HR Manager – Onboarding & Employee Experience

Patterson-UTI•Houston, TX

About The Position

The Onboarding & Employee Experience Manager leads the team responsible for delivering seamless, compliant, and high-quality onboarding experience for new hires across all Patterson-UTI legal entities. This role oversees the full pre-employment and onboarding lifecycle, including background adjudication, I-9 administration, relocation coordination, candidate communication, New Employee Orientation (NEO) content development/facilitation, and new-hire experience initiatives. The position ensures consistent onboarding standards across the enterprise by establishing clear processes, monitoring workflow quality, and partnering closely with Talent Acquisition, Regional HR, and HR Operations. This role also manages key pre-employment vendor relationships to ensure service quality, regulatory compliance, and operational efficiency. Reporting to the VP, HR Operations, this position plays a critical role in building scalable onboarding processes, strengthening operational governance, and shaping a positive and welcoming experience for all new employees. Detailed Description Lead, coach, and develop the Onboarding & Employee Experience team, including hiring, training, performance management, workload planning, and day-to-day workflow oversight to ensure operational continuity and team effectiveness. Set and reinforce clear expectations for service excellence, accuracy, compliance, and candidate experience, while fostering a high-performing, accountable, and team-oriented culture. Oversee all pre-employment processing, including background adjudication, drug screen escalation, essential function testing, and compliance-related requirements, ensuring timely and accurate completion across all business units. Serve as the primary escalation point for complex onboarding challenges, vendor performance issues, and candidate inquiries, ensuring quick resolution and minimal disruption to hiring timelines. Develop, document, and maintain onboarding standard operating procedures (SOPs) and process documentation to drive consistency, scalability, and operational excellence across all legal entities. Participate in onboarding and pre-employment review calls to monitor candidate status, identify risks to start dates, and support proactive communication with Regional HR, Talent Acquisition and Health, Safety & Environment (HSE) stakeholders. Partner with HR Operations teams to drive onboarding compliance, implement process improvements, optimize workflows, and promote consistent onboarding standards across all legal entities. Serve as the primary vendor manager for all pre-employment and onboarding-related vendors, ensuring service-level accountability, process efficiency, and alignment with organizational standards. Collaborate with the Drug & Alcohol Program Manager to ensure seamless coordination and compliance within the drug and alcohol testing program. Leverage metrics, dashboards, and process data to identify trends, monitor performance, and drive continuous improvement initiatives that enhance scalability and operational reliability. Perform other related duties as assigned to support HR Operations objectives and enterprise needs.

Requirements

Ability to maintain confidentiality at all times and handle sensitive employee information appropriately.
Strong knowledge of onboarding processes, pre-employment workflows, and employment-related compliance requirements across multi-entity or high-volume environments.
Demonstrated ability to lead, coach, and develop a team while driving accountability, service excellence, and operational consistency.
Proven experience implementing or improving scalable processes, workflows, and standard operating procedures.
Exceptional communication and relationship-building skills with the ability to influence and partner effectively at all levels of the organization, including Regional HR, Talent Acquisition, Operations, and external vendors.
Ability to use metrics, dashboards, and data insights to monitor performance, identify trends, and support continuous improvement initiatives.
Highly organized, detail-oriented, and capable of managing multiple priorities and deadlines in a fast- paced, dynamic environment.
Proficiency with HR systems such as Oracle HCM, Oracle Recruiting Cloud, or similar platforms supporting onboarding and pre-employment processes.
Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Office applications, particularly Excel, Word, and Outlook, with strong documentation and reporting skills.
Strong customer-service orientation with the ability to support and guide candidates, hiring teams, and internal HR stakeholders.
Bachelor’s Degree in Business, Human Resources, or related field of study.
5+ years of HR experience, including onboarding, pre-employment processing or HR Operations.
2+ years of supervisory or team-lead experience.

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree in Business, Human Resources, or related field of study.
Experience in the oil and gas industry or other field-based operational industry experience.

Responsibilities

Lead, coach, and develop the Onboarding & Employee Experience team, including hiring, training, performance management, workload planning, and day-to-day workflow oversight to ensure operational continuity and team effectiveness.
Set and reinforce clear expectations for service excellence, accuracy, compliance, and candidate experience, while fostering a high-performing, accountable, and team-oriented culture.
Oversee all pre-employment processing, including background adjudication, drug screen escalation, essential function testing, and compliance-related requirements, ensuring timely and accurate completion across all business units.
Serve as the primary escalation point for complex onboarding challenges, vendor performance issues, and candidate inquiries, ensuring quick resolution and minimal disruption to hiring timelines.
Develop, document, and maintain onboarding standard operating procedures (SOPs) and process documentation to drive consistency, scalability, and operational excellence across all legal entities.
Participate in onboarding and pre-employment review calls to monitor candidate status, identify risks to start dates, and support proactive communication with Regional HR, Talent Acquisition and Health, Safety & Environment (HSE) stakeholders.
Partner with HR Operations teams to drive onboarding compliance, implement process improvements, optimize workflows, and promote consistent onboarding standards across all legal entities.
Serve as the primary vendor manager for all pre-employment and onboarding-related vendors, ensuring service-level accountability, process efficiency, and alignment with organizational standards.
Collaborate with the Drug & Alcohol Program Manager to ensure seamless coordination and compliance within the drug and alcohol testing program.
Leverage metrics, dashboards, and process data to identify trends, monitor performance, and drive continuous improvement initiatives that enhance scalability and operational reliability.
Perform other related duties as assigned to support HR Operations objectives and enterprise needs.