Salary: $102,128.21 - $133,514.37 Annually
Location : City Hall, City of Dubuque, IA
Job Type: Full-time
Job Number:Department: Human Resources
Opening Date: 08/14/2026
Closing Date: 8/30/2026 11:59 PM Central
FLSA: Exempt
Bargaining Unit: NREP
Position SummaryThe Human Resources Business Partner (HRBP) provides strategic and operational leadership in employee relations and learning and development. This role serves as a trusted advisor to City leadership and HR team members, guiding the organization toward a fair, consistent, and high-performing workplace. The HRBP leads citywide employee relations strategy, oversees complex investigations, supports labor relations, and directs the design, implementation, and evaluation of organizational learning, leadership development, and employee engagement initiatives. Serving as a senior HR leader, the HRBP helps shape organizational culture, strengthen supervisory capability, and enhance the overall effectiveness of the City's workforce.
This valuable team member will be an integral part of supporting efforts to become a high-performance, data-driven, and outcome-focused organization with the ultimate goal of creating a community of belonging and organization of choice, through planning, partnerships, and people. The individual should have strong emotional intelligence and a continuous improvement mindset which will add value to our organization and community people, integrity, responsibility, innovation and teamwork. The individual should have strong emotional intelligence and a continuous improvement mindset which will add value to our organization and community.
Job Duties• Develop and implement a cohesive citywide strategy for employee relations, supervisory capability, and organizational learning aligned with City priorities and values.
• Serve as a strategic consultant to City leadership on complex employee issues, cultural challenges, and organizational change efforts.
• Utilize data, trends, investigations, grievances, engagement metrics, and assessments to identify systemic improvement opportunities.
• Oversee employee relations functions to ensure fair, consistent, and legally compliant application of policies and practices.
• Lead or direct complex workplace investigations related to performance, misconduct, discrimination, conflicts, harassment, safety, and other sensitive matters.
• Provide expert consultation to supervisors and department directors on performance management, discipline, ADA accommodations, fitness-for-duty, conflict resolution, and culture concerns.
• Partner with the City Attorney's Office on legal compliance, risk mitigation, and case resolution strategies.
• Coach leaders to improve supervisory consistency and reduce department-level operational burden.
• Support labor relations activities such as contract interpretation, grievance analysis, and labor-management communication.
• Direct the development, delivery, and evaluation of citywide training programs, including supervisory development, leadership academies, onboarding, compliance courses, and targeted professional learning.
• Oversee the Learning Management System (LMS), training records, and compliance reporting.
• Conduct learning needs assessments, identify capability gaps, and design tailored learning solutions using organizational development principles.
• Ensure alignment between learning programs and broader initiatives such as workforce planning, culture development, and performance management.
• Build and maintain partnerships with internal and external trainers, facilitators, and subject matter experts.
• Partner with HR leadership on workforce planning, succession planning, and organizational design as departmental structures evolve.
• Support employee engagement efforts through survey interpretation, action-planning guidance, and departmental coaching.
• Strengthen culture initiatives, Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), and employee-experience-driven programs across departments.
• Provide coaching, guidance, and leadership to HR staff working in employee relations and training.
• Contribute to HR strategic planning, service improvements, and internal process redesign.
• Lead HR projects such as system implementations, policy modernization, and cross-department process improvement.
• Serve as designee for the Chief Human Resources Officer as needed.
Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:• Strategic Thinking & Systems Awareness: Ability to understand organizational dynamics, anticipate long-term needs, and assess how policies, decisions, and initiatives interact across systems to drive effective outcomes.
• Leadership & Influence: Skill in guiding and motivating individuals and teams, fostering trust, and using influence to drive alignment, collaboration, and positive organizational change.
• Conflict Resolution & Mediation: Ability to assess complex interpersonal issues, facilitate productive dialogue, and guide employees and leaders toward fair, timely, and constructive resolution.
• Learning Design & Facilitation: Knowledge of learning principles and skill in designing, delivering, and evaluating effective training that strengthens workforce capability and supports organizational priorities.
• Data-Informed Decision Making: Skill in analyzing organizational data, trends, and metrics to identify root causes, inform strategy, and evaluate the impact of programs and initiatives.
• Discretion & Sound Judgment: Ability to manage sensitive information responsibly, exercise strong judgment in complex situations, and uphold confidentiality and ethical standards.
• Partnership & Collaboration: Skill in building productive relationships, working cross-departmentally, and fostering shared ownership of initiatives, solutions, and organizational goals.
