Market HR Director

AutoNation • Columbus, OH

1d • Onsite

About The Position

The Market HR Director operates across a high-complexity market environment, functioning as a senior strategic advisor to the Market President, Market Team, and General Managers. This role is responsible for shaping talent and organizational health decisions, diagnosing systemic workforce challenges, and managing the full market HR portfolio with the sophistication and business credibility expected of a senior HR Business Partner. AutoNation, one of the largest automotive retailers in the United States, offers innovative products, exceptional services, and comprehensive solutions, empowering customers with a wide variety of new and used vehicles, customer financing, parts, and expert maintenance and repair services. The company is committed to creating a diverse, equitable, and inclusive environment and making a positive difference in the lives of its Associates, Customers, and communities, notably through its DRV PNK mission which has raised over $40 million for cancer-related causes.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, or a related field.
• 6–9 years of progressive HR experience with meaningful business partner exposure at the market or regional level.
• PHR or SHRM-CP required.
• Workday or comparable HRIS proficiency required.
• Solid command of multi-state employment law; comfortable advising leaders on workforce risk without Legal present.
• Business Acumen — Fluently connects workforce strategy to market P&L performance; is a credible voice in business reviews and brings an independent point of view to the Market President.
• Coaching Over Doing — Models and enforces the coaching-over-doing standard across the market; pushes back when leaders look to HR to do the work that belongs to them.
• Diagnostic Thinking — Synthesizes signals across multiple data streams — listening data, ER trends, turnover, performance — into a coherent market health narrative with a specific point of view.
• COE Partnership — Leverages Talent Development, Talent Acquisition, HR Operations, and Total Rewards as expert partners; routes work to the right COE rather than working around them.
• Execution & Follow-Through — Manages a high-complexity, high-volume portfolio without dropping detail; builds systems to stay ahead of the work rather than reacting to it.
• Integrity & Discretion — Handles sensitive associate information with unwavering confidentiality; never compromises associate trust or the integrity of the HR function.

Nice To Haves

• SPHR or SHRM-SCP strongly preferred.
• Experience with HR reporting tools or dashboards preferred.
• Retail, automotive, or high-volume multi-site experience a plus.

Responsibilities

• Own the talent selection standard for the market and define a disciplined hiring process.
• Lead GM-level interview processes in close partnership with the Market President, providing structured, evidence-based talent assessments with clear recommendations.
• Conduct market-wide staffing reviews on a regular cadence and anticipate critical role vacancies 60–90 days before they become crises.
• Analyze early turnover patterns across the full market portfolio, distinguishing root causes at the hiring, onboarding, and leader effectiveness levels and routing corrective action accordingly.
• Serve as the strategic partner to the Talent Acquisition COE on market-level workforce planning, bringing demand forecasts, brand-level talent trends, and local market intelligence.
• Identify systemic gaps in GM and Department Manager pipeline depth and bring a recommendation to the Market President and VP, Human Resources.
• Maintain a sophisticated, current talent map of every GM and key Department Manager in the market, including strengths, gaps, development needs, succession readiness, and flight risk.
• Operate with a coaching-first philosophy at all times to build GM and leader capability, not substitute for it.
• Drive the internal succession agenda with discipline, presenting succession bench depth to the Market President quarterly and closing identified gaps through COE partnership.
• Lead and facilitate quarterly talent calibration reviews with the Market President and VP, Human Resources, owning the narrative, the data, and the recommended actions.
• Partner with the Talent Development COE to co-design market-specific capability solutions, bringing field intelligence the COE cannot see from the center.
• Identify high-potential associates across the market, advocate for their development, and track progress against development commitments.
• Own the organizational health narrative for the market, synthesizing listening data, ER case patterns, turnover, and business performance into an integrated market health assessment.
• Arrive at every listening debrief with the Market President prepared with an interpretive point of view, a root cause hypothesis, and a recommended response.
• Coach GMs to own their team's listening response, equipping and holding them accountable.
• Identify cross-store patterns and systemic themes, escalating market-level organizational health risks to the VP, Human Resources with a recommendation and a sense of urgency.
• Serve as the market-level point of contact for the ER Team on case trends, surfacing emerging systemic ER risk proactively before it is visible in formal reporting.
• Operate as a genuine strategic partner to the Market President, attending P&L reviews, understanding the business deeply, and bringing an independent people-strategy perspective to every business conversation.
• Connect market-level workforce data to financial outcomes with specificity, identifying which people trends are costing the market the most and prioritizing accordingly.
• Redirect the Market President's focus when people decisions are being driven by urgency rather than strategy, pushing back with data, offering alternatives, and holding the HR perspective without deferring.
• Develop and present the market's Organizational Health Score and people analytics to senior leadership on a regular cadence.
• Frame all HR work — across all four pillars — in the language of business outcomes, connecting every recommendation to a market or store-level result.
• Handle Green-tier ER cases independently.
• Handle lower-acuity Yellow-tier cases with appropriate judgment.
• Serve as the market-level partner for higher-acuity Yellow, Orange, and Red-tier cases managed by the centralized ER Team, providing context, maintaining associate relationships, and ensuring continuity throughout the investigation process.
• Act as the bridge between the associate, the store, and the ER Team for elevated-tier matters.

Benefits

• Competitive compensation
• 401k matching
• Insurance plans (health, dental, vision)
• Maternity benefits
• Associate purchase and discount programs for new and pre-owned vehicles, services, parts, collision, accessories, and AutoGear
• Access amazing deals and discounts through YouDecide, a website with offers from top providers and retailers
• Join our DRVPNK mission to raise and donate millions of dollars to cancer research and treatment, partnering with cancer charities nationwide

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Number of Employees: 5,001-10,000 employees