Trust for Public Land

Chief People and Culture Officer

Trust for Public Land
Remote
Leadership
Compensation Transparency

The Chief People & Culture Officer (CPCO), a new position for Trust for Public Land, will be responsible for bringing high-level strategic capability to the human resources and equity functions, serving as a thought partner with the President & CEO, Executive Team, and Board of Directors. This person will be the standard bearer for inclusive culture and practices across TPL that support the sustainable growth of the organization. The CPCO will be responsible for ensuring equity is at the core of all people strategy, that staff see themselves in the mission and work, and understand the opportunities to grow their careers with TPL. Further, the CPCO will develop and guide comprehensive workforce and succession planning for the organization.

The CPCO will assess the people implications of strategic initiatives and be an active participant with the Executive Team in determining where best to invest across the organization. The CPCO will report directly to the President & CEO of Trust for Public Land and lead a team of five that currently includes the VP of Human Resources, two HR Business Partners, the Equity Director, and an administrative manager.

The ideal candidate will bring a vision for enterprise-wide people and culture strategy and enthusiasm for collaborating with a talented Executive Team to problem solve across the organization. The CPCO will be creative, flexible, strategic, and have strong business acumen. TPL values leaders who bring both gravitas and fun to their role.

MAJOR OBJECTIVES

Within the first 12 to 18 months, the Chief People & Culture Officer will achieve the following major objectives:

• Establish their own executive leadership on issues related to people and culture, demonstrating TPL’s values, and building strong relationships across the organization. Foster a culture of belonging through personal example, leadership practices, and processes.

• Build relationships with other members of the Executive Team and bring enterprise-oriented questions to the team for resolution. Participate in decisions about investment priorities, including assessing any need for investment in the People & Culture department.

• In collaboration with leaders across the organization, create and begin to implement a talent strategy designed to ensure that TPL attracts, develops, and retains the staff members who will grow its impact and lead the organization into the future.

• Prioritize actions in TPL’s DEI strategy, and make significant progress on implementation, in collaboration with the Director of Equity and staff across the organization.

• Measurably improve the employee experience, including establishing processes for onboarding and career pathing that build enthusiasm and commitment to TPL’s mission and values.

• Implement regular assessments and reporting on staff engagement that celebrates progress, identifies priorities for improvement, and demonstrates progress in key metrics.

RESPONSIBILITIES

The Chief People & Culture Officer will have the following primary responsibilities:

• Serve as a collaborative thought partner with TPL’s President & CEO and Executive Team on enterprise-wide strategy development and decision making; set a forward-looking vision that centers people, culture, and equity in leading staff, managing change, and making strong business decisions.

• Provide strategic oversight and leadership for the People & Culture team, leveraging their operational expertise to engage managers and staff across TPL in achieving people-related goals such as staff engagement, retention, development, and workforce planning.

• Ensure that DEI is at the forefront of all People & Culture strategies, in alignment with the strategic plan, and advise on the resources and timing to achieve those strategies; ensure that scalable systems and plans are in place to support the future people needs for TPL.

• In collaboration with the Equity Director, lead the prioritization and implementation of the DEI Action Plan across the organization; regularly assess progress and achievement of goals.

• Travel as needed to understand and promote a cohesive culture that engages fully remote, field office, and headquarters staff around shared values and goals.

• Develop a robust succession planning process for executive leadership, with a particular focus on DEI, and cascade it across TPL as part of a comprehensive workforce planning and career pathing program.

• Leverage the expertise of the People & Culture team in creating inclusive and sustainable structures for onboarding, performance management, career pathing, and employee engagement and retention.

• In partnership with the President & CEO, advise the Board of Directors on the People & Culture implications of strategic initiatives.

QUALIFICATIONS

The ideal candidate will bring most of the following qualifications and skill sets:

• Passion for the mission and work of TPL and its commitments to community, equity, health, and climate.

• A minimum of ten years of experience as a collaborative human resources leader within the nonprofit or for-profit sectors; capacity to lead a team, guide change, and make sound business decisions.

• Prior experience guiding enterprise-wide people and culture strategy, leading change at an organizational level, and engaging teams to execute on the tactics to achieve goals.

• Comfort serving as the strategic leader for a small team; the acumen to identify the resources needed to support growth and advocate for them in a sustainable manner.

• Strong experience leading engagement on DEI initiatives, both internally and externally, and how to fully integrate DEI into the work of an organization.

• Visionary and strategic, energized by the opportunity to tackle enterprise-wide challenges with a high-performing team of peers.

• Ability to be both a trusted advisor on people-related issues and an advocate for appropriate investments to address those needs.

• Collaborative, optimistic, creative, energetic, decisive, and adaptable; the ability to integrate hard work and fun.

• Comfort leaning into the experience and insight of staff at all levels in creating learning and development programs.

• Solid business acumen, comfort with ambiguity, and the ability to integrate the work of human resources into the context of the whole organization.

• Willingness to travel to TPL offices and project sites as needed.

• A bachelor’s degree and/or a master’s degree in a related field is preferred.

COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS

The salary range for this position is $225,000 to $275,000. Benefits include health, vision, and dental insurance; retirement plan with employer match; life insurance; short- and long-term disability; leaves of absence; employee assistance program; flex spending accounts; flexible schedules; paid time off including vacation, holidays, personal, sick, and volunteer time.

The location for this role is flexible, with a preference for being near one of TPL’s offices or easily accessible to a major airport that will accommodate travel across the network.

Apply here

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