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Human Resources Business Partner

HNTB · Chicago, IL · $105,591–$165,155 a year · Full time

Posted Sep 4, 2026 · We last checked this listing on Oct 6, 2026

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Likely interview questions for this role

Written from this job description, not a generic list. Each one notes what the interviewer is really checking.

About your past

You would partner with leaders in the Chicago and Milwaukee offices. How do you learn what a business unit actually needs from HR?

What they are checking: Whether they start by understanding the business before pushing HR programs on it.

Tell me about an employee relations investigation you handled from start to finish.

What they are checking: Whether they can run a fair, well-documented investigation and reach a sound conclusion.

Tell me about a time you had to tell a senior leader something they did not want to hear.

What they are checking: Whether they can push back with tact and keep the relationship.

What would you do

HNTB's employees are mostly engineers and planners. How would you adapt your HR approach for a technical workforce?

What they are checking: Whether they can earn credibility with professionals who may see HR as overhead.

A manager wants to fire a strong performer who just complained about the manager. What do you do?

What they are checking: Whether they spot retaliation risk and can guide a manager away from a costly mistake.

How would you support talent management, like performance reviews and development plans, across an office you are not always in?

What they are checking: Whether they can stay present and useful to offices spread across two cities.

HNTB is employee-owned. How might that change how you talk to employees about benefits and their future?

What they are checking: Whether they can connect HR conversations to what ownership means for employees.

An employee asks you about a policy, and you realize the policy is applied differently in the two offices. What do you do?

What they are checking: Whether they catch inconsistency risk and work to fix it across the firm.

About the work

How have you used HR data or analytics to change a decision a leader was making?

What they are checking: Whether they can turn numbers into a recommendation leaders act on, which the role names directly.

Walk me through how you would help a leader decide on a compensation adjustment for a key engineer who has an outside offer.

What they are checking: Whether they understand pay equity and market data, not just matching offers.

How do you keep up with changes in employment law in Illinois and Wisconsin?

What they are checking: Whether they know two states can have different rules and stay current on both.

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The full job description

As published by HNTB.

What We're Looking For At HNTB, you can create a career that is meaningful to you while building communities that matter to all of us. For more than a century, we have been delivering solutions for some of the largest, most complex infrastructure projects across the country. With our historic growth, it is an exciting time to join our team of employee-owners. This opportunity entails being an HR Business Partner to an office or multiple offices, providing support and guidance to the business in all areas of Human Resources and may include talent management, employee relations, benefits, compensation, and HR data analytics and reporting. This position serves as the primary point of contact for the business unit leaders and employees, providing expertise in HR policies, procedures, and best practices to drive business performance. What You’ll Do: • Partners with business leaders to understand their needs and align HR strategies and solutions with their goals. Develops positive working relationships and business partnerships in the designated offices and throughout the company. • Provides guidance and support to business units on HR policies, procedures, and best practices. • Partners with the HR departments to implement, administer, educate, and deliver on HR services, programs, training, and policies and/or practices that support the business units and HR objectives. Provides guidance and support to managers on performance management and coaching. • Manages employee relations including investigation and developing solutions that result in fair and timely conflict resolution. • Supports talent management initiatives, including workforce planning, succession planning, and leadership development. Collaborates with office leadership teams to identify employee development and training needs, creating, and implementing a plan to address those needs. • Partners with the business to routinely analyze compensation and provide guidance to maintain or support external competitiveness and internal equity. • Ensures compliance with HR-related legal requirements, including labor laws and regulations. • Analyzes HR data and metrics to identify trends and opportunities for improvement. Regularly evaluates data and provides analytics to assigned groups. • Conducts exit interviews, analyzes turnover trends, and works with leadership to develop strategies to increase engagement and retention. • Participates in the development and implementation of HR programs and initiatives. • Provides regular status updates to HR leadership on the HR Business Partner’s progress and impact on the business units. • Performs other duties as assigned. What You’ll Need: • Bachelor's degree in Human Resources, Business or relevant field and 5 years of relevant human resources experience What You'll Bring: • Has in-depth knowledge of the HR function and HNTB processes. • Seeks to understand the operations of the business, how the business generates revenue and how work gets done within HNTB. • Able to react quickly to solve problems and execute essential day-to-day HR activities. • Partner with leaders to identify and execute organization changes and communication plans. • Engages with business leaders to understand the talent needs required to support future growth (e.g., staffing plans). • Interprets basic data visualizations (charts, tables, etc.) to make comparisons and draw conclusions. • Identifies and delivers data that is most critical to stakeholders’ priorities. • Recognize patterns and trends and able to recommend adjustments to existing plans. • Ask probing questions and effectively discover symptoms and root causes of problems. • Report and manage risks that have been identified through internal operations or the external market. • Understands how work is distributed within the HR function (e.g., between COEs and HRBPs) and effectively utilizes and supports COEs • Must have the ability to travel up to 30% of the time What We Prefer: • 5 years of HR Business Partner experience consulting with leaders on strategy and administration of programs Additional Information Click here for benefits information: HNTB Total Rewards Click here to learn more about Equal Opportunity Employer/Disability/Veteran Visa sponsorship is not available for this position. #NF #HumanResources #LI-NF . Locations: Chicago, IL . . . . . . . . . . . . The approximate pay range for Illinois is $105,590.66 - $165,154.61. Please note that the pay range provided is a good faith estimate for the position based on all selected locations within the state at the time of posting. Actual compensation will be dependent on factors, including but not limited to, the individual’s qualifications, experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities as well as physical work location within the state. . . . . . . . . . NOTICE TO THIRD-PARTY AGENCIES: HNTB does not accept unsolicited resumes from recruiters or agencies. Any staffing/employment agency, person or entity that submits an unsolicited resume to this site does so with the understanding that the applicant's resume will become the property of HNTB. HNTB will have the right to hire that applicant at its discretion and without any fee owed to the submitting staffing/employment agency, person or entity. Staffing/employment agencies who have fee agreements with HNTB must submit applicants to the designated HNTB recruiter to be eligible for placement fees.

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