Director of People

Public Rights Project (PRP) is a public interest legal nonprofit, headquartered in Oakland, with a remote team based throughout the United States. Our mission is to close the gap between the promise of our laws and the lived reality of our most vulnerable communities. Since 2017, we have been working at the intersection of community organizing and state and local government enforcement to build a scalable, equitable community-based enforcement model to protect civil rights and advance economic justice. PRP supports progressive state and local governments, including Attorneys General, District Attorneys, and City Attorneys' Offices with legal strategy, research, fellowships, communications and community partnerships to help offices develop high-impact legal cases. PRP has a fully-remote staff of 23 and counting in cities including Oakland, LA, New York, Boston, Washington DC, Durham, and Seattle (among others), and have a regular rotation of legal fellows, interns, and law school clerks.

Learn more about Public Rights Project at https://www.publicrightsproject.org/.

Public Rights Project seeks to hire a Director of People (DP) to join its team. The DP will be charged with designing, planning, and implementing a PRP-specific people strategy and Employee Value Proposition that attracts, retains, and develops a staff that lives out PRP's core values. The DP will lead all PRP talent acquisition and talent development activities for internal PRP roles, including refining PRP's recruiting & hiring processes, designing professional development programs to build a strong continuous learning culture, and establishing a robust performance management approach and system. The DP will also collaborate with the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging Working Group to ensure equity is infused throughout all of PRP's people and talent practices. Moreover, the DP will collaborate with the Director of Operations to build and maintain an organizational culture that lives out PRP's core values and promotes growth, productivity, and innovation.

PRP is in the process of spinning out from PRP's fiscal sponsor, the Tides Center, which currently manages all of PRP's back-office functions (HR, IT, payroll, accounting, etc.), in order to become PRP's own non-profit entity (e.g., PRP's own 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation). With spinout, PRP is now establishing PRP's own back-of-office functions and plan to leverage a Professional Employer Organization (PEO) and contractors to help consolidate many of these specialized activities including HR compliance, payroll, etc. PRP is specifically looking for an internal hire for PRP's People work as they believe this cannot and should not be outsourced. Spinout represents a special opportunity for the DP to create a robust, holistic, equitable, and sustainable People strategy for PRP, building off of PRP's existing practices. Importantly, the DP should collaborate with stakeholders across the organization to understand PRP's pain points and lean into PRP's strengths across all areas of work.

Responsibilities include, but are not limited to: 

End-to-End Talent Acquisition / Recruiting

• Solidify PRP's hiring philosophy and continuously refine existing hiring processes, practices, and systems
• Lead recruitment activities for all PRP internal roles, in close partnership with hiring manager and with support from the Operations Associate:
  • Where appropriate, source search firms when external support is needed
  • Prepare job descriptions and postings with hiring manager
  • Source candidates through job boards or existing talent pools
  • Review job application materials, conduct initial screen interviews, and set expectations with candidates on role profile and needs
  • Manage virtual interview process, in close partnership with hiring manager and other interviewers, and conduct calibration calls to facilitate final decisions with hiring managers
  • Facilitate reference checks (conducted by hiring manager) and support hiring manager in making final hiring decision
  • Transition onboarding process with hiring manager to the Operations team
  • Ensuring consistency in hiring approach and experience for candidates across all functions of the organization
• Scope includes searches for all internal roles including: staff, interns, legal clerks, and year-long legal fellows. Scope does not include PRP's Affirmative Leaders Fellows (ALFs), PRP placed fellows, or Justice Catalyst fellows, which will be led by the Training & Fellowships team, though the DP may advise this team where relevant and needed.
• Oversee systems administration of JazzHR platform, interview scheduling, and other logistical needs, with support from PRP's Operations Associate as needed

Performance Management

• Design and implement PRP's performance management framework, evaluation process, and linkage to a consistent approach for merit-based compensation changes
• Co-design and structure career pathways / long-term development plans, succession planning with relevant PRP stakeholders
• Establish the ethos of management at PRP – manager learning arcs, professional development opportunities for all People Managers
• Refine existing feedback channels & 360-degree assessments
• Provide coaching and mentoring to managers and staff within areas of expertise

HR Compliance & Employment, Compensation & Benefits

• Update, finalize, and roll-out PRP's employee handbook
• Advise SLT and people managers on HR issues that includes general working knowledge of federal and state employment laws, with support from PRP's PEO on HR needs as appropriate
• Act as primary liaison with PRP's PEO on HR and benefits issues
• Maintain relevant HRIS/HCM data as needed outside of any PEO-collected data

Other

• Nurture a learning culture and align learning with organizational goals
• Develop a growing practice of employee rewards and recognition
• Advise and support people managers and Senior Leadership Team
• Manage any People-related vendors (e.g., compensation benchmarking, staff-wide trainings, etc.)

• 8-10 years of full-time work experience in Human Capital, HR, People, or related functions
• Bachelor's degree or equivalent work experience
• Familiarity with employee relations, internal communications, and DEI principles
• Experience advising or supporting with senior leaders of an organization
• Experience managing large, complex projects with multiple stakeholders
• Deep commitment to and experience building culture and practices centered in equity, diversity, inclusion, and belonging
• Ability to think strategically while providing tactical support to implement ideas
• Expert, detail-oriented, and proactive project and program management skills, including managing multiple work streams concurrently
• Excellent oral and written communication
• Team player with ability and willingness both to complete and to oversee administrative tasks in support of team goals
• Ability to deliver high-quality content and produce results on a deadline
• Ability to conduct research and provide analysis
• Experience or ability to learn the following systems: Office 365, Salesforce, JazzHR, and Asana, CultureAmp
• Ability to build strong relationships and trust across difference
• Interest or experience in the following subject matters: Civil Rights, Consumer Protection, Voting Rights, and Workers' Rights
• A belief in the power of state and local government to make positive, progressive change in the world and a passionate commitment to economic, racial, gender, and environmental justice

Physical Requirements: Requires sitting, talking and listening for up to 8 hours per day. Certain situations may require lifting items up to 20 pounds.

Location:
Fully remote organization and team. This role may require travel a few times a year to PRP events or meetings. We currently have remote staff in Oakland, Los Angeles, Boston, Philadelphia, Portland (Oregon), and Washington, DC, as well as other cities.