Manager People & Culture

About the Role

The Manager – People and Culture serves as the operational engine of all core P&C systems. While the role requires a comprehensive/generalist understanding of the entire employee lifecycle, its primary mandates are dual-focused: leading high-impact talent acquisition strategies and designing business-aligned, programmatic onboarding frameworks that set new hires up for long-term success.

The ideal candidate is someone who brings sharp market intelligence, outstanding stakeholder management skills, and the mental stamina to run high-volume pipelines and leadership-level hiring funnels simultaneously without dropping the quality of the candidate experience.

Key Responsibilities:

1. End-to-End Talent Acquisition & Headhunting [Core Focus]

• Niche & Leadership Sourcing: Manage the end-to-end recruitment lifecycle for diverse and niche roles across civic tech, urban planning, policy research, advocacy, and leadership tracks.
• Active Headhunting: Move beyond traditional job boards; actively source passive, high-caliber talent through LinkedIn Recruiter, industry mapping, and direct outreach.
• Stakeholder Advisory: Partner directly with senior leadership and Program Directors to run strategic workforce planning, helping them define and structure roles before opening mandates.
• Selection Rigor: Standardize screening assessments, structure interview panels, and drive fair, competency-based evaluation frameworks to raise the hiring bar.
• Negotiation & Closure: Own the salary negotiation process, pitching the organization's mission-driven value proposition effectively to close top candidates.
• DEI Hiring Agenda: Actively design and run diverse hiring initiatives to build a highly inclusive and diverse workplace across gender, geography, and backgrounds.

2. Employer Branding & Pipeline Building

• Brand Positioning: Articulate and champion the organization's Employee Value Proposition across LinkedIn, social media, and industry networks to position the organization as a premier employer in the social impact and civic space.
• Passive Talent Pools: Cultivate active, warm talent pipelines for high-frequency or critical programmatic roles to drastically reduce TAT.

3. Business-Aligned Onboarding, Lifecycle & Separation

• Operational Onboarding Frameworks: Design and execute a thorough, program-specific onboarding experience. Ensure that the first 30–60–90 days of any new hire are structured to integrate them deeply into their respective project teams and operational realities.
• EVP Custodianship: Ensure the candidate experience—from the first outreach email to the final day of induction—is professional, warm, respectful, and reflective of the organziation's culture.
• Procedural Exit Management: Manage employee separations and the exit lifecycle with strict procedural accuracy. This includes managing exit sequences seamlessly, conducting structured exit interviews, and correctly leveraging Performance Improvement Plans (PIPs) for developmental course correction, warnings, and documentation.
• Cross-Team Coordination: Collaborate seamlessly within the lean P&C team. 

4. Performance Management & Process Administration

• Cycle Management: Run annual goal-setting and review cycles precisely on time and to a consistent standard across all programs and levels.
• Appraisal Optimization: Partner with program leadership and the Director – P&C to manage, optimize, and successfully close the annual appraisal cycle.
• Leadership Pipeline: Assist in developing a robust leadership pipeline for senior organizational transitions.
• Performance Culture: Collaborate with the P&C team to link hiring trends with performance appraisal data, ensuring our sourcing targets are continually optimized based on what high performance looks like internally.

5. Learning and Development:

• L&D Execution Support: While the overarching L&D strategy is led by the Director, the Manager will understand the architecture of the learning programs and provide strong backup execution support to keep the annual learning calendar running productively.
• Delivery & Evaluation: Choose delivery models sensibly (e.g., internal faculty, external partners, self-paced, or cohort-based) depending on the specific organizational need. Gather honest feedback on program efficacy and continuously refresh learning offerings accordingly.

6. Compensation Benchmarking & Culture:

• Market-Aligned Offers: Tracking real-time industry talent-cost trends, providing market-benchmarked data to ensure recruitment offers are competitive yet structurally fair.
• Culture Transmission: Act as a primary cultural steward from the very first candidate interview. Translate the organization's core values into actionable behaviors, ensuring that candidates assessed for talent acquisition are strongly aligned.
• Engagement & DEI Initiatives: Collaborate with the broader P&C team to run culture building events, employee engagement pulse surveys, and specific DEI initiatives that foster a highly collaborative, welcoming, and equitable workplace.

Qualifications and Experience

• Education: MBA or equivalent Master's degree in Human Resources, Social Work (MSW), or Management.
• Experience: 8–12 years of hands-on experience, with at least 5+ years of core ownership over talent acquisition pipelines and stakeholder management.
• Industry Context: Experience scaling teams in fast-paced startups, progressive corporate environments, or high-growth consulting/non-profit organizations is highly valued.

Non-Negotiable Competencies

• High-Stamina Sourcing & Agility: The resilience to manage multiple open mandates across highly divergent domains (e.g., tech, research, operations) without letting the pipeline stall.
• Strategic Partnering & Gravity: The executive presence and communication skills required to consult with senior directors, push back constructively on unrealistic hiring profiles, and negotiate effectively.
• Exceptional Communication & Pitching: Outstanding oral and written skills. You will act as the first point of contact; your ability to articulate our mission and excite high-potential candidates is critical.

What Success Looks Like (12 to 18-Month View)

• Time-to-Hire is reduced by 30% through active pipeline building and standardized interview processes.
• 100% of new hires undergo a structured, team-specific onboarding program, showing measurable early engagement and faster time-to-productivity.
• The organization's employer brand presence on LinkedIn is highly active, resulting in a 50% increase in high-quality direct inbound applications.
• Successful closure of critical leadership and niche programmatic positions within budget and timeline expectations.