Manager, Production HR

Job Summary

Who Are You?

Do you thrive in a fast-paced, high-volume operating environment where great HR work directly shapes the employee experience? Are you an experienced people leader who can build strong teams, develop scalable systems, and credibly support employees and leaders in the field? If you are passionate about dance culture, people, and operational Human Resources, read on.

Who Are We?

Insomniac produces some of the most innovative, immersive music festivals and events in the world. Enhanced by state-of-the-art lighting, pyrotechnics and sound design, large-scale art installations, theatrical performers and next generation special effects, our events captivate the senses and inspire a unique level of fan interaction. The quality of the Headliner experience is our top priority.

Insomniac produces 10,000 concerts, club nights and festivals for seven million attendees annually across the globe. Since its inception, Insomniac's events have taken place in 13 countries across five continents. The company's premiere annual event, Electric Daisy Carnival Las Vegas, is the world's largest dance music festival and attracts more than 525,000 fans over three days. The company was founded by Pasquale Rotella and has been based in Los Angeles since it was formed in 1993.

The Role

Insomniac Events is seeking an experienced Manager, Production HR to lead the HR team supporting high-volume, seasonal, event-based workforces across festivals, concerts, venues, and assigned adjacent business lines. This role leads the Production HR operating model, from annual workforce planning and event coverage through on-site support, employee relations, payroll readiness, and post-show closeout.

The Manager, Production HR leads and develops a team of four full-time and a few HR seasonals. The team supports approximately 5,000 seasonal employees annually. The Manager is accountable for the quality, consistency, and strategic impact of Production HR partnership across a complex calendar of concurrent festivals, concerts, venues, and related workforce programs.

This role translates business priorities into scalable workforce strategies, talent plans, employee relations approaches, and HR operating practices that support organizational effectiveness, legal compliance, and an exceptional employee experience. The Manager serves as a senior advisor to Production and operational leaders while building a collaborative, accountable, and sustainable field-HR model.

This position is based in Las Vegas, with a mix of in-office and on-site event work. Travel is expected to be approximately 20-30% annually, with concentrated on-site support during major event periods.

Responsibilities

HR Team Leadership and Development

• Lead, coach, develop, and manage a team of HRBPs, HR Generalists, Coordinators, and assigned operational support roles supporting event operations, production, and related business functions.
• Establish clear team priorities, service standards, operating rhythms, and performance expectations; ensure consistent, high-quality HR consultation and execution across client groups.
• Conduct regular performance discussions, provide actionable feedback, support development planning, and address performance concerns for direct reports.
• Establish annual Production HR goals and individual development objectives aligned to business priorities; review progress at least quarterly, address gaps, and adjust plans as business needs evolve.
• Assess Production HR team capacity, capability, and coverage; make recommendations regarding staffing, structure, development, and resource allocation.
• Support recruiting, selection, onboarding, and development of Production HR team members and seasonal HR personnel.
• Build a collaborative, accountable, inclusive team culture grounded in sound judgment, partnership, continuous improvement, and exceptional service.

Workforce Planning, Event Coverage, and Strategic Partnership

• Lead the development and execution of people strategies for operational, production, and event-based workforces in alignment with business plans, event calendars, workforce demand, and organizational priorities.
• Own the annual Production HR event-coverage strategy, including pod assignments, service tiers, on-site deployment decisions, backup coverage, and capacity planning for concurrent events.
• Ensure each event has a named accountable HR owner, on-site representative when required, and clear escalation path.
• Partner with senior business leaders to assess workforce effectiveness, staffing needs, talent risks, succession requirements, and opportunities to strengthen team capability and performance.
• Guide HRBPs and Generalists in translating business needs into practical workforce plans, staffing models, employee engagement strategies, talent development plans, and retention approaches.
• Serve as a senior HR advisor for complex, sensitive, or high-impact business matters; provide clear recommendations that balance business objectives, employee experience, consistency, and risk.
• Use workforce analytics, employee feedback, turnover trends, staffing data, and operational insights to identify risks and recommend strategic action.

