Director of People and Culture

<h3><strong><span style="color: #00948E">CAMELBACK VENTURES </span></strong></h3><p><span style="color: #000000">Camelback Ventures </span><strong><span style="color: #000000">(Camelback)</span></strong><span style="color: #000000"> transforms the landscape of entrepreneurship by investing in ventures and leaders who have been systematically excluded from capital and opportunity. We focus on entrepreneurs of color and women, providing not just funding, but mentorship, advocacy, and access to networks that drive meaningful change. Since 2015, our impact speaks volumes: we've raised over $75M and supported 220+ social entrepreneurs through our flagship Camelback Fellowship. Our Fellows have collectively raised over $400M+, earned recognition as Forbes 30 Under 30 honorees, and created a transformative impact in communities nationwide, from Eastern North Carolina to Seattle.</span></p><p style="min-height: 1.7em;"></p><p style="min-height: 1.7em;"></p><h3><strong><span style="color: #00948E">THE ROLE </span></strong></h3><p><span style="color: #000000">Camelback Ventures is hiring an inaugural Director of People & Culture — a strategic and operational leader who will shape how our people experience every stage of their journey with us. Reporting to the Vice President of Finance and Operations and serving as a member of the Leadership Team, this role is both an architect and an operator: designing the systems, frameworks, and culture that allow Camelback to grow with intention, and rolling up their sleeves to make those systems work day-to-day.</span></p><p><span style="color: #000000">This is an opportunity for a people leader who understands that organizational health and mission impact are inseparable. The Director of People & Culture will help Camelback continue to navigate ecosystem and team change, while building the internal capacity, trust, and resilience to sustain our work for years to come.</span></p><p><span style="color: #000000">The right candidate brings deep expertise in change management, a steady and positive presence during periods of organizational evolution, and a genuine belief that staff transitions — whether through promotions, role changes, or departures — are not disruptions to manage, but milestones to honor and opportunities to celebrate growth. They understand that how people enter and exit an organization shapes its culture just as powerfully as what happens in between.</span></p><p><span style="color: #000000">This role will translate Camelback's values, talent philosophy, and performance frameworks into practical processes and cultural norms that reflect our deep commitments to care, equity, and accountability, across the full employee lifecycle.</span></p><p style="min-height: 1.7em;"></p><h4><strong><span style="color: #000000">Strategic Priorities for This Role</span></strong></h4><p><span style="color: #000000">Before outlining the full scope of responsibilities, we want to name the strategic priorities that will define success in the first 18–24 months:</span></p><ul><li><p><strong><span style="color: #000000">Anchor the Leadership Transition.</span></strong><span style="color: #000000"> Partner closely with leadership to manage the organizational, relational, and cultural dimensions of Camelback's leadership evolution, ensuring building of a positive culture, clarity of roles, and effective people processes.</span></p></li><li><p><strong><span style="color: #000000">Build Change-Ready Culture.</span></strong><span style="color: #000000"> Establish frameworks and practices that help Camelback navigate change as an organizational strength, so our team faces uncertainty with grounded confidence.</span></p></li><li><p><strong><span style="color: #000000">Reimagine the Employee Journey.</span></strong><span style="color: #000000"> Design onboarding and offboarding experiences that set a clear tone: joining Camelback is an investment in your growth, and leaving is not an ending, but a transition into the next chapter of your impact.</span></p></li><li><p><strong><span style="color: #000000">Establish People Infrastructure for Scale.</span></strong><span style="color: #000000"> Build the foundational systems, documentation, and internal capacity that allow Camelback to grow in ways that align with our values and culture.</span></p></li></ul><p style="min-height: 1.7em;"></p><h4><strong><span style="color: #000000">People Strategy, Change Management & Organizational Readiness</span></strong></h4><ul><li><p><span style="color: #000000">Serve as a strategic thought partner to the Leadership Team on workforce planning, organizational design, and people-related decision-making, including preparing inputs for leadership planning, talent reviews, and key organizational decisions</span></p></li><li><p><span style="color: #000000">Facilitate change management efforts with a structured, empathetic approach that builds stakeholder alignment, communicates with transparency, and sustains team cohesion</span></p></li><li><p><span style="color: #000000">Champion a talent philosophy that treats staff transitions, including promotions, role changes, and departures, as natural milestones in a person's growth through language and processes</span></p></li><li><p><span style="color: #000000">Build documentation and internal capacity that support Camelback's growth and operational independence, partnering with Finance team on workforce planning and people-related reporting</span></p></li></ul><p style="min-height: 1.7em;"></p><h4><strong><span style="color: #000000">People Operations & Performance Management</span></strong></h4><ul><li><p><span style="color: #000000">Own day-to-day people operations, ensuring processes are compliant and consistently applied, covering compensation and benefits, policy maintenance, recordkeeping, and legal compliance</span></p></li><li><p><span style="color: #000000">Maintain and improve core people systems spanning goal-setting, feedback cycles, career progression frameworks, and manager enablement tools</span></p></li><li><p><span style="color: #000000">Lead the design and implementation of Camelback's performance management system as a developmental tool and manager accountability