Vice President - People & Culture

Title: Vice President, People & Culture

Department: People & Culture

Report to: COO and General Counsel

Compensation: $225,000 – $250,000

FLSA: Exempt 

Employee Type: Full-Time, Regular

Location: New York, NY

Work Arrangement: Hybrid - 3 days/week in the SEO office at 55 Exchange Place, New York, NY 10005

ABOUT SEO 

Founded in 1963 during the Civil Rights Movement, SEO closes educational and career opportunity gaps for 7,000 ambitious young people annually. 

POSITION OVERVIEW

SEO is seeking a transformational Vice President, People & Culture to help shape the next chapter of our organization and employee experience. This is a unique opportunity for an accomplished people leader to build on a strong foundation and elevate how SEO attracts, develops, supports, and engages exceptional talent in service of our mission. 

Over the past several years, SEO has made meaningful investments in talent acquisition, total rewards, workplace flexibility, and talent processes. The next chapter is about bringing those efforts together into a cohesive, high-impact people strategy that strengthens culture, deepens employee trust, and enables organizational excellence across the enterprise. Working alongside a new CEO focused on growth, clarity, and organizational effectiveness, the Vice President will help translate vision into the people systems, management practices, leadership capabilities, and cultural norms required to support SEO's next stage of expansion. This leader's charge is to ensure that as SEO grows, it does so with the consistency, accountability, and employee experience necessary to sustain long-term impact. 

Reporting to the Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel, the Vice President will serve as both a strategic thought partner and an operational leader. The VP leads four functional areas, Talent Acquisition, Total Rewards, Talent Management, and People Operations, with the four functional leaders reporting directly to the VP. The P&C team totals 8.5 FTE, including the VP, with one People Operations & Executive Assistant position split equally between P&C and the Executive Office. They will advise executive leadership on talent and organizational matters, partner closely with managers to strengthen leadership effectiveness, and champion a people-centered culture where employees can do their best work. At the same time, they will oversee the systems, processes, and practices that ensure the People & Culture function operates with consistency, credibility, and excellence. 

The ideal candidate is an influential relationship-builder who combines curiosity and adaptability with sound judgment with executional rigor. They are a trusted advisor, a skilled change leader, and an empathetic listener who seeks first to understand. They bring a clear and confident point of view, know how to translate ideas into action, and can thoughtfully prioritize, communicate, and sustain meaningful organizational change. Most importantly, they are energized by the opportunity to help build an exceptional employee experience and culture that enables SEO's people and mission to thrive.

Organizational Leadership & People Strategy

• Lead SEO’s People & Culture functional areas, including Talent Acquisition, Total Rewards, Talent Management, and People Ops. 
• Develop and communicate a practical, sequenced P&C roadmap that distinguishes urgent priorities from important longer-term work and protects the organization from initiative overload. 
• Clarify P&C’s partnership with each SEO team, along with decision ownership, service expectations, and escalation paths so employees and leaders know where to go and what to expect. 
• Establish priorities and measures of success, communicate trade-offs and rationale, and sustain focus long enough for changes to take hold.

Change Management & Organizational Effectiveness

• Make disciplined change management a core organizational capability, particularly for technology, process, policy, and new ways of working. 
• Use structured, continuous-improvement and project management approaches to understand the work, define the problem, simplify processes, engage users early, pilot where appropriate, and measure adoption. 
• Build stakeholder engagement, communication, training, feedback loops, and reinforcement into implementation from the start rather than treating adoption as an afterthought. 
• Listen before prescribing, build on what is already working, and avoid repeated redesign before prior changes are fully embedded and evaluated.

