Description

The Oregon Museum of Science & Industry is seeking a strategic, emotionally intelligent Vice President of People and Culture to lead our people systems for both paid and volunteer staff, reaching a diverse employee base and inspiring productivity. The Vice President of People and Culture is a senior executive leader responsible for defining and shaping an inclusive, high-performing organizational culture that enables OMSI to advance its mission and long-term vision across both paid staff and volunteers. Reporting to the President and CEO, the Vice President provides strategic leadership, clarity, a vision for talent strategy, organizational development, human resources, compensation, volunteer engagement, performance management, and people systems. This role ensures OMSI’s people practices are aligned with its values, strategic priorities, and commitment to equity, belonging, continuous learning, and organizational development.

The Vice President leads the design and implementation of enterprise-wide people systems that support organizational effectiveness, inclusivity, and long-term sustainability, including but not limited to workforce planning, performance management, compensation and benefits, learning and development, and employee and volunteer engagement. The role balances strategic leadership with operational excellence, overseeing compliant, integrated, and data-informed systems while guiding change management during periods of growth, transformation, and complexity. This role partners with leaders to build strong management capability, clarify roles and accountability, and foster trust, transparency, and collaboration.

As a trusted advisor to the CEO and Leadership Team, the Vice President plays a critical role in strengthening organizational health and future readiness. Using data, insight, and relationship-based leadership, this role advances equity and inclusion, improves staff and volunteer experience, and supports the development of leaders and teams at all levels to ensure OMSI is a great place to work.

Strategy, Vision, Communication, and Leadership

• Provides enterprise-wide vision, strategy, and leadership for OMSI’s people and culture function grounded in equity and inclusion in a manner that inspires trust, transparency, and aligns with the organization’s values and beliefs.
• Serves as a key partner and trusted advisor to the President and CEO and Leadership Team on people strategy, organizational health, DEI, and change management matters. Provide leadership, oversight, support, and vision regarding all people and cultural systems for both volunteers and staff, ensuring alignment with the organization’s goals, values, and beliefs.  
• Translates OMSI’s strategic plan and long-term vision into scalable, sustainable people systems, policies, and practices, ensuring alignment with organizational priorities, values, and beliefs.
• Provides vision, strategy, oversight, measurements, and accountability for the People and Culture team’s annual budget of approximately $750K in expenses, five staff positions, as well as revenue and expenses for projects as determined by OMSI’s vision, strategic plans, and organizational priorities.
• Champions a culture of integrity, transparency, inclusion, and shared accountability within OMSI’s People and Culture teams —fostering collaboration across departments and building institutional trust in systems, policies, and processes.
• Serves as an active, collaborative member of OMSI’s Leadership Team, contributing to enterprise-wide planning, cross-functional initiatives, and strategic leadership that advances OMSI’s mission, culture, and community impact.

Organizational Development

• Leads OMSI’s organizational and talent development strategy aligned with the 5-year strategic plan and long-term vision, ensuring people-centered organizational design, role clarity, a clear strategy for staff and volunteer recruitment, retention, and development, with a focus on leadership capacity to support innovation, future growth, financial sustainability, and community impact.
• Designs and implements enterprise learning and development frameworks, including management competencies, leadership development, career pathways, and performance management practices that drive high-performing, diverse, and inclusive teams with measurable outcomes and communication systems. 
• Advances OMSI’s goals for equity, diversity, inclusion, and belonging through inclusive hiring and advancement practices, equitable performance management and coaching, cultural competency and inspired development, and community partnerships; partners with leaders and staff to identify, reduce, and prevent racial inequities across the workforce, programs, and the participant experience. Partners with staff-led communities of practice and cross-functional groups (e.g., affinity groups, rewards and recognition, engagement initiatives) to strengthen organizational culture in alignment with OMSI’s values.
• Develops, defines, and oversees metrics for staff and volunteer experience, engagement, performance, recruitment, and retention. Uses data and insights to assess organizational health, inform decision-making, and guide continuous improvement.

