WHO WE ARE

The Humane League (THL) is a global nonprofit working to end the abuse of animals raised for food. Recognized as a Top Charity by Animal Charity Evaluators for multiple years running, we are regarded as one of the most effective animal protection organizations in the world. We are a high-impact, mission-driven team that uses our time, talent, and resources strategically to dismantle factory farming and create lasting change for farmed animals worldwide. We set bold goals, embrace continuous improvement, and hold ourselves accountable to the animals who depend on us. As a fully remote organization with 100+ staff across the globe, we collaborate across borders and with partner organizations to build a powerful, united movement for animals.

YOUR OPPORTUNITY

At THL, our unwavering commitment to ending the abuse of animals raised for food is powered by our exceptional staff. We are seeking an Associate Vice President of People to provide comprehensive senior leadership across our People functions. This critical role will directly drive our global impact by ensuring that our people strategies are scalable, resilient, and deeply aligned with our mission.

You are the ideal leader for this role if you have significant progressive, senior-level HR experience, have expert experience working within both US and non-US employment laws, and a successful track record setting the direction for a functional area and broad enterprise-focused priorities in mission-driven organizations. Your commitment to THL’s mission is unwavering, putting animals at the heart of everything you do and cultivating a powerful, united organizational culture that respects and inspires people to do their best work. Empowering your team is central to your leadership style, and you view challenges as opportunities for innovation and growth. You prioritize open, clear, and transparent communication, and foster a strong sense of agency within your teams. With genuine care for individual development, you engage in honest conversations that promote personal and professional growth, ensuring each team member thrives in their role. You model and encourage accountability, providing constructive feedback with clarity and kindness, and addressing issues directly to cultivate a culture of trust and candor. You recognize the global aspects of our workforce and welcome diverse perspectives and experiences.

As the Associate VP of People, you play a crucial role in developing and implementing effective systems, policies, and procedures across your functions, to strengthen operational resilience across the organization. You serve as a collaborative business partner to the Senior Leadership Team and other leaders in the organization, ensuring your department meets organizational needs and delivering top-tier expertise on critical matters across talent management strategy, organizational design, and change management. You will oversee the strategic planning and budgeting for the People function and are responsible for near-to-mid and long-term business results. This position reports directly to the Vice President of Operations.

This is a full-time, remote position, based in the USA, Canada, Denmark, Ecuador, Hungary, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Peru, or the United Kingdom. This position requires domestic and international travel, equivalent to 2 or more week-long trips per year. To the extent permitted by law, in order to enable collaboration with other global team members, you may be required to work occasional hours outside of 9am - 5pm, depending on your time zone.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

Strategic Leadership & Management

Lead and mentor the People team, providing senior-level guidance, coaching, and strategic direction to ensure excellence across all People functions.
Develop and drive the organization’s overarching global People and Culture vision, leveraging advanced data analysis and cutting-edge best practices to inform strategic HR decisions and optimize the employee experience globally.
Oversee and lead large-scale internal system and process optimization across all People functions, including talent acquisition, performance management, employee relations, learning and development, employee engagement, compensation, benefits, and global HR functions.Maintaining an unwavering focus on equity, compliance, efficiency, and an exceptional employee experience through all projects and initiatives.

Global HR and Compliance

Lead the development of the organization’s comprehensive employee handbook and other critical organizational policies and procedures, ensuring compliance with best practices for both U.S. staff and global workers.
Integrate international labor standards into operational practices to ensure consistency and alignment with strategic objectives, particularly in regions where staff are employed through indirect models (PEO, EOR, etc.).
Serve as the top-level expert on complex, multi-jurisdictional employment matters, guiding global compensation, benefits, and statutory compliance.

Culture & Employee Experience

Cultivate a high-accountability, high-agency environment where employees feel empowered, trusted, and effective in their roles, fostering a culture of agency, mutual understanding, and continuous growth.
Champion Equal Employment Opportunity initiatives within the People function and across the organization, ensuring all policies and practices promote an inclusive workplace.
Drive employee engagement and retention strategies, ensuring the People team effectively supports managers in fostering healthy, productive working relationships.

In addition to the above essential job duties, other duties may be assigned as business needs arise. These may include non-essential, marginal job duties.

