HR Manager

Why This Role Matters

"So finding a person that can lift some of that load off of her and fit in well with us is really important."

This role exists because one person outgrew two jobs. The current supervisor was the first hire at this division when it was still under construction in 2018. She started as an accountant, became supervisor, and ended up carrying accounting and HR together. The train is running well. Her words. The problem is not a broken function. The problem is that two functions are sharing one conductor, and the division has decided it is time for two.

The human context is the stakes. The Controller and the supervisor have worked side by side for eight years. The people on these teams were developed by the supervisor, most of them from the beginning. The Controller described handing them off as "kind of like giving your children over to somebody a little bit." The hire that works here is not the one with the best resume. It is the one both of them trust with the people.

The Mission

Take the HR function off the supervisor's plate so completely that within a year nobody in the building thinks of it as hers anymore. Do it without breaking the thing that makes this place work: a culture that meets the team where they are at, on the floor, by name. Grow the one HR teammate into a strong HR professional. Be the person a teammate on night shift goes to when something is wrong, before it becomes a real problem. And fit in. The two leaders "like to cut up together" and "can sit and discuss a lot of things together." The right hire becomes the third voice in that room.

Performance Objectives

Measurement language for most objectives is VHS translation; the Conversation set the direction, not the metrics. 

1. Own the full HR function within 90 days so the current supervisor is back to a single accounting seat and no HR decision routes through her. Measured by her own answer to "is anything still landing on your desk?" (Conversation.)
   
2. Know the floor by name within the first 90 days. Meet every shift, every crew, roughly 200 teammates, in person. Measured by the GM and supervisors confirming the HR Manager is a known face in the mill, not an office. (Conversation: "it's important part of our culture to meet the team where they're at.")
   
3. Build and execute a 12-month development plan for the HR teammate within 60 days, with at least two new HR responsibilities moved to her by month six. Measured by scope she owns at the one-year mark versus today. (Conversation: "she is still growing and developing in the HR field herself.")
   
4. Deliver 52 clean weekly payroll cycles with zero missed pay dates and zero unresolved attendance disputes carried past 30 days. (Company JD; outcome framing is VHS.)
   
5. Fill every approved full-time opening in year one with a documented local pipeline, including an active relationship with the nearby Air Force base's transition programs. Measured by time-to-fill and by veteran share of hires. (Conversation: the supervisor raised the base unprompted as the thing worth telling candidates.)
   
6. Run the fall 2027 open enrollment with zero post-enrollment corrections and complete FMLA, ADA, and HIPAA administration with no compliance findings. (Company JD; outcome framing is VHS.)
   

Fit Traits

Team-First Supervisor. Signal: "the number one job of a supervisor is to make the team." This hire does not run HR for its own sake. They develop the one person they have and protect the people on the floor. A candidate who talks about process before people will miss this.

Floor Presence. Signal: "Better to go out and meet and deal with the people on the floor." This is a 200-person mill. The HR Manager is expected to be seen in the plant, not just in the office wing. Someone who sees HR as a desk job will fail the culture test on week one.

Fits a Tight Partnership. Signal: "working together for eight years, having somebody that can come in and fit in with us and kind of find their groove." The hire joins a two-person partnership that has history and shorthand. Low ego, quick to earn trust, comfortable being the newest person in a room of veterans.

Steady and Local. Signal: "If you know your career, you don't want to be a number." The finance team has been there since 2018. These leaders hire for tenure. A candidate using this as a two-year stepping stone, or who cannot see themselves in a town of about 25,000, is a placement risk.

Honest in Hard Conversations. Signal (Company JD): "Leadership Presence and Courage: the courage to challenge thinking and face adversity and conflict head-on." Investigations, terminations, and teammate concerns land here. The person must do that work without becoming the thing the floor avoids.

Who You'll Work For

The Controller is about to mark 18 years with the company, and this is her third division. Her whole background is accounting. She came to this site in 2018 while the mill was still under construction. She spent a stretch working in the mill itself, and the whole time she and the current supervisor have worked together.

The supervisor was the first hire at this division. Accountant, then supervisor, now holding both accounting and HR. She has had a hand in developing every person on the finance team and she got emotional on camera talking about it. That is who you are taking a team from.

What they value is plain: fit, people first, and getting out on the floor. They hire for the long term because that is how they have built everything here.

