Vice President of People and Culture

This search will be led by DSG | Koya, please apply for this role by filling out this Talent Profile for DSG, not through the College Track Website.

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Vice President People and Culture

College Track | Oakland, CA (Hybrid) | Full-Time ExemptCompensation: $200,000 – $225,000

The Opportunity

College Track is seeking a Vice President of People & Culture to serve as the chief architect of our human capital ecosystem. We are at a pivotal inflection point, transitioning from a foundation of thoughtful design to a scaled, future-ready organization. We are seeking a visionary leader who can move beyond the status quo to evolve our existing people strategy into a high-impact engine for organizational growth.

Reporting to the Chief Finance and Operating Officer, the VP will serve as the leader of the People & Culture function and extension of the executive leadership team, ensuring that our "North Star" mission is mirrored in our internal culture, talent architecture, and organizational discipline.

The VP will be tasked with guiding the organization beyond functional management to drive enterprise-wide change. Success in this role is defined by your ability to:

• Architect the Future: Transform long-term organizational ambitions into a sophisticated people roadmap, ensuring our talent pipelines are built for scale and sustainability.

• Lead with Intention: Move beyond urgency to lead with clarity, ensuring that every people-related system—from performance frameworks to total rewards—is designed with consistency and impact.

• Cultivate Executive Partnership: Serve as a high-level advisor to senior and peer-level leaders, guiding them through complex organizational design and talent decisions with a focus on long-term health and risk mitigation.

What You’ll Step Into

The VP of People & Culture will join an organization with strong momentum, a clear strategic direction, and a thoughtful foundation already in place—alongside a meaningful opportunity to elevate execution, consistency, and enterprise alignment. This includes:

• A multi-year people strategy with defined priorities, KPIs, and quarterly deliverables

• An organization at an inflection point, with the opportunity to translate strategy into enterprise-wide practices, behaviors, and systems

• Core HR infrastructure that will benefit from continued refinement, stabilization, and scaling across compliance, payroll, leave, and employee relations

• A diverse, mission-driven, and largely early-career workforce, with the opportunity to strengthen employee experience, engagement, and retention at scale

• A collaborative and committed senior leadership team seeking a strategic partner in organizational design, talent strategy, and workforce planning

Primary Responsibilities

1. Architect and Steward Enterprise People Strategy

• Own and evolve the organization’s multi-year People Strategy, ensuring tight alignment between workforce planning and College Track’s programmatic goals.

• Ensure full alignment between people strategy, organizational design, and business priorities

• Translate long-term vision into clear strategic priorities, sequencing, and execution roadmaps across the organization

• Bring an external, forward-looking perspective on workforce trends and the future of work to ensure continued relevance and competitiveness

• Serve as a strategic advisor to the executive team, influencing enterprise-level decision-making on talent, structure, and organizational direction

• Serve as a strategic "North Star" for the Senior Leadership Team, bringing a forward-looking perspective on workforce trends and organizational effectiveness

2. Lead Organizational Design, Workforce Strategy, and Change Management

• Lead organizational design efforts to ensure structures, roles, and operating models support scale, clarity, and accountability

• Develop and drive long-term workforce strategy, including workforce planning, capability building, and leadership development

• Partner with senior leaders to align team structures and talent strategies with evolving organizational needs

• Lead enterprise change management efforts, ensuring the organization can effectively adopt and sustain new ways of working

• Establish frameworks that define high performance and enable consistency across teams and geographies

• Des