HR Manager

Title: Human Resources Manager

Department: Office of Administration

Reports to: Vice President, Operations

Location Base: Portland Office

Position Type: Hybrid

Status: Salary, Exempt

Salary Range: $88,980 - $124,613

Position Purpose

The HR Manager is Travel Oregon’s senior internal HR expert and a hands-on individual contributor responsible for developing, administering, and improving HR programs, policies, compliance practices, and services. The role advises employees and leaders and coordinates with administrative partners, counsel, and specialists. Executives and managers retain responsibility for day-to-day people leadership, team performance, culture, and employee experience. This role overview is intended to provide a general overview of the role and its primary responsibilities and is not exhaustive. Duties, priorities, and expectations may evolve based on organizational needs.

Essential Functions / Major Duties

HR Policy, Compliance + Risk Management

• Develop, maintain, interpret, and consistently administer employment policies and HR procedures.
• Monitor and ensure agency employment practices comply with applicable federal, state, and local employment laws and requirements; identify employment-related risk and advise on appropriate remedies and employee communications.
• Coordinate with employment counsel, investigators, consultants, and other outside specialists when legal, investigative, compensation, recruitment, or specialized expertise is required.
• Maintain an HR compliance calendar and conduct periodic process reviews; identify gaps, recommend corrective action, and track completion.
• Establish personnel, medical, accommodation, and investigation record safeguards, including appropriate separation, access controls, retention, and preservation. Coordinate public-records requests and legal holds with the designated records officer and counsel.

Employee Relations + Elevated HR Support

• Serve as a trusted HR resource for employees and leaders; protect sensitive information and explain confidentiality limits, including necessary investigation, legal disclosure, and escalation obligations.
• Advise managers and executive leaders on complex, sensitive, or elevated employee-relations matters while preserving manager ownership of the employee relationship.
• Manage intake, triage, timely response, documentation, and follow-up for workplace complaints, including alleged discrimination, harassment, retaliation, and other misconduct. Conduct fact-finding within expertise and authorization or coordinate an impartial investigator.
• Recommend appropriate interim safeguards, corrective actions, and follow-up measures; coordinate with authorized decision makers and monitor for retaliation.
• Maintain direct HR reporting and alternate escalation pathways for sensitive employee concerns, including concerns involving HR, the reporting supervisor, or executive leadership, consistent with agency policy and governance arrangements.

Recruitment + Employment Practices

• Maintain recruitment policies, templates, vendor relationships, and standards for equitable, consistent, and legally compliant recruitment.
• Advise hiring leaders on recruitment strategy, process, classification, candidate assessment, documentation, and offers.
• Establish consistent selection criteria, structured interview guidance, candidate accommodations, screening and reference-check practices, and documented offer approvals. Administer legally required hiring preferences where applicable.
• Administer and own the processes for hiring, onboarding, and separation, including work-authorization documentation and required notices; align handoffs with managers, payroll, benefits, and IT. Hiring managers remain responsible for successfully integrating new employees into their teams.

Leave, Accommodation + Benefits Guidance

• Respond to employee and manager questions regarding benefits and employment programs.
• Coordinate with benefits providers and appropriate administrative partners.
• Coordinate applicable leave eligibility reviews, notices, documentation, deadlines, and return-to-work processes. Guide and document the accommodation interactive process and escalate complex decisions to authorized leaders and counsel as appropriate.
• Coordinate protected leave, paid leave, benefit continuation, workers’ compensation, and payroll requirements with benefits providers and designated administrators; communicate approved status and changes without unnecessary disclosure of medical information.

Performance Management Framework

• Maintain the agency’s performance-management framework, tools, systems, documentation standards, and related guidance.
• Coordinate the performance-review cycle and completion reporting; coach managers on clear expectations, useful feedback, improvement plans, and defensible documentation. Managers remain responsible for evaluations, feedback, and performance decisions.

Employee Engagement Administration

• Administer the Employee Engagement survey process and associated systems, including distribution and appropriate access to results.
• Apply survey confidentiality and reporting safeguards, communicate participation expectations, and summarize agency trends.
• Provide technical support, HR interpretation, and tools for results of discussions and action planning; coordinate follow-up reporting. Managers own team engagement actions.

Classification + Compensation

• Coordinate compensation reviews and maintain reliable workforce information for compensation analysis; use external expertise for major market studies or specialized analysis as needed. (moved this to first because there needs to be a review)
• Advise leaders regarding position descriptions, classifications, compensation actions, and internal equity considerations; maintain approved position descriptions and classification records.
• Review proposed pay actions for consistency with approved ranges, applicable equal-pay requirements, internal equity, and documented approval criteria. Coordinate with Finance on cost implications; compensation decisions remain with authorized leaders.

