Job Description

Join to apply for the Chief People Officer role at National Employment Law Project

Join to apply for the Chief People Officer role at National Employment Law Project

*Hybrid role can be based in New York City, Washington, D.C., or Berkeley, CA*

The National Employment Law Project (NELP) seeks a values-aligned, strategic, and highly relational leader who is energized by our mission to build a good-jobs economy—a just and inclusive economy where all workers have expansive rights and thrive in good jobs. The Chief People Officer will play a key role in creating people-centered strategies that support our highly talented team, fostering a culture of collaboration, continuous learning, and accountability in service of our mission, which focuses on advancing transformative solutions that reflect the needs of all workers—including historically marginalized groups such as women, Black, immigrant, and low-wage workers, and workers with records. Join us!

About National Employment Law Project

Founded in 1969, the nonprofit National Employment Law Project (NELP) is a leading advocacy organization with the mission to build a just and inclusive economy where all workers have expansive rights and thrive in good jobs. Together with local, state, and national partners, NELP advances its mission through transformative legal and policy solutions, research, capacity building, and communications. Our victories over the last decade have impacted the lives of an estimated 100 million workers and their families. We lead and collaborate in fights for higher pay and just benefits, secure and safe jobs, and support at each stage in a worker’s life. For more information, read our annual reports and explore our website:

NELP has a team of 55 staff people based across offices in New York City, Washington D.C., and Berkeley, CA, with a 9-person Board of Directors, an annual budget of $14M, and hundreds of partners in the field with whom we work to further our mission.

What You Will Do

The Chief People Officer (CPO) will be an organizational leader and integral member of NELP’s executive leadership team. The CPO will work across teams to integrate a culture of collaboration, continuous learning, and accountability, translating organizational goals into actionable people-centered strategies. This position will report to the Chief Operating Officer (COO) and, in partnership with the executive leadership team, will shape and implement initiatives that strengthen NELP’s culture, leadership, and overall effectiveness. Your work will include:

People Strategy and Human Resources Leadership

• HR Leadership: Develop and execute an HR strategy that complements a people strategy that balances people-centric approaches with performance-driven outcomes, ensuring it supports NELP’s mission, employee experience and engagement, and NELP effectively advances its mission to build a good-jobs economy.
• Performance & Leadership Development: Cultivate an environment of continuous learning and growth by refining systems of performance management, leadership development, and organizational accountability. Equip leaders with frameworks to support and elevate staff, ensuring high-impact contributions across NELP.
• Recruitment Strategy: Develop and implement a values-aligned talent acquisition vision, establishing the best recruitment practices and building a pipeline of talent for future roles. Evaluate and enhance the full recruiting process, serving as an advisor to ensure recruitment of exceptional talent.
• Talent Development & Growth: Lead the design and implementation of people-centered approaches to onboarding, professional development, and career pathway planning that enhance retention, foster leadership, and support long-term staff engagement.
• Compensation & Benefits Administration: Partner with NELP’s external Human Resources consulting firm (Nonprofit HR) to steward the administration and strategic evolution of NELP’s compensation and benefits programs. Ensure fair, equitable, and sustainable practices that support employee experience and align with NELP’s mission.

Organizational Strategy, Culture, and Effectiveness

• Cultural Stewardship: Cultivate and sustain a values-driven workplace culture that reflects NELP’s deep commitment to justice, equity, and worker power. Champion organizational practices that amplify different perspectives, foster courageous conversations, and ensure that inclusivity and belonging are reflected in both our policies and our daily interactions.
• Transformational Change Management: Guide NELP’s evolution by ensuring that shifts in strategy, structure, or policy are carried out with intention—balancing clarity and efficiency with deep engagement, so that transformation is not just effective, but also people-centered, values-driven, and rooted in collective success.
• Deepening Engagement and Alignment: Design and implement a comprehensive employee engagement strategy that nurtures belonging, purpose, and cohesion across the organization. Elevate structures and practices that ensure every team member is invested in and accountable to NELP’s mission and shared outcomes.
• Leadership Communication & Development: Equip leaders and managers with tools and best practices that amplify clarity, trust, and motivation. Ensure leadership at all levels cultivates a supportive and inclusive environment, models transparency, and strengthens team effectiveness.
• Data-Driven Decision-Making: Develop and refine organizational systems that harness data and insights to enhance leadership development, inform people strategy, and measure the impact of culture and engagement initiatives.

Labor-Management Relations Support

• Strengthening Union Collaboration: Foster a constructive, mission-aligned partnership with NELP’s labor union (Local 2320, UAW), ensuring labor-management relations uphold NELP’s values of worker power and collective bargaining.
• Compliance with Collective Bargaining Agreements: Oversee the administration and implementation of our collective bargaining agreement, ensuring alignment with NELP’s goals and operational sustainability. Ensure that all HR policies, performance management systems, and compensation structures align with NELP’s collective bargaining agreement, reinforcing a fair and legally compliant work environment.
• Proactive Labor Relations & Conflict Resolution: Engage in thoughtful, solutions-oriented collaboration with union representatives to proactively address concerns, advance shared priorities, and sustain a workplace environment rooted in fairness, respect, and transparency.

Who You Are

• You have 15+ years of progressively responsible leadership experience in organizational development, change management, human resources, people operations, and/or in programmatic work and 10+ years of managerial, supervisory, or other related experience in a nonprofit setting, ideally including management experience in a unionized setting.
• You have a justice-oriented understanding of howidentity and power impact relationships, organizational culture, and partnerships, and are committed to a personal and professional practice around deepening this understanding, continuously learning, reflecting, and growing.
• You are flexible and agile, responsive to feedback, open to changing direction, and focus on continuous improvement and innovation.
• You are a self-aware leader who cultivates empathy through open and honest dialogue, builds relationships that foster trust and transparency across lines of difference, and offers direct, honest feedback with compassion and clarity of purpose.
• You are a highly skilled facilitator and coach, who is an inspirational, curious, and relational leader with strong interpersonal skills fostering a sense of purpose and community, empowering staff to grow and develop professionally, and high standards for holding yourself and others accountable.
• You have a proven record of collaborating, influencing, and encouraging others to adopt new practices and behaviors; you influence leaders and staff at all levels.
• You are an effective, persuasive communicator with strong presentation, speaking, written, and nonverbal skills, who conveys information clearly and concisely, internally and externally, with high emotional intelligence and professional judgment.
• You operate with a commitment to excellence, integrity, diplomacy, humility, and camaraderie.

Start Date, Location, Compensation and Benefits: This position is based out of one of our three offices (Berkeley, New York City, or Washington D.C.). Staff may be located a commutable distance from one of the three offices. NELP has a hybrid model that requires staff to work in-person at least six days per month, with the option of in-person or remote work the remainder of the time. This hybrid model seeks to leverage both the benefits of working with colleagues in-person and the benefits of flexible remote arrangements. This position will require some travel, including for NELP internal meetings or conferences. The start date will be as soon as possible.

The salary for the Chief People Officer is $210,000.

Compensation also includes an excellent comprehensive benefits package, including full coverage of family health insurance, a medical reimbursement plan, gene]]> <

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