Vice President Of Human Resources Jobs in Massachusetts

Location: Gardner, MA Category: Administrative Job Type: NUP Posted On: Tue Sep 22 2026 Job Description:

General Statement of Duties:

Reporting directly to the President and serving as a member of the President's Leadership Team, the Vice President of Human Resources provides executive leadership, strategic direction, and institutional accountability for the College's human resources enterprise.

The Vice President is responsible for ensuring an effective, responsive, legally compliant, data-informed, and strategically aligned human resources infrastructure that advances institutional priorities and supports the College's ability to recruit, develop, engage, and retain a highly qualified workforce.

The Vice President establishes strategy, priorities, standards, and expectations for the HR portfolio and is accountable for the effectiveness and outcomes of its functions. Through Directors and other HR professionals, the Vice President provides executive oversight of talent acquisition and workforce planning; employee relations; classification and compensation; payroll and benefits administration; performance management; professional and leadership development; HR systems, data, and analytics; policy administration; and other assigned human resources functions.

In addition to leading the HR enterprise, the Vice President directly leads and carries out responsibilities associated with the College's labor relations function, including collective bargaining, contract administration and interpretation, labor management relations, and other labor matters requiring executive authority or institutional representation. The Vice President also serves as the President's designee for assigned institutional compliance functions, including Affirmative Action Officer, Title IX Coordinator, ADA/504 Coordinator, and Public Records Access Officer, with responsibility for ensuring the College fulfills its obligations associated with each role.

Responsibilities:

• Provides executive leadership regarding workforce strategy, organizational structure, staffing capacity, and human resources matters and advises the President and Leadership Team on significant workforce, organizational, labor, employment, and human resources issues affecting the College.
• Provides executive leadership for workforce planning, talent acquisition, retention, succession planning, and workforce development strategies to ensure the College has the organizational capacity and talent necessary to meet current and emerging institutional needs.
• Leads the College's labor relations function, including collective bargaining; interpretation and administration of the College's collective bargaining agreements (MCCC/MTA, DCE, and AFSCME); grievance and dispute resolution; and labor-management relations.
• Serves as President's designee in grievance and reallocation hearings. Determines and recommends appropriate institutional actions in highest-level grievance processes and dispute situations.
• Ensures consistent administration of the Non-Unit Professional Handbook and institutional processes related to performance evaluation, job classification, and compensation, including appropriate review of job level and salary classification consistent with contractual requirements and institutional needs.
• Carries out the responsibilities and institutional obligations associated with the assigned functions of Title IX Coordinator, Affirmative Action Officer, ADA/504 Coordinator, and Public Records Access Officer in accordance with applicable law, regulation, and policy.
• Serves as the primary liaison to the College's Office of General Counsel on MCAD, EEOC, labor relations, employment, and other legal matters affecting the College within the scope of the position.
• Collaborates with the Vice President of Finance and Administration on position control, workforce budgeting, staffing structures, and related institutional planning.
• Partners with the Chief Diversity Executive where human resources strategy, systems, policies, practices, workforce data, and workforce outcomes intersect with institutional equity, nondiscrimination, access, employee experience, organizational climate, and institutional accountability, including the identification and response to patterns, disparities, structural barriers, and systemic concerns.
• Ensures appropriate coordination with the Chief Diversity Executive across areas of intersecting responsibility, including workforce assessment; recruitment, hiring, retention, and advancement; employee experience; employment policy and practice review; organizational change; and professional development and education.
• Establishes institutional priorities and expectations for employee, supervisory, and leadership development and ensures professional development and required training programs are responsive to workforce and institutional needs and evaluated for effectiveness.
• Leads the continuous improvement and modernization of human resources systems, technology, and business processes related to employee actions, payroll, benefits, records, and workforce data to improve efficiency, accuracy, data integrity, service delivery, and continuity of operations.
• Provides workforce and human resources information, analysis, trends, and reports to the President, Leadership Team, and Board of Trustees as appropriate.
• Ensures effective coordination with the Payroll Division of the State Treasurer's Office, State Board of Retirement, Department of Higher Education, and other applicable state and external agencies.
• Reviews applicable NECHE standards related to human resources, organizational capacity, organizational change, and ethics; monitors institutional progress; and ensures appropriate HR contributions to accreditation reports and self-study processes.

Job Requirements:

Minimum Qualifications:

• Master's degree in Human Resources, Labor Relations, Organizational Leadership, Business Administration, Public Administration, Higher Education Administration, Law, or a closely related field; alternatively, a bachelor's degree in a related field plus SPHR certification (or equivalent human resources certification) and a minimum of two additional years of senior-level HR leadership experience beyond the eight (8) years required below.
• Minimum of eight (8) years of senior-level leadership responsibility including experience leading and managing multi-functional human resources operations in a unionized environment.
• Experience must include substantial responsibility for labor relations, including collective bargaining agreement interpretation and administration, grievance and dispute resolution, and labor-management relations and institutional risk.
• Demonstrated experience leading organizational change, process improvement, workforce transformation, or HR modernization.
• Experience using workforce data and quantitative and qualitative information to identify trends, assess organizational needs and outcomes, and inform executive-level strategy and decision-making.
• Demonstrated experience in applying diversity, equity, inclusion, and nondiscrimination principles to human resources strategy, employment practices, workforce systems, organizational decision-making, and employee experience.

Physical and Environmental Requirements:

• Primarily sedentary office work requiring the ability to sit, use a computer, and communicate effectively, in person and by phone, for extended periods.
• Ability to work extended hours, including evenings and occasional weekends, to meet operational, labor relations, and governance deadlines.
• Occasional travel between campus locations and to external meetings, requiring the ability to operate a motor vehicle or arrange alternative transportation.
• Ability to lift and carry materials weighing up to 15 pounds (e.g., files, reports, presentation materials).

Equivalency Statement
Applicants who do not meet the qualifications as stated above are encouraged to put in writing precisely how their background and experience have prepared them with the equivalent combination of education, training and experience required for the responsibilities of this position.

Additional Information:

Salary: $170,000.00 - $190,000.00

Employee Status: Full Time
Benefits: Yes
Hours per Week: 37.5
Number of Weeks: 52

Mount Wachusett Community College is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, ethnicity, sex, disability, religion, age, veteran status, genetic information, pregnancy or related conditions, gender identity, sex characteristics, sex stereotypes or sexual orientation in its programs and activities as required by Title IX of the Educational Amendments of 1972, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and other applicable statutes and college policies. The College prohibits Sex-Based Harassment. Inquiries or complaints concerning discrimination, harassment, or retaliation shall be referred to the College's Affirmative Action Officer and/or Title IX Coordinator, the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination, the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission or the United States Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights.