Lead - HR Business Partner - Plant

Location: Hyderabad, India

Skyroot Aerospace is a National award-winning growth-stage start-up, founded by former ISRO scientists. Our mission is to open space for all by providing affordable, reliable, and responsive space launch solutions. We are a close-knit team of Space professionals building leading space launch vehicles and solutions from India for the world. Role Purpose To serve as the strategic HR partner for Skyroot Aerospace’s plant operations, driving workforce planning, organizational effectiveness, employee relations, workforce productivity, talent development, and a high-performance culture. The role requires a strong blend of strategic HR business partnering and hands-on plant HR management, including extensive experience managing blue-collar workforces, frontline supervisors, technicians, and manufacturing employees. The incumbent will partner closely with manufacturing leadership to build a scalable, disciplined, safe, and performance-driven workforce aligned with the company’s aerospace manufacturing and production goals. Key Responsibilities 1. Strategic HR Business Partnering

• Partner with manufacturing, production, quality, supply chain, and operations leaders to align people strategies with business objectives.
• Translate manufacturing plans, production schedules, and capacity requirements into workforce and people plans.
• Advise business leaders on organization structure, manpower deployment, spans of control, succession planning, and organizational effectiveness.
• Drive change management, workforce transformation, and HR initiatives to support business growth and operational excellence.
• Use people analytics and workforce metrics to identify risks, improve productivity, and support data-driven decision-making. 2. Plant HR & Blue-Collar Workforce Management
• Own end-to-end HR management for plant operations, covering technicians, operators, contract workers, supervisors, and other frontline employees.
• Drive manpower planning, shift-wise deployment, attendance, overtime management, absenteeism control, and workforce utilization.
• Partner with production leaders to ensure adequate staffing against production targets, operational priorities, and changing capacity requirements.
• Establish effective shop-floor communication mechanisms, employee connect initiatives, grievance redressal systems, and workforce engagement practices.
• Build strong relationships with frontline employees and supervisors to foster discipline, accountability, collaboration, and operational continuity. 3. Employee Relations & Industrial Relations
• Manage employee relations, disciplinary matters, grievance resolution, workplace conflicts, and investigations with fairness and consistency.
• Handle industrial relations, labour law compliance, statutory requirements, inspections, and liaison with relevant authorities, as applicable.
• Oversee contract labour management in partnership with Administration, Procurement, and relevant business teams.
• Ensure compliance with applicable employment legislation, wage and working-hour requirements, social security provisions, and workplace policies.
• Identify emerging employee relations risks and proactively implement measures to maintain a stable and productive workplace. 4. Talent Acquisition & Workforce Planning
• Partner with Talent Acquisition to develop hiring plans for technicians, operators, supervisors, and manufacturing leadership roles.
• Forecast workforce demand based on production capacity, project milestones, shift requirements, and future expansion.
• Drive timely hiring, onboarding, deployment, and integration of manufacturing employees.
• Develop workforce sourcing strategies, including ITIs, diploma institutions, apprenticeships, and other relevant talent pipelines.
• Monitor hiring effectiveness, time-to-fill, workforce availability, attrition, and hiring costs. 5. Performance Management & Productivity
• Drive performance management for manufacturing teams, ensuring clear goals, measurable KPIs, periodic reviews, and accountability.
• Partner with functional leaders to establish performance measures relating to productivity, quality, attendance, safety, and operational efficiency.
• Identify performance gaps and implement improvement plans in collaboration with managers and supervisors.
• Support incentive and recognition programs aligned with productivity, quality, safety, and business outcomes.
• Monitor overtime, absenteeism, attrition, and manpower cost trends and recommend corrective actions. 6. Learning, Capability Development & Succession Planning
• Identify capability gaps across technicians, operators, supervisors, and manufacturing managers.
• Partner with technical and functional teams to develop training plans covering technical skills, quality standards, safety, process discipline, and leadership capabilities.
• Strengthen frontline leadership through supervisor development, people-management training, and coaching.
• Drive cross-skilling, multi-skilling, internal mobility, and career progression for shop-floor employees.
• Develop succession plans for critical plant positions and build a sustainable pipeline of skilled talent. 7. Employee Engagement, Culture & Retention
• Drive employee engagement, workforce communication, recognition, and retention initiatives across manufacturing operations.
• Conduct employee connect sessions, pulse surveys, focus groups, and exit interviews to understand workforce concerns.
• Develop targeted retention strategies for critical skills and hard-to-replace manufacturing talent.
• Foster a culture of ownership, teamwork, continuous improvement, inclusion, and accountability.
• Partner with leaders to strengthen employee morale during periods of growth, change, and increased production demand. 8. Compensation, Benefits & HR Operations
• Partner with Compensation & Benefits teams on salary structures, wage revisions, incentives, benefits, and internal pay equity.
• Ensure accurate and timely management of HR processes related to attendance, leave, payroll inputs, employee records, and workforce reporting.
• Support workforce budgeting, manpower cost forecasting, and periodic cost optimization initiatives.
• Ensure effective administration of employee lifecycle processes, including onboarding, transfers, promotions, disciplinary actions, and separations.
• Maintain accurate HR data, documentation, policies, and audit-ready records. 9. Safety, Compliance & Cross-Functional Collaboration
• Partner with EHS, Quality, Security, Administration, and Operations teams to strengthen workplace safety, discipline, and compliance.
• Promote a safety-conscious culture and ensure HR processes support mandatory training, appropriate conduct, and adherence to site requirements.
• Support workforce readiness for audits, operational reviews, and applicable statutory inspections.
• Participate in cross-functional initiatives to improve shop-floor effectiveness, employee experience, and operational reliability. Requirements Qualifications & Experience
• Bachelor’s or master’s degree in human resources, Business Administration, Industrial Relations, or a related discipline.
• 8+ years of progressive HR experience, with substantial experience in a manufacturing or industrial environment.
• Mandatory hands-on experience managing plant HR and blue-collar workforces, including technicians, operators, contract workers, and frontline supervisors.
• Strong working knowledge of labour laws, industrial relations, statutory compliance, and contract labour management.
• Experience in workforce planning, performance management, employee engagement, talent acquisition, and HR operations.
• Demonstrated ability to partner with plant leadership and translate operational priorities into effective HR solutions.
• Experience in aerospace, automotive, precision engineering, electronics, heavy engineering, or other complex manufacturing environments will be an advantage. Key Competencies
• Strong business acumen and strategic HR partnering.
• Hands-on plant HR and blue-collar workforce management.
• Employee relations, conflict resolution, and stakeholder management.
• Analytical thinking and data-driven decision-making.
• Workforce productivity and cost optimization.
• Change management and organizational effectiveness.
• Strong communication, influencing, and leadership skills.
• Ability to operate effectively in a fast-paced, high-growth manufacturing environment.