VP HR, Americas Welding

VP HR, Americas Welding

Lincoln Electric is the world leader in the engineering, design, and manufacturing of advanced arc welding solutions, automated joining, assembly and cutting systems, plasma and oxy-fuel cutting equipment, and has a leading global position in brazing and soldering alloys. Lincoln is recognized as the Welding Expert™ for its leading materials science, software development, automation engineering, and application expertise, which advance customers' fabrication capabilities to help them build a better world. Headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, Lincoln Electric is a $4.2B publicly traded company (NASDAQ:LECO) with over 12,000 employees around the world, with operations in 71 manufacturing and automation system integration locations across 21 countries and maintains a worldwide network of distributors and sales offices serving customers in over 160 countries.

Location: Euclid - 22801
Req ID: 28109

Position Overview

This role serves as the senior HR leader for Global Welding Operations across the Americas, acting as a trusted business partner to the President of Welding and the broader leadership team. The position carries full strategic and operational HR accountability for a complex, multi-country manufacturing and commercial footprint, with direct responsibility for HR delivery across operations, commercial functions, and supporting businesses in regions across the US and Latin America.

The Global Welding HR Leader plays a critical role in driving organizational effectiveness, strengthening leadership capability, modernizing the workforce, and ensuring consistent, high-quality HR execution across geographies—while balancing local labor realities with enterprise strategy.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Business Partnership

• Serve as the primary HR advisor to the President of Welding and U.S. leadership.

• Partner closely on:

• Organizational design and operating model evolution

• Change management and transformation initiatives

• Leadership coaching and effectiveness

• Succession planning and talent pipeline development

• Performance management and accountability

HR Leadership & Team Development

• Set clear direction and expectations for regional HR leaders.
• Coach and develop HR managers to elevate capability and maturity across geographies.
• Remove barriers to execution and ensure consistent HR delivery.
• Drive alignment while respecting local labor, cultural, and regulatory realities.

Strategic Workforce & Talent Initiatives

• Support enterprise and business-critical priorities, including:
• Safety transformation (Human & Organizational Performance – HOP)
• Next phase focus on quality
• Upgrading leadership capability across operations
• Stabilizing frontline workforce in the U.S. and Mexico
• Revitalizing product management as a future general management pipeline
• Supporting sales role clarity, structure, and compensation redesign (anticipated major change cycle in 2026–2027)

Key Responsibilities, Continued

Execution of HR Center of Excellence Programs

• Act as the “final mile” owner for COE initiatives, ensuring programs translate effectively to the field.
• Provide real-time workforce insight to COEs on feasibility, adoption, and employee impact.
• Ensure consistent execution of talent, compensation, learning, and HR systems initiatives.

Talent Strategy & Workforce Planning

• Address significant talent gaps across:

• Operations leadership

• Engineering and R&D

• Product management

• Sales (global initiative underway)

• Move the organization from reactive staffing to proactive workforce planning.

Labor Relations & Compliance

• Manage labor relations across diverse environments:

• Canada: Unionized plant with upcoming negotiations

• Mexico & Brazil: Union presence with lower adversarial risk

• U.S.: Predominantly non-union with escalation risk

• Ensure compliance with employment laws, immigration requirements, and occupational health standards.

Modernization & Automation Enablement

• Partner with business leaders to:

• Identify where automation can offset labor shortages

• Modernize operations and workforce models

• Build workforce capability to adopt new technologies

• Collaborate closely with the Automation business to align talent strategy with future operating needs.

Job Requirements

• Senior HR leader with experience supporting large, complex manufacturing organizations.
• Proven ability to operate as a credible executive business partner.
• Strong background in multi-country HR leadership across the Americas.
• Experience with labor relations, workforce transformation, and leadership development.
• Comfortable navigating ambiguity, scale, and transformation.

Lincoln Electric is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We are committed to promoting equal employment opportunity for applicants, without regard to their race, color, national origin, religion, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions, including, but not limited to, lactation), sexual orientation, gender identity, age, veteran status, disability, genetic information, and any other category protected by federal, state, or local law.

Nearest Major Market: Cleveland

Job Segment: Welding, Fabrication, Manufacturing