Senior Manager, Human Resources

About Meridian Counseling

Our philosophy centers on the belief that good care begins with quality providers. Our mission is clear - to deliver the highest quality care to as many people as possible while upholding our field's integrity and resisting the allure of big tech and profits at the expense of exceptional care. We hold ourselves and our providers to the highest clinical standard of care.

Our Mission

We are a modern therapy practice focused on top-tier clinicians.

Statement on Diversity

Meridian Counseling is committed to building a diverse, inclusive, and equitable workplace where everyone is treated with respect and dignity. We are an equal opportunity employer and do not discriminate based on age, race, ethnicity, class, religion, physical ability, gender, or sexual orientation.

Job Summary

The Senior Manager, Human Resources is responsible for leading and continuously improving Meridian Counseling’s human resources function and delivering practical, compliant, scalable, and employee-centered people operations across a multi-state workforce. This role serves as a trusted advisor to executive and operational leaders while maintaining direct responsibility for the effective execution of day-to-day HR operations.

The Senior Manager will build upon and assume internal ownership of the HR strategy, systems, processes, and operating practices developed through Meridian’s prior external HR support relationship. The role will lead Meridian’s continued transition from informal or decentralized practices to consistent, documented, and scalable systems appropriate for a growing organization of more than 150 employees.

This position balances strategic leadership with direct responsibility for complex and high-impact HR matters, including employee relations, employment compliance, workforce planning, performance management, recruiting strategy, organizational development, HR technology, payroll and benefits oversight, leaves and accommodations, and manager support. The Senior Manager will direct and coordinate administrative and technical HR support provided by internal personnel, external HR support, and other external partners.