built in</span></p></li></ul><p style="min-height: 1.7em;"></p><h4><strong><span style="color: #000000">Hiring, Onboarding & the Employee Journey</span></strong></h4><ul><li><p><span style="color: #000000">Own equitable hiring processes in partnership with hiring managers from role scoping through offer </span></p></li><li><p><span style="color: #000000">Develop and implement a dynamic and equitable interview process to facilitate deeper information sharing between the Camelback team and applicants</span></p></li><li><p><span style="color: #000000">Design an onboarding experience that goes beyond logistics, grounding new staff in Camelback's culture and accelerating belonging from day one</span></p></li><li><p><span style="color: #000000">Build a meaningful offboarding practice that honors departing team members, captures institutional knowledge, and reinforces that staff and Fellows carry our mission forward </span></p></li><li><p><span style="color: #000000">Maintain job descriptions and competency documentation that support hiring clarity and internal mobility</span></p></li></ul><p style="min-height: 1.7em;"></p><h4><strong><span style="color: #000000">Culture Building, Employee Relations & Engagement</span></strong></h4><ul><li><p><span style="color: #000000">Serve as a steward of Camelback's organizational culture, translating values, equity commitments, and mission into tangible norms and practices that staff experience</span></p></li><li><p><span style="color: #000000">Lead employee relations matters with discretion, sound judgment, and clear escalation pathways, serving as a trusted and steady resource for staff and managers, especially during periods of organizational change</span></p></li><li><p><span style="color: #000000">Facilitate engagement surveys; synthesize findings and partner with leadership to turn insights into actionable improvements that support retention, belonging, and sustainable workloads</span></p></li></ul><p style="min-height: 1.7em;"></p><h4><strong><span style="color: #000000">Manager Enablement & Development</span></strong></h4><ul><li><p><span style="color: #000000">Build and maintain a manager enablement infrastructure,  including learning experiences and guides that equips managers to lead with clarity and confidence across the full employee lifecycle</span></p></li><li><p><span style="color: #000000">Create structured onboarding for new managers — whether promoted internally or hired externally — that accelerates their effectiveness and grounds them in Camelback's values and internal systems</span></p></li><li><p><span style="color: #000000">Use data from performance cycles, engagement surveys, and employee relations patterns to identify manager development needs and design interventions that improve team outcomes</span></p></li></ul><p style="min-height: 1.7em;"></p><br><br><h3><strong><span style="color: #00948E">THE PERSON</span></strong></h3><p><span style="color: #000000">You are a people leader who is equally comfortable setting strategy and running the operational processes that make it real. You have navigated a founder or executive transition and understand the organizational weight that carries. You believe that every moment in the employee journey, including onboarding is an opportunity to deepen trust and reinforce values. You lead change with clarity and compassion, and you help teams see transitions not as disruptions, but as healthy, normal parts of organizational life. You bring a deep commitment to Camelback's mission and an understanding of the social impact landscape, particularly the unique challenges facing organizations led by and serving historically marginalized communities. Experience in racial equity, education, entrepreneurship, or philanthropy is a plus.</span></p><p style="min-height: 1.7em;"></p><h4><strong><span style="color: #000000">Experience & Expertise</span></strong></h4><ul><li><p><span style="color: #000000">6+ years of progressive people operations or HR experience, with demonstrated ownership of core people systems in a mission-driven or nonprofit organization</span></p></li><li><p><span style="color: #000000">Proven track record managing end-to-end people operations — performance cycles, employee relations, compliance — with consistency and care</span></p></li><li><p><span style="color: #000000">Experience supporting multi-state compliance and a strong remote employee experience across distributed teams</span></p></li><li><p><span style="color: #000000">Equity-minded practice embedded in people decisions, including hiring, compensation, and performance management</span></p></li><li><p><span style="color: #000000">Familiarity with industry best practices and the ability to adapt them to the realities of a growing, mission-driven organization</span></p></li><li><p><span style="color: #000000">Bachelor's degree or equivalent professional experience in human resources, organizational development, nonprofit management, business, or social sciences</span></p></li><li><p><span style="color: #000000">Hands-on experience with Rippling and Employee Navigator preferred</span></p></li></ul><p style="min-height: 1.7em;"></p><h4><strong><span style="color: #000000">How You Work</span></strong></h4><ul><li><p><span style="color: #000000">A trusted relationship builder across roles and levels — discreet, steady, and sound in judgment when handling sensitive situations</span></p></li><li><p><span style="color: #000000">A clear, accessible communicator who translates policies and processes into practical guidance that managers and staff can actually use</span></p></li><li><p><span style="color: #000000">A systems thinker who builds for future scale from current state, with strong documentation habits and project management skills to run cyclical processes reliably</span></p></li><li><p><span style="color: #000000">A growth-minded, continuous learner who stays connected to evolving practices in people operations and equity-centered organizational development</span></p></li><li><p><span style="color: #000000">Able to work independently while remaining closely integrated with team and organizational needs, and collaborative across functions and with external partners</span></p></li></ul>

