Senior Director, Employee Relations

Northwestern Mutual•Milwaukee, WI

6d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Senior Director, Employee Relations is the senior leader accountable for enterprise-wide employee relations strategy, governance, and outcomes. This role sets the direction for ER risk management, investigation standards, and decision quality across the organization, ensuring consistent, fair, and legally defensible practices at scale. The Sr Director leads the Employee Relations function, serving as a primary advisor to executive leaders, HR leadership, and Legal on high risk ER issues and systemic risk. The role provides leadership for complex matters and escalations, builds team capability, and drives continuous improvement of ER operating models, tools, and standards in partnership with key stakeholders.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources, Business, Law or related field.
12+ years of progressive experience in employee relations, investigations, and/or HR risk leadership, including people and/or functional leadership.
Demonstrated success leading enterprise-level, executive-impact ER strategy, escalations, and complex workforce actions.
Exceptional judgment, executive presence, and ability to influence senior leaders across HR, Legal, and the business.
Proven ability to think systemically about risk, precedent, and organizational impact.
Advanced written and verbal communication skills, including executive ‑ level advisory materials.
Integrates investigation acumen, dispute resolution, statutes & regulation, and risk management
Anticipates, assesses, and mitigates enterprise workforce risk
Guides senior leaders through high-stakes, sensitive ER matters with clear recommendations
Combines organizational savvy + cross-functional partnering & negotiation
Navigates complexity, aligns stakeholders, and drives outcomes without direct authority
Operates effectively across leadership layers, including SLT-facing situations
Synthesizes adaptive + technical communication
Translates complex ER issues into clear, concise, executive-ready messaging
Influences decisions through credible, calm, and structured communication
Draws from policy & procedure, project management, prioritization, professional curiosity
Evolves ER approaches, modernizes processes , and scales best practices
Balances day-to-day execution with forward-looking design
Combines organizational dynamics + customer centricity
Applies behavioral insight to diagnose issues, shape culture, and improve leader effectiveness
Drives solutions that are practical, human-centered, and business-aligned
Anchored in HR ethics + crisis management
Exercises sound judgment under pressure , especially in ambiguous or high-risk scenarios
Builds trust through transparency, discretion, and consistency

Responsibilities

Set enterprise ER strategy and governance, including standards for investigations, case management, escalation thresholds, and risk controls.
Accountable for the organization’s ER risk posture and precedent framework, ensuring consistent decision-making and defensibility across teams, functions, and geographies.
Advise executive and senior business leaders on complex, high-stakes workforce decisions; align with HR and Legal on options, implications, and risk mitigation.
Provide oversight for the most sensitive investigations and ER matters, ensuring rigor, defensibility, and alignment with enterprise standards.
Translate complex risk scenarios into clear executive options and recommendations, driving timely, principled, and consistent outcomes.
Partner with ER and HR leadership and Legal to identify emerging ER risks and trends, and drive enterprise actions to address systemic issues.
Lead and develop the ER team, setting expectations for quality, consistency, and service delivery; establish operating rhythms and performance standards.
Provide coaching to ER leaders, HRBPs, and managers on complex or escalated matters; ensure appropriate escalation pathways and consistent application of precedent.
Drive continuous improvement of ER operating models, tools, guidance, and analytics; partner cross-functionally to strengthen prevention, early intervention, and risk reduction.
Lead ER strategy and governance for enterprise-wide change, restructures, reductions in force, or other high-impact workforce actions.
Advise executives on decision sequencing, communications, and mitigation strategies to protect trust, employee experience, and risk posture.
Represent ER in enterprise governance forums and high-visibility discussions, influencing outcomes and ensuring alignment across HR, Legal, and business leadership.