Position PurposeThe CHRO builds the people, leadership and organizational infrastructure Lehman needs to scale, without losing the relationships, responsiveness, accountability, and culture that made the company successful.
Lehman is expanding geographically, integrating acquisitions, opening greenfield branches, and developing its next generation of leaders. This is the company's first role in CHRO. It is a strategic executive position, not an HR administration role.
The CHRO serves as a trusted advisor to the CEO and C-suite, a visible partner to middle management and the field, a builder of leadership capability, and the people-strategy bridge to Lehman's capital partners and Board. The role translates culture and people's strategy into measurable business performance, grounded in Lehman's brand pillars: Do What It Takes, be a Platform for Growth, Deliver Value Beyond Measure, and Business Is Personal.
Key ResponsibilitiesExecutive Partnership & Culture- Serve as a trusted business partner and advisor to the CEO and C-suite on strategy, decision rights, executive dynamics, succession and people at risk.
- Know when to challenge, escalate, coach, or intervene in leadership decisions.
- Protect and strengthen Lehman's culture, identifying which traditions and behaviors must be preserved as the company scales.
- Ensure people's strategy reflects Lehman's beliefs, values and pillars rather than generic HR best practice, and guard against a "corporate mentality" taking hold.
- Establish a recurring executive forum for succession, talent, organization, and leadership issues.
Leadership & People Development- Assess leadership capability across the C-suite, middle management, frontline leaders and emerging talent.
- Build and maintain a leadership bench map covering critical roles, successors, high potential and bench risk.
- Launch a practical management development framework focused on communication, accountability, coaching, delegation, training, and developing people.
- Create a repeatable way to assess whether a strong individual contributor or frontline leader is ready to lead other leaders.
- Build clear career paths so strong performers can grow with Lehman.
HR Foundation & Employee Experience- Lead the HR function, including recruiting, onboarding, performance management, employee relations, compensation, benefits, policies, HR systems and people data.
- Define the minimum set of company-wide people processes and hold managers to clear expectations for coaching, difficult conversations and performance documentation.
- Improve HR service levels so leaders experience HR as responsive, consistent, credible, and practical.
- Oversee employment-law compliance, including workers' compensation and FMLA coordination, in partnership with Finance.
- Confirm HR team roles, capacity and decision rights, and close capability gaps.
Organization Design & Scale- Review and evolve organization design, spans of control, management layers, role clarity, decision rights and functional ownership.
- Define what should be centralized, what remains branch-led, and where shared standards are required.
- Prevent growth from creating bureaucracy that slows decisions or distances leaders from customers and employees.
Growth, M&A & Workforce Planning- Build and own the people's playbook for acquisitions and greenfield branches: diligence, retention, communication, systems, culture integration, leadership decisions and first-100-day integration.
- Tie workforce planning and recruiting priorities to Lehman's growth roadmap, including new markets such as Jacksonville.
- Lead talent retention and leadership transitions through periods of change.
Capital Partner & Board Partnership- Build a transparent, productive relationship with Lehman's capital partners and Board on talent, succession, organization design, compensation, M&A integration, and value creation.
- Establish a people reporting framework with defined cadence, metrics, decision boundaries, and escalation paths.
- Act as a bridge between Lehman leadership and capital partners without creating a parallel chain of command; operating decisions remain with Lehman's executive team.
People Metrics & Operating Rhythm- Design a small set of people metrics tied to operating performance, not HR activity alone.
- Implement and maintain a monthly people dashboard covering talent, retention, turnover, recruiting and bench strength.
- Ensure leadership manages people with the same discipline applied to sales, operations, and finance.
QualificationsRequired- Bachelor's degree in human resources, Business Administration, Organizational Psychology or related field.
- 15+ years of progressive HR experience, including 5+ years as a senior HR leader (VP, CHRO or equivalent) reporting to or partnering directly with a CEO.
- Proven experience scaling a multi-site organization through geographic expansion and acquisitions.
- Hands-on experience with M&A people diligence, integration and retention.
- Track record building leadership development, succession planning and training programs that change business results.
- Experience in organization design, spans and layers, and decision-rights frameworks.
- Working knowledge of federal and state employment law, including workers' compensation, FMLA and wage-and-hour compliance.
- Experience presenting and working with a Board of Directors.
Preferred- Master's degree (MBA, MS in HR or Organizational Development) or SPHR / SHRM-SCP certification.
- Private equity-backed or capital-partner-backed company experience.
- Background in wholesale distribution, industrial supply, construction, manufacturing or another branch-based business with a frontline workforce.
- Florida and Southeast employment experience.
- Experience with HRIS and people analytics tools such as ADP and Power BI.
Core Competencies- Business acumen: Understands how Lehman makes money and ties people decisions to operations and financial results.
- Executive presence and courage: Challenges senior leaders candidly and earns trust across the C-suite and Board.
- Servant leadership: Visible in the field; builds credibility with branch managers and frontline employees.
- Systems thinking: Designs people process that scale without becoming bureaucratic.
- Judgment and discretion: Handles sensitive people; compensation and succession matters with confidentiality.
- Data orientation: Uses people metrics to diagnose problems and measure progress.
- Culture stewardship: Lives Lehman's pillars and holds leaders accountable to them.
Working Conditions- Primarily office-based, with regular travel to branches, fabrication sites and acquired locations.
- Occasional exposure to warehouse and yard environments requiring standard safety equipment.
- Periodic evening or weekend work around Board meetings, acquisitions and critical people issues.
