About The Skoll Foudnation

The Skoll Foundation was created by Jeff Skoll in 1999 to pursue his vision of a more peaceful, prosperous, and sustainable world. The mission of the Skoll Foundation is to drive large-scale change by investing in, connecting and celebrating social entrepreneurs and the innovators who help them solve the world’s most pressing problems. Social entrepreneurs are society’s change agents—creators of innovations that disrupt the status quo and transform our world for the better. By identifying the people and programs already enacting positive change throughout the world, the Foundation empowers them to extend their reach, deepen their impact, and fundamentally improve society.

The Skoll Foundation has invested approximately $470 million worldwide, including the Skoll Award to 128 social entrepreneurs and 106 organizations on five continents.

This is a full-time position based in Palo Alto, CA.  For more information on The Skoll Foundation, please visit http://skoll.org/.

The Opportunity

The Skoll Foundation is looking for an experienced, innovative HR professional to lead the Foundation’s Human Resources function.  This function helps maintain the Foundation as a world class organization by enabling our people to achieve the organization’s mission and strategies. The Director of HR accomplishes this by identifying and implementing processes and policies that strengthen a collaborative, diverse, results-oriented community of highly motivated individuals. The HR Director leads the Foundation’s employment life-cycle practices and will provide vital input to organizational health and strategy.   

The Director serves as our in-house expert on HR policies and compliance matters, as well as on innovative emerging practices.  They manage HR service providers, including recruiters and our Professional Employment Organization vendor.  Reporting to the Foundation’s Chief Operating Officer, the HR Director manages an HR Operations Manager who supports HR functions, general office and payroll operations.

The Director of Human Resources will have oversight of the following:

Play a lead role in the Foundation’s imperative to be a high-performing results-oriented organization

• Work with executives and staff to set performance goals that align with the Foundation’s goals and priorities. and the individual and team attributes essential to achieve them
• Design and nurture practices and systems for evaluating and strengthening the individual and team attributes vital to achieving these goals
• Provide insights and guidance in strategic and program planning exercises
• Work with staff to ensure diversity, equity and inclusion are primary in all decision making

Manage the Foundation’s employment life-cycle processes with the purpose of recruiting and engaging a diverse workforce that lives our values and who collectively will achieve our mission

• Job design, recruiting, staffing and transition processes
• Staff learning, effectiveness and development programs
• Individual and organization performance management process
• The Foundation’s total compensation policies and practices, including external benchmarking and calibration
• Evaluating and improving alignment of the processes and policies with Foundation’s values, culture and objectives

Build and manage an HR function aligned with the Skoll Foundation’s values and objectives, reflecting best and emerging practices

• Design, recommend and implement service delivery strategies, including systems, staff responsibilities and outsourcing opportunities
• Manage relationships with key external HR service providers and partners, assessing performance and value received
• Ensure compliance with relevant employment laws and regulations
• Identify and apply best practices and innovations to our workplace
• Manage HR policies and maintain our Employee Handbook

Qualifications

The ideal candidate for this position will possess many, if not all, of the following professional qualifications and personal qualities:

• Outstanding interpersonal skills; excellent listener and coach with good judgment, honesty, and integrity; successful at bringing out the best in others and instilling trust
• Takes a rigorous “system”, data driven approach to solving problems and making decisions
• Demonstrated ease in an environment of both intellectual rigor and meticulous attention to detail; a critical and creative thinker; inspiring collaborator
• A solutions-oriented problem solver and resourceful self-starter, comfortable navigating through ambiguity and multiple priorities
• Adept at modelling clarity and accountability for their own commitments and for all of us
• Adept at modelling respect for each individual while holding the whole in service to the organization and its agreed upon mission
• Experience in management of, or in depth exposure to, multiple aspects of the People Operations/HR function, with a distinguished record of accomplishments and growth. Desired areas of expertise include:
  • Talent acquisition, assessment and development
  • Organization and culture assessment, alignment and development
  • Leveraging and managing third party service provider relationships
  • Success managing the HR function in an ambitious and adaptive small organization
  • Diversity, equity and inclusion programming
• Demonstrated ability to work respectfully and sensitively with diverse people and communities
• Positive and successful direct management experience
• A sincere affinity for the Foundation’s work and values
• Minimum of 7 to 10 years of relevant work experience
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent combination of education and experience

To Apply

Erin Reedy and Alicia Salerno of Koya Leadership Partners have been engaged by The Skoll Foundation to help in this hire. Please submit a compelling cover letter and resume here.

The Skoll Foundation is an equal opportunity employer and strongly encourages applications from people of color, persons with disabilities, women, and LGBT applicants.

About Koya Leadership Partners

Koya Leadership Partners is a national retained executive search and human capital consulting firm that works exclusively with mission-driven organizations, institutions of higher education and social enterprises. We deliver measurable results, finding exceptionally talented people who truly fit the unique culture of our client organizations and ensuring that organizations have the resources and strategies to support them. For more information, visit www.koyapartners.com.