Human Resources

• Provides executive leadership, strategic direction, and vision for all of OMSI’s Human Resources function, ensuring effective, compliant, transparent, and integrated HR operations, systems, policies, procedures, and practices.
• Sets strategic direction for people systems, operations, and HR infrastructure, leading the selection, implementation, and adoption of enterprise tools supporting payroll, employee data (collection and storage), learning, performance management, workforce planning, recruitment, and retention, in partnership with Enterprise Systems and Finance.
• Oversees talent acquisition, onboarding, workforce planning, succession planning, and leadership development to ensure OMSI attracts, develops, and retains a diverse, skilled, and future-ready workforce.
• Designs and oversees enterprise performance management systems aligned with organizational goals, emphasizing coaching, feedback, accountability, and continuous improvement.
• Oversees compensation philosophy, benefits strategy, and pay equity practices, procedures, and approaches to ensure competitiveness, internal equity, compliance, and financial sustainability, enabling an inclusive and transparent culture. 
• Collaborates with Finance to oversee administration of company-sponsored ERISA plans (403(b), 457, Health & Welfare), including annual renewals, vendor management, and long-term benefits planning.
• Ensures that systems, processes, structures, and procedures are in place to comply with all applicable federal and state employment laws; monitors legislative and regulatory trends and implements timely policy updates, risk mitigation strategies, and employee handbook revisions.
• Leads change management initiatives related to new people systems, policies, and practices to ensure clear communication, staff readiness, and successful adoption.
• Guides employee relations strategy, proactively addressing workplace issues/concerns, strengthening management capability, and fostering open communication, trust, inclusivity, and transparency.

Volunteer Engagement

• Provides strategic oversight of OMSI’s Volunteer Engagement function, ensuring alignment with OMSI’s mission, values, and people practices, procedures, and policies.
• Develops, reviews, and implements a comprehensive volunteer engagement strategy supporting participant experience, educational programs, community partnerships, and operational needs across OMSI’s campus, camps, and outreach programs.
• Ensures consistent, inclusive, and effective volunteer recruitment, retention, onboarding, training, recognition, performance, and accountability practices.
• Partners with department leaders to integrate volunteers into programs and operations with clear roles, supervision models, and support structures.
• Advances equity, inclusion, and accessibility within volunteer programs by reducing barriers to participation and ensuring volunteer experiences reflect OMSI’s commitment to community representation.
• Provides strategic oversight of volunteer skill development opportunities, recognition, and retention strategies; ensures compliance with applicable laws, safety requirements, and risk management practices.

Team Development and Management

• Provides guidance, oversight, and development while supporting the People and Culture teams (5 FTE) through proactive, transparent communication, modeling mutual respect and accountability, and demonstrating empathy and emotional intelligence.
• Builds and cultivates high-performing cultures with inclusive teams by recruiting, hiring, retaining, and leading in a way that actively creates a culture of transparency, equity, continuous learning, and improvement, and responsiveness to both internal and external feedback.
• Mentors and develops staff consistently using a supportive and collaborative approach.
• Partners with division leadership to create systems, policies, and structures that establish and monitor staff performance and development goals, assign accountability measures, set objective goals, establish priorities, and conduct annual performance appraisals.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university in business, human resources management, or a related field.
• Minimum 7 years of experience—with 5 years in a senior management role—with the following:
  • A minimum of seven years of experience in leading people, culture strategy, and operations.
  • Enthusiastic interest and experience in understanding a range of diverse cultural differences and the ability to work effectively with people from a range of social, ethnic, cultural, and tribal backgrounds.
  • Demonstrated success in building productive, long-term relationships with executives, teams, boards, and volunteers.
  • A collaborative, transparent, flexible, consensus-builder with a proven ability to recruit, supervise, motivate, and retain a diverse team that strives to achieve and exceed goals.
  • Demonstrated ability to bring strategic thinking, high emotional intelligence, and systems-driven leadership to set and meet goals.
  • A high degree of financial acumen with experience in enterprise-wide budget analysis, forecasting, and planning.
  • Proven knowledge of the legal and regulatory environments for human resources and business.