Senior Manager, People & Culture

Job Description

Job Description

Salary Range: $100,000–$110,000

The Senior Manager, People & Culture plays a key role in translating the High Line’s People & Culture and diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) strategies into strong day-to-day practices for managers and employees.

Reporting to the Senior Director of People & Culture, the Senior Manager serves as a trusted resource and coach to managers across the organization and provides hands-on leadership in workforce planning, organizational effectiveness, recruiting, onboarding, performance management, manager development, employee relations, talent and career development, employee experience, learning and development, DEIA, and other employee lifecycle activities.

Working closely with the Senior Director, the Senior Manager will play an important role in implementing the High Line’s people, talent, manager-effectiveness, and DEIA priorities and helping ensure principles of equity, inclusion, accessibility, and belonging are reflected in how the High Line recruits, develops, supports, and engages employees.

The Senior Manager directly supervises the People & Culture Coordinator and is responsible for developing the Coordinator’s skills and capabilities, including supporting a potential career path into a People & Culture Generalist role.

Primary Responsibilities

Manager & Organizational Support

• Serve as a primary P&C resource and coach for managers across the organization.
• Advise managers on workforce and staffing needs, team structure, role clarity, performance, feedback, accountability, employee development, team dynamics, and difficult conversations.
• Support managers through organizational and team changes and help identify broader workforce, capability, or management needs.
• Employee Relations & Risk Management
• Lead employee-relations matters, including performance concerns, conflict resolution, corrective action, investigations, and policy interpretation.
• Coach managers on addressing employee concerns promptly, fairly, consistently, and constructively.
• Promote fair, equitable, well-documented, and consistent people-management practices.
• Advise managers on the people-management aspects of involuntary separations and other significant employment decisions.
• Escalate significant, sensitive, legally complex, or high-risk matters to the Senior Director as appropriate.
• Identify recurring employee-relations themes that may point to broader management, policy, training, or organizational issues.

Talent Acquisition & Onboarding

• Lead the organization’s day-to-day talent acquisition approach and partner with hiring managers to clarify staffing needs, role requirements, and selection criteria.
• Manage senior-level, complex, and other assigned searches and provide oversight and coaching to the Coordinator on searches they manage.
• Advise hiring managers on sourcing, interviewing, candidate assessment, and selection decisions.
• Build diverse talent pipelines and strengthen equitable hiring practices, employer brand, and candidate experience.
• Lead the overall onboarding and integration experience and help managers effectively integrate new employees.
• Partner with appropriate P&C colleagues to ensure hiring and onboarding processes are effectively coordinated.

Performance, Learning & Career Development

• Lead implementation of the organization’s performance-management and manager-effectiveness practices.
• Coach managers on goal setting, feedback, development planning, performance concerns, accountability, and career conversations.
• Develop and implement manager and employee learning programs based on organizational needs, employee feedback, and workforce trends.
• Support career development, internal mobility, talent reviews, succession planning, mentoring, and other employee-development initiatives.
• Help managers assess employee development and advancement readiness and promote equitable access to growth opportunities.

Employee Experience, Engagement & DEIA and Belonging

• Lead implementation of employee engagement, recognition, culture, belonging, and retention initiatives.
• Help managers understand and respond to employee feedback and employee-experience issues within their teams.
• Support employee surveys, listening strategies, focus groups, and follow-up action planning.
• Use employee feedback and P&C data to help identify trends related to belonging, inclusion, accessibility, trust, and employee experience.
• Help integrate DEIA principles throughout recruiting, onboarding, performance management, learning, career development, and employee-experience practices.

• Coach managers on inclusive leadership and equitable decision-making, while identifying and addressing barriers to belonging, accessibility, and equitable employee experiences.
• Support employee listening, DEIA learning and engagement initiatives, and use feedback and data to assess progress, identify opportunities, and strengthen the impact of DEIA efforts.

Employee Lifecycle & P&C Operations

• Provide guidance to managers on promotions, transfers, resignations, separations, and other employee transitions.
• Collaborate with P&C colleagues responsible for operations, systems, compensation, benefits, payroll, compliance, and other specialized areas.
• Support consistent application of P&C policies, processes, and employment practices.
• Use employee feedback, workforce data, and recurring issues to identify opportunities to strengthen P&C practices and service.

Team Leadership

• Directly supervise, coach, and develop the People & Culture Coordinator.
• Establish clear expectations and provide opportunities for the Coordinator to progressively take on more independent HR responsibilities.
• Support the Coordinator’s potential development into a P&C Generalist role.
• Ensure high-quality, timely, confidential, equitable, accessible, and employee-centered P&C service.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, Organizational Development, or related field, or equivalent professional experience.
• Approximately 5–7+ years of progressive HR/P&C experience.
• Experience advising and coaching managers on performance, employee relations, recruiting, and employee-development matters.
• Demonstrated experience supporting or implementing DEIA initiatives within an organization and integrating equity and inclusion into HR and management practices.
• Strong understanding of inclusive and accessible workplace practices and a demonstrated commitment to creating equitable employee experiences.
• Demonstrated recruiting and talent-acquisition experience, including experience building diverse candidate pipelines and supporting equitable hiring practices.
• Strong understanding of HR practices and applicable employment laws.
• Strong interpersonal, coaching, problem-solving, and communication skills.
• Ability to exercise sound judgment and maintain confidentiality.
• Experience supervising or developing junior HR staff preferred.
• SHRM-CP, PHR, or comparable certification preferred.

Benefits

● Medical, dental, and vision insurance

● 20 Vacation days, 7 sick days, and 10 paid holidays with 2 floating holidays (prorated

based on start date).

● Paid primary and secondary caregiver leave

● Supplemental short-term disability insurance and paid life insurance

● Winter Fridays

● Commuter benefits

● Flexible Spending Accounts

● Contribution in a 403(b) retirement plan

● Employee Assistance Program

● Growth and Development career opportunities

● Discounted Citi Bike Membership

● Discounts with vendors on the High Line around the Meatpacking neighborhood

● Free entrance to Whitney Museum

About Friends of the High Line

The High Line is both a nonprofit organization and a public park on the West Side of Manhattan. We’re devoted to reimagining public spaces to create connected, healthy neighborhoods and cities through our work with communities on and off the High Line. Built on a historic, elevated rail line, the High Line was always intended to be more than a park. You can walk through the gardens, view art, experience a performance, enjoy food or beverage, or connect with friends and neighbors while enjoying a unique perspective of New York City. Nearly 100% of our annual budget comes through donations. The High Line is owned by the City of New York, and we operate under a license agreement with NYC Parks.

EEO Statement

The High Line is guided by a series of values through which we make decisions, including hiring. These values include proactively creating access points for all people, regardless of age, sex, color, creed, race, income, country of origin, religion, sexual orientation, or gender identity. As part of our commitment to living up to these values and advancing equity within our organization and through our work, we are committed to an equitable hiring process. Hence, we strongly encourage applications from people with a broad range of lived experiences. This description shall not be construed as a contract of any sort for a specific period of employment.