Director of People & Culture

Job Description

This senior leadership position is responsible for strengthening the Preserve as an employer, a workplace, and a mission-driven institution. Reporting to the Chief Executive Officer and working in close operational partnership with the Chief Operating Officer, the Director provides strategic, operational, and compliance leadership for the Preserve’s people systems, organizational culture, and human resources function.

​This is an exciting opportunity for a collaborative leader who is passionate about fostering an inclusive, values-driven workplace and supporting the people who make the Preserve’s work possible.

About Us

The nonprofit Land & Garden Preserve offers serