2025 Human Resource Manager - MDC

MDC, a nonprofit in Durham, N.C., focused on expanding opportunity, reducing poverty, and promoting equity, particularly in the South, seeks an HR Manager to coordinate all administrative and programmatic activities related to MDC’s personnel.

MDC enjoys support from national and regional partners in private philanthropy, business, and government. MDC envisions a South where systemic inequities no longer exist, and all people thrive.

About MDC (Meaning, Dignity, and Community)
Founded in 1967, MDC catalyzes and accelerates economic mobility across the thirteen Southern states by activating changemakers, strengthening capacity, framing key issues, and cultivating networks—centering equity through it all.

We currently work in 4 key issue areas:
 

1. Leadership & Philanthropy
2. Educational Equity
3. Economic Security & Mobility
4. Rural Prosperity & Investment

MDC is based in Durham, NC with a staff of approximately 47 and oversight from a national board of directors.  Our leadership team includes our President and CEO, two Vice-presidents, and four Senior Program Directors that cover our major focus areas. 


About the HR Manager
This position is key in our growing organization, focusing on both the nuts and bolts of HR (e.g., developing strategic recruitment and retention strategies, onboarding and exiting staff, implementing systems for managing staff benefits and payroll) –as well as establishing new approaches and practices within the HR domain that build a culture of trust and transparency. From employee relations to compliance issues, the HR Manager will be a key player in helping the organization run smoothly.

The position may be hybrid, with the strong preference that it is based out of MDC’s office in Durham, NC.

Specific responsibilities include:
 

1. Formalize Onboarding & Orientation; add structure to the existing process and develop systems for the future; keep orientation manual updated.
2. Working with our Director of Learning and Impact, build systems to educate new staff on programmatic supports (e.g., ‘what’s in the MDC toolbox’ for programs teams, sources for strong professional development, available resources and ongoing trainings for all staff, etc.) via new hire onboarding.
3. Drive the implementation of MDC’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Action Plan, working closely with the VP for Operations and Culture and the VP for Partnerships and Programs.
4. Manage the staffing process (including interns/fellows), including recruiting, interviewing, hiring and onboarding, as well as developing/refining performance management systems.
5. Oversee talent development and cultivation; enhance the performance management system; support performance improvement, where needed.
6. Develop training materials and performance management programs to help ensure employees understand their job responsibilities.
7. Manage an annual review of employee benefits. Recommend changes to employee benefits as needed to ensure MDC remains competitive.
8. Organize succession plans for key roles.
9. Oversee exiting talent (including exit interviews with outgoing personnel). Seek to understand reasons for departures and whether they indicate the need for changes in organizational policy or practices.
10. Create a total compensation strategy for all employees based on market research and pay surveys; keep the strategy up-to-date.
11. Codify Career Pathways - mapping out possible pathways for promotion, by role; measure internal readiness for promotion by role and identify steps to close skill/resource gaps, as needed.
12. Play a key role in preserving and improving organizational culture; investigate employee issues and conflicts and manage them to resolution.
13. Ensure the organization’s compliance with local, state and federal regulations in a multi-state, primarily-virtual office environment.
14. Improve and sustain people development structures, including professional development for all staff, accountability systems for all supervisors and leaders, and support structures that ensure the health and well-being of all MDC staff.
15. Shape a system for staff time allocation that addresses immediate needs as well as plans for future scenarios, allowing for thoughtful assignment of program staff to current and future projects. Ensure an approach that accounts for staff growth and development.
16. Ensure that MDC has strong systems, tools, and staffing for hiring, onboarding, performance management, promotion, compensation, wellness, and ongoing staff development.
17. Champion and communicate a culture of engagement that builds staff ownership of and support for the strategic direction of the organization.

Qualifications
The Human Resource Manager will be thoroughly committed to MDC’s strategy and mission. All candidates should have demonstrated coaching and relationship management experience and strong demonstrated success in creating meaningful impact related to equity and inclusion initiatives. In addition, candidates should have:

1. Skill, experience, and enthusiasm for working collaboratively in an environment committed to diversity, inclusion, and racial equity.
2. Deep experience in understanding and promoting racial equity, as well as addressing other inequities facing historically marginalized groups (e.g., LGBTQ individuals, women, immigrants).
3. The ability to manage conflict, de-escalate disagreements and orchestrate solutions.
4. The ability to build and maintain relationships, communicate clearly and accurately through spoken and written formats, and incorporate the best elements of diversity, equity, and inclusion to speak across lines of difference or levels of power. This includes the ability to name power dynamics and create plans for providing relevant voice and accessibility, in addition to distributing decision-making where appropriate.
5. Ability to use discretion and maintain confidentiality; protect safe spaces for staff to transparently share; provide compassionate accountability for employees by offering concrete ways they can improve their performance.
6. A mature understanding of inclusion, power, privilege, and diversity concepts.
7. Ability to demonstrate availability as a reliable thought partner to colleagues on work-related matters; ability to maintain ongoing perspective and prioritization of the shifting needs of specific projects, direct reports, and MDC as a whole to best achieve the mission in an equitable fashion.
8. Experience with advancing organizational and workplace culture initiatives and supporting policies and practices.
9. Experience with a wide variety of human resource tools & systems including implementation of new systems, programs, products & technologies required.
10. Skill at customer service and responsiveness to constituent needs.
11. The ability to think creatively and collaboratively in changing and challenging situations.
12. Excellent and clear written and oral communication skills to those with less, the same, and more organizational power, whether within MDC or outside of it.

Other qualifications include:

• Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, or related field required.
• A minimum of five years of human resource management experience with a mission-driven organization preferred.
• SHRM-SCP certification or equivalent highly desired.

Organizational Culture
We work in a high-paced environment with full days but remain dedicated to a strong work/life balance.  We strive to produce excellent work toward our individual and collective goals as a program and as part of MDC.  Staff are required to attend quarterly in-person meetings in Durham, NC. Office space is available in Durham, NC upon request.


To Apply
The hiring range for this position is $70,000 - $78,000.

MDC offers an excellent benefits package.  This position will be a full-time exempt position and is eligible for a full package of benefits including health, dental, and vision insurance; short-term and long-term disability; life insurance; vacation, sick, and personal leave; employee assistance program, wellness benefit, remote work stipend and paid retirement account contributions with match.
MDC is an equal opportunity employer. As an organization committed to diversity and equity, it is our policy to provide an equal employment opportunity to all individuals without regard to age, color, race, religion, national origin, disability, military/veteran status, sex, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation or status in any other group, protected by federal or local law or for any other reason. We encourage applications from people of color, women, the LGBTQ community, individuals with disabilities, and members of other underrepresented groups. Further, MDC values candidates with lived experience relevant to our mission.  Reasonable accommodations are available on request.
 

1. For more information about MDC, visit www.mdcinc.org.
2. Send your application package (cover letter, resume, and three references) electronically through JazzHR rather than by regular mail.
3. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis, with the first round of 60-minute interviews over Zoom scheduled to begin the week of December 16, 2024. 
4. The desired start date for this position is no later than February 18, 2025.   
5. If you require assistance with your application, please emailinfo@mdcinc.org.

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