Human Resources & Organizational Development Manager

About the Company

Sarah's Handmade Ice Cream is a family-run, award-winning ice cream business with four shops across Montgomery County, Maryland. Launched in 2019, the company has expanded into a multi-location operation with close to 100 employees and plans to keep growing.

The company is hiring a Human Resources & Organizational Development Manager to help build the people infrastructure needed for its next stage of expansion. This role goes beyond standard HR administration and focuses on creating systems, leadership development programs, training frameworks, and organizational processes that can scale while protecting a strong workplace culture.

Role Overview

The Human Resources & Organizational Development Manager will oversee the employee journey from hiring through development and performance management. The position combines HR leadership with organizational design, requiring someone who can turn knowledge and best practices into repeatable systems that bring consistency, accountability, and room for growth across all locations.

You will work closely with company leaders and operations managers to make sure employees are supported, trained, and set up to succeed.

Core Responsibilities

In this role, you will improve hiring, onboarding, employee relations, compliance, training, leadership development, performance systems, documentation, and organizational processes.

Human Resources and Employee Relations

• Refine and strengthen recruiting and hiring workflows.
• Handle candidate screening and interview scheduling.
• Run onboarding and help new hires settle in effectively.
• Keep employee files and records organized and current.
• Ensure employment practices align with federal, state, and local requirements.
• Support employee relations issues and internal workplace investigations.
• Maintain documentation for performance concerns and corrective action.
• Review and revise the employee handbook and company policies as needed.
• Work with leadership on engagement and retention efforts.
• Act as a dependable point of contact for managers and employees.

Learning and Development

• Design onboarding experiences for all roles.
• Create learning tracks for Ambassadors, Shift Supervisors, Shop Apprentices, Managers, and future leaders.
• Develop training guides, assessments, and learning materials.
• Build leadership development and manager training programs.
• Set up certification pathways and competency frameworks.
• Monitor completion of training and employee development milestones.
• Establish training systems that can support continued growth.

Organizational Development

• Map career paths across the business.
• Create role scorecards and competency models.
• Design performance review and evaluation systems.
• Build succession plans for leadership roles.
• Improve organizational structure and role clarity.
• Identify ways to strengthen performance, retention, and engagement.
• Support organization-wide change initiatives.

SOP and Systems Development

• Create, organize, and maintain standard operating procedures.
• Document operational and administrative processes.
• Develop playbooks for managers and leaders.
• Build systems for capturing and sharing institutional knowledge.
• Make sure key company knowledge is documented and easy to access.
• Convert founder and leadership expertise into usable repeatable processes.

Performance Coaching and Leadership Support

• Meet regularly with managers and rising leaders.
• Conduct coaching sessions and development conversations.
• Support performance improvement and growth plans.
• Follow up on observations and feedback shared by operational leaders.
• Help managers build stronger leadership capability.
• Contribute to a culture of ownership, accountability, and continuous improvement.

Qualifications

The ideal candidate will bring a strong mix of HR expertise, system-building ability, and people development experience.

Required Experience and Skills

• At least 5 years of experience in Human Resources, Organizational Development, Learning & Development, Talent Development, or a similar area.
• Proven experience creating systems, programs, or processes from the ground up.
• Strong project coordination and organizational abilities.
• Excellent writing and documentation skills.
• Background in coaching managers and employees.
• Strong analytical thinking and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to juggle multiple priorities in a busy environment.

Preferred Background

• Experience in multi-unit retail, hospitality, food service, franchising, or another service-driven business.
• Experience designing training programs and leadership development initiatives.
• Experience building SOPs, onboarding systems, and organizational frameworks.
• Working knowledge of HR compliance and employment law.
• Exposure to learning management systems or training platforms.
• Experience supporting business growth and scaling operations.

Who Will Succeed Here

This role is best suited to someone who enjoys building structure where it does not yet exist, is highly detail-oriented, and is passionate about helping people grow. The right person will be able to balance planning with execution, translate ideas into practical processes, communicate clearly, coach effectively, and bring clarity and accountability to a growing organization.

What Success Looks Like in the First Year

Within 12 months, the person in this role is expected to have created structured onboarding for key roles, developed leadership pathways for future managers, improved recruiting systems, introduced consistent performance management practices, expanded and organized the SOP library, built training and certification programs for operational positions, reduced the administrative load on senior leadership, and put in place systems that support multi-location growth.

Why This Role Matters

This is a unique opportunity to help shape the organizational base of a growing company during an important stage of development. The role offers the chance to influence systems, strengthen leaders, shape culture, and leave a lasting impact across the business.

Ideal Motivation

This opportunity is a strong fit for someone who enjoys building, coaching, adding structure, and helping others succeed.