An American icon, Fender was born in Southern California and has built a worldwide influence extending beyond the studio and the stage. A Fender is more than an instrument; it's a cultural symbol that resonates globally.
This is a highly visible, strategic leadership role. Reporting to the Interim Chief Talent Officer, the Director, Human Resources - Manufacturing will be the senior HR partner embedded with plant and distribution leadership in Corona and San Bernardino, and is expected to bring genuine fluency in manufacturing operations, production cycles, and distribution workflows to the table. This is not a back-office HR role: this leader translates operational and production realities into a people strategy that keeps staffing, skills, and workforce readiness ahead of the business, and keeps HR processes moving at the pace the plant and distribution center require. With direct leadership of the onsite HR team and responsibility for HR at FMIC’s manufacturing facility in Corona, CA and distribution center in San Bernardino, CA, you will serve as a hands-on, transformational HR business partner to site leadership and employees. We are looking for an experienced manufacturing HR leader who believes great HR happens as much on the factory floor as it does in an office, someone who is visible, accessible and knows the people and the operation. You will build relationships at every level, help drive organizational transformation, strengthen leadership and accountability, improve engagement and culture, and translate business needs into practical people solutions. This transformational role requires someone who is comfortable challenging the status quo, leading through change and helping both our people and operations perform at their best.
Essential Functions:
- Maintain a highly visible presence on the factory and distribution center floors, building trusted relationships with employees across shifts, functions, and levels and developing a firsthand understanding of the people, processes, and issues affecting daily operations.
- Serve as a trusted, embedded strategic partner to site leadership, bringing HR into operational, production, workforce, and shift-planning decisions and translating business priorities into effective people strategies.
- Lead the people side of operational transformation, helping leaders and employees understand, adopt, and sustain new ways of working while identifying and removing organizational barriers to change.
- Own workforce planning and people readiness, forecasting headcount and skill requirements against production and distribution needs and ensuring strong pipelines for hourly, skilled, technical, and leadership talent.
- Build a culture of accountability, performance, and engagement, establishing clear expectations, addressing performance issues, recognizing strong performance, strengthening culture, and ensuring consistent standards across departments and shifts.
- Strengthen frontline leadership capability, coaching supervisors and managers to become stronger people leaders with particular focus on communication, decision-making, accountability, employee engagement, and performance management.
- Partner with Operations, Finance, Quality, and Continuous Improvement to improve workforce effectiveness, using data to address labor productivity, staffing, overtime, absenteeism, turnover, training, direct and indirect labor, and other workforce factors affecting operational performance.
- Build the talent and organizational capabilities required for the future, including retention strategies, succession planning, knowledge transfer, organizational design, workforce deployment, and development of critical manufacturing and distribution talent.
- Serve as a strong advocate for employees and the organization, proactively identifying employee concerns, morale and cultural issues, workforce risks, and opportunities to improve employee experience before they become larger problems.
- Provide strong HR governance and employee-relations leadership, overseeing investigations in partnership with Legal, organizational changes, leaves and accommodations, workers’ compensation, and compliance with applicable employment, labor, safety, and workplace requirements.
Qualifications:
- 10-15 years of progressive HR management experience, including 5+ years as an HR leader in a manufacturing setting.
- Deep, hands-on knowledge of manufacturing \ operations required; experience supporting larger, complex sites strongly preferred.
- Bachelor's Degree in HR Management, Business Administration, Organizational/Industrial Psychology, or a related area of study.
- PHR, SPHR, GPHR, or similar certification are strongly preferred.
- Bilingual fluency (English | Spanish) a plus.
- Demonstrated competence in high-volume employee relations and performance management in a fast-paced, production environment.
- Fully versed in CA state employment laws, in addition to working knowledge of all pertinent Federal labor and employee safety laws, particularly OSHA.
- Hands-on experience working within a global, enterprise-wide HRIS program.
- Familiar with behavioral and strategic interviewing methodologies.
- Executive presence and the credibility to influence plant, distribution, and senior leadership; comfortable operating at pace in a fast-moving, hands-on environment.
Ideal Candidate Profile:
Beyond the qualifications above, the ideal candidate is someone who:
- Has spent meaningful time on a manufacturing floor or in a distribution center, not only in a corporate HR office, and understands shift work, production pressure while driving a Quality and Safety-first mentality.
- Thinks like an operator as much as an HR leader, connecting people decisions directly to throughput, quality, safety, and cost.
- Strong presence and communication skills, with the ability to lead a room, facilitate effective meetings, coach leaders and employees, and motivate teams at all levels across both compliance-driven topics and broader development and engagement initiatives.
- Builds credibility quickly with plant and distribution leadership by showing up as a proactive business partner, not a policy enforcer.
- Is comfortable with transformational change and moves fast with mindfulness to maintain positive communication bridges that maintain key stakeholders appraised, without cutting corners on compliance or employee relations rigor.
- Brings a continuous improvement mindset to HR itself, consistently looking for ways to make people processes simpler, faster, and more consistent across sites. Pushing the envelope with proactive and proficient data analytics, making the conversion of cultural impact into meaningful and measurable metrics to understand the validity of initiatives.
- Has led through a period of growth, change, or complexity in a manufacturing setting, and can speak to specific, measurable outcomes.
About Fender Musical Instruments:
Fender Musical Instruments Corporation (FMIC) is one of the world’s leading musical instrument manufacturers, marketers and distributors, whose portfolio of brands includes Fender®, Squier®, Gretsch®, Jackson®, EVH®, Charvel®, among others. For more information, visit www.fender.com. FMIC offers a competitive benefits package which includes medical, dental, 401(k), paid time off, and an equipment purchase program to help you get the band back together. Fender Musical Instruments Corporation is an equal opportunity employer and considers qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, gender, age, color, religion, disability, veterans’ status, sexual orientation, or any other protected factor.
Fender is required by law in certain jurisdictions to include a pay scale in the job posting for this position. “Pay scale” means the salary or hourly wage range that Fender reasonably expects to pay for this position; it is neither a promise nor a guarantee of the compensation that the successful candidate will receive. The pay scale for this position takes into account the wide range of factors that Fender considers in making compensation decisions, including, without limitation: skill set, experience, and training, licensure and certifications, and other business and organizational needs. If this is a remote position, the pay scale disclosed herein may be adjusted further based upon the applicable geographic differential associated with the location from which the successful candidate will work. Please note that it is not typical for a Fender employee to be at or near the top of the pay scale for their role – especially as a new hire – and compensation decisions are dependent on the facts and circumstances of each case. Subject to the foregoing, the current pay scale for this position is $168,000 to $225,000 per year.
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