People Operations Lead**

A dynamic leader who will help us find, support, and develop our greatest resource: our people
 

About the Position

At Namati, our people are our greatest resource. Our team of more than 150 big-hearted advocates is spread across six country offices and remote locations around the world, representing different languages, customs, legal systems, and operating environments. And yet we are united—through our unyielding commitment to our mission and through a core of deeply held common values (see our cultural principles here.)

In the past few years, we’ve built out an early-stage People Operations function—a team effort between several colleagues who work at the nexus of people and systems. As we’ve grown in both size and impact, we’re now searching for a dynamic innovator to bring new leadership and expertise to our global People Operations.

We’re looking for someone who will wake up every day excited to support our organization to unleash maximum impact through our people. The right person will take care to understand what makes Namati unique and thoughtfully translate our mission and values into a People Operations strategy tailored to our complex, multi-country operating reality. We’re looking for someone with a solid understanding of global human resources (HR) standards and best practices, combined with a willingness to challenge conventional HR thinking in service of finding unique solutions. Someone who will build systems that reflect each country’s context but also promote equity and consistency across the global organization. Someone who will care deeply for our people, advocate for their interests, and help them grow with the organization.

More than anything, we’re looking for someone who feels a deep resonance with our mission to bring justice everywhere and who will be relentless in building and supporting the team that brings this mission to life.

Our People Operations Lead** will bring leadership and expertise to the following areas:

Strategy & global systems

• Develop a people strategy for the organization that will bring our strategic plan to life
• Create accessible HR policies and procedures that are up-to-date, in line with local law, and that build and improve Namati’s organizational culture
• Support each of Namati’s country offices to administer human resources optimally for their context and team composition
• Build thoughtful people systems (e.g. compensation and benefits) across Namati’s operating locales that are rooted in local law and context but are systematic and equitable across the organization
• Work with our global operations and systems teams to iterate on team-wide communication and workflows

Talent acquisition, onboarding, and development

• Work with hiring managers to map new positions, including setting salary ranges, crafting job descriptions, and creating exercises
• Build hiring manager capacity across Namati, to ensure that we uphold not only our high standards in evaluation but also ensure a positive, empowering candidate experience
• Run full-cycle hiring processes as needed, from sourcing candidates to conducting interviews to preparing offers
• Oversee new employee orientation and partner with hiring managers to build thoughtful and tailored onboarding plans and conduct initial goal-setting
• Provide strategic direction and contribute to planning for employee and team professional development, leadership development and coaching, and succession planning

Administration and compliance

• Administer a full suite of benefits for Namati’s US staff
• Serve as the primary employee relations contact for Namati’s US entity, and support others working in a similar capacity on their own teams around the world
• Work with teams to ensure compliance in all country operating programs
• Support the global conversation around the safety and security of our people

Management and culture

• Partner with managers at all levels to develop Namati’s management culture and practices, including staff training and development
• Design and roll-out organizational performance management systems
• Consider and craft initiatives to facilitate learning and engagement, including pulse surveys, trainings, and resource curation
• Guide our organization to examine what diversity, equity, and inclusion mean in our various contexts and what we need to do to better live our values of empowerment, collaboration, and solidarity
• Directly manage a Senior People Operations Associate
   

Here’s some things you might have tackled last month:

• Held a new position intake call with Namati’s Environmental Justice Program Director for an upcoming role in India—drafted the job description, benchmarked and proposed the salary range for the role, and designed the hiring workflow
• Prepared slides on Namati’s team evolution since 2012 for the COO to present at our annual board of directors meeting
• Collaborated with the Community Land Protection Program Director to design a comprehensive 90-day onboarding and goal setting plan for a new staff member in Kenya
• Reviewed feedback on our annual review process and made recommendations to improve the process for both staff and managers
• Reflected on what diversity and inclusion might mean at an organization as globally disparate as ours and raised some ideas with our COO on how to bring it to life
• Researched and selected a vendor for a new flexible spending account (FSA) benefit for our US staff
• Researched the New York City and State requirements for providing sexual harassment trainings and worked with Namati’s retained counsel to make a plan to ensure Namati’s people and the organization as a whole are protected

About You/Must-Haves for the Position

• Experience in human resources in multiple country settings. You have worked in an HR/people operations capacity across different country environments. We’d particularly value experience and expertise in compensation/benefits, as well as systems design that spanned multiple contexts. While specific experience in our operating countries is not required, you must have enough knowledge of international HR to get quickly up to speed in those contexts.
• A people-focused, modern outlook on HR. You’re excited to study and learn from the best of the best and newest of the new and help Namati bolster our unique approach to people operations. You believe in the power of HR to not just protect the organization and people but to help deepen our impact. You’re fearless in engaging and challenging colleagues at all levels to bring the boldest and the best ideas to the fore, examine them rigorously, and abandon them without ego if they’re not right for us.
• Empowering leader and people manager. You’re committed to being a great manager for your direct reports, and you’re well-equipped to help managers all across Namati empower their teams and tackle often difficult managerial situations with care and sensitivity.
• Collaborative and service-oriented: You greet everyone you encounter with a collaborative spirit, kindness, and empathy. This role in particular requires active relationship-building; it’s essential that People Operations works in close collaboration with representatives from all across Namati, empowers them, and remains responsive to their unique needs and cultures.
• Growth-oriented: You’re always seeking to better yourself and your work, and you will push yourself to the peak of performance to help fulfill our mission. In service of that growth, you welcome and delight in feedback from supervisors, peers, and anyone else. You’ll also help us all get better at sharing and receiving feedback across the organization, to ensure everyone is learning and growing in their roles.

About Namati

Namati is dedicated to placing the power of law in the hands of people.

For billions of people around the world, the law is broken. It’s an abstraction—or worse, a threat—but not something they can use to exercise their basic rights.

Namati is building a global movement of community paralegals who empower people to understand, use, and shape the law. These “barefoot lawyers” form a dynamic, creative frontline that can squeeze justice out of even broken systems.

In the past four years, Namati and our partners have worked with over 65,000 clients to take on some of the greatest challenges of our times: protecting community lands, enforcing environmental law, and securing basic rights to healthcare and citizenship.

We track data on every case and use that information to advocate for systemic changes, like better policies for land governance in Liberia, environmental regulation in India, and healthcare delivery in Mozambique.

And we're joining forces for change. Namati convenes the Global Legal Empowerment Network—over 1,800 groups and 6,500 individuals from 168 countries learning from one another and bringing justice to communities in every part of the world.

For more about what it’s like to work at Namati, please see our Cultural Principles.

Location

We require this position to be based out of one of Namati's global offices in Washington DC, USA; Freetown, Sierra Leone; Maputo, Mozambique; Nairobi, Kenya; Yangon, Myanmar; or New Delhi, India. Please note you must already be legally eligible to work in one of these countries to be considered for the position.

**Title and structure

The title for this position will likely be “Director, People Operations” or “Senior Manager, People Operations”—final title and responsibilities will be set based on the selected candidate’s level of experience. We encourage all mid- to senior- level candidates to apply.

This position will report to Namati’s COO and will manage a Senior People Operations Associate. Close collaborators will include Namati’s CFO, leadership team, and country staff with HR responsibilities.

Compensation & benefits

Namati offers competitive compensation in all locales where we operate. Compensation will be set in line with the final determination of title and responsibilities and the candidate’s location. We also offer excellent benefits: while the exact terms vary somewhat based on country office, they always include health coverage, generous paid time off, retirement or old-age plan contributions, sick leave, and parental leave— or compensation for the same. All staff also have access to funds for professional development opportunities.

To Apply

Please complete our online application form. While applications will be considered on a rolling basis until the position is filled, we encourage you to apply by April 15th.