Senior Vice President of Volunteer Engagement

Senior Vice President of Volunteer Engagement

Benefits: Medical and retirement benefits, along with paid vacation, sick leave, and holidays.

About Second Harvest

At Second Harvest, we measure success by how well we care for people: our neighbors facing hunger, our volunteers, and our team members. We rescue food before it goes to waste and work alongside a dedicated network of staff, volunteers, and community partners to distribute millions of pounds of food each year.

The work is complex and demanding, but it matters every day. Our culture values people who are helpful, flexible, willing to roll up their sleeves, and committed to making progress rather than waiting for perfection.

About the Role

Food bank lines have been growing for years, and Second Harvest's mission is more critical than ever. One of our biggest opportunities to serve more people is to deepen the support we receive from volunteers in our community.

Thousands of people already give their time to Second Harvest every year, sorting food, supporting distributions, driving routes, assisting with programs, and helping us serve our communities. We believe there are even more opportunities for volunteers to make a meaningful difference throughout our organization.

One of the most gratifying things we get to do at Second Harvest is help people do good in the world. We are looking for a senior leader who gets excited about that idea.

The Senior Vice President of Volunteer Engagement will lead Second Harvest's organization-wide approach to volunteering. We need someone with strong communication and relationship-building skills, strategic thinking, and a natural ability to galvanize people who can help take an already strong volunteer program to the next level.

This role is less about simply finding more volunteers and more about creating an experience that makes people excited to be part of Second Harvest, understanding what they have to offer, connecting them to meaningful work, and giving them reasons to stay involved.

This is a senior leadership position and a member of Second Harvest's Leadership Team. You'll contribute not only to the future of volunteering at Second Harvest, but also to organization-wide strategy, problem-solving, and decision-making.

What You'll Do

• Lead and continually improve volunteer engagement across Second Harvest programs and locations.
• Create an experience that gets people excited about Second Harvest, connects them to meaningful work, and keeps them engaged over time.
• Work with senior leaders to identify new and creative ways volunteers can increase capacity across the organization.
• Oversee volunteer recruitment strategy and ensure the team is effectively attracting and connecting people to opportunities.
• Lead and develop the volunteer support team while overseeing Volunteer Center operations and ensuring the program runs smoothly, safely, and effectively.
• Retain strong relationships with volunteers, community partners, businesses, groups, and others connected to Second Harvest.
• Create a culture that balances genuine care for volunteers with support, accountability, and healthy expectations.
• Oversee the effective use of Galaxy Digital, our volunteer management platform, and ensure strong practices around volunteer opportunities, communication, tracking, and data.
• Use feedback, data, experimentation, and good judgment to decide what we should improve, expand, or try next.
• Participate actively on the Leadership Team and contribute to priorities and challenges beyond your own area of responsibility.

Who We're Looking For

There isn't one perfect career path for this job. You may come from nonprofit leadership, community engagement, higher education, hospitality, program development, events, or another people-centered field.

We're especially interested in someone who:

• Models Second Harvest's values of humility, trust, kindness, gratitude, and generosity.
• Naturally energizes people and gets them excited to participate.
• Has significant experience leading employees and building strong teams.
• Has built, grown, or meaningfully improved programs or initiatives.
• Is an exceptional communicator and relationship-builder.
• Thinks strategically and can turn ideas into action.
• Sees opportunities for people to contribute and knows how to connect them to meaningful work.
• Builds relationships easily while maintaining appropriate boundaries and accountability.
• Can lead through ambiguity, change, competing priorities, and difficult conversations.
• Thinks beyond their own team and contributes meaningfully to organization-wide leadership.
• Connects just as comfortably with volunteers and frontline employees as with senior leaders and community partners.

Qualifications

• Strong organization skills and attention to detail.
• Comfort speaking to groups.
• Sound judgment and the ability to make routine decisions independently.
• Ability to pass a pre-employment background check.

We're less interested in whether you've followed a traditional volunteer-management career path and more interested in whether you can lead people, galvanize a community, build a strong program, and help people find meaningful ways to do good in the world.

Steps to Apply

Apply through Indeed with your resume and responses to the questions below.

A note from us: We want to get to know you, not read our job posting back to us. You're welcome to use AI as a writing tool. Just make sure your responses sound like you and tell us something we couldn't learn from the job ad or your resume. Specific and genuine beats perfectly polished.

1. What about this opportunity genuinely interests you, and what makes you a good fit?

2. Tell us about your leadership philosophy. How do you build trust, lead teams, and help people do their best work?

Other Information:

• Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis until the position is filled.
• All successful candidates will be subject to a background screen prior to hiring. https://2-harvest.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/FAIR-CHANCE-ACT-NOTICE-revised-8.20.26.pdf
• Must have a valid driver’s license.
• Second Harvest is an equal opportunity employer. We welcome and encourage applicants of all backgrounds. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age (40 ), disability, veteran or military status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, genetic information, or any other legally protected characteristic. We comply with Washington’s Law Against Discrimination (RCW 49.60) and the Washington Equal Pay and Opportunities Act (RCW 49.58).

Job Type: Full-time

Pay: $90,000.00 - $100,000.00 per year

Application Question(s):

• Provide answers to the two questions below.

We want to get to know you, not read our job posting back to us. You're welcome to use AI as a writing tool. Just make sure your responses sound like you and tell us something we couldn't learn from the job ad or your resume. Specific and genuine beats perfectly polished.

1. What about this opportunity genuinely interests you, and what makes you a good fit?
2. Tell us about your leadership philosophy. How do you build trust, lead teams, and help people do their best work?

Work Location: In person

Salary : $90,000 - $100,000