Health System Sr Director, ELR

NYU Langone Health is a fully integrated health system that consistently achieves the best patient outcomes through a rigorous focus on quality that has resulted in some of the lowest mortality rates in the nation. Vizient Inc. has ranked NYU Langone the No. 1 comprehensive academic medical center in the country for three years in a row, and U.S. News & World Report recently placed nine of its clinical specialties among the top five in the nation. NYU Langone offers a comprehensive range of medical services with one high standard of care across 6 inpatient locations, its Perlmutter Cancer Center, and over 320 outpatient locations in the New York area and Florida. With $14.2 billion in revenue this year, the system also includes two tuition-free medical schools, in Manhattan and on Long Island, and a vast research enterprise with over $1 billion in active awards from the National Institutes of Health.

 

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We have an exciting opportunity to join our team as a Health System Sr. Director, ELR. 

 

In this role, the successful candidate provides strategic leadership and oversight of NYU Langone Health's employee and labor relations programs, fostering strong, collaborative relationships with employees and union partners in alignment with organizational goals and priorities. Serves as the principal authority and spokesperson for labor-management relations, works alongside legal to manage collective bargaining negotiations, arbitrations, and high-impact dispute resolution efforts. Oversees the design, implementation, and governance of employee and labor relations strategies, policies, and practices to ensure consistency, compliance, and organizational effectiveness. Directs the administration and interpretation of collective bargaining agreements and grievance processes, ensuring fair, consistent, and legally sound outcomes. Provides oversight of sensitive employee relations matters, including harassment investigations, and ensures alignment with regulatory requirements and organizational standards. Leads the development and execution of government reporting and compliance, reinforcing the organizations commitment to equity and compliance.

 

 

 

• Strategizes and leads the enterprise-wide employee and labor relations strategy, aligning negotiation and dispute resolution approaches with organizational priorities, financial objectives, and long-term workforce planning.

• Serves as the system labor strategy lead related to collective bargaining strategy, alongside the Office of Legal Counsel - driving complex negotiations and high-impact outcomes.

• Establishes and directs negotiation frameworks, including economic modeling and position strategy, to optimize labor costs and operational performance.

• Collaborates with the Office of Legal Counsel on implementation of contracts and development of labor strategies, as well as to advance the organization's position concerning claims, prevailing laws, rules and regulations.

• Partners with senior leadership and Legal to shape organizational positions on labor matters, regulatory changes, and emerging risks.

 

• Provides executive oversight of contract administration, ensuring consistent, system-wide interpretation and application of CBAs.

• Leads strategy and resolution of complex grievances, arbitrations, and high-risk employee relations matters.

• Oversees organizational response to external claims and agency actions, ensuring strong legal positioning and risk mitigation.

• Works cooperatively and closely with in house labor counsel regarding all litigation activities. In support of General Counsels Office, ensures all documentation and responses to charges filed with administrative agencies (e.g., NLRB, EEOC, NYSDHR, NYCDHR, OSHA, etc.) against the Health System are properly prepared.

• Ensures oversight of the preparation of materials by professional staff to assist legal counsel in arbitration.

• Works with outside counsel to ensure that government reporting and compliance plans are created each fiscal year and reviews plans and works with other areas of HR including Talent Acquisition to develop strategies to help find diverse qualified candidates for our job groups.

• Institutionalizes continuous improvement with in-house legal counsel that have been filed with third party or by outside counsel through post-case analysis, identifying systemic risks and strengthening organizational practices.

 

• Defines the strategic direction for employee relations practices, ensuring consistency, fairness, and alignment with organizational values. 

• Advises senior leaders on sensitive and high-impact workforce matters, balancing business needs with employee experience.

• Establishes frameworks for performance management, discipline, and conflict resolution that drive accountability and engagement.

• Builds organizational capability in effective people management through coaching, guidance, and thought leadership.

• Oversee the guidance to management staff for disciplinary cases based on consistent application of policies and practices.

 

• Serves as the authority on labor and employment law compliance, ensuring adherence to all federal, state, and local regulations.

• Anticipates and navigates legal and regulatory changes, proactively advising leadership on implications and required actions.

• Oversees enterprise-wide risk identification, investigation, and resolution in partnership with internal and external counsel.

• Champions compliance strategies that protect the organization while enabling operational flexibility.

 

• Shapes and advances the Human Resources strategy as a key member of the HR Leadership Team, influencing enterprise direction and priorities.

• Leads the design and evolution of HR policies, programs, and labor strategies to meet current and future workforce needs.

• Drives innovation through data-informed decision-making, industry benchmarking, and adoption of best practices.

• Cultivates strategic partnerships across the organization and with external stakeholders to enhance service delivery and outcomes.

 

• Champions the use of advanced analytics, metrics, and automation to inform labor strategies and optimize workforce utilization.

• Establishes enterprise KPIs to measure effectiveness of labor relations.

• Translates complex data into actionable insights for executive decision-making.

• Drives continuous improvement initiatives to enhance efficiency, effectiveness, and scalability.

 

• Provides executive oversight of labor-related financial planning, including contract costing, budget development, and long-range forecasting alongside finance and legal partners.

• Aligns labor strategies with financial targets, ensuring sustainable cost management and resource optimization.

• Evaluates financial impact of workforce initiatives, policies, and negotiated agreements.