Equitable Employment Practices + DEI

• Integrate equity considerations into recruitment, compensation, performance-management processes, leave/accommodation practices, policy, and employee relations.
• Provide HR expertise and data to support broader agency DEI work as appropriate.
• Identify barriers and inconsistent outcomes in employment processes using appropriate data and employee feedback; recommend practical improvements and track implementation while protecting individual privacy.

Internal Coordination + Administrative Support

• Coordinate HR administration with Payroll and Benefits internal partner across records, benefits and leave, data and reporting, recruitment, onboarding and separation, workflows and deadlines, engagement surveys, performance documentation, and required statewide training.
• The HR Manager provides technical HR standards, guidance, and review where needed but does not supervise, evaluate, or manage the Payroll and Benefits Analyst.
• Document responsibility for each recurring HR process, including preparation, review, approval, deadlines, escalation, and backup coverage.
• Resolve competing work priorities through the Payroll and Benefit’s supervisor and the Vice President of Operations.
• Partner with payroll and HRIS owners to define HR business requirements, authorized data changes, access needs, and data-quality controls.
• Coordinate administrative handoffs without assuming payroll processing or technology ownership.

Supervisory Responsibility

This role has no direct supervisory responsibility. The position may provide project leadership, technical direction, and coordination to cross-functional teams, consultants, and workgroups but does not hire, evaluate, discipline, or otherwise exercise supervisory authority over employees.

Education and Experience

Required

• Bachelor’s degree in human resources, business administration, organizational development, public administration, or another related field, or an equivalent combination of education, training, and professional experience.
• 7+ years of progressively responsible professional HR experience across employee relations, employment policy, compliance, recruitment, leave and accommodations, classification, or compensation, including independent responsibility for complex employee relations matters and HR program administration.
• Strong working knowledge of federal, Oregon, and applicable local employment laws and regulations.
• Experience advising senior leaders and managers on complex and sensitive employment matters.
• Experience developing, implementing, and administering practical HR policies, systems, processes, and procedures while handling confidential and sensitive information with professional judgement.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Demonstrated ability to support equitable and inclusive employment practices.
• Ability to establish credibility with employees and leaders at all organizational levels.
• Ability to assess complaints, coordinate impartial investigations, document findings and recommendations, and identify when outside expertise is required
• Ability to analyze workforce information, manage competing priorities and deadlines, and use HR systems and reporting tools effectively.

Preferred

• Experience in a public agency, public authority, quasi-public organization, or similarly regulated setting.
• Experience as a senior HR generalist or functional HR lead in a small organization, including coordination with outside counsel and service providers.
• Experience with Oregon pay equity, protected leave and accommodation processes, manager training, and employee engagement programs.
• Current SHRM-CP, SHRM-SCP, PHR, or SPHR certification, or comparable evidence of continued professional HR development.

Job Effort & Conditions

This position is designated as a hybrid position with some required reporting to Travel Oregon’s office in Portland. Regular travel within Oregon and occasional overnight travel is required. The work is primarily performed in a professional office or home-office environment and requires extended periods of stationary work and regular use of electronic devices to communicate and develop work products.

Benefits

• Accrual of 15 days paid vacation annually, plus 3 days personal business leave per fiscal year and 12 days paid sick leave annually
• 11 paid holidays per calendar year, 3 days paid volunteer leave per fiscal year, and available paid bereavement leave
• 100% of health care premiums for core benefits (medical/dental/vision) for employee and family are paid by Travel Oregon
• Optional health care and dependent care flexible spending accounts (FSAs).
• After six full months of employment, participation in the Public Employees Retirement System (PERS), including generous Travel Oregon contributions with no employee match required; optional participation in a 403(b) account (Oregon Savings Growth Plan) is also available.

Equal Employment Opportunity

Travel Oregon is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate in employment opportunities or practices based on race, ethnicity, national origin, ancestry, color, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, marital or parental status, pregnancy or childbirth, disability, age, religion, creed, genetic information, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law. We encourage and respect different viewpoints and experiences as being essential to the process of innovation. We strive to acquire, grow, and maintain a diverse and inclusive workplace that applies principles and standards equitably while supporting the needs and accommodations of the individual employee.

Consistent with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and federal and state laws, it is the policy of Travel Oregon to provide reasonable accommodation when requested by a qualified applicant or employee with a disability, unless such accommodation would cause an undue hardship. If you require reasonable accommodation in completing the employment application, interviewing, completing any pre-employment testing, or otherwise participating in the employee selection process, please contact HR@traveloregon.com Travel Oregon provides qualifying veterans and disabled veterans with preference in employment. Please review the following webpage on veterans' preference in state employment and indicate your status and submit documentation accordingly: https://www.oregon.gov/jobs/pages/veterans.aspx.