Senior HR Business Partner

Company Overview
ACS (Allen Control Systems) is a defense technology company building precision robotic systems for the United States and its allies. Founded by two former U.S. Navy electrical engineers with deep experience in robotics and software, ACS brings together AI, computer vision, precision motion, and advanced hardware to solve complex defense challenges across land, air, and maritime environments.

Our flagship product, Bullfrog, is an autonomous precision weapon system that transforms existing weapons into highly accurate counter-drone systems — giving warfighters a scalable, cost-effective response to one of the fastest-growing threats on the modern battlefield. Bullfrog is deployed with U.S. forces, and ACS works with organizations throughout the U.S. military and national security community.

Following a $200 million Series B at a $2.2 billion valuation, ACS is rapidly expanding manufacturing, accelerating Bullfrog deployments, and developing the next generation of autonomous battlefield systems. This is an opportunity to join a proven, fast-moving team and help scale technology with direct, real-world impact on national security.

ACS is headquartered in Austin, Texas, with additional operations in Alexandria, Virginia; Mountain View, California; and Huntsville, Alabama. For more information, visit allencontrolsystems.com.

About The Role

We are looking for a Senior HR Business Partner to be the day-to-day HR partner for our people, with a primary focus on our manufacturing organization. You will own employee relations, onboarding, and workforce planning while serving as the first call for questions on compensation, benefits, and payroll. This is a hands-on, wear-many-hats role on a small team at a fast-growing company; you will move between the production floor and the corporate side, solve problems without a playbook, and build the processes you need as ACS scales.

You’ll be the first person that manufacturing employees turn to for HR and you’ll be comfortable with that. You’ll work alongside HR Operations and other People team members who provide specialist support, but you are the front door.

This is a hybrid role requiring three days per week onsite at our Long Vista manufacturing facility in Austin, Texas.

What You’ll Do

• Serve as the embedded HR partner to manufacturing leadership; advise on staffing, performance, retention, and supervisor coaching for an hourly, shift-based workforce, and support workforce planning and headcount forecasting against operational demand.

• Own employee relations end to end; handle concerns and grievances, conduct workplace investigations, guide leaders through performance management and progressive discipline, and drive retention through stay interviews and conflict resolution.

• Lead onboarding for new hires, including facility orientation, safety onboarding, and role-specific training coordination; partner with safety and compliance on OSHA requirements, incident documentation, and wage and hour compliance.

• Be the first point of contact for employee questions on compensation, benefits, and payroll; support open enrollment, pay equity reviews, and internal alignment, and partner with HR Operations on anything that needs a systems fix.

• Build the process where none exists; create the documentation, templates, and workflows a scaling People function needs, and take on work outside your lane when the team needs it.

What You’ll Need

• 4 to 7 years of HR experience with a strong employee relations and generalist background.

• Experience supporting an hourly, shift-based or production workforce; working knowledge of wage and hour rules, timekeeping, shift differentials, and OSHA requirements.

• Demonstrated employee relations skill; workplace investigations, difficult conversations, performance management, and coaching frontline leaders.

• Working knowledge of compensation, benefits, and payroll sufficient to answer employee questions directly and know when to escalate.

• Comfort with ambiguity and a track record of solving operational HR problems independently in a fast-moving environment.

• A collaborative, no-ego approach: you’re equally comfortable owning a complex investigation and jumping in on a benefits question, an onboarding gap, or a task that isn’t in your job description.

• Comfort being the visible, accessible first point of contact for a workforce, including on the floor and across shifts.

You’ll Stand Out

• Background in a startup, defense, engineering, or advanced manufacturing environment.

• Experience supporting both a corporate population and a production floor, and adapting your approach between the two.

• Experience supporting shift-based or 24/7 operations, or a multi-site workforce.

• Hands-on experience with an HRIS such as Rippling, including onboarding workflows, benefits administration, or reporting.

• Experience building HR processes from scratch rather than inheriting it.

• Experience as a solo or lead HR partner who coordinated with specialists (HR Ops, benefits, payroll) rather than owning every function alone.

What We Offer

• Competitive salary

• ACS Equity Package

• Health, Dental, Vision Insurance

• Paid Time Off

Allen Control Systems is an Equal Opportunity Employer, providing equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment. Allen Control Systems prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.