Senior Director, People & Culture

About Oregon Humane

Oregon Humane transforms compassion into action through life-changing programs that support and celebrate the human-animal connection, including adoption, veterinary care, education, humane law enforcement, and legislation. With campuses in Portland and Salem, Oregon Humane is an independent non-profit organization that receives no government funding and is fueled entirely by donors. Visit oregonhumane.org to learn more about how we protect the bond between pets and the people who love them. 

The Team

The People & Culture team is a multifaceted and dedicated group that plays a crucial role in shaping our organization's culture and ensuring the well-being of our employees, volunteers, and community. Comprised of experts in human resources, safety, emergency response, community education, volunteers, facilities, and learning and development, our team works tirelessly to foster a safe, inclusive, and supportive environment for our organization, reflecting our core values and commitment to our community.

The Position

The Senior Director, People & Culture is a senior leadership role responsible for shaping and executing strategies that attract and retain mission-aligned talent, developing and strengthening employee capabilities and culture, and engaging volunteers across OHS. Responsible for shaping and executing a people strategy that advances OHS’ long-term vision and mission impact.

The Senior Director, People & Culture is a senior leadership role responsible for ensuring a consistent and engaging experience for employees and volunteers across Oregon Humane. This role leads strategies that attract and retain mission-aligned individuals, staff and volunteers, who engagement meaningfully in advancing Oregon Humane’s mission. Through leadership of People Operations, Talent Acquisition, and Volunteer Engagement, the Senior Director works across the organization to create a workplace and volunteer environment where people feel supported, connected, and empowered to contribute to Oregon Humane’s impact.

As a member of the Senior Leadership Team (SLT), this role partners with the Executive Team to ensure that organizational design, leadership capability, workforce planning, volunteer engagement, total rewards, culture, and compliance infrastructure enable OHS to achieve its multi-year strategic priorities.

This role leads Human Resources, Talent Acquisition, and Volunteer Engagement, ensuring OHS operates as a high-performing, inclusive, and mission-aligned organization.

Eligible Benefits

We are committed to creating a better future for pets, and we work hard to achieve our goals while offering a rewarding workplace including competitive benefit packages to our employees.   

• Medical/Dental/Vision
• Paid Time Off Sick Time Holidays
• 401(k) with employer match
• Professional Development Opportunities
• One free Oregon Humane adoption / year

Essential Responsibilities

PERSONAL LEADERSHIP

• Consistently strives to exceed expectations; demonstrates flexibility, resilience, and the ability to maintain positive relationships and composure, even under difficult circumstances.
• Maintains high ethical standards, including exhibiting behaviors and actions that embrace and align to our organization and customer service values, while treating all people with respect and dignity.
• Demonstrates an awareness of your individual personal strengths and development needs, modeling non-defensive behavior and openness to feedback; builds a culture of feedback and learning.

TEAM LEADERSHIP & MANAGEMENT 

• Manage, support, and provide coaching feedback to team members, and create and sustain a work environment of mutual respect where team members strive to achieve excellence within their own team and embrace their role and responsibilities in advancing shared goals and priorities. 
• Manage day-to-day implementation and support for key activities including coordination with other teams implementing complementary activities. 
• Role model inclusive leadership, creating an environment where diverse viewpoints are welcomed and actively engaged

LEARNING

• Contributes to regular dialogue and accountability with the leadership team and across the organization to review progress and course correct if necessary.
• Utilizes data and insights to identify, understand and articulate the key inputs and metrics that tell the story of the organization/team strategy and its progress.
• Builds appropriate feedback loops to measure if we are meeting key milestones and if the impact planned is being felt across the organization.

INFLUENCE & REPRESENTATION

• Communicate effectively to executive and other stakeholder groups to ensure they are informed and able to actively engage.
• Liaise with and maintain productive relationships with all stakeholders, including other departments, and donors; build mutually rewarding professional relationships inside Oregon Humane at all levels.
• Leverage our best practices externally and grow Oregon Humane’s reputation as a leader in the animal welfare space.

