Strategic HR Business Partner-Executive Director Greater Chicago, IL Area + 3 more

About Us

Johnson Controls, a global leader in thermal management, mission-critical building systems, energy efficiency, and decarbonization, helps customers use energy more productively, reduce carbon emissions, and operate with the precision and resilience required in rapidly expanding industries such as data centers, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, advanced manufacturing, and higher education.

For more than 140 years, Johnson Controls has delivered performance where it really matters. Backed by advanced technology, lifecycle services and an industry-leading field organization, we elevate customer performance, turn goals into real-world results and help move society forward.

Strategic HR Business Partner-Executive Director

What You Will Do

The Strategic HR Business Partner, Executive Director is a senior HR leadership role accountable for improving business performance by driving disciplined execution of workforce strategy, talent systems, and organizational effectiveness across a large business unit, sector, or complex function.

This leader will partner closely with senior business leaders to translate strategy into measurable workforce and talent outcomes. The role establishes a strong operating rhythm, drives clear follow-through, and strengthens leader ownership of talent, workforce, performance, and organizational decisions.

The Executive Director will enable strategy, planning, and execution against three primary sources of business demand:

Annual operating plans and associated business performance metrics

Strategic initiatives and workforce plans

Colleague experience and organizational effectiveness

Success requires strong business acumen, executive-level influence, disciplined execution, data-driven problem solving, and the ability to activate enterprise HR products and talent systems at scale.

How You Will Do It: Our Winning Behaviors

At Johnson Controls, how we deliver results matters. This leader will model and embed our Winning Behaviors across the organization.

Focus on What Matters

Go to Gemba with leaders to understand business realities firsthand.

Use business, workforce, and talent data to diagnose root causes and identify the issues that have the greatest impact on performance.

Prioritize the critical talent, leadership, and organizational challenges that matter most to the business.

Activate enterprise HR products and solutions where they can create the greatest value.

Win as One Team

Collaborate across HR Product teams, Centers of Excellence, HR Operations, PMO, Workforce Analytics, and business leadership to deliver integrated solutions.

Align leaders to enterprise standards while actively influencing and shaping solutions to ensure they address business needs.

Build alignment across functions and geographies to improve consistency, execution, and enterprise outcomes.

Own the Outcome

Take accountability for business and talent outcomes, not simply HR activity.

Ensure leaders own their people, workforce, performance, and talent decisions.

Translate strategy into execution through disciplined adoption of enterprise talent systems.

Identify and remove barriers that limit organizational or workforce performance.

Establish clear expectations, ownership, measures, and follow-through.

Improve Every Day

Seek truth through data, business results, and leader feedback.

Use structured problem solving to identify root causes and execution gaps.

Continuously improve talent systems, leader capability, organizational effectiveness, and workforce outcomes.

Approach improvement with urgency, curiosity, and humility.

How You Will Lead

As Strategic HR Business Partner, Executive Director, you will serve as:

Business Strategy Translator

Connect business priorities, operating plans, and financial drivers to workforce execution.

Translate business strategy into leadership capability, workforce priorities, organizational actions, and disciplined talent-system execution.

Ensure workforce and talent strategies result in measurable business outcomes.

Execution System Problem Solver

Identify breakdowns in execution using structured problem-solving methods.

Diagnose gaps in operating rhythm, talent-system adoption, workforce planning, and leader follow-through.

Use standard cadences, metrics, and tools to drive resolution and improve consistency.

Product Activation Leader

Drive disciplined adoption and use of enterprise HR products as standard solutions.

Ensure enterprise products are used consistently and effectively to solve business problems.

Reduce unnecessary local variation and workarounds while improving adoption and execution quality.

Leader Capability Builder

Build leader capability and accountability for succession, workforce planning, development actions, performance management, and organizational health.

Coach and challenge leaders to make high-quality talent and workforce decisions.

Strengthen leader self-sufficiency and ownership of people outcomes.

Operating Rhythm Owner

Establish and sustain an effective, disciplined talent operating rhythm.

Drive consistent execution of talent reviews, succession planning, workforce planning, and development actions.

Establish clear ownership and visible follow-through against commitments.

Data-Driven Execution Leader

Use workforce and business analytics to identify priorities and root causes.

Track execution, completion, and impact of workforce and talent actions.

Apply data and insights to continuously improve execution quality and organizational performance.

