Head of People & Organizational Development

SPUN • New York, NY

1d • Remote

About The Position

SPUN is seeking a Head of People & Organizational Development to shape how the organization works as it grows. This is not a traditional HR role: day-to-day HR administration will be handled by a dedicated Operations Manager, while this position focuses on how people collaborate, make decisions, develop, and use tools effectively. The role works closely with senior leadership across ways of working, tools and technology, and culture and leadership.

The position will design and evolve organizational structures, operating practices, and leadership capabilities for a globally distributed, multidisciplinary team. It will also guide the organization’s adoption of tools and AI, building the skills and judgment to use them effectively without compromising scientific integrity. The role will help maintain an inclusive culture as new teams and leaders join, and establish practices for management, feedback, performance, and professional growth.

Requirements

• At least 7 years of experience helping organizations scale and build culture, trust, connection, and accountability, ideally in remote, cross-time-zone settings.
• Ability to shape strategy and personally build the processes, frameworks, and systems needed to implement it.
• Curiosity about people, team dynamics, motivation, and barriers to effective work; ability to listen carefully and identify underlying problems.
• Ability to advise senior leaders and challenge their thinking when appropriate while building strong relationships and credibility.
• Maturity and care in handling sensitive information and complex interpersonal situations.
• Experience leading adoption of new tools, technologies, or ways of working, including AI.
• Understanding that lasting change requires training, change management, and building confidence, not just rolling out tools.
• Excellent communication skills and ability to adapt communication for scientists, data scientists, policy and partnership specialists, and senior leadership.
• Excitement about SPUN’s mission and motivation to build organizational conditions that enable a pioneering environmental NGO to have greater impact.

Nice To Haves

• Experience in a science, research, environmental, or impact-driven organization.
• Experience in a globally distributed organization operating across multiple countries and employment jurisdictions.
• Experience working with multidisciplinary teams spanning science, policy, partnerships, and operations.
• Experience building career frameworks, performance systems, or development programs from scratch.
• Hands-on experience with AI tools and genuine interest in how they will change organizational work.

Responsibilities

• Design and evolve SPUN’s organizational structure, including teams, roles, reporting lines, and leadership responsibilities, to support its strategy and growth.
• Partner with senior leadership to anticipate future organizational capabilities and develop a thoughtful approach to hiring across levels.
• Assess organizational health using clear indicators to identify structural, capacity, or working-practice issues that limit impact.
• Work with the Operations Manager to ensure people policies and processes reflect SPUN’s values and work across its countries of operation.
• Design operating rhythms, decision-making processes, and planning practices for a distributed team.
• Strengthen knowledge capture and sharing across the organization.
• Improve collaboration and handoffs among scientists, data scientists, policy specialists, and partnership leads.
• Shape SPUN’s core tools and how they are used across research, internal work, and interactions with partners and the public.
• Partner with senior leadership to develop SPUN’s approach to AI, identifying opportunities to increase impact and capacity while considering implications for the mission and people.
• Work with team leads to identify valuable AI use cases and the workflows, roles, and skills needed to realize them.
• Build AI fluency through training, peer learning, experimentation, and practical resources tailored to different roles and levels of technical expertise.
• Create ways for teams to share AI experiments, practices, and lessons learned.
• Develop practical approaches to team health, feedback, conflict resolution, and trust-building across a globally distributed organization.
• Create opportunities for connection across time zones, disciplines, and teams.
• Design and facilitate retreats, team sessions, and leadership gatherings that strengthen relationships and improve collaboration.
• Design onboarding that introduces new employees to SPUN’s culture and ways of working as well as its systems.
• Develop an approach to recognizing team and individual achievements.
• Partner with senior leaders and managers to strengthen people leadership and establish clear management and leadership expectations.
• Establish practices for feedback, goal-setting, development conversations, and performance reviews.
• Develop progression pathways, including support for individual contributors moving into management.
• Identify learning and professional development opportunities across the organization.

Benefits

• Benefits supporting health, well-being, growth, and balance, tailored to local laws so that team members across the globally distributed organization receive the same high standard of support.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director
• Education Level: No Education Listed