HR Director

HR Director

Southern Service Workers Education Fund, Inc. (SSWEF)

Location: Durham, NC

Reports to: Managing Director

Status: Full-Time, Exempt

About SSWEF

SSWEF is a worker organization building power with low-wage workers across the South. We organize alongside workers and community partners to challenge exploitation, raise standards, and advance racial and economic justice. Our campaigns combine deep organizing, worker leadership development, and community solidarity to win real improvements in workers’ lives while building a broader movement for economic and racial justice in the South.

Position Summary

SSWEF is seeking a strategic and experienced HR Director to join our team. As a critical hire for 2026, the HR Director will replace our current outsourced support to manage our internal HR functions directly. This role is essential for achieving clear lanes of responsibility across teams and ensuring leaders are placed in roles matching their strengths. You will be responsible for scaling our human resources systems to support a rapidly expanding organization.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership & Organizational Design

• Leadership Team Participation: Serve as a core member of the Leadership Team, contributing to organizational goal-setting, resource allocation, and long-term strategic planning.
• Infrastructure Building: Develop and implement HR systems that support SSWEF’s multi-entity structure.
• Culture & Values: Uphold and model SSWEF’s commitment to racial justice, economic justice, and multiracial worker solidarity across all HR practices.

Talent Management & Staff Development

• Recruitment & Onboarding: Manage the full lifecycle of hiring for 2026 priorities, including roles in Finance, Operations, and Campaign leadership.
• Performance Management: Lead 1:1 role reviews and internal reorganization phases to ensure staff are supported and accountable to their responsibilities.

Compensation & Benefits

• Salary Benchmarking: Develop and update SSWEF’s Compensation Framework, ensuring salaries remain benchmarked against North Carolina hubs (Raleigh/Durham) and national nonprofit data.
• Benefits Administration: Oversee employer-paid healthcare, 401k plans, and other staff benefits.

Operations & Compliance

• Policy Development: Establish and maintain HR policies and procedures that ensure scalability and legal compliance.
• Vendor Management: Replace outsourced HR support with internal systems and manage remaining external vendor relationships where necessary.

Qualifications

• Significant HR Experience: Proven track record in human resources management, preferably in a director-level capacity within a complex nonprofit or union environment.
• Multi-Entity Expertise: Familiarity with HR compliance and operational nuances for organizations maintaining a multi-entity structure.
• Strategic Thinking: Ability to translate organizational goals into effective staffing and infrastructure plans.
• Justice-Centered Approach: A deep, demonstrated commitment to racial and economic justice.
• Communication: Exceptional ability to communicate complex personnel or technical concepts to a diverse, multi-disciplinary team.

Compensation

• Salary Range: $90,000 – $100,000
• Benefits: Full employer-paid healthcare and 401k.

• On the 1st of the month following the date of hire, you may sign up for high-quality, low-
• deductible Blue Cross Blue Shield NC health insurance. For the employee, their spouses, and their dependents, the employer pays 100%.
• On the 1st of the month following the date of hire, you may sign up for high-quality, low-
• deductible MetLife dental and vision insurance.
• Paid time off and sick leave, consistent with organization policy.
• Employer-paid $50,000 life insurance and an accidental death and dismemberment
• insurance policy.
• 401(k) retirement savings plan.
• Other benefits if applicable.