Jesse Rivas

About Jesse Rivas

I am a Senior Human Resources professional with more than fifteen years of experience partnering with executive leadership to design, lead, and scale operations, risk, and compliance functions within complex, unionized heavy civil construction environments. My career has been defined by building HR and risk mitigation strategies that align workforce performance with organizational growth, regulatory compliance, and financial sustainability.Throughout my career, I have led human resource strategies across union and non-union workforces, overseeing talent acquisition, labor relations, compensation, workforce planning, compliance governance, and organizational development. In parallel, I have managed risk portfolios including workers’ compensation, general liability, auto, builder’s risk, and claims administration while integrating safety, operations, and insurance strategy to reduce exposure and improve outcomes. My background spans direct C-suite partnership, collective bargaining, complex employee relations investigations, payroll governance, and large-scale regulatory compliance at the federal, state, and project-specific levels.I hold an Executive MBA and am currently completing a Doctor of Management with a concentration in human resources, leadership, compliance, and organizational development. This academic focus strengthens business acumen by grounding decision-making in governance, ethics, and long-term organizational effectiveness.My leadership philosophy is rooted in alignment and aligning people strategy with business strategy, compliance with culture, and accountability with trust. I am passionate about developing high-performing teams, empowering leaders at all levels, and creating systems that allow organizations and their people to thrive in demanding, high-risk environments. I bring a steady, principled approach to leadership and a proven ability to translate complex challenges into clear, actionable strategies.

Experience

1. Senior Human Resources Manager

   Bay Cities Paving & Grading, Inc.

   Apr 2025 — Present · Concord, CA, US

   Provide leadership, develop HR strategy for growing organization, enhance organizational development, partner with the executive team to drive workforce planning, employee engagement, leadership alignment, and culture stewardship.• Manage the organization’s risk management and insurance programs, including workers’ compensation, general liability, auto, property, and excess coverages, ensuring compliance with legal requirements and organizational risk tolerance. • Strengthen organizational resilience through disciplined claims analytics, trend identification, document control, and reporting to support proactive risk mitigation and executive decision-making.• Claims leadership to provide strategy and oversight for workers’ compensation, auto, GL, and third-party claims, including coordination with insurance carriers, brokers, and defense counsel to drive favorable outcomes. • Direct companywide safety collaboration with the Safety Department, aligning incident management, compliance efforts, and corrective strategies to support operational readiness, worker protection, and cost mitigation. • Provide senior-level oversight of complex employee relations and investigations, ensuring ethical outcomes, confidentiality, leadership accountability, and consistent policy application.• Managed claims across multiple concurrent infrastructure projects ($5M -$175M).• Manage and develop the Sr. Human Resources Manager role, ensuring alignment with company policies and strategic initiatives.• Ensure organizational policies adhere to ethical governance and align with organizational vision and goals.• Govern payroll oversight for non-union and salaried employees while ensuring full compliance and contract alignment for union payroll processes to maintain operational integrity and regulatory adherence.• Design and institutionalize organizational processes that improve efficiency, compliance posture, operational discipline, and strategic alignment across the business.

Education

• University of Phoenix

  Doctor of Management, Compliance and Leadership in Heavy Civil Construction

• Saint Mary's College of California

  Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.), Business Administration and Management, General

  2012 — 2014

• University of Phoenix

  Bachelor’s Degree, Business Management

  2008 — 2011