What You Will Accomplish

Talent and Leadership Outcomes

Improve leadership effectiveness and strengthen succession pipelines.

Increase the quality, consistency, and follow-through of talent decisions.

Establish disciplined processes that translate talent discussions into measurable actions and outcomes.

Organizational Effectiveness and Workforce Planning

Translate business priorities into actionable workforce plans.

Improve role clarity, organizational structure, productivity, and execution discipline.

Identify organizational barriers and structural opportunities that affect business performance.

Ensure workforce plans remain aligned to evolving business demand.

HR Product Activation and Adoption

Ensure enterprise HR products are activated consistently and effectively to solve business problems.

Drive strong adoption and disciplined use of enterprise talent systems.

Reduce unnecessary workarounds and local variation while strengthening execution.

Leader Capability and Performance

Coach and challenge senior leaders to own talent decisions, workforce outcomes, and performance management.

Build leader capability to make and execute high-quality people decisions.

Establish expectations for disciplined follow-through and accountability.

Employee Experience and Culture Building

Strengthen the employee experience through effective leadership and organizational practices.

Reinforce behaviors that improve accountability, execution quality, collaboration, and team performance.

Connect colleague experience to organizational health and business performance.

Transformation and Change Leadership

Drive execution of enterprise initiatives by aligning leaders around priorities.

Sequence actions to enable effective implementation and adoption.

Identify and remove barriers to change.

Ensure change is sustained and translated into measurable operating improvements.

HR Service Model and Routing Discipline

Ensure transactional and policy-related work is appropriately routed to HR Operations.

Maintain HRBP focus on strategic business, workforce, organizational, and talent outcomes.

Reinforce effective utilization of the enterprise HR operating model.

Incentive Alignment and Performance Systems

Ensure performance management and reward systems reinforce business goals.

Strengthen alignment between performance expectations, execution discipline, leadership accountability, and incentives.

Reinforce the behaviors and outcomes necessary to deliver business priorities.

HRBP Capability and Team Leadership

Lead and align HRBP resources supporting the business.

Ensure HRBP capacity and capability are aligned to business needs.

Develop HRBP capability and strengthen execution quality.

Establish consistent standards and reduce variability across the HRBP population.

Create clarity around accountability, expectations, and execution.

What We Look For

Required Qualifications and Experience

Strong business acumen with demonstrated understanding of operational and financial drivers.

Experience translating business strategy into execution through workforce planning and talent systems.

Proven ability to influence, coach, and challenge senior leaders.

Experience improving execution discipline, performance management, and/or organizational effectiveness.

Familiarity with enterprise talent systems and HR operating models.

Demonstrated ability to connect workforce and talent priorities to measurable business outcomes.

Strong capability in structured problem solving, execution management, and organizational leadership.

Strongly Preferred Experience

Experience working in a complex, matrixed, and/or global organization.

Experience with succession management, workforce planning, and organizational health practices.

Experience leading HRBP teams or coordinating HRBP resources across a complex business.

Experience creating strategy and operating within a Lean Business System at an organization with a reputable, mature business system.

Regular application of workforce data and analytics to diagnose problems and develop talent solutions.

Graduate-level academic background from a leading HR program and/or experience leading scaled HR capability within industrial technology or complex manufacturing environments.

Experience supporting heavy field-facing industries with a combination of technical, engineering, and skilled-trades talent.

HIRING SALARY RANGE: $200,100-312,600K (Salary to be determined by the education, experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities of the applicant, internal equity, and alignment with market data.) This role offers a competitive Bonus plan that will take into account individual, group, and corporate performance. This position includes a competitive benefits package. The posted salary range reflects the target compensation for this role. However, we recognize that exceptional candidates may bring unique skills and experiences that exceed the typical profile. If you believe your background warrants consideration beyond the stated range, we encourage you to apply. To support an efficient and fair hiring process, we may use technology assisted tools, including artificial intelligence (AI), to help identify and evaluate candidates. All hiring decisions are ultimately made by human reviewers. For details, please visit the About Us tab on the Johnson Controls Careers site at

Johnson Controls International plc. is an equal employment opportunity and affirmative action employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, protected veteran status, genetic information, sexual orientation, gender identity, status as a qualified individual with a disability or any other characteristic protected by law. To view more information about your equal opportunity and non-discrimination rights as a candidate, visit EEO is the Law. If you are an individual with a disability and you require an accommodation during the application process, please visit here.