Strategic HR Business Partner-Director

Johnson Controls · Milwaukee · $163,200–$245,000 (stated in the posting)

Apply on the company website

About Us

Johnson Controls, a global leader in thermal management, mission-critical building systems, energy efficiency, and decarbonization, helps customers use energy more productively, reduce carbon emissions, and operate with the precision and resilience required in rapidly expanding industries such as data centers, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, advanced manufacturing, and higher education.

For more than 140 years, Johnson Controls has delivered performance where it really matters. Backed by advanced technology, lifecycle services and an industry-leading field organization, we elevate customer performance, turn goals into real-world results and help move society forward.

Strategic HR Business Partner-Director

What You Will Do

The Strategic HR Business Partner, Director is accountable for improving business performance by translating workforce strategy into disciplined execution across a function, team cluster, or defined organizational area.

This leader ensures workforce plans, talent processes, and leadership actions are implemented with strong process discipline, reliable follow-through, and consistent alignment to business priorities. Operating within a product-based HR model, the HRBP is not a service provider. The role works with leaders to identify business and workforce needs, diagnose execution gaps, activate enterprise HR products, and ensure leaders own their people and workforce decisions.

Using structured, data-driven problem solving, the Director identifies gaps in:

• Workforce planning and organizational alignment
• Headcount actions and execution
• Talent process discipline
• Performance management
• Development actions
• Data quality and accuracy
• Leader ownership and follow-through
• Adoption of enterprise HR products and processes

These insights are used to activate enterprise HR products as standard solutions that improve consistency, reduce manual or local workarounds, and strengthen the quality of workforce and talent execution.

The Director reinforces leader ownership by ensuring managers and leaders execute workforce plans, performance management, development actions, and talent processes with discipline and accountability. The role also reinforces consistent application of performance and reward processes so standards are applied fairly and execution supports business priorities.

The Director coordinates HRBP, HR Operations, and partner-team activity supporting the business, ensuring strong data quality, consistent execution standards, completion discipline, and timely escalation of risks or gaps.

Success requires practical business judgment, strong process discipline, collaborative influence, and the ability to convert strategy into clear, reliable action.

The role translates the business's three primary sources of demand into workforce plans and disciplined execution:

• Annual operating plans and associated performance metrics
• Strategic initiatives and workforce plans
• Colleague experience

How You Will Do It: Our Winning Behaviors

At Johnson Controls, how we deliver results matters. This leader will model and embed our Winning Behaviors throughout the organization.

Focus on What Matters

• Go to Gemba with leaders to understand business and workforce realities firsthand.
• Use data and insight to diagnose root causes rather than symptoms.
• Prioritize the talent, workforce, and organizational issues that have the greatest impact on business performance.
• Activate enterprise HR products where they can create the greatest value.
• Maintain focus on workforce and talent priorities while ensuring transactional and policy work is routed appropriately.

Win as One Team

• Collaborate across HR Product teams, Centers of Excellence, HR Operations, PMO, Workforce Analytics, HRBPs, and business leadership.
• Coordinate partner activity to deliver integrated and consistent solutions.
• Align leaders to enterprise standards while actively influencing and shaping solutions to ensure they meet business needs.
• Promote consistent execution, strong data quality, and shared accountability across the HR support model.

Own the Outcome

• Take accountability for the quality and completion of workforce and talent execution.
• Reinforce leader ownership of people decisions, workforce plans, performance management, development actions, and talent processes.
• Translate strategy into execution through disciplined adoption of enterprise talent systems.
• Identify execution gaps, escalate risks when appropriate, and remove barriers to effective performance.
• Drive reliable follow-through on commitments and actions.

Improve Every Day

• Seek truth through data, business results, and leader feedback.
• Use structured problem solving to identify root causes and execution gaps.
• Continuously improve process discipline, talent systems, workforce execution, leader capability, and organizational effectiveness.
• Reduce unnecessary variability and workarounds.
• Approach improvement with urgency, curiosity, and humility.

How You Will Lead

As Strategic HR Business Partner, Director, you will serve as:

Workforce Execution Translator

• Translate business priorities into actionable workforce plans, talent actions, and clear execution steps.
• Align organizational structure, capability, resources, and talent actions with business demand.
• Connect strategic workforce priorities to practical actions that leaders can execute and measure.
• Ensure plans move from discussion to reliable completion.

Process and Execution Problem Solver

• Use workforce data and structured thinking to identify execution gaps.
• Diagnose issues in workforce planning, talent processes, data quality, and completion discipline.
• Resolve execution issues through consistent application of standard processes and HR operating-model expectations.
• Identify recurring issues and address root causes rather than relying on workarounds.

Product Activation Partner

• Apply enterprise HR products as standard tools for solving talent and workforce challenges.
• Drive consistent adoption and application of enterprise solutions.
• Reinforce process discipline through effective product usage.
• Reduce manual and inconsistent approaches while improving the quality of talent and workforce decisions.

Leader Capability Enabler

• Support leaders in building greater ownership of workforce planning, performance management, development actions, and talent processes.
• Coach and reinforce expectations for consistent execution and follow-through.
• Help leaders strengthen capability and increase self-sufficiency in managing workforce and talent decisions.

Process Discipline Driver

• Ensure consistency and reliability in the execution of talent processes, workforce actions, and performance management.
• Reduce unnecessary variability across teams and leaders.
• Reinforce common standards and expectations.
• Improve completion discipline, data quality, and overall execution outcomes.