• Confidentiality & Working Relationships: Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer service and building relationships including customer needs assessment, handling confidential information in a sensitive manner, working with others both internally and externally, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
Qualifications MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS: • Bachelor's degree in Human Resources, Public Administration, Organizational Development, Business Administration, or a related field.
• Extensive professional experience in employee relations, including conducting investigations and advising leaders on complex or high-risk matters.
• Experience designing, delivering, and evaluating training or learning programs.
• Demonstrated ability to use organizational data and trends to inform strategy.
• Strong knowledge of employment law, workplace policies, and HR best practices.
• Exceptional interpersonal, communication, facilitation, coaching, and conflict-resolution skills
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:• Master's degree in Human Resources, Organizational Leadership, Public Administration, or a related field.
• Senior-level HR certification (e.g., SHRM-SCP, SPHR).
• Experience in municipal government or a similarly complex public-sector environment.
• Experience with labor relations or collective bargaining.
• Background in organizational development and systems-level change.
Supplemental Information Physical Requirements: Work requires travel to different City buildings in order to provide consultation on employee relations matters. Most work will be performed on a computer and using a telephone or other virtual communication means.
RESIDENCY REQUIREMENT: Employee shall establish their principal place of residence within fifty (50) miles of their place of employment as soon as practical after appointment, but within two years of their date of employment or appointment.
SUPERVISORY STATUS: Functional
FLSA STATUS: Exempt
01
Please read the following and provide acknowledgment of understanding before proceeding to the next questions. Please respond to all five questions.• Limit your complete submission to 1,500 words. • Clearly number each response. • Write for a professional municipal-government audience. • Do not include confidential information or identify actual employees, employers, or clients. You may use a fictionalized example. • Identify your own role and contributions without taking sole credit for team results. • If you make assumptions, state them. • Submit work that reflects your own analysis and writing. Any permitted use of AI or outside assistance must comply with the City's applicant disclosure requirements. • Responses will be evaluated for writing quality, HR knowledge, judgment, collaboration, emotional intelligence, and alignment with the City's values of people, integrity, responsibility, innovation, and teamwork. If you have read this and acknowledge, please answer with "yes".
02
Complex employee-relations response - A department director reports ongoing conflict between a supervisor and several employees. Employees allege inconsistent treatment and retaliation, while the supervisor believes staff are resisting accountability. The director wants HR to "fix the team quickly."Explain how you would respond during the first 30 days. Address:• Immediate risks and interim actions • Information you would gather • Whether an investigation or another intervention is appropriate • The roles of HR, the director, supervisor, employees, legal counsel, and other partners • How you would protect confidentiality, procedural fairness, and working relationships • How the team would remain operational while the matter is addressed
03
Teamwork and professional self-awareness - Describe a situation in which you worked as part of a team to resolve a complex employee-relations, organizational-development, labor-relations, or workplace-culture issue.Explain:• The objective and relevant team members • Your specific responsibilities • A disagreement, challenge, or competing priority the team encountered • How you listened, influenced, compromised, or adjusted your approach • How credit and accountability were shared • The outcome and what you would do differently today
04
Data-informed recommendation - Assume the City's annual data show the following:• Grievances increased by 25%. • Investigation volume increased by 18%. • Supervisors' confidence in handling performance concerns declined. • Training completion remains high, but employee survey results show little improvement in trust or communication. Write a brief recommendation to the Chief Human Resources Officer identifying:• Two reasonable hypotheses about the underlying causes • Additional qualitative and quantitative information needed • Two prioritized actions • The departments or partners you would involve • Measures you would use to evaluate progress Do not assume that correlation proves causation.
05
Coaching while maintaining relationships - A respected department leader wants to immediately discipline an employee. Based on the information available, you believe the proposed action may be inconsistent with prior practice and could create legal, labor-relations, and employee-trust risks.Draft the email you would send to the leader to recommend a different course of action. Your email should preserve the working relationship, acknowledge the leader's operational concerns, and propose clear next steps involving the appropriate partners.
06
Cross-department learning initiative - The City asks you to lead a citywide supervisory-development initiative. Departments have different operational needs, schedules, levels of trust in HR, and definitions of effective supervision.Describe how you would work with an HR team and departmental partners to design, implement, and evaluate the initiative. Address:• How team members and stakeholders would help shape the work • How you would establish roles, decision-making authority, and shared accountability • How you would respond when partners disagree • How employee-relations data and learning needs would inform the program • How you would evaluate both learning and workplace outcomes • How you would ensure the program can be sustained
07
I have possession of my bachelor's degree in Human Resources, Public Administration, Organizational Development, Business Administration, or a related field.
Required Question