Essential Duties

• HR Strategy, Leadership & Executive Advisory: Serve as Meridian Counseling’s senior internal HR advisor and primary point of accountability for the HR function. Develop, maintain, and execute a people roadmap aligned with Meridian’s mission, growth plans, clinical operating model, financial and operational priorities, and workforce needs. Advise executive, clinical, and operational leaders on organizational design, workforce planning, employee relations, leadership effectiveness, culture, employee experience, and change management. Translate organizational priorities and employment requirements into clear, practical HR strategies, implementation plans, and decision-ready recommendations. Identify emerging people, compliance, and operational risks and escalate material matters appropriately.
• HR Operating Model & Service Delivery: Lead Meridian’s HR operating model and establish clear priorities, ownership, response standards, escalation paths, compliance calendars, and documented workflows for recurring HR activities. Determine which matters require the Senior Manager’s direct involvement and which may be assigned to available administrative or technical support. Direct and coordinate the HR work performed by external HR support personnel and other designated resources, including tracking, follow-up, documentation, scheduling, routine communications, reporting, HRIS administration, data maintenance, benefits support, and technical execution. Retain accountability for appropriate delegation, confidentiality, quality, consistency, and timely completion.
• HR Function Transition & Continuity: Lead the transition of HR leadership and institutional knowledge from Meridian’s external HR support model to an internally led HR function. Maintain continuity of active employee-relations, leave, recruiting, payroll, benefits, compliance, systems, and policy matters during the transition. Document responsibilities, decision rights, open matters, recurring deadlines, system requirements, and escalation protocols. Periodically assess whether the retained administrative and technical support model is adequate for Meridian’s workforce size, growth, risk profile, and service expectations, and recommend adjustments to leadership as appropriate.
• Employee Relations: Serve as Meridian’s primary HR advisor for employee complaints, workplace conduct, performance, conflict, attendance, discipline, retaliation concerns, and separations. Personally lead or oversee complex and high-risk employee-relations matters. Determine when an investigation or other matter should be assigned to qualified external support or employment counsel. Assess relevant evidence, prepare or review findings and recommendations, and advise leadership on consistent, proportionate, and well-documented outcomes. Coach managers on difficult conversations, documentation, corrective action, and lawful, respectful employee management. .
• Compliance & Risk Management: Maintain practical processes supporting compliance with applicable federal, California, and multi-state employment requirements across the employee lifecycle. Monitor legal and regulatory developments and translate relevant changes into policies, communications, training, system configurations and operating procedures. Oversee compliance relating to wage-and-hour practices, employee classification, required notices and postings, personnel records, hiring, leaves, accommodations, training, final pay, and employee separations. Coordinate with payroll, benefits partners, brokers, vendors, external HR resources, and employment counsel as appropriate. Maintain compliance calendars, audit processes, required records, notices, postings, and training. Support organizational expansion into additional states, including Utah.
• Policies & Employee Lifecycle: Develop, maintain, and implement employee handbooks, policies, standard operating procedures, job descriptions, onboarding, orientation, status changes, compensation changes, performance management, offboarding, final pay, and record-retention practices. Convert recurring or informal practices into clear, documented, and scalable workflows with defined ownership, controls, templates, and escalation points. Promote consistent application across teams, leaders, employee populations, and locations while preserving appropriate judgement for individual circumstances.
• Recruiting & Talent Acquisition: Lead and perform full-cycle recruiting and talent acquisition for clinical, administrative, operational, leadership, and other assigned positions. Partner with hiring managers to define staffing needs, job requirements, selection criteria, compensation parameters, and recruiting timelines. Create and maintain compliant job descriptions and postings; develop sourcing strategies; identify and engage qualified candidates; review applications and résumés; conduct screening interviews; coordinate interview logistics; support structured candidate evaluation; and coordinate background screening as applicable; prepare and extend approved offers; manage pre-employment requirements; and facilitate an effective onboarding. Prepare and extend approved offers and facilitate an effective transition from candidate selection through onboarding. Maintain timely, professional candidate communication and a consistent, inclusive, and high-quality candidate experience. Establish recruiting workflows, templates, documentation standards, and accountability measures. Monitor time-to-fill, source effectiveness, candidate conversion, offer acceptance, requisition aging, and other relevant metrics; identify bottlenecks and recommend process or technology improvements.
• Workforce Planning, Selection & Performance Management: Partner with leaders on workforce forecasting, position design, staffing models, compensation alignment, retention, succession planning, professional development, manager capability, recognition, feedback, and performance expectations. Develop and maintain structured, job-related interview questions, evaluation criteria, and selection processes, and advise managers on lawful interviewing and documentation of job-related decisions. Design, administer, and continuously improve performance review, goal-setting, coaching, corrective-action, and professional-development processes. Develop practical manager training, guides, templates, and tools. Analyze turnover, retention, staffing, performance, employee-relations, and other workforce trends and present findings and actionable recommendations to leadership.
• Payroll & Compensation Oversight: Provide HR oversight of payroll-related processes in coordination with finance, payroll providers, external HR support, managers, and employees. Establish appropriate HR controls and approval practices; oversee employee-data and compensation changes; address escalated timekeeping, pay, deduction, final-pay, and integration issues; and ensure that identified discrepancies are investigated and resolved. Coordinate approved compensation, bonus, commission, and employment-status changes and ensure appropriate supporting documentation. Routine payroll processing, data entry, reconciliation, and technical administration may be performed by designated finance, administrative, technical, or vendor resources.
• Benefits, Leaves & Accommodations: Lead Meridian’s approach to benefits, employee leaves, disability and pregnancy accommodations, religious accommodations, workers’ compensation, and return-to-work matters. Personally manage or oversee complex, sensitive, or escalated cases while directing routine tracking, notices, documentation, enrollment support, and vendor coordination through designated administrative or technical resources. Ensure appropriate coordination among employees, managers, payroll, external HR support, brokers, carriers, vendors, and counsel, including compliance with applicable timelines, confidentiality requirements, and overlapping legal or plan obligations.
• HR Technology, Data & Documentation: Serve as the business owner and internal decision-maker for Rippling and Meridian’s related HR, payroll, benefits, recruiting, performance, and reporting systems. Establish system requirements, priorities, workflows, controls, permissions, reporting standards, and data-governance expectations. Direct external HR or other technical resources in system configuration, data maintenance, reporting, testing, troubleshooting, integrations, automation, and implementation activities. Evaluate whether existing technology supports Meridian’s current and anticipated needs and lead the business assessment of potential alternatives. Evaluate core functionality, workflow flexibility, integrations, system architecture, scalability, pricing, implementation requirements, reporting capabilities, data privacy, and material limitations before making recommendations to leadership. Ensure that vendor discovery and technical vetting occur before executive demonstrations or final selection discussions whenever practicable.
• Team Collaboration: Collaborate with executive, clinical, operational, administrative, payroll, finance, and technology partners through regular meetings, consultation, and shared communication to strengthen employee support and organizational effectiveness.
• Professional Development: Maintain current knowledge of applicable employment practices and HR best practices. Participate in relevant training, professional development, and leadership meetings, and develop practical training and tools for managers and employees.
• Flexible Scheduling & Travel: Manage a consistent schedule with flexibility to respond to urgent or time-sensitive employee matters. Travel periodically to company locations and meetings, including Utah when supporting planned growth and business needs.
• Administrative & Operational Support: Use Meridian Counseling’s systems and administrative infrastructure to manage HR requests, workflows, employee communications, data reporting, vendor coordination, and compliance calendars. Identify recurring operational pain points and develop clear, documented procedures.
• Other Duties: Perform other job-related duties consistent with the role’s purpose. Responsibilities may evolve based on organizational needs and applicable law.

