Director, HR Enablement & Transformation - Americas

Build a career powered by innovations that matter!  At Novanta, our innovations power technology products that are transforming healthcare and advanced manufacturing—improving productivity, enhancing people’s lives and redefining what’s possible.  We create for our global customers engineered components and sub-systems that deliver extreme precision and performance for a range of mission-critical applications—from minimally invasive surgery to robotics to 3D metal printing.

Novanta is one global team with over 26 offices located in The Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific.  Looking for a great place to work?  You have found it with a culture that embraces teamwork, collaboration and empowerment.  Come explore Novanta.

The Director, HR Enablement is responsible for leading the HR Enablement team and execution of strategy across the Americas region, ensuring HR solutions, programs, and services are aligned to business priorities and deliver a consistent, high-quality employee and manager experience.

This role leads a team of HR Enablement professionals and acts as a strategic partner to business leaders, Talent Partners, Centers of Excellence and HR Operations. The Director is responsible for driving organizational effectiveness, manager capability, process excellence, workforce insights, technology adoption, and HR transformation initiatives across the region.

The role requires strong business acumen, executive stakeholder management, and the ability to influence change across a complex and growing organization. As a senior HR leader, the Director plays a key role in translating enterprise HR strategies into regional execution while identifying opportunities to simplify, scale, and improve outcomes.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Provides strategic leadership to a team of HR Enablement professionals supporting multiple business units, manufacturing sites, and corporate functions across the Americas. Drives consistency in HR delivery, manager effectiveness, organizational capability, and employee experience while balancing enterprise standards with local business requirements.
• Serves as the senior escalation point and subject matter expert on complex people, organizational, and workforce matters, partnering with Talent Partners, Centres of Excellence, HR Operations, Legal, and business leadership to ensure effective resolution and risk mitigation.
• Leads and develops the HR Enablement team, creating an environment of high performance, collaboration, and continuous growth. Partners with business leaders, Talent Partners, and site leadership to build capability, support career development, and ensure the team is positioned to meet evolving business needs.
• Ensures consistent execution and adoption of enterprise-wide HR programs, processes, policies, and tools across multiple locations and business units. Drives a One Novanta employee and manager experience while ensuring regional and business-specific needs are appropriately addressed.
• Provides leadership and oversight on employment compliance matters across the region, ensuring HR practices, policies, and programs comply with applicable labour and employment laws. Partners with Legal and Centres of Excellence to assess risk, interpret regulatory requirements, and implement compliant solutions.
• Leads regional HR transformation and continuous improvement initiatives, leveraging Novanta Growth System (NGS) methodologies, change management principles, automation, and AI-enabled solutions to improve efficiency, scalability, and user experience. Identifies trends and opportunities across multiple sites, businesses, and geographies and partners globally to drive enterprise-wide improvements.
• Develops and executes regional HR Enablement resource strategies, ensuring effective deployment of HR Enablement resources across business units, locations, and organizational priorities. Continuously evaluates service delivery models, organizational needs, and workforce demands to optimize support.
• Leverages workforce analytics, engagement data, retention trends, organizational health metrics, and business insights to identify opportunities and risks. Translates data into actionable

Required Experience, Education, Skills and Competencies

• 8+ years of progressive HR leadership experience.
• Experience leading HR teams across multiple sites or business units.
• Proven success leading organizational change and transformation initiatives.
• Experience partnering with senior business leaders and executive stakeholders.
• Strong background in workforce planning, organizational effectiveness, talent management, and employee experience.
• Experience driving adoption of HR technology and process improvement initiatives.
• Experience building and scaling HR process. 
• Strong technology, digital HR, AI, and automation experience. 
• Strong analytical and problem-solving capability, with the ability to interpret workforce data and identify trends.
  Continuous improvement mindset with experience supporting organizational change and transformation initiatives.

Travel Requirements:

30%

Novanta is proud to be an equal employment opportunity and affirmative action workplace. We consider all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, military and veteran status, disability, genetics, or any other category protected by federal law or Novanta policy.

Please call +1 781-266-5700 if you need a disability accommodation for any part of the employment process.