REQUIRED SKILLS

Strategic HR & Non-profit Leadership: Progressive advanced to expert-level People/Human Resources leadership experience in values-driven roles focused on setting direction for the People function. Includes significant People leadership experience in a non-profit or other mission-driven organization, with a strong, unwavering commitment to the organization’s values and mission. Proven ability to direct entire departments with a focus on strategic leadership, shaping and reinforcing an inclusive organizational culture, and translating goals into actionable plans while effectively managing and empowering senior-level direct reports.
Global Compliance & Indirect Employment: Extensive working expertise in compliance, risk management, and the ethical application of HR policies in a global context. Significant experience managing international employment, compliance, and cultural nuances (non-U.S. presence), alongside a strong background of federal and state labor laws (U.S. presence). Must possess expert knowledge and significant People leadership experience in organizations successfully utilizing indirect employment models (e.g. PEO and EOR).
Strategic Thinking: Demonstrates advanced, senior-level strategic thinking by developing and implementing transformative HR strategies that drive organizational success and align with broader organizational goals, vision, and culture.
Verbal & Written Communication: Adept at articulating the People team's vision and goals, ensuring clear communication of top-level strategic priorities across all levels, and fostering a culture of open dialogue and feedback. Highly skilled at writing HR policies, including procedures for hiring and workplace complaints. Able to communicate changes and navigate complex topics with sensitivity, providing appropriate context and maintaining confidentiality when necessary.
Interpersonal Skills, Teamwork & Collaboration: Excels in addressing systemic interpersonal challenges and leading organizational culture initiatives. Leads by example, promoting empathy and trust-building as fundamental components of organizational relationships and partnerships, and through exercising active listening skills and mentoring team members on developing emotional intelligence. Open to giving and receiving employee feedback in a supportive and encouraging manner, seeing constructive criticism as an opportunity for growth and improvement. Leads initiatives that enhance collaboration at the senior level to form and maintain strategic alignment and partnerships. Drives collaborative efforts to achieve organizational objectives and enhance overall performance, with expert skills in fostering mutual understanding and buy-in within the organization.
Critical Thinking and Problem Solving: Excels in approaching and addressing challenges through cross-functional collaboration and strategic thinking. Able to identify the root of an issue and effectively resolve conflict, demonstrating emotional intelligence and understanding while ensuring solutions align with organizational values and goals.
Data Analysis: Oversees high-level data analysis initiatives across all People Team functions, capitalizing on data-driven insights to drive strategic decisions, actualize the People Team vision and goals, and improve employee experiences.
Adaptability, Initiative & Proactivity: Drives organizational adaptation and fosters innovation, shaping organizational responses to market changes and global workforce trends. Influences the development of standards for proactive leadership while inspiring and motivating business units to take on a proactive mindset.

For priority consideration, please submit your application by May 15th, 2026 at 11:59 pm ET. After this date, we will begin advancing candidates through the hiring process and may close the role. New candidates are welcome to apply as long as this job opening is listed on our website, and applications that come in after the priority deadline will be reviewed in the event we don't select a final candidate. If you are experiencing technical issues, please contact careers@thehumaneleague.org. Please submit applications and all supporting documents in English. All application questions and materials need to be submitted here through the application submission form; we do not accept applications through our careers email.

Hiring Timeline

Once your application has been reviewed, you will be notified via email with further details on the status of your application. If a candidate is moved forward, the interview process will be as follows:

Phone Interview
Work Simulation Exercise (completed remotely)
Interview (via video call)
Second Interview (via video call)
Reference Check

Each stage is expected to last a week or two on average. For full details of our full-time position recruitment process, please review this document (this will vary for temporary roles; please see the above bullet points for this role's specific stages).

Compensation and Benefits

The annual compensation range for this role is:

$135,498 - $165,098 for candidates in based in the USA
$148,010 - $180,344 for candidates in based in Canada
kr.768,022 - kr.935,802 for candidates in based in Denmark
$96,197 - $117,212 for candidates in based in Ecuador
Ft1,985,515 - Ft2,419,272 for candidates in based in Hungary
€98,141 - €119,579 for candidates in based in Ireland
€100,187 - €122,072 for candidates in based in the Netherlands
kr975,656 - kr1,188,795 for candidates in based in Norway
S/.304,443 - S/.370,951 for candidates in based in Peru
£78,226 - £95,315 for candidates in based in the United Kingdom

At The Humane League, we are committed to fair, consistent, and transparent compensation. We use a structured job architecture and step system to determine salary based on a role’s scope and an individual’s total years of relevant experience. To ensure equity, we follow a no-negotiation policy for salaries. Candidates whose experience places them at step 5 or higher within their job level are awarded a “Senior” title designation.

Employees enjoy full medical coverage, optional dental and vision packages, paid sick leave, a 401(k) retirement plan with matching, pet care & Rx discount plans, working from home, up to 16 weeks of paid parental leave for eligible employees, wellness benefits, paid holidays, flexible vacation time, professional development, and the supportive environment at The Humane League!

Equal Employment Opportunity

THL is an equal opportunity employer. THL does not discriminate on the basis of protected classifications such as race, color, age, national origin, ethnicity, religious creed or belief, physical or mental disability, marital or familial status, legally protected medical condition, genetic information, military or veteran status, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding, or related medical condition), gender (including gender identity and gender expression), sexual orientation, citizenship status, or any other status or classification protected by applicable law. THL is committed to the importance of diversity within the nonprofit sector, as well as all workplace environments, and strongly encourages the interest of diverse candidates.

Reasonable Accommodations

Employees are expected to be able to perform the essential duties and responsibilities of this position with or without job modification/reasonable accommodation. If an employee believes a job modification/reasonable accommodation is needed, please contact the People team at accommodations@thehumaneleague.org so that an interactive process can be initiated. THL complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, and all other applicable state and local laws.

AI Policy

Original work and thought are essential in the hiring process and allow us to evaluate you based on your own skills and competency. Therefore, the use of artificial intelligence (ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Rytr, Google Assistant, etc.) to generate responses is strictly prohibited. By submitting this application you agree to comply with our AI Policy. Violations of this policy in any part of the recruitment process will result in being dismissed from consideration. If you need a reasonable accommodation to this policy, please see above for more information.

Communications From Greenhouse During Hiring Process

We have occasionally had issues with emails from Greenhouse being captured by spam filters and going to the spam folder. Because we utilize Greenhouse for all notifications regarding your application, please double check your spam folder in case important communications have been routed there.

Associate Vice President, People

Benefits

Job Description