HR Director - Venue Operations

Description

HR Director, Venue Operations

$150,000 - $175,000 Annually + Incentives

If you want to build an HR function, not just run one, inside a growing, multi-location business, this is your seat at the table.

Company Overview

Pinnacle Live is a premium, in-house AV and event production company operating at premier hotels and resorts across North America. We exist to Elevate Experiences, combining cutting-edge production with a deeply human touch, holding ourselves to a standard where exceptional is the baseline. We're guided by three core values: Excellence is our attitude. Innovation is our mindset. Our people make the difference. If you show up prepared, take ownership of your craft, and want to grow alongside a team that holds itself to high standards, we'd love to meet you.

Job Summary

This is a rare opportunity to own HR for one of the most dynamic, fast-scaling platforms in live events, building the people strategy for nearly 900 venue-based team members across almost 200 partner hotels and resorts.

As the senior HR business leader for Venue Operations, you will partner directly with the COO and SVP leadership, shaping how we staff, develop, and retain the frontline talent that delivers a premium experience at every property we touch. You will own employee relations, workforce planning, compliance, and retention for a distributed, shift-based workforce, and you will coach the operators who lead it.

This is a hybrid leadership position based in the United States, with a preference for candidates located in Dallas, Texas. The role requires approximately 30-40% travel to Pinnacle Live venues, corporate meetings, industry events, and leadership gatherings.

Essential Functions

Strategic HR Partnership

• Serve as the primary HR partner to the COO and SVP leaders across all partner venues.
• Coach and develop the COO, SVPs, and Regional Business Partners on people leadership, coaching, and performance conversations.
• Advise operations leadership on organizational design, span of control, and team structure at the venue and regional level.

Workforce Planning and Staffing

• Lead workforce planning, staffing, and scheduling strategy for a large, distributed, frontline audiovisual and production workforce.
• Partner with Talent Acquisition to forecast venue staffing needs and reduce time-to-fill for technician and venue leadership roles.
• Partner with Total Rewards on job banding and pay practices specific to venue and technician roles.

Employee Relations and Compliance

• Own employee relations case management, investigations, and performance management at the venue level.
• Conduct and document workplace investigations, including complaints involving harassment, discrimination, and policy violations, in partnership with legal counsel.
• Ensure consistent application of HR policy, wage and hour practice, and labor law compliance across all venue jurisdictions.
• Oversee the ADA interactive process and accommodation decisions for venue team members in partnership with Total Rewards.
• Partner with Operations and Risk on workplace safety, injury reporting, workers' compensation claims, and return-to-work programs.

Retention, Engagement, and Culture

• Drive retention and engagement programs tailored to frontline, shift-based, and event-driven work schedules.
• Analyze turnover, engagement, and exit data by venue and region, and develop targeted interventions with operations leadership.
• Support the people integration of teams joining Pinnacle Live through new venue openings and acquisitions.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

First-Year Performance Objectives

• A consistent employee relations intake, investigation, and documentation standard in use across all venues.
• Measurable reduction in frontline turnover in targeted venues or regions.
• A venue workforce plan integrated with Talent Acquisition forecasting and Finance headcount planning.
• Venue Directors trained in and practicing a common performance conversation standard.
• Documented wage and hour, scheduling, and timekeeping practices reviewed for multi-state compliance.
• A quarterly venue people dashboard in active use by the COO and SVP team.

Education & Experience

• Bachelor's degree in Human Resources, Business, or a related field; or an equivalent combination of education and directly related professional experience.
• Ten (10) or more years of progressive HR experience, including multi-site or multi-location responsibility.

Required Skills & Knowledge

• Experience serving as the senior HR partner to executive-level leaders at the C-suite or SVP level.
• Experience leading HR for a distributed, multi-location business of 800 or more employees.
• Experience supporting an hourly, shift-based, or event-driven frontline workforce.
• Direct experience conducting and documenting workplace investigations, including complaints involving harassment and discrimination.
• Working knowledge of employment law across multiple states, including Title VII, ADA, FMLA, FLSA exemption classification, and state wage and hour requirements such as overtime, meal and rest periods, timekeeping, and on-call or reporting-time pay.
• Experience partnering on workplace safety, injury reporting, and workers' compensation claims management.
• Experience managing performance improvement and involuntary separation processes, including documentation and risk assessment.
• HRIS and data fluency, including the ability to analyze turnover, headcount, and engagement data and present findings to leadership.
• Ability to travel regularly to partner venues, approximately 25%, including overnight travel.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in live events, audiovisual or production services, hospitality, Distribution, manufacturing, or another multi-unit, field-based service business.
• Labor relations experience, including collective bargaining agreement interpretation and grievance handling.
• Working knowledge of Canadian provincial employment standards.
• Experience leading or developing HR business partners.
• Experience supporting new location openings and merger and acquisition people integration.
• Experience in a high-growth or private equity-backed environment.
• Professional working proficiency in Spanish or another language spoken by the frontline workforce.
• SHRM-CP, SHRM-SCP, PHR, or SPHR certification

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Ability to establish credibility with and influence operations executives who hold profit-and-loss accountability.
• Ability to influence without direct authority across an autonomous, decentralized venue model.
• Strong conflict resolution and de-escalation skills.
• Sound judgment in assessing employee relations risk and determining when to escalate to legal counsel.
• Ability to communicate clearly and credibly with both frontline team members and executive audiences.
• Ability to manage a high case volume alongside competing strategic priorities.
• High discretion and judgment in handling sensitive and confidential information.

Physical Demands

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to:

• Sit at a desk
• Stand or walk for long periods, including up and down stairs
• Consistently bend and stoop
• Use hands to hold, handle, or feel
• Reach with hands and arms
• Talk, hear, and communicate.
• Lift up to 50 pounds occasionally

Benefits

• Generous time off with PTO, holidays, and sick/personal days
• 401k with a contribution match
• Insurances: health, vision, dental, and more

Pinnacle Live is an E-verify and Equal Employment Opportunity Employer

Pinnacle Live is committed to welcoming, valuing, and supporting every person and their unique contributions. We are actively working to foster an environment where diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging, and mutual respect thrive. We recognize that diversity is intersectional, and that actively valuing diversity demands that we continually strive to establish a welcoming atmosphere for all.

Pinnacle Live welcomes, openly acknowledges, empowers, and celebrates the diversity of all our team members, clients, and partners, and affirms the identities and experiences of all our members. We strive to create an environment where we actively embrace all forms of diversity.