Data-Informed Execution Operator

• Use workforce data to improve decision quality and prioritize actions.
• Track progress and completion of workforce and talent actions.
• Identify gaps, risks, and inconsistencies through data and analysis.
• Apply insights to strengthen the consistency and quality of workforce and talent execution.

What You Will Accomplish

Talent and Leadership Outcomes

• Support improvements in leadership effectiveness and talent quality.
• Drive disciplined execution of talent processes, development actions, and performance management.
• Improve consistency and follow-through on talent actions.
• Strengthen the connection between talent processes and business priorities.

Organizational Effectiveness and Workforce Planning

• Translate workforce plans into actionable execution.
• Ensure roles, headcount decisions, workforce actions, and talent priorities align with business needs.
• Drive disciplined completion of workforce actions.
• Support stronger organizational alignment, role clarity, and workforce effectiveness.

HR Product Activation and Adoption

• Ensure enterprise HR products are consistently used across talent and workforce processes.
• Improve reliability and execution quality through disciplined adoption.
• Reduce reliance on manual, inconsistent, or locally developed workarounds.
• Leverage enterprise solutions to strengthen the quality and consistency of outputs.

Leader Capability and Performance

• Support and reinforce leader accountability for talent processes, workforce plans, development actions, and performance management.
• Coach leaders toward greater ownership and self-sufficiency.
• Establish clear expectations for execution and follow-through.
• Reinforce performance standards and address gaps in execution.

Employee Experience and Culture Building

• Improve employee experience through consistent execution of processes affecting development, feedback, recognition, and team effectiveness.
• Reinforce behaviors that strengthen accountability, collaboration, and execution quality.
• Support organizational health through reliable leadership and talent practices.

Transformation and Change Leadership

• Support enterprise and business change initiatives by ensuring workforce and talent actions are effectively implemented.
• Help leaders maintain execution discipline during organizational transitions.
• Reinforce adoption of new processes, products, and ways of working.
• Identify execution issues or risks that could impede sustained change.

HR Service Model and Routing Discipline

• Ensure transactional and policy-related work is routed to the appropriate HR teams.
• Maintain HRBP focus on execution of workforce, talent, organizational, and business priorities.
• Reinforce appropriate utilization of the enterprise HR operating model.
• Reduce unnecessary duplication and workarounds across the support model.

Incentive Alignment and Performance Systems

• Support alignment of performance and reward decisions with business priorities.
• Reinforce consistent application of performance standards.
• Identify misalignment or inconsistency in execution.
• Support performance and reward processes that reinforce accountability, execution discipline, and desired behaviors.

HRBP Execution Alignment

• Coordinate HRBP, HR Operations, and partner-team activities supporting the business.
• Ensure consistent execution standards across the support model.
• Drive reliable completion of workforce and talent actions.
• Maintain strong data quality and reporting discipline.
• Identify and escalate execution risks, gaps, or inconsistencies in a timely manner.
• Strengthen coordination across HRBPs, HR Operations, Centers of Excellence, and other partner teams.

What We Look For

Required Qualifications and Experience

• Strong understanding of business operations and workforce execution needs.
• Experience executing talent processes including performance management, workforce planning, and development actions.
• Proven ability to support and influence leaders in improving execution discipline.
• Regular application of workforce data and analysis to identify gaps, solve problems, and drive talent solutions.
• Familiarity with enterprise talent systems and HR operating models.
• Demonstrated ability to translate workforce and talent priorities into reliable action and follow-through.
• Strong process discipline and practical business judgment.

Strongly Preferred Experience

• Experience working in a complex, matrixed, and/or multi-function environment.
• Exposure to workforce planning, organizational alignment, and execution-improvement initiatives.
• Experience coordinating across HRBPs, HR Operations, and Centers of Excellence.
• Experience creating strategy and operating within a Lean business system at an organization with a reputable, mature business system.
• Graduate-level academic background from a leading HR program and/or experience leading scaled HR capability within industrial technology or complex manufacturing environments.
• Experience supporting heavy field-facing industries with a combination of technical, engineering, and skilled-trades talent.

HIRING SALARY RANGE: $163,200–$245K (Salary to be determined by the education, experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities of the applicant, internal equity, and alignment with market data.) This role offers a competitive Bonus plan that will take into account individual, group, and corporate performance. This position includes a competitive benefits package. The posted salary range reflects the target compensation for this role. However, we recognize that exceptional candidates may bring unique skills and experiences that exceed the typical profile. If you believe your background warrants consideration beyond the stated range, we encourage you to apply. To support an efficient and fair hiring process, we may use technology assisted tools, including artificial intelligence (AI), to help identify and evaluate candidates. All hiring decisions are ultimately made by human reviewers. For details, please visit the About Us tab on the Johnson Controls Careers site at https://jobs.johnsoncontrols.com/about-us

Johnson Controls International plc. is an equal employment opportunity and affirmative action employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, protected veteran status, genetic information, sexual orientation, gender identity, status as a qualified individual with a disability or any other characteristic protected by law. To view more information about your equal opportunity and non-discrimination rights as a candidate, visit EEO is the Law. If you are an individual with a disability and you require an accommodation during the application process, please visit here.

More jobs at Johnson Controls · People & Recruiting jobs in Milwaukee Wisconsin United States Of America