Chief People & Culture Officer

Employer: Village Enterprise Kenya

Industry: Nonprofit/International Development/Social Entrepreneurship

Job Title: Chief People & Culture Officer

Function: People & Culture

Position Type: Full-time.

Reports to: CEO & President

Location: Global (Nairobi, Rwanda or Kampala preferred), Multi-country travel (30–40%)

Organization Overview:

Village Enterprise’s mission is to end extreme poverty in rural Africa through entrepreneurship, innovation, and collective action. By empowering women, refugees, and youth to launch small businesses and savings groups, our cost-effective model provides dignified and sustainable pathways for individuals to lift themselves and their families out of extreme poverty for good. To date, Village Enterprise has trained 396,872 first-time entrepreneurs, 80% of whom are women, and supported the launch of 120,609 businesses and 9,309 Business Savings Groups (BSGs). These efforts have positively impacted 2,478,065 lives across Africa. With operations in Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda, and partnerships in other sub-Saharan African countries, Village Enterprise continues to expand its reach. As we scale our impact, our aim remains ambitious yet achievable: to lift 20 million people out of extreme poverty by 2035.

Role Puorpose:

The Chief People & Culture Officer is a strategic executive responsible for developing and leading a people-centred organisational strategy that enables the achievement of the organisation's mission, strategic priorities, and growth objectives.

The CPCO serves as a trusted advisor to the CEO, Executive Leadership Team, and Board, ensuring that organisational culture, leadership effectiveness, workforce planning, talent development, employee engagement, diversity, equity and inclusion, safeguarding, and people operations align with organisational goals. The role champions a high-performance, values-driven culture while ensuring compliance, risk management, and workforce sustainability.

Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership

• Develop and implement a comprehensive global People & Culture Strategy aligned with the organisational strategic plan.
• Advise the CEO and Board on workforce trends, organisational capabilities, succession risks, and culture-related issues.
• Translate organisational priorities into people-related initiatives and measurable outcomes.
• Lead workforce planning to ensure the organisation has the capabilities required for current and future strategic objectives.
• Establish people metrics and analytics that support evidence-based decision-making.
• Drive transformation initiatives, change management programmes, and organisational redesign efforts.

Culture, Values and Employee Experience

• Serve as the chief steward of organisational culture, mission, and values.
• Design programmes that strengthen employee engagement, trust, inclusion, collaboration, and well-being.
• Foster a workplace culture characterised by accountability, innovation, belonging, and psychological safety.
• Conduct regular organisational climate assessments and employee engagement surveys.
• Lead initiatives that improve employee experience across the entire employee lifecycle.
• Partner with leaders to embed organisational values into daily behaviours and decision-making.

Leadership Development and Succession Planning

• Develop organisational leadership capability at all levels.
• Establish robust leadership development frameworks and programmes.
• Lead executive coaching and leadership assessment initiatives.
• Design succession planning processes for critical positions.
• Build talent pipelines for future leadership and technical expertise.

Talent Acquisition and Workforce Planning

• Lead global recruitment and talent acquisition strategies.
• Ensure the organisation attracts, assesses, hires, and retains high-performing talent.
• Develop employer branding and talent marketing strategies.
• Establish workforce planning methodologies linked to organisational growth plans.
• Oversee recruitment processes, workforce forecasting, and talent mobility programmes.

Organisational Design and Effectiveness

• Lead organisational structure reviews and workforce optimisation initiatives.
• Design scalable organisational systems, roles, career frameworks, and job architectures.
• Ensure effective resource allocation and workforce deployment across countries and functions.
• Drive process improvements that enhance efficiency and collaboration.
• Develop performance management frameworks that support organisational effectiveness.

Performance Management and Talent Development

• Lead organisational performance management systems.
• Ensure objectives, competencies, and performance expectations are aligned across the organisation.
• Establish learning and development strategies that address capability gaps.
• Oversee talent review and career development programmes.
• Create systems that encourage continuous feedback and accountability.

Compensation, Benefits and Total Rewards

• Develop competitive global compensation and benefits strategies.
• Ensure equitable and market-aligned compensation structures.
• Oversee executive compensation recommendations.
• Conduct regular salary benchmarking and reward reviews.
• Develop recognition programmes that reinforce organisational values.

Human Resources Operations and Compliance

• Ensure compliance with employment legislation and regulations across all jurisdictions.
• Oversee HR policies, procedures, systems, and controls.
• Lead HR technology strategy and HR information systems.
• Establish appropriate governance mechanisms and people-related risk management frameworks.
• Ensure data privacy, confidentiality, and record-keeping compliance.

