Vice President, People & Culture

Position: Vice President, People & Culture

Location: Remote (all candidates should be based in the United States)

Employment Type: Full-time, Salaried, Exempt

Compensation Range: $135,000/year – $175,000/year DOE

Level: VP

Reports To: President & COO

Manages: Sr. Manager, Human Resources

Supported By: Operations dept.; Program teams; external partner advisors

Education/Experience Preferences: Bachelor's Degree, or equivalent professional experience preferred

Start Date: ASAP, open until filled

We Are DigDeep

The DigDeep Right to Water Project is a WASH (water, sanitation, and hygiene) organization committed to closing the water access gap for the 2 million + people in the U.S. who still don’t have a tap or a toilet at home.

DigDeep believes access to clean water is a human right. We run several nationally recognized programs that empower communities to build their own water and sanitation systems. We won the 2018 US Water Prize for our Navajo Water Project, which has brought clean, running water to hundreds of Native families across New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah. DigDeep launched the Appalachia Water Project in 2020, in McDowell County, WV. It has since brought clean, sustainable running water to hundreds of families in Southern West Virginia through public - private partnerships with the McDowell County PSD and East Logan PSD in Wyoming County. In addition to clean running water, the project is installing septic systems and connecting households to centralized sewer. The AWP is now expanding into neighboring states of Kentucky and Virginia to continue its quest of clean water for every Appalachian family. Our water projects expanded in 2022 when we launched our Colonias Water Project. This project works to bring clean, running water to the residents living in communities along the Texas-Mexico border. The Texas colonias are largely unincorporated, low-income communities that fall just outside city limits and often lack basic infrastructure. Our work began in Cochran colonia near El Paso. DigDeep partnered with residents, housing nonprofits, and county officials to innovate a new model for public-private-partnership that brings these basic services to families for the first time. Now we're getting the water flowing in 5 more communities.

The Opportunity

DigDeep is looking for a collaborative, organized, and strategic working leader to join our team as the Vice President, People & Culture. Reporting to the President & COO, The Vice President, People & Culture (VPPC) will provide strategic oversight for all human resources functions, ensuring alignment with the organization’s mission and long-term objectives. This role is responsible for shaping and driving human resources policies, practices, and programs that promote a positive, mission-aligned workplace culture across diverse communities and work environments. The VPPC will play a critical role in strengthening organizational effectiveness, fostering an inclusive workplace, and ensuring human resources strategies support operational and programmatic success. Additionally, this role will oversee and manage a small human resources team, ensuring effective collaboration and a high-performing workforce.

Key Responsibilities

• Strategic Oversight & Leadership: Develop and lead a comprehensive human resources strategy that aligns with the organization's long-term goals, operational needs, and multi-state operations.
• Culture & Engagement: Champion a strong, inclusive organizational culture that embraces diversity, equity, and belonging across all levels and locations.
• Talent Management: Oversee recruitment, workforce planning, leadership development, succession planning, and retention initiatives to attract and retain top talent committed to the organization's mission.
• HR Compliance & Operations: Ensure compliance with federal, state, and local employment laws across multiple states while driving best practices and operational efficiency, in conjunction with the contracted Professional Employment Organization (PEO).
• Employee Relations & Performance Management: Develop and implement policies and programs that enhance employee well-being, conflict resolution, leadership coaching, and continuous feedback.
• Compensation & Benefits: Design and oversee equitable compensation structures and comprehensive benefits programs that support employees’ diverse needs and ensure organizational competitiveness.
• Learning & Development: Establish training programs focused on leadership development and professional growth across all levels.
• HR Systems & Analytics: Leverage HR technology and workforce analytics to drive data-informed decision-making and continuous improvement.

People Management & Leadership

• Lead, mentor, and develop the human resources team, fostering a culture of continuous learning and improvement.
• Establish and track performance metrics to enhance function effectiveness.
• Promote cross-functional collaboration and clear communication within the People & Culture department and across the organization.
• Provide leadership in change management and process improvements to optimize human resources functions.

Quality Assurance & Process Improvement

• Implement and maintain quality assurance processes to ensure accuracy and efficiency in financial reporting.
• Continuously evaluate human resources workflows, identifying and implementing process improvements.
• Leverage technology to optimize trend analysis and reporting capabilities.
• Identify and mitigate human resources risks through proactive practices, processes, and policies.

This job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties, or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. As the organization continues to evolve, duties or tasks may change without impacting the overall job description.

