involuntary terminations.
Partner closely with Legal, Compliance, HR Business Partners, Security, and business leaders on matters involving legal, regulatory, contractual, or reputational risk.
Build and maintain the HR compliance framework, including regulatory requirements, responsible owners, controls, testing, audits, remediation, and reporting.
Oversee applicable employment-related compliance activities, including EEO, affirmative action, VETS, pay reporting, background screening, and other federal, state, local, contractual, or international requirements.
Own HR policy and employee handbook governance, including development, review, approval, communication, training, version control, and periodic updates.
Establish repeatable processes for identifying and operationalizing employment requirements as the company expands into new jurisdictions.
Develop ER and compliance dashboards and use data to identify trends, emerging risks, systemic issues, and opportunities for earlier intervention.
Evaluate and implement technology, automation, and AI to improve case management, compliance monitoring, reporting, consistency, and efficiency.
Build and develop the Employee Relations & Compliance team and create scalable tools, playbooks, training, and decision frameworks for HR and managers.
Support organizational expansion, new facilities, major projects, and international growth by establishing the required workforce compliance infrastructure.
Manage the company's employment-based immigration program, partnering with employees, leaders, external immigration counsel, and HR stakeholders to support appropriate work authorization and immigration processes. This responsibility is expected to transition out of this function.