Employee Relations, Safeguarding and Risk Management

• Lead employee relations strategy and issue resolution.
• Oversee safeguarding, workplace investigations, ethics, and misconduct processes.
• Ensure effective grievance and disciplinary frameworks.
• Manage organisational risks related to people, culture, and conduct.
• Promote a safe, respectful, and healthy workplace environment.

Safeguarding

• Champion a culture where safeguarding is everyone's responsibility by leading by example and promoting Village Enterprise's commitment to safeguarding across the Kenya Country Programme.
• Ensure the effective implementation of and compliance with Village Enterprise's safeguarding policies, standards, and procedures by staff, partners, contractors, and programme participants.
• Foster a safe and accountable environment by ensuring safeguarding risks are proactively identified, mitigated, and integrated into programme design, implementation, and organizational processes.
• Ensure that safeguarding concerns and incidents are promptly reported, managed, and escalated in accordance with Village Enterprise's safeguarding policies, and support safeguarding investigations and disciplinary processes as required.

Key Performance Metrics

• Safeguarding case resolution: 100% of concerns investigated independently; average resolution within 30 days.
• Leadership pipeline: identified successor for every L8+/ G9+ roles; succession risk score reported quarterly to Board.
• Employee engagement score: year-on-year improvement; field staff engagement gap versus HQ below 10 percentage points.
• Employment law compliance: zero material violations across all jurisdictions.
• Talent retention: voluntary turnover below sector benchmark; key person risk mitigated through cross-training.

Requirements

Education:

• Master's degree in Human Resources, Organisational Psychology, Business Administration, Industrial Psychology, Law, Leadership, or related field. or MBA/ advanced leadership qualification.
• Professional Certifications preferred: SHRM-SCP, CHRP, FCIPD, CIPD

Experience

• Minimum 15 years of progressive People & Culture, Human Resources, or Organisational Development experience.
• At least 8 years in senior leadership roles.
• Experience leading global or multi-country teams.
• Proven experience supporting Boards and executive leadership teams.
• Demonstrated success in organisational transformation and culture change initiatives.
• International NGO, social enterprise, development sector, or multinational experience.
• Experience supporting rapid organisational growth.

Core Competencies

Strategic Competencies

• Enterprise Strategy and Organisational Effectiveness: Enterprise thinking, organisational design, workforce planning and change leadership.
• Governance and Risk Management: Governance frameworks, risk mitigation, regulatory compliance and strategic oversight.

Leadership Competencies

• Executive Leadership and Influence: Executive presence, influence, negotiation, stakeholder management and relationship building.
• People Leadership and Decision-Making: Strategic decision-making, coaching, mentoring and developing others.

Technical Competencies

• Talent and Performance Management: Talent management, performance management, workforce analytics and data-driven decision-making.
• HR Operations and Employee Relations: Labour law and compliance, compensation and benefits, safeguarding and employee relations.

Personal Attributes

• Ethical and Inclusive Leadership: Integrity, ethical leadership, emotional intelligence and cultural sensitivity.
• Personal Effectiveness and Innovation: Resilience, adaptability, innovation and accountability.

To Apply:

Interested and qualified candidates who meet the set criteria are invited to send their Cover Letter and CV (Maximum 3 pages) including 3 referees, on the online platform. 

Safeguarding Statement:

Village Enterprise is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people, and vulnerable adults. We expect all employees, volunteers, Visitors, associates (consultants, service providers and suppliers) and partners to uphold this commitment and adhere to our safeguarding policies and code of conduct. Village Enterprise has zero tolerance for any form of abuse, exploitation, or harassment.All appointments are subject to satisfactory pre-employment checks, which may include reference checks with previous employers, verification of qualifications, and criminal record or background screening where required by law.

Affirmative Action:

Village Enterprise provides equal employment and advancement opportunities to all individuals. Employment decisions are based on merit, qualifications, and abilities. Village Enterprise does not discriminate in employment opportunities or practices on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, gender identity, age, disability, marital status, or any other characteristic protected by law.Village Enterprise will make reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with known disabilities unless doing so would result in undue hardship to daily operations.Village Enterprise is a corruption, solicitation, and bribery-free organization. Neither Village Enterprise nor any of its employees or associates’ charges money to job applicants before, during, or after the recruitment process. Please report any malpractice through our safeguarding toll-free hotline 0800724810

Benefits

To be communicated