HR Manager – Onboarding & Employee Experience

The Onboarding & Employee Experience Manager leads the team responsible for delivering seamless, compliant, and high-quality onboarding experience for new hires across all Patterson-UTI legal entities. This role oversees the full pre-employment and onboarding lifecycle, including background adjudication, I-9 administration, relocation coordination, candidate communication, New Employee Orientation (NEO) content development/facilitation, and new-hire experience initiatives.

The position ensures consistent onboarding standards across the enterprise by establishing clear processes, monitoring workflow quality, and partnering closely with Talent Acquisition, Regional HR, and HR Operations. This role also manages key pre-employment vendor relationships to ensure service quality, regulatory compliance, and operational efficiency.

Reporting to the VP, HR Operations, this position plays a critical role in building scalable onboarding processes, strengthening operational governance, and shaping a positive and welcoming experience for all new employees.

Detailed Description

• Lead, coach, and develop the Onboarding & Employee Experience team, including hiring, training,

performance management, workload planning, and day-to-day workflow oversight to ensure

operational continuity and team effectiveness.

• Set and reinforce clear expectations for service excellence, accuracy, compliance, and candidate

experience, while fostering a high-performing, accountable, and team-oriented culture.

• Oversee all pre-employment processing, including background adjudication, drug screen escalation,

essential function testing, and compliance-related requirements, ensuring timely and accurate

completion across all business units.

• Serve as the primary escalation point for complex onboarding challenges, vendor performance issues,

and candidate inquiries, ensuring quick resolution and minimal disruption to hiring timelines.

• Develop, document, and maintain onboarding standard operating procedures (SOPs) and process

documentation to drive consistency, scalability, and operational excellence across all legal entities.

• Participate in onboarding and pre-employment review calls to monitor candidate status, identify risks

to start dates, and support proactive communication with Regional HR, Talent Acquisition and Health,

Safety & Environment (HSE) stakeholders.

• Partner with HR Operations teams to drive onboarding compliance, implement process

improvements, optimize workflows, and promote consistent onboarding standards across all legal

entities.

• Serve as the primary vendor manager for all pre-employment and onboarding-related vendors,

ensuring service-level accountability, process efficiency, and alignment with organizational standards.

• Collaborate with the Drug & Alcohol Program Manager to ensure seamless coordination and

compliance within the drug and alcohol testing program.

• Leverage metrics, dashboards, and process data to identify trends, monitor performance, and drive

continuous improvement initiatives that enhance scalability and operational reliability.

• Perform other related duties as assigned to support HR Operations objectives and enterprise needs.

Job Requirements

• Ability to maintain confidentiality at all times and handle sensitive employee information

appropriately.

• Strong knowledge of onboarding processes, pre-employment workflows, and employment-related

compliance requirements across multi-entity or high-volume environments.

• Demonstrated ability to lead, coach, and develop a team while driving accountability, service

excellence, and operational consistency.

• Proven experience implementing or improving scalable processes, workflows, and standard operating

procedures.

• Exceptional communication and relationship-building skills with the ability to influence and partner

effectively at all levels of the organization, including Regional HR, Talent Acquisition, Operations, and

external vendors.

• Ability to use metrics, dashboards, and data insights to monitor performance, identify trends, and

support continuous improvement initiatives.

• Highly organized, detail-oriented, and capable of managing multiple priorities and deadlines in a fast-

paced, dynamic environment.

• Proficiency with HR systems such as Oracle HCM, Oracle Recruiting Cloud, or similar platforms

supporting onboarding and pre-employment processes.

• Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Office applications, particularly Excel, Word, and Outlook, with

strong documentation and reporting skills.

• Strong customer-service orientation with the ability to support and guide candidates, hiring teams,

and internal HR stakeholders.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree in Business, Human Resources, or related field of study.

• 5+ years of HR experience, including onboarding, pre-employment processing or HR Operations.

• 2+ years of supervisory or team-lead experience.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s degree in Business, Human Resources, or related field of study.

• Experience in the oil and gas industry or other field-based operational industry experience.

Additional Details

Work is primarily in a climate controlled / office environment with minimal safety / health hazard potential. The employee is regularly required to sit, stand, or walk with occasional lifting (overhead, waist level) from floor, bending and frequent near vision use for reading and use of computer, telephone and other office equipment.