MANAGING CHANGE

• Identify and drives organizational changes necessary to support OHS’ strategic priorities and evolution.
• Assess organizational readiness and builds the infrastructure needed to sustain change initiatives.
• Guide leaders through complex transitions including restructures, culture shifts, leadership development, and policy evolution.
• Communicate change with clarity and alignment, ensuring consistency across SLT and Executive messaging.
• Build organizational resilience by fostering adaptability, accountability, and continuous improvement.

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES

PEOPLE & CULTURE: Strategy and HR Leadership 

• Lead Human Resources, Talent Acquisition, and Volunteer Engagement functions, setting standards for best practices in policies, procedures and compliance. 

• Manage, support, and provide coaching feedback to team members, and create and sustain a work environment of mutual respect where team members strive to achieve excellence within their own team and embrace their role and responsibilities in advancing shared goals and priorities.  

• Design and steward OHS’ total rewards philosophy, including market benchmarking, salary band calibration, and benefits strategy. 

• Provide day-to-day guidance on escalated employee relations cases (e.g., coaching, counseling, disciplinary/corrective actions, mediation). 

• Regularly monitor sector and labor market trends to ensure OHS remains competitive and mission-aligned. 

• Model inclusive leadership and ensure equity is embedded across all people systems. 

TALENT ACQUISITION & WORKFORCE PLANNING 

• Develop and execute a strategic, proactive recruitment plan aligned with organizational workforce forecasting. 

• Provide strategic leadership to the Senior Specialist, Talent Acquisition helping to guide the full recruitment lifecycle: sourcing, selection, onboarding, retention, and offboarding. 

• Provide strategic leadership in the development and management of the strategy for talent acquisition with departmental leaders to forecast staffing needs and build pipelines for critical and mission-critical roles. 

• Strengthen OHS’ employer brand to position the organization as an employer of choice in the nonprofit and animal welfare sectors. 

VOLUNTEER ENGAGEMENT  

• Provide strategic oversight of volunteer recruitment, onboarding, training, engagement, and recognition across campuses. 

• Ensure volunteers are meaningfully integrated into operations and aligned with mission impact. 

• Develop long-term strategies to grow and sustain volunteer participation while measuring engagement and satisfaction metrics. 

CULTURE, ENGAGEMENT & INCLUSION 

• Champion a mission-aligned culture that prioritizes clarity, accountability, belonging, and continuous improvement. 

• Provide leadership around engagement surveys, stay/exit interviews, and organizational health metrics. 

• Embed equity, inclusion, and belonging into all talent systems and leadership practices. 

• Serve as a strategic advisor on internal communications related to people initiatives. 

OPERATIONAL MANAGEMENT & METRICS 

• Establish, track, and report enterprise-level KPIs related to HR performance, hiring, and volunteer impact. 

• Oversee budgeting and financial stewardship for HR, Talent Acquisition and Volunteer Engagement. 

• Ensure HRIS, ATS, and volunteer management systems are scalable, compliant, and user centered. 

SUPERVISOR RESPONSIBILITY

Supervises: Manager, People Operations, Program Manager; Talent Acquisition & Internships; Specialist, Volunteer Engagement and Managers, Volunteer Engagement (2 positions).

ACCOUNTABILITY

Reports Directly To: Interim CEO and Chief People & Culture Officer

Often Engages Directly With: Internal and external stakeholders and team members from across the organization.

Minimum Qualification & Transferable Skills

We are interested in finding the best candidate for the job, and that candidate may be one who comes from a less traditional background. We welcome applicants who bring a diversity of identity, culture, experience, perspective, and thought. We encourage you to apply, even if you do not believe you meet every one of the qualifications described. You are also encouraged to address how your professional and lived experience, scholarship, mentorship and/or service will contribute to the Oregon Humane.

