Vice President, People & Culture

Title: Vice President, People & Culture

Employment Status : Exempt

Salary: $180, 000- 190,000 annually

Supervisor Title: Chief Financial Officer

Position Summary

Meridian International Center is entering an important period of organizational evolution as it expands partnerships, stakeholder networks, revenue streams, and program models. The Vice President, People & Culture will align people strategy, culture, organizational infrastructure, and HR operations with Meridian’s institutional priorities while supporting a high-performing, mission-driven workforce.

This position is located in Washington D.C. Meridian requires DC, MD, or VA residence for all employees. This position may work partially remotely- 4 days in-person office hours are required.

Strategic Leadership & Organizational Effectiveness

• Develop and implement a people strategy aligned with Meridian’s strategic plan, organizational priorities, and evolving operating models.
• Lead organizational transformation and change management as Meridian evolves toward more global, network-centric operations while building trust across staff.
• Advise the CEO and Executive Leadership Team on workforce planning, organizational design, compensation, succession planning, leadership development, and culture.
• Modernize scalable systems for performance management, compensation architecture, onboarding, HR operations, and accountability while protecting Meridian’s nonpartisan, mission-driven culture.

Talent, Culture & Organizational Development

• Lead workforce planning, recruitment, onboarding, succession planning, and talent development to meet current and emerging business needs.
• Strengthen employee engagement, communication, collaboration, manager effectiveness, and organizational effectiveness.
• Coach leaders on talent management, employee development, performance feedback, and difficult workplace conversations.

Compensation, Performance Management & Professional Development

• Oversee compensation philosophy, salary administration, job architecture, benefits strategy, and total rewards programs.
• Administer performance management to ensure alignment between employee performance and compensation.
• Develop and administer professional development requirements to support employee growth, skill development and retention of a qualified workforce.

Compliance & Risk Management

• Ensure compliance with employment laws, HR best practices, policies, employee relations, workplace investigations, conflict resolution, and employment-related risk management.
• Partner with leadership and external advisors on compensation benchmarking, market competitiveness, and executive compensation or benefits analysis as needed.

HR Operations & Systems

• Improve HR processes, systems, HRIS administration, workforce analytics, reporting, and data governance.
• Establish/modernize scalable HR infrastructure to support organizational growth and evolving business requirements.
• Manage the HR department budget, vendor relationships, and metrics to assess people program effectiveness.

Candidate Profile

Beyond credentials and functional experience, the following attributes define the candidate who will thrive in this role.

• The candidate has experience in creating people and processes structures.
• The candidate thrives in a mission driven environment.
• The candidate works well with shifting priorities.
• The candidate is data and metric driven.
• The candidate should possess strong communication skills and be a human centric leader.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, Organizational Development, or related field required; master’s degree preferred.
• Ten or more years of progressive HR leadership experience; SHRM-SCP, SPHR, or equivalent certification preferred.
• Experience advising senior leaders on organizational design, talent strategy, workforce planning, employee relations, and change management.
• Demonstrated ability to lead both strategic human capital initiatives and day-to-day HR operations in a mission-driven environment.
• Deep knowledge of employment law, HR best practices, HR technology, systems, analytics, and people metrics.
• Strong leadership, communication, relationship-building, judgment, discretion, and influencing skills.

Employer’s Statement

Meridian is committed to creating a diverse environment. We believe in empowering global leaders and amplifying voices of a wide variety of backgrounds to create pathways for greater understanding, shared value and respect for all cultures as connecting people has been our foundation for over 60 years. If you share our values and enthusiasm to promote non-partisan collaboration to address global challenges and opportunities, you can find a home at Meridian. 

As an equal opportunity employer, Meridian promotes equal employment opportunity to all employees and applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, personal appearance, pregnancy, childbirth or related medical condition, family responsibilities, marital, veteran or military status, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, matriculation, political affiliation, or any other classification protected by federal, state, or local law. Equal employment opportunity will be offered and maintained to all persons at every stage and condition of employment, including recruiting, hiring, training, upgrading, promotion, transfer, discipline, layoff, recall, and termination.

Meridian offers a comprehensive benefits package including a full medical plan with no deductible, dental (including orthodontics), a retirement plan with a substantial employer contribution from day one, fully paid life, long- and short-term disability, a variety of voluntary benefits, and generous paid leave and holidays. 

How to Apply

Please submit both a resume and a cover letter with your application; submissions missing either document will not be considered. 

Qualified candidates should apply here . 

Only candidates being considered for this position will be contacted. PLEASE DO NOT CALL or E-MAIL in reference to this position.

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