Director, People Compliance

Western Veterinary Partners•Denver, CO

13h

About The Position

Western Veterinary Partners (WVP) is a mission-driven company based in Denver, Colorado, that acquires, invests in, and supports general practice animal hospitals throughout the United States. WVP provides partner practices with non-clinical business support while preserving clinical autonomy and local practice identity. The Director, People Compliance owns the company’s people policies and the systems used to document and audit compliance across its hospitals. This role translates federal, state, and local employment laws into clear policies and practical guidance, establishes enterprise standards, and advises teams responsible for day-to-day processes. The Director tests whether policies are followed, maintains audit-ready evidence, and drives identified gaps through remediation and retesting. The role also leads the people compliance audit plan, calendar, reporting, and governance; supports external audits and agency inquiries in partnership with Legal; and reviews policies and practices during acquisitions and after hospital integrations. The Director partners with Legal, HR, Operations, Payroll, Benefits, Talent Acquisition, Learning, Employee Relations, and Internal Audit. Those teams run the processes, while this role establishes standards and checks results.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources, Business, Legal Studies, or a related field, or equivalent experience.
10+ years of progressive experience in HR compliance, employment law compliance, employee relations, or HR operations, including 5+ years leading programs or teams.
Deep working knowledge of U.S. multi-state employment law, including FLSA and state wage and hour rules, FMLA and state leave, ADA, EEO, Form I-9, and pay transparency.
Track record of building a multi-state HR compliance program that combines policy ownership with audits, controls testing, and documented remediation.
Experience drafting and maintaining employee handbooks and policies across multiple states.
Strong judgment and discretion with confidential information, and ability to explain regulations in plain language to hospital managers and executives.
Ability to influence senior leaders and cross-functional partners without direct authority.

Nice To Haves

Experience in a multi-site, hourly-heavy environment such as healthcare, veterinary, retail, or hospitality.
California wage and hour experience, including meal and rest periods, alternative workweek schedules, and PAGA.
Experience building workplace safety (OSHA) compliance programs across multiple sites.
Experience with acquisition-driven organizations, including people due diligence and integration.
Experience with professional license and credential tracking programs.
Familiarity with governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) or audit management tools.
Hands-on use of AI and automation to support compliance tracking, research, or documentation.

Responsibilities

Write, own, and maintain the people policy library and employee handbooks, including policies covering leave, accommodations, return-to-work, wage and hour, time off, conduct, and hiring standards.
Replace hospital-specific practices with enterprise standards, templates, and processes used across hospitals.
Monitor federal, state, and local employment law in every state of operation and update policies before new requirements take effect; communicate policy changes through appropriate internal channels.
Assign each policy an owner, current version, review date, and documented approval.
Advise HR, Operations, and hospital leaders on the process steps, system settings, forms, and records needed to implement policies; answer policy interpretation questions and refer matters to Legal when appropriate.
Define controls and evidence for each policy to demonstrate that it is followed.
Build and run an annual audit plan covering areas such as pay practices and classification, meal and rest breaks, leave and accommodations, Form I-9, workplace safety, licenses and credentials, required training, and notices and postings.
Run audits under Legal’s direction when findings should be privileged.
Maintain audit-ready documentation showing that policies are in place and working.
Document audit findings, assign corrective-action owners and due dates, and retest to confirm issues are fixed.
Work with Learning to select purchased compliance training content, deliver it through the LMS, and use completion records as audit evidence.
Own the people compliance calendar, assigning owners for filing, posting, training, and review deadlines and verifying completion on time.
Serve as the main contact for external audits, agency inspections, and inquiries in partnership with Legal.
Report quarterly to HR leadership on policy status, audit results, open findings, repeat issues, and emerging risks.
Build compliance metrics, dashboards, and automation to gather audit evidence and track remediation.
Review people policies and practices during acquisition due diligence and flag compliance gaps early.
Audit newly acquired hospitals against company policies on a set timeline after close, in partnership with Operations.
Partner with Legal, Payroll, Benefits, Talent Acquisition, Learning, Employee Relations, Operations, and Internal Audit to establish standards and check process results.