Director of Human Resources
A Director of Human Resources oversees all HR operations, policies, and initiatives that support the institution’s mission, leading talent, employee relations, compliance, and organizational development. This is a sample job description from Excelon Associates that you can adapt as a template for your own hire.
What does a Director of Human Resources do?
The Director of Human Resources oversees all HR operations, policies, and initiatives that support the university’s mission and goals. Reporting to the Vice President for Administration, the Director leads efforts to attract, retain, and develop a diverse and talented workforce while fostering a culture of collaboration, equity, and inclusion across the institution.
As a trusted advisor and strategic partner to senior leadership, the Director provides leadership across talent acquisition, employee relations, performance management, organizational development, and compliance. Higher education experience is strongly preferred, since the regulatory environment, shared governance culture, and workforce complexity of a university are distinct from most other settings. It is a senior administrative role within the higher education sector.
HRIS (Human Resource Information System) is the software platform that manages workforce data. Professional credentials such as SPHR, PHR, SHRM-SCP, and SHRM-CP, offered through bodies including SHRM and HRCI, signal advanced HR expertise and are valued differentiators for senior HR leaders.
What does the Director of Human Resources oversee?
Key responsibilities of a Director of Human Resources
- Develop and implement HR strategies that align with the university’s mission and the evolving landscape of higher education workforce management.
- Partner with senior leadership and academic deans on workforce planning, organizational structure, policy development, and institutional culture.
- Foster a workplace culture that values diversity, equity, inclusion, and genuine collaboration across faculty, staff, and administrators.
- Oversee recruitment, onboarding, employee relations, benefits administration, compensation, leave management, and professional development.
- Ensure full compliance with federal, state, and local employment laws and regulations, institutional policies, and accreditation standards.
- Develop equity-centered recruitment strategies that attract top faculty and staff, and lead onboarding, training, leadership development, and succession planning.
- Serve as a trusted advisor on HR policy, conflict resolution, performance management, and progressive discipline, and oversee investigations into employee concerns and grievances.
- Analyze HR metrics, workforce data, and labor-market trends to inform strategic decisions and address people challenges proactively.
- Use HRIS and analytics platforms to improve the accuracy, accessibility, and strategic value of workforce data, and report regularly to leadership.
What qualifications does the role require?
- Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, or a related field; master’s strongly preferred. Certifications such as SPHR, PHR, SHRM-SCP, or SHRM-CP may partially substitute for advanced-degree requirements.
- Minimum of seven to ten years of progressive HR leadership experience, ideally in higher education or a large, complex organization.
- Comprehensive knowledge of HR principles, employment law, and compliance requirements.
- Proven success leading organizational change and implementing HR best practices.
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with demonstrated ability to use workforce data to drive strategic decisions, plus familiarity with enterprise HRIS platforms.
Why is the Director of Human Resources role important?
A university’s ability to recruit excellent faculty, retain talented staff, resolve workplace issues fairly, and build an inclusive culture all depend on the quality of its HR leadership. At a modern university the Director of Human Resources is not a back-office function but one of the most consequential administrative roles on campus, with direct influence over the institution’s capacity to fulfill its academic mission.
For an HR leader who understands the higher education context, the shared governance structures, the dual faculty and staff workforce, the compliance complexity, and the mission orientation, this is a senior role with genuine institutional scope. The best university HR directors know that every hire and every policy either strengthens or weakens the institution’s capacity to do its real work.
A hiring note from Excelon
University HR is its own discipline: faculty governance, tenure, and mission orientation make it unlike corporate HR. Through our higher education practice, we look for credentialed HR leaders, SPHR, SHRM-SCP, or equivalent, who have operated inside the academic context and can be a genuine strategic partner rather than only a service provider, since that distinction is what separates strategic HR leadership from administrative HR management.
Every hire, every policy, and every employee relations decision either strengthens or weakens the institution’s capacity to do its real work.
Related sample job descriptions
Director of Human Resources: frequently asked questions
What does a Director of Human Resources do?
A Director of Human Resources oversees all HR operations, policies, and initiatives at the institution. The role leads talent acquisition, employee relations, performance management, organizational development, and compliance, acting as a strategic partner to senior leadership.
What qualifications does the role require?
This sample role requires a bachelor’s degree in HR, business, or a related field (master’s strongly preferred) and seven to ten years of progressive HR leadership experience. Certifications such as SPHR, PHR, SHRM-SCP, or SHRM-CP are meaningful differentiators.
What HR certifications matter for this role?
Professional HR certifications including SPHR, PHR, SHRM-SCP, and SHRM-CP signal advanced expertise and may partially substitute for advanced degree requirements. They are valued differentiators for senior HR leadership roles.
Why is higher education HR experience preferred?
A university’s regulatory environment, shared governance culture, and dual faculty and staff workforce are distinct from most organizations. HR leaders who understand that context tend to navigate policy, compliance, and employee relations more effectively.
Why is this role important?
A university’s ability to recruit faculty, retain staff, resolve workplace issues fairly, and build an inclusive culture depends on HR leadership. The Director of Human Resources is one of the most consequential administrative roles on a modern campus.
Hiring a Director of Human Resources?
Excelon Associates places HR directors, chief human resources officers, and senior people operations leaders at universities and colleges across the United States through our higher education recruitment practice. Retained executive search since 2007, headquartered in Asheville, NC, with offices in Boca Raton and Delray Beach, FL.
More Sample Job Descriptions
Templates you can adapt for your own roles.