HR Consultant Jobs in Tennessee

INTRODUCTION

Serves as a Human Resource Consultant delivering professional subject matter expertise; technical assistance; research; training development and delivery; recruitment and selection assistance; publication and timely maintenance of articles, bulletins, technical reports; and related human resource management activities to cities, city officials (elected and appointed), and their staffs in assigned cities in the state of Tennessee. Additionally, the position provides human resources technical assistance to Tennessee professional organizations such as the Tennessee Chapter of the International Personnel Management Association (TPMA), Tennessee City Management Association (TCMA), Tennessee Association of Municipal Clerks and Recorders (TAMCAR), Tennessee Municipal League (TML), and Public Entity Partners and others. Serves as an in-house expert to MTAS staff in that area. Performs other special work as assigned by the Technical Consulting Program Manager, the Executive Director and the Assistant Director. Often assists other consultants in the performance of projects and participates in team projects. As an individual contributor to ongoing IPS and MTAS strategic initiative, will serve in a variety of continuous consulting roles.

ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• Provides professional advice and technical assistance primarily to elected and appointed municipal officials.
• Provides advice and assistance for non-city clients such as elected and staff members of the Tennessee General Assembly, employees of state agencies, staff of the Tennessee Municipal League, and officers of associations of municipal officials on a broad range of issues and problems of varying complexity (i.e. assistance with employment selection assessment centers, ordinance and resolution preparation, development/revision of employee handbooks/policy manual, job description development/revision, performance management system design/development, ad-hoc question/inquiry resolution), and other HR-related initiatives.
• Development and maintenance of customer relationships through delivery of designed programming, emergent work activities, and customer-aligned program development; significant time is spent at customer locations in need-consulting and delivery of service. Moderate time is spent in developing increased customer awareness of MTAS services and offerings to enhance the MTAS brand and increase customer utilization.
• Maintains an area (or areas) of specialization and serves as the in-house expert to MTAS staff in that area. May serve as official MTAS representative to an association of city officials.

Administration and Professional Development

• Includes team meetings, committee involvement, agency meetings, and retreats, IPS meetings and retreats, maintaining records on all relevant activities, including the agency databases for work products from projects and questions for use by other consultants and for reference by cities. Includes time spent to remain current in fields of expertise. This involves time at professional meetings and conferences, seminars and training classes, professional reading, and associated training.

Training

• Design, development and/or delivery of training programs related to the Human Resource discipline.
• Identification of service gaps for delivery of HR related training needs in customer organizations.
• Communicate and collaborate with the training team, providing ongoing formative HR related training needs assessments; assists with ongoing program evaluation.

Publication Research and Development

• Researches, drafts, and maintains published information on a variety of issues that are geared to various reader levels of human resources and managerial experience, including, but not limited to: MTAS Knowledgebase, MORe, articles for the Tennessee Municipal League's newspaper, Tennessee Town and City, technical reports, and publications for municipal officials, and employees.

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS

• Education: Bachelor’s degree in Human Resource Management, Business Administration, Public Administration, or related field
• Experience: Requires at least seven years of progressively responsible exempt-level human resource leadership experience.
• Knowledge, Skills, Abilities:
• Knowledge of all applicable state and federal employment laws, HR planning and program implementation in all functional areas, including: policy design, development, and deployment; employee relations; succession and workforce planning; compensation; benefits; leave; EEO and diversity; employee health and wellness; HR legal compliance; training; recruitment and selection; and performance management.
• Expert knowledge of management and human resources best principles and practices, including a sound working knowledge of all HR functional areas.
• Knowledge of business processes to change and improve efficiency and effectiveness.
• Ability to formulate and implement effective HR-related policies, procedures, and programs to achieve organizational objectives.
• Ability to communicate effectively both orally and in writing.
• Ability to influence, gain trust and maintain effective working relationships with internal and external customers at all levels and across Institute.
• Ability to multi-task and work autonomously in a fast-paced, flexible, high demand consulting service environment with changing objectives, schedules, and deadlines.
• Demonstrated ability to lead and develop internal and external customers. Personal integrity, discretion, and sound judgment.
• Ability to operate with a high level of awareness and maintain confidentiality in sensitive situations.
• Ability to reduce complex information into simple, actionable frameworks.
• Ability to work in multiple teams or alone; communicate with people at all levels; negotiate and lead; present and deliver with clarity and confidence.
• Excellent presentation skills and the ability to deliver effective presentations/training to diverse audiences.
• Ability to apply innovation, creativity and calculated risk-taking to facilitate new approaches to complex issues.
• Knows and applies organizational development principles.
• Understand team behavior and possess the ability to lead teams to high performance.
• Uses negotiating skills, including consensus-building, coalition-building, and dispute resolution to facilitate collaboration among individuals and groups.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Education: Master’s degree in Human Resource Management, Business Administration, Public Administration, or related field
• Experience: Prefer senior level municipal experience. Prefer at least one of the following certifications: IPMA SCP, IPMA CP, HRCI SPHR, HRCI PHR, SHRM SCP and/or SHRM CP. Strongly prefer 1-2 years of experience organizing, developing, and delivering consultative projects to internal and/or external customers related to human resource outcomes. Prefer classroom facilitation/teaching experience. Tennessee municipal experience preferred.
• Knowledge, Skills, Abilities:
• Ability to develop a working relationship with senior customer contacts and decision makers to maximize new work opportunities.
• Ability to identify opportunities to gain market share through identification of gaps between customer needs and service offerings.
• Ability to identify internal programs for continuous improvement.
• Skill at leveraging knowledge of municipal human resources toward increased customer utilization.
• Skill at statistical analysis and measuring human resource performance for continuous improvement.

LOCATION

Location: Knoxville, Chattanooga, or Johnson City, TN

The Institute for Public Service (IPS) supports a formal Alternative Work Arrangement program currently in place and more information can be provided if candidate progresses through the recruitment process.

BENEFITS

APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS

To express interest, please submit an application with the noted below attachments. To be assured of full consideration, completed applications with all requested materials should be submitted on or before May 30, 2026.

• Resume
• Cover Letter
• List of 3 Professional References

ABOUT THE COLLEGE/DEPARTMENT/DIVISION

The UT Institute for Public Service provides outreach and assistance to all of Tennessee. Through our agencies and initiatives, we offer technical assistance, training, and consulting on a wide variety of services, including government operations, language services, local planning, law enforcement excellence, leadership training, manufacturing excellence, opioid abatement and much more.