Education and Experience

• Education: Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, Psychology, Organizational Development, or a related field, or an equivalent combination of education and directly relevant experience.
• Experience: Seven or more years of progressive, broad-based human resources experience, including substantial responsibility for executive advisory, employee relations, workplace investigations, employment compliance, policy development, performance management, payroll and benefits oversight, recruiting, HR technology, and HR operations. Experience independently leading an HR function or serving as the senior HR advisor to organizational leadership is required. Experience supporting a multi-state workforce and developing scalable HR processes for a growing organization is required. Experience directing work performed through an outsourced, shared-service, or fractional HR support model is strongly preferred. Behavioral-health, healthcare, professional-services, or another regulated-environment experience is preferred.
• Certifications/Trainings: SHRM-CP, SHRM-SCP, PHR, SPHR, or a comparable HR credential is not required but a plus. Demonstrated knowledge of California employment practices and the ability to maintain current multi-state HR knowledge. Training or experience in workplace investigations, leaves and accommodations, harassment prevention, and HR data privacy is preferred.

Required Skills/Abilities

• Excellent written, verbal, interpersonal, facilitation, and conflict-resolution skills.
• Strong judgment, discretion, neutrality, and ability to handle sensitive information appropriately.
• Ability to advise senior leaders, coach managers, and communicate difficult information clearly and respectfully.
• Working knowledge of employee relations, wage-and-hour practices, leaves and accommodations, recruiting, performance management, and compliant separations.
• Demonstrated ability to lead a multi-position recruiting portfolio, personally manage priority or complex searches, and effectively direct administrative recruiting support.
• Ability to interpret requirements, identify risk, recommend practical options, and escalate appropriately.
• Strong organization, project management, documentation, and time-management abilities in a remote environment.
• Proficiency with or ability to quickly learn Rippling and related HR, payroll, benefits, and collaboration systems.
• Commitment to professional growth, employee experience, service quality, fair process, recognition, and constructive feedback.
• Commitment to diversity, inclusion, equity, and professional integrity.
• Ability to travel periodically for business needs.

Physical Requirements

• Ability to work (sitting or standing) for prolonged periods of time.
• Must be able to lift objects up to 20 pounds, with or without reasonable accommodation.
• Must be able to use a computer and other office equipment, review detailed information, communicate effectively, manage competing priorities, and periodically travel.
• May require occasional schedule flexibility based on employee, leadership, or organizational needs.

Reasonable Accommodation

Meridian Counseling is committed to providing equal employment opportunities to all individuals. If you require reasonable accommodation to participate in the application process or perform the essential functions of this role, please contact our HR Department. We will engage in an interactive process to identify appropriate accommodations that enable your success, unless doing so would create an undue hardship.

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