CHRO and HR Director recruitment

You need a chief human resources officer or HR director who can handle culture, workforce planning, multi-state compliance and HRIS rollouts. Talent Strand recruits full-time CHRO and HR director candidates for your payroll in every U.S. state.

The market for senior HR leaders is tight. Employers in all 50 states compete for people who have led culture work, built workforce plans, managed multi-state compliance and replaced or rolled out HRIS systems. A candidate may have run a large manufacturing operation in Texas and a smaller distribution site in Pennsylvania. Those searches move quickly when the compensation and reporting line are clear.

Hiring goes wrong when the job spec lists every HR discipline and no priorities. A CHRO search stalls when the board, the CEO and the finance lead each want a different reporting line or different HRIS experience. Some employers rule out strong candidates because they have not used one exact payroll module. Others wait too long to interview while the candidate accepts a competing offer. The fix is to name the top three problems the new hire must solve in the first year.

Titles we recruit

Chief Human Resources Officer
Chief People Officer
HR Director
Vice President of Human Resources
Senior Director of Human Resources
Director of People Operations
Human Resources Business Partner Director
Senior HR Manager

How candidates are assessed

Screening starts with a plain-language interview about payroll, benefits, multi-state compliance and HRIS ownership. Candidates explain a past rollout in detail, including the data mapping and the cutover weekend. We ask how they would handle a compliance change in one state when your handbook covers many states. Reference checks cover board presentations, reductions in force, and a time they had to reverse a policy decision. We look for managers who can write a clear policy and also sit with a plant supervisor to fix a timeclock issue.

Where we recruit for these roles

Northeast, Midwest, South, West, and every state in between. Popular cities include New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, San Antonio, Austin.

Questions employers ask

How do you assess culture fit for a senior HR leader?

We ask the candidate to describe a culture they improved without a big budget. We also share a short written summary of your current culture and ask the candidate how they would approach it in the first 90 days. Reference checks include how the person handled conflict between a plant manager and a regional HR team.

What if we need someone who has led an HRIS rollout?

We screen for direct ownership of an HRIS rollout or replacement. Candidates must explain the old system, the new system, the data conversion and the go-live date. We do not count a small module add-on as a full rollout.

Can you find a CHRO who reports to the CEO and sits on the executive team?

Yes. Many of our searches are for a CHRO with a CEO reporting line. We confirm board exposure and executive team experience in the interview. Some employers also need the CHRO to support a compensation committee.

Do you work with employers that have employees in multiple states?

Yes. We ask every candidate how they track leave, wage and hour and pay transparency rules across state lines. A strong candidate can name the states they have managed and the compliance updates they handled in the last two years.

Have a role to fill?

Send the job title, location and pay range. A recruiter will call you back to talk it through.

Send us a role