"It's very important to me that the person that comes in knows that the number one job of a supervisor is to make the team."

Why Veterans Succeed Here

If you ran an S1 shop, a Military Personnel Flight, or a ship's admin office, you have already done this job without the title. Weekly pay actions, leave and absence tracking, benefits enrollment, investigations, separations, and the quiet work of knowing who on the crew is struggling before it shows up in their output. This mill runs about 200 people across shifts in an operation that never fully stops. "Meet the team where they're at" is a first sergeant's job description. Objectives 2 and 3 are the ones a senior NCO will recognize fastest: walk the floor, build the junior person.

The leaders here hired for tenure and built from nothing. The Controller came to a construction site in 2018. The supervisor was employee number one. That is a plank-owner culture, and it rewards the person who shows up early, learns names, and stays. The mill is a short drive from a major Air Force base, and the supervisor named it on camera as the reason a transitioning airman should look here. Separating without relocating a family is a real option, and this mill is a real landing spot.

VHS matched this role because the performance objectives, the leadership style, and the small-team accountability align with transitioning E-7 to E-9 personnel and admin NCOs, company-grade AG and Force Support officers, and military spouses with HR tenure who want to stop moving.

Requirements

Requirements

Must have served in the U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Space Force, U.S. Reserves, or U.S. National Guard. (VHS sourcing requirement for this search.)

Minimum qualifications from the Company JD. Military translation is VHS.

• Bachelor's degree in Human Resources or related field | Military equivalent: any accredited degree earned in or after service; HR-adjacent degrees are common among 42A and 3F0X1 senior NCOs and Adjutant General or Personnel officers | Maps to: Objective 6
  
• 3 years leadership experience directly leading and developing people/teams | Military equivalent: platoon sergeant, section chief, flight chief, LPO/LCPO, or any E-6 and above with rated subordinates; company-grade officer with a platoon or flight | Maps to: Objectives 2, 3
  
• 5 years Human Resources experience | Military equivalent: Army 42A / 42B (HR Specialist, AG officer), Air Force 3F0X1 (Personnel) or Force Support officer, Navy PS or YN, Marine 0111 / 01xx Personnel Administration, Coast Guard YN; S1 shop or MPF experience at battalion or group level | Maps to: Objectives 1, 4, 6
  
• No relatives employed at the division | Hard disqualifier. Ask on the first call.
  
• Legally authorized to work in the U.S.; no sponsorship now or in the future | Hard disqualifier.
  

Preferences (Company JD): HR in a manufacturing environment; federal and state employment law; SAP SuccessFactors; Workforce Solutions timekeeping. Military equivalent for the systems: DEERS, iPERMS, MyPay, or any enterprise HR system of record. The specific platforms are learnable; the judgment is not.

Benefits

• Base: $117,700 to $143,000
  
• Bonus: Eligible for the company's ROA bonus. Structure, target percentage, and payout timing were not provided. Confirm before sourcing.
  
• Profit Sharing: Company-funded, about 10 cents of every pre-tax dollar the company earns, about 20% paid in cash and the balance into trust. Immediately 100% vested on first deposit. Must start on or before December 1 to qualify for the current plan year. (Benefits summary.)
  
• 401(k): Match on the first 7% contributed. Eligible first of the month after 30 days.
  
• Stock: Employee stock purchase plan through payroll deduction, company adds 10 cents per employee dollar, eligible at six months.
  
• Medical/Dental/Vision: Company self-funded plan, no deductible, 67% in-network coinsurance, out-of-pocket cap of 7% of annual earnings. Employee medical premium $27.12 per week, reduced $10 per week with the company health assessment. Spouse $43.44 per week, each child $27.84 per week. Two dental tiers, vision plan. Enroll after 30 days.
  
• PTO: 120 hours vacation after six months (hired before July 1) or the following year; 160 hours at 10 years. One personal day after 90 days. Ten paid holidays after 30 days.
  
• Leave: Salary continuation up to 13 weeks. Paid parental leave, 12 weeks birth parent and 4 weeks non-birth parent. 12 weeks paid adoption leave at six months.
  
• Education: Up to $5,250 per year tuition reimbursement. Scholarships for children up to $5,000 per year for four years. Spouse education up to $2,625 per year for two years.
  
• Insurance: Basic life at 1x earnings free, up to $150,000. Optional tiers to 6x. Voluntary LTD at 50% or 60% of earnings.