• Significant progressive leadership experience (10 years) in human resources, specifically in leadership roles managing multiple teams and reporting to the executive team.
• Demonstrated experience in designing and executing people operations strategies and oversight of expansive volunteer engagement programs.
• Strong understanding of best practices in HR compliance, employment law, and workforce planning.
• Proven ability to lead culture change, foster diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging in a non-profit setting.
• Leadership through influence and rapport building. Ability to collaborate with others, listen to and recognize different perspectives.
• Independent thinking and confidence in decision-making. Agile decision making and the ability to change quickly when needed.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills - able to communicate with a diverse population in a consistently informative, respectful, and professional manner.
• Strong analytical and metrics-driven mindset.
• Experience managing budgets and operating HR/volunteer programs at scale.
• Able to exercise sound judgment and maintain a professional demeanor during all interactions with the public, partner agencies, donors, staff, and volunteers.
• Ability to comprehend, interpret, and apply the appropriate sections of applicable laws, guidelines, regulations, ordinances, and policies. Experience with benefit administration, and advanced knowledge in applicable regulatory, legal requirements and reporting, including ACA, COBRA, EEO, ERISA, HIPAA, FLSA, OFLA & FMLA.
• Ability to acquire a thorough understanding of the organization's hierarchy, jobs, qualifications, compensation practices, and administrative practices related to those factors.
• Ability to forecast future needs and evaluate present needs based on objective financial and statistical analysis. 
• Mission-driven, passionate about animal welfare.
• Collaborative leader, able to build strong relationships across diverse teams.
• Innovative, adaptive, and mindset toward continuous improvement.
• Empathetic, approachable, ethical, able to deal with sensitive and emotionally challenging situations.
• Strategic thinker with strong execution skills.
• Proficiency using the Microsoft Office Suite, including Outlook, Word, Excel.

Work Environment Conditions & Physical Requirements

This position interacts and collaborates will all levels of the organization, including Oregon Humane staff, executive team members, donors, general public, external vendors, volunteers, and supporters. Contact and communication is carried out through face-to-face, telephone and digital interactions. Excellent customer service skills are essential to success. Communication must be clear, understandable, professional and respectful in all circumstances.

WORKING CONDITIONS

• Work is performed in an office and medical center/animal shelter environment with the potential for flexible work after the first 90 days.
• Travel between the two campuses is required.
• Working at both campuses may be required.
• Occasional weekend and evening work is required, including attending Oregon Humane events.
• Animal contact and related injuries may occur.
• Noise exposure varies and sometimes includes uncontrolled barking and other animal vocalizations.
• Pace of work is active and demanding, requiring a high degree of multitasking and ability to adapt to changing priorities while managing concurrent projects/tasks to completion.
• Contact with angry or emotional people may occur.

PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS

• Occasional lifting and moving of inanimate objects weighing up to 50 lbs.
• Occasional pushing and pulling of carted items weighing up to 150 lbs.
• Occasional moving items above shoulder level.
• Occasional use of hands and arms at or above shoulder level.
• Prolonged standing, sitting and/or stooping may occur.
• Must be able to remain in a stationary position for prolonged periods.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Achieving our mission begins with how we build our team and work together. Through our commitment to enriching our organization with people of different origins, beliefs, backgrounds and ways of thinking, we are better able to leverage the collective power of our teams and address and overcome complex challenges and barriers. We strive for a culture of integrity, respect and compassion where every member of our community contributes their perspectives and authentic selves and where everyone reaches their potential as individuals and teams. We recognize that striving for diversity, equity and inclusion is a journey, and we are committed to learning, listening, and evolving to become more diverse, equitable and inclusive than we are today.

Equal Employment Opportunity

Oregon Humane is an equal opportunity employer that does not tolerate discrimination on any basis. We actively seek out diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and skills so that we can be collectively stronger and have sustained impact.

We are committed to providing an environment of respect and psychological safety where equal employment opportunities are available to all. We do not engage in or tolerate discrimination on the basis of race, color, gender identity, gender expression, religion, age, sexual orientation, national or ethnic origin, disability (including HIV/AIDS status), marital status, military veteran status or any other protected group.

At-Will Employment

This position description in no way states or implies that these are the only duties performed by the employee occupying this position. Employees will be required to follow any other job-related duties required by their supervisor. This document does not create an employment contract implied or otherwise, other than an “at-will” relationship.

Salary : $128,000 - $141,000