Employee Relations, Compliance, and Risk Management

• Oversee complex employee relations matters managed by the Production HR team, including investigations, performance management, corrective action, workers' compensation, accommodations, and terminations.
• Coach HRBPs and Generalists through complex employee relations, investigations, workers' compensation, wage-and-hour, and corrective-action matters; personally lead only the most sensitive, high-risk, or enterprise-impacting cases.
• Partner with HR leadership, Legal, Employee Relations, Payroll, Talent Acquisition, and other stakeholders to ensure timely, consistent, and compliant resolution of sensitive matters.
• Ensure the Production HR team appropriately interprets and applies applicable federal, state, and local employment laws, company policies, and standards.
• Identify systemic employee relations, compliance, payroll, timekeeping, classification, or organizational risks and develop proactive mitigation plans.
• Review and recommend enhancements to policies, practices, documentation, and processes to improve consistency, reduce risk, and support evolving business needs.

Operational Excellence and Event Closeout

• Oversee HRBP and HR Generalist support for the end-to-end seasonal employee lifecycle.
• Establish event-readiness and post-show closeout standards for seasonal onboarding, employee relations, workers' compensation, payroll exceptions, and compliance items.
• Maintain a centralized case and closeout tracking process; ensure open items have clear owners, due dates, escalation paths, and documented resolution.
• Define when HR support is remote, high-touch remote, on-site, or all-hands based on workforce size, event complexity, market novelty, employee relations risk, and historical issue trends.
• Partner with Talent Acquisition, HR Operations, HRIS, and Payroll teams to ensure workforce readiness, reliable processes, data integrity, and a consistent employee experience across events.
• Establish scalable tools, templates, training, reporting, and operating procedures that improve the Production HR team's effectiveness and reduce administrative burden.
• Own the Production HR shared-inbox operating model, including intake, triage, routing, service-level expectations, coverage, escalation, and continuous improvement; identify and resolve bottlenecks that create delayed or inconsistent responses.
• Partner with corporate Training and Development to assess capability needs and design effective learning plans, development programs, and training resources that strengthen manager effectiveness, employee growth, and operational readiness across event-based teams.
• Build and maintain an operating dashboard and provide regular reporting to the VP, People Operations on workforce readiness, staffing and onboarding progress, shared-inbox performance, payroll exceptions, employee relations and workers' compensation trends, event closeout status, material risks, and decisions requiring leadership support.
• Oversee HR-related budgets within the scope of the role and identify opportunities to improve service quality, operational efficiency, and cost effectiveness.
• Lead cross-functional projects and strategic initiatives that advance HR and business priorities.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, or a related field, or equivalent relevant experience.
• 7-10+ years of progressively responsible HR experience supporting operational leaders.
• 3-5+ years of demonstrated experience directly leading, coaching, developing, and managing the performance of HR professionals, including establishing priorities, providing feedback, and supporting growth.
• Demonstrated experience developing people strategies, workforce plans, talent approaches, and organizational solutions for complex, high-volume, seasonal, distributed, or event-based workforces.
• Strong experience managing complex employee relations matters, investigations, performance management, corrective action, and terminations in partnership with senior leadership and Legal.
• Strong working knowledge of federal, state, and local employment laws, HR best practices, risk-management principles, and wage-and-hour considerations.
• Experience supporting live events, production, entertainment, hospitality, retail, or similarly complex operational environments strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated ability to influence senior leaders, navigate ambiguity, and translate workforce data and business needs into actionable recommendations.
• Experience with Workday or a comparable HRIS platform, ADP or comparable payroll systems, time and attendance systems, HR reporting, and workforce analytics.
• Strong leadership, consultation, communication, project-management, relationship-building, and problem-solving skills.
• High degree of integrity, discretion, sound judgment, and accountability.
• Willingness and ability to travel domestically and work nontraditional hours, including nights, weekends, and holidays, during event periods.

Work Environment

• Must be able to tolerate loud noise levels & busy environments
• May work in drastic temperature climates when traveling to event locations
• Must be willing to travel to work during evening and weekend hours, as required, to meet deadlines

Additional information

Applicants for employment in the U.S. must possess work authorization, which does not require sponsorship by Insomniac for a visa.