Skills, Qualifications, and Experience

We want to hear from you if you have:

• 12+ years of progressive human resources leadership experience, with at least 5 years in a senior human resources executive role, preferably in the nonprofit sector
• Demonstrated success in overseeing human resources functions across multiple states and in rural communities
• Proven ability to lead and execute strategic human resources initiatives that align with an organization’s mission and values
• Expertise in organizational culture development, change management, and work place inclusion initiatives
• Knowledge of multi-state employment laws and compliance requirements
• Strong leadership, communication, and relationship-building skills
• Experience managing, mentoring, and developing human resources teams
• Ability to navigate complex, multi-state human resources challenges in a remote or hybrid work environment
• PHR, SPHR, SHRM-CP, or SHRM-SCP certification preferred
• Proficiency in MS Office Suite, Google Workspace required
• Experience with BambooHR, Slack, Asana, Zoom, Expensify preferred
• High computer literacy, and tech savviness required
• Experience/Willingness to work across various cultural contexts and communicating across cultural differences
• Willingness to travel, including but not limited to: Navajo Nation (AZ/NM/UT), West Virginia, Texas, DigDeep HQ, and additional locations as needed
• Understanding of data security, and privacy, best practices preferred

Competencies

• Change Management: Strategic orientation, focus on driving positive change within the organization. Thinking on a global level/ community impact. Providing opportunities for organizational growth. Oversees progress of multiple directives and understands strategy enough to independently adapt where necessary. Ideates towards positive change via understanding of team and uses this knowledge to collaborate with C-Suite on strategic direction.
• Influence: "Manages at the border": understands the interplay between internal action and external impact. Collaborate with C-Suite on strategic direction, promote adoption amongst functional area. Predominantly considerate of company growth needs.
• Innovation: Uses understanding and forward thinking to devise responses and solutions to future situations in functional area and cross-functionally. Makes innovative decisions based on both sound reasoning and intuition. Encourages and promotes exploration of new ideas and creative thinking in self and others. Displays open mindedness and is willing to try new approaches. Adapts readily to changes and needs.
• Leadership: Lead functional area and cross-functional processes independently. Garners buy-in and support from senior team. Directs and provides guidance to, and leads team through long-term strategic plan for the division, as it relates to the organization. Engages with internal and external stakeholders to ideate a vision, strategy, and goals for functional area. Develops creative initiatives focused on recognizing the various dimensions of diversity to encourage inclusiveness in the workplace. Fosters an environment that promotes trust and cooperation among staff, community members and leaders, partner organizations, and the public. Collaborate on creative diversity, equity, and inclusion practices and promote adoption and implementation. Seeks a consensus within organization leaders.
• Personal Development: Continual development of self, through both internal and external resources. Become a better leader through feedback, consistent collaboration, coaching, and mentoring/coaching more junior employees. Developing predominantly for the benefit of overall organization and cross functional processes. Keeps up-to-date on current research and technology in one’s work focus and identifies and pursues areas for development and training that will enhance job performance. Takes actions to prepare for own future development, identifies long-term development needs and plans to create opportunities to bridge them. Anticipates future needs of their functional area and cross-functionally, and identifies opportunities to learn new things for current and future needs in one’s role.
• Strategic Planning: Influences organizational status quo in order to effectively improve alignment with its goals. Establish directives with leadership with consideration to both functional and cross-functional area capabilities and organization goals. Revises direction of functional area when out of alignment with company goals. Ensures functional area objectives and performance are consistent with strategic plan. Sources information from direct-reports and cross-functional specialists, integrates info into strategic approach and direction.

Compensation and Benefits

At DigDeep, we believe that great work requires a great job. We understand that people thrive with rest and holistic support, which is crucial for our long-term success. We take pride in offering top-notch benefits to our team across the United States, prioritizing their health and wellbeing, as well as providing additional support for our employees' families. If you join us, here’s how we’ll support you in your work:

• Competitive wage to commensurate with level of position
• Generous vacation and sick leave
• 23 weeks paid Parental Leave
• Annual Professional Development Stipend
• Annual Wellbeing Reimbursement
• BrightPlan membership (Financial Wellness Benefit)
• Health Benefits
  • Employee Offering: Medical, dental, vision insurance, 100% employer paid
  • Spouse/Children/Family Offering: Employer covers up to $500 of the monthly cost for medical insurance for spouse/children/family; Employer covers 100% of the cost for dental and vision insurance for spouse/children/family
• One Medical membership
• Life insurance, 100% employer paid
• Work laptop
• Monthly cell phone use allowance
• Monthly internet use allowance
• 15 paid holidays (including one week closure for Labor Day)
• Domestic travel
• 401k retirement plan, with employer match