• Advises senior leadership on financial risks and opportunities related to labor and workforce strategy.

 

• Leads and develops a high-performing Employee and Labor Relations function, setting vision, standards, and expectations for excellence.

• Develops a strategy of creating initiatives that foster positive Employer/Employee and union relationships.

• Develops a strategic plan and designs department based on organization wide employee and labor Relations initiatives in collaboration with the unions that engender commitment among the workforce toward achieving the institutional priorities.

• Builds leadership capability within the function and across the organization through mentorship and strategic guidance.

• Fosters a culture of accountability, collaboration, and continuous learning.

• Manages the advice provided by staff regarding performance management, disciplinary process, pre-disciplinary suspensions and probationary reviews.

• Provides mentoring, guidance and leadership to Department Heads and staff in negotiations methods and strategies, effective dispute resolution techniques, contract grievance resolution and the consistent application of progressive discipline.

• Oversees the supervision of the Employee and Labor Relations Department. Actively participates in recruitment and selection of staff; communicates to each direct report their responsibilities and expected standards of performance; conducts a performance assessment for each direct report at least once within each calendar year. Oversees the work assignments based on department needs and ensures they are effectively carried out.

 

• Defines and advances strategies to strengthen labor-management relationships and foster a collaborative, high-trust environment.

• Partners with union leadership to align on shared goals while effectively navigating complex dynamics.

• Provides strategic direction, in collaboration with Workplace Culture & Inclusion, on the results of the employee engagement survey in relation to the organized workforce; periodically oversees the targeted focus groups, etc., analysis of data, development and implementation of action plans with organizational leadership, and develops effective monitoring mechanisms.

• Oversees action planning and execution related to engagement insights, ensuring measurable impact.

 

• Serves as a trusted advisor to senior leaders, influencing decisions on critical workforce and labor matters to actively encourage and support core values. Monitors impact of efforts and implements changes necessary to improve effectiveness.

• Inspires innovation, drives change, and champions a forward-thinking, solutions-oriented approach.

• Contributes to the development and administration of the Human Resources strategic plan, objectives, and actions. Designs and plans programs and policies that address current and anticipated future workforce needs based on research and best practice. Prepares reports, materials, and presentations for the Executive and the HR Leadership team as necessary. 

• Develops strong and effective relationships with customers across the Health System and with relevant external stakeholders (including government and vendor representatives) to ensure business needs, emerging initiatives and industry best practices are fully considered in developing and implementing service delivery models and associated strategy, policy, systems, and processes. 

• Identifies and evaluates new initiatives and partnership opportunities, making recommendations to the Region VP and EVP, Human Resources for evaluation and approval.  Participates and is engaged in the development and execution of HR strategic planning.

• Supports Human Resources leadership development and collaboration by engaging in open and honest communications that enable a shared vision of excellent customer service, the ability to explore different perspectives among team members enabling difficult decision making and thoughtfully sharing candid opinions about all Human Resources initiatives and activities while respecting the value that each team member represents.

• Demonstrates exceptional executive presence, communication, and stakeholder management across diverse audiences.

• Leads with resilience and composure in high-pressure, high-stakes environments.

• Is results-oriented with a bias toward action. Maintains high standards for oneself and their team. Successfully achieves goals and remains persistent through obstacles.

• Functions as a role model with strong history of remaining calm under fire and works well under pressure.

• Inspires others to introduce new perspectives to find the best solutions and understand how to evaluate effectiveness of these initiatives.

• Ensures the staff understand expectations and instills a rigorous approach to customer service and quality in every aspect of the work of the staff.

 

Minimum Qualifications:
To qualify you must have a Master's Degree in Human Resources or a related field is required; a J.D. is considered highly preferred.
Minimum seven (7) years of progressive leadership experience in Human Resources of which five (5) years must be in Labor Relations; three (3) years of supervisory experience required. Outstanding interpersonal skills and excellent verbal and written communication skills required. Demonstrated success in transformational management of a heavily unionized staff is important. Proven track record of success dealing with organized labor and a highly diverse workforce. Demonstrates a high level of comfort working with all levels of employees from executive leadership to faculty to service staff and every level in between. Must also be adept at dealing with sensitive issue s and topics that are by their nature, uncomfortable. Demonstrated success in transforming employee relations support and services from one of reactive to proactive. Politically savvy with finely honed negotiating skills. Highly organized self-starter, willing and capable of taking initiative and the wisdom and sensitivity to step back from an issue. Viewed as open, approachable and decisive, someone employees can go to for coaching, advising, and counseling related to employment/job issues and concerns. Knowledge of healthcare beneficial but not required.

Qualified candidates must be able to effectively communicate with all levels of the organization.

NYU Langone Health provides a salary range to comply with the New York City Law on Salary Transparency in Job Advertisements. The salary range for the role is $277,521.33 – $350,000.00. Annually. Actual salaries depend on a variety of factors, including experience, specialty, education, and hospital need. The salary range or contractual rate listed does not include bonuses/incentive, differential pay or other forms of compensation or benefits.

 

To view the Pay Transparency Notice, please click here

 

Salaries shown on independent jobs related websites reflect market averages and do not represent information obtained directly from NYU Langone. We invite and encourage each candidate to discuss salary/hourly specifics during the application and hiring process.