Back to blog

Common Interview Questions And Answers

1. HOW DO YOU PLAN YOUR DAY?

This is what this question poses: When do you focus and start working seriously? What are the hours you work optimally? Are you a night owl? A morning bird? Remote teams can be made up of people working on different shifts and around the world, so you won't necessarily be stuck in the 9-5 schedule if it's not for you...

2. HOW DO YOU USE THE DIFFERENT COMMUNICATION TOOLS IN DIFFERENT SITUATIONS?

When you're working on a remote team, there's no way to chat in the hallway between meetings or catch up on the latest project during an office carpool. Therefore, virtual communication will be absolutely essential to get your work done...

3. WHAT IS "WORKING REMOTE" REALLY FOR YOU?

Many people want to work remotely because of the flexibility it allows. You can work anywhere and at any time of the day...

4. WHAT DO YOU NEED IN YOUR PHYSICAL WORKSPACE TO SUCCEED IN YOUR WORK?

With this question, companies are looking to see what equipment they may need to provide you with and to verify how aware you are of what remote working could mean for you physically and logistically...

5. HOW DO YOU PROCESS INFORMATION?

Several years ago, I was working in a team to plan a big event. My supervisor made us all work as a team before the big day. One of our activities has been to find out how each of us processes information...

6. HOW DO YOU MANAGE THE CALENDAR AND THE PROGRAM? WHICH APPLICATIONS / SYSTEM DO YOU USE?

Or you may receive even more specific questions, such as: What's on your calendar? Do you plan blocks of time to do certain types of work? Do you have an open calendar that everyone can see?...

7. HOW DO YOU ORGANIZE FILES, LINKS, AND TABS ON YOUR COMPUTER?

Just like your schedule, how you track files and other information is very important. After all, everything is digital!...

8. HOW TO PRIORITIZE WORK?

The day I watched Marie Forleo's film separating the important from the urgent, my life changed. Not all remote jobs start fast, but most of them are...

9. HOW DO YOU PREPARE FOR A MEETING AND PREPARE A MEETING? WHAT DO YOU SEE HAPPENING DURING THE MEETING?

Just as communication is essential when working remotely, so is organization. Because you won't have those opportunities in the elevator or a casual conversation in the lunchroom, you should take advantage of the little time you have in a video or phone conference...

10. HOW DO YOU USE TECHNOLOGY ON A DAILY BASIS, IN YOUR WORK AND FOR YOUR PLEASURE?

This is a great question because it shows your comfort level with technology, which is very important for a remote worker because you will be working with technology over time...