SR HR Specialist

Client: Toyota Boshoku America Inc. (TBA) a Toyota Group company and premier manufacturer of automotive interior systems (seats door trims headliners carpets substrates) and air and oil filters.

Role title: HR Senior Specialist Plant

Location: Hopkinsville (smart plant)

Reports to: Assistant Manager or Manager Human Resources.

Direct reports: 0.

Why this role exists right now: TBA is scaling. The company crossed 14000 team members across 23 locations in the Americas in late 2025 and opened its first smart plant in Hopkinsville the same year. Plant HR carries the daily weight of that growth. This seat is the person on the floor who keeps team member relations pay staffing and compliance sound while the operation expands.

A plant does not run on machines alone. It runs on whether the people on the line trust that they will be treated fairly paid correctly and heard when something goes wrong. This role owns that trust at the plant level.

TBA operates inside the Toyota Production System culture: standardized work continuous improvement and a floor that does not stop. When an HR function inside that environment is strong it is invisible. Pay is right. Investigations are fair and closed. Openings fill before they hurt production. Team members show up because the plant is a place worth showing up to. When the HR function is weak every one of those failures lands on the line and the operation feels it within a shift.

This is not a paper-pushing seat. It is the human infrastructure of a manufacturing plant carried by one person with broad scope and real judgment.

In the first 12 months become the HR anchor of the plant. Own team member relations end to end. Keep pay and timekeeping accurate to the dollar. Fill the openings the floor depends on. Keep every compliance filing clean and every investigation defensible. Do it inside a fast standardized multi-shift environment where the operation does not wait for HR to catch up.

The person who succeeds here is trusted by the floor and by management at the same time and never confuses the two.

Resolve team member relations cases investigations and corrective actions to closure within a defined cycle time with documentation that holds up to legal and audit review. Measured by case cycle time and zero adverse findings on internal or external audit.

Deliver biweekly Kronos timekeeping verification and Oracle entries at or near 100% accuracy so every team member is paid correctly and on time. Measured by payroll error rate and on-time processing.

Fill assigned hourly and salaried openings within target time-to-fill coordinating temporary agency staffing to hold plant headcount at production plan. Measured by time-to-fill and staffing-to-plan.

Keep hourly attendance tracking and corrective action current consistent and evenly applied so no case is exposed to a fairness or labor-relations challenge. Measured by tracking currency and consistency on review.

Deliver EEO new hire and state and federal regulatory reporting on schedule with zero late or inaccurate filings. Measured by filing timeliness and accuracy.

Execute the plant communication recognition and engagement calendar (communication meetings service awards all-team-member events opinion surveys) measured by participation rates and movement on team member opinion survey results.

These are the human patterns the role demands drawn from the role document. The manager-specific fit signals are captured in the VHS Conversation.

Discretion under trust. This person sees pay discipline medical leave and complaint data every day. The role document names it directly: maintain the confidentiality of any information encountered and exercise exceptional independent judgment and discretion. A candidate who talks too freely fails here on day one.

Composure and fairness in conflict. The seat is a team member advocate in corrective action and a neutral investigator of complaints sometimes in the same week. The role calls for fair and consistent treatment held steady while people are upset. Someone who takes sides or escalates emotionally cannot hold this.

Self-starting ownership. Zero direct reports broad scope one person. The role document asks for a highly motivated self-starter who takes initiative on assigned tasks without significant supervision. This is not a seat you can manage into competence. They arrive ready to run.

Adaptable to plant tempo. Fixed or rotating shifts daily or weekend overtime and on-call flexibility to control abnormal conditions. The plant does not slow down for HR. A candidate who needs a predictable nine-to-five will not survive the schedule.

Relates at every level. From the floor at 5 AM to senior management presentations. The role asks for someone perceptive who relates to individuals at all levels and works in cooperation across departments. HR credibility at a plant is earned in both directions.

This role reports to an Assistant Manager or Manager of Human Resources inside a TBA plant. The environment is Toyota Group manufacturing: disciplined standardized built on continuous improvement and organized around the team member. TBA uses "team member" rather than "employee" deliberately and it means it. Safety quality and respect for people are not posters on the wall. They are how the floor is run.

If you ran an S-1 shop a personnel section or an admin office you have already done a version of this job. You tracked strength and readiness the way this role tracks headcount and attendance. You managed pay and entitlements through unwieldy systems the way this role manages Oracle and Kronos. You handled EO complaints command climate and the human problems that walk in the door the same work this role calls team member relations. You built morale and recognition programs because a unit that feels forgotten does not perform which is exactly what the plant communication and engagement calendar exists to prevent.

The environment fits too. TBA runs on the Toyota Production System: standardized work early starts direct communication and accountability that moves at the speed of the operation. That tempo is familiar to anyone who ran a section inside a functioning unit. The plant floor at shift change is not a foreign place to a veteran. It is a formation with different uniforms.

VHS matched this role because the performance objectives the operational tempo and the compliance discipline align tightly with transitioning NCOs and company-grade officers from human resources adjutant general personnel and administrative career fields.

Minimum qualifications each mapped to the veteran lens.

Bachelors degree in Human Resources Business Administration or related field or equivalent combination of education and relevant experience. Military equivalent: an equivalent record of HR or administrative leadership experience carries here. Formal degree is preferred not a hard wall. Maps to: all objectives.

Six or more years of HR generalist experience; manufacturing setting preferred. Military equivalent: service in a personnel or administrative career field (Army 42A HR Specialist or 42B / AG officer Marine Corps 0111 Administrative Specialist or 0170 Manpower Officer Navy Personnel Specialist Air Force 3F0X1 Personnel Coast Guard Yeoman) or leadership of a battalion or company S-1 shop. Maps to: all objectives.

Four or more years supporting HR and employee relations in a manufacturing setting; automotive preferred. Military equivalent: ran personnel actions investigations and readiness for a unit of comparable headcount in a high-tempo operational environment. Maps to: team member relations and staffing objectives.

Working knowledge of ADA FLSA HIPAA FMLA NLRA and Title VII. Military equivalent: applied EO MEO and command policy; handled protected information under strict regulation. The statutes are new; the discipline of operating inside a compliance framework is not. Maps to: compliance and team member relations objectives.

HRIS experience; Oracle and Kronos preferred. Military equivalent: operated military personnel and pay systems (for example IPPS-A DEERS MyPay or service equivalents) and unit readiness reporting tools. Maps to: payroll accuracy and reporting objectives.

PHR or SPHR preferred. Military equivalent: not required. A candidate without it who has run personnel operations at scale is competitive. Maps to: credibility with management.

Ability to work fixed or rotating shifts including overtime with on-call flexibility. Travel 0 to 10%. Military equivalent: standard. Duty schedules staff duty and being on call for the unit are the baseline of service. Maps to: plant tempo.

Must have served in the U.S. Army U.S. Navy U.S. Marine Corps U.S. Air Force U.S. Coast Guard U.S. Space Force U.S. Reserves or U.S. National Guard.