Senior Director, Human Resources

Role Summary

The Senior Director, HR Business Partners is the operating leader of the HRBP function for the entire organization — accountable for the quality, capability, consistency, and strategic impact of a team of HR Business Partners.

The Senior Director works to ensure that the entire HRBP team is operating at the highest possible level, continuously improving, and collectively delivering HR partnership that is coherent, consistent, and business-driving across all client groups.

The Senior Director also maintains direct business partnership with a diverse executive client group — staying grounded in the actual work of HR partnership, credible in the eyes of the team, and connected to the business dynamics that inform how they lead the function.

Role Responsibilities

Leading & Developing the HRBP Team

• Manage and develop a team of 3–6 HR Business Partners at both leadership and individual contributor levels, providing individualized coaching, structured development plans, and deliberate stretch opportunities calibrated to each person's growth trajectory
• Build a high-performing team culture defined by intellectual curiosity, strategic ambition, peer learning, and mutual accountability — creating an environment where HRBPs feel challenged, supported, and proud of the work they do
• Own the talent plan for the HRBP team — succession, capacity planning, and hiring strategy — partnering with the Executive Director HR and TA to ensure the team is always building toward its next level of capability
• Conduct structured performance conversations for all direct reports through URBN Connects, with differentiated feedback grounded in observed business partnership behaviors, not just activity completion

Building & Evolving the HRBP Operating Model

• Design and continuously improve how the HRBP function is structured, resourced, and deployed — including client alignment, operating norms, workload management, and how HRBPs collaborate with one another across client group boundaries
• Identify opportunities to introduce more agile, flexible resource deployment — enabling HRBPs to work on the highest-priority business challenges across the portfolio, not just serve fixed client groups in isolation
• Establish shared frameworks, tools, and standards that ensure every HRBP is operating from a common foundation — from talent calibration and performance coaching to engagement action planning and ER advising
• Partner with the Executive Director HR on the long-term maturity trajectory of the HRBP function — identifying when and how to advance the team from efficient service delivery toward truly consultative, problem-oriented HR partnership

Maintaining Direct Business Partnership

• Serve as an active, credible HR business partner to a defined set of executive clients within the brand or shared services organization — maintaining the consulting edge and business fluency required to lead the team with credibility and firsthand insight
• Serve as the primary escalation point for complex, high-stakes, or cross-brand people situations — including sensitive ER matters, executive-level performance situations, and significant organizational changes — providing sound judgment and appropriate urgency
• Use direct client experience to stay current on the business dynamics shaping talent priorities across the portfolio, and share those insights with the Executive Director HR to inform enterprise-level people strategy

Integrating the HRBP Team with the Broader HR Function

• Build strong, productive partnerships with COE leaders across Compensation, Benefits, L&D, HR Ops, ER, and Talent Acquisition — ensuring the HRBP team is consistently connecting business leaders to the right solutions, and that COE programs land with quality and consistency across all client groups
• Synthesize the people intelligence generated across the HRBP team into a coherent, enterprise-level workforce narrative for the Executive Director HR — identifying cross-cutting themes, shared risks, and systemic opportunities that individual HRBPs cannot see from their individual vantage points
• Partner with COE leaders on program design, ensuring that the perspectives of corporate brand and shared services employees are reflected in how COE offerings are built, communicated, and measured

HR Function Strategy & Governance

• Monitor ER case quality and compliance consistency across the HRBP team — ensuring policy is applied consistently, legal risk is managed appropriately, and the team's ER judgment is continuously improving through coaching and case debrief
• Contribute to the Executive Director HR's HR function strategy — includin