Talent Development & Performance Management

• Translate SEO’s job roles and competencies into visible career pathways, development plans, succession practices, and stronger internal mobility. 
• Strengthen performance management and accountability so expectations, feedback, development, and consequences are clearer and more consistent. 
• Build sustained manager and leadership development rather than relying on one-time programs or leaving development solely to individual departments. 
• Partner with leaders to strengthen succession planning, develop internal talent, and expand equitable access to development opportunities across the organization

Culture & Employee Experience

• Help SEO navigate organizational transition with clear communication, appropriate transparency, and thoughtful attention to employee experience. 
• Clarify which people practices should be enterprise-wide and where local flexibility matters; strengthen inclusion across sites and address regional realities in compensation, benefits, and policies. 
• Bring empathy and practical judgment to a modern, multigenerational workforce while balancing care for employees with organizational needs and accountability.

People Operations & Systems

• Ensure high-quality employee relations, total rewards, benefits, compliance, onboarding, policies, and core P&C services. 
• Own and manage HR systems and vendors. Assess HR technology, employee data, and cross functional workflows with IT and Operations; establish reliable sources of truth, clear ownership, and practical workflows. 
• Lead, develop, and unify the P&C team, creating clear accountability while enabling sound judgment close to the work. 
• Build stronger cross-functional partnership and a team model that empowers team members to lead their respective functions.

COMPETENCIES & SKILLS

• Progressive senior People / HR leadership in a complex, mission-led organization; nonprofit experience is strongly relevant. 
• Broad command of talent, performance management, compensation, benefits, employee relations, compliance, HR operations, and HR technology/data. 
• Demonstrated organizational-change leadership, including adoption of new systems, processes, or ways of working; structured continuous improvement, or similarly disciplined methods are highly valued. 
• Experience partnering with distinct business or program leaders and, ideally, a multi-site or decentralized organization where enterprise consistency must coexist with local needs. 
• Track record developing managers and senior leaders, building succession and talent practices, and leading a strong People team. 
• Ability to translate strategy into a realistic roadmap, prioritize competing demands, and lead implementation through adoption and measurable impact. 
• Strong professional judgment, discretion, communication skills, and ability to create systems and practices that are effective for multiple, diverse stakeholder groups. 
• Comfort with ambiguity, organizational transition, and the needs and expectations of a modern, multigenerational workforce.

COMPENSATION & BENEFITS  

SEO offers a competitive compensation package and comprehensive benefits plan including low-cost health, vision, and dental options, a generous holiday schedule and PTO policies, disability coverage, fully paid time off for new parents, and employer contributions to health reimbursement and retirement accounts. We are constantly working to improve our benefits each year based on the needs of our employees. We value wellness and strive to put people first and foremost. 

The compensation listed in this posting reflects what SEO believes it will pay for this position at the time of this posting. Consistent with applicable law, compensation will be determined based on the skills, qualifications, and experience of the applicant along with the requirements of the position, and SEO reserves the right to modify this pay range at any time. 

EEOC Policy

At SEO we are committed to cultivating a team that embodies the backgrounds and experiences of the constituencies we serve and the communities we live in, and a workplace that reflects the impact we make in the world. Candidates from all communities – including people of color, women, members of the LGBTQIA+ Community, veterans, and people with disabilities – are strongly encouraged to apply.

Equal Employment Opportunity is not just the law, it is our commitment.

Sponsors for Educational Opportunity is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer – M/F/D/V. We will consider all qualified applicants for employment regardless of race, color, ethnicity, religion, sex, gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, age, marital status, veteran status, pregnancy, parental status, genetic information or characteristics, or any other legally protected status.

If you need accommodation while applying for a role with SEO, due to a disability, please email SEO Talent.

 
THE ORGANIZATION

Established in 1963 by Michael Osheowitz, SEO (Sponsors for Educational Opportunity) is an educational non-profit founded on the belief that talent is everywhere; but opportunity is not. Our programs are designed to educate, train, mentor, and amplify the voices of our participants to give them a seat at the table – every table. We propel human potential.

SEO is an innovator in education, mentorship, and creating educational career opportunities that maximize the full potential of our participants. Each year SEO serves 7,000+ participants nationally, and the organization is widely recognized for developing best-in-class programs with exceptional results.

Not every SEO participant is on the same journey, but all are hungry for opportunity and SEO creates an ecosystem of excellence. Learn more about SEO's programs here: https://www.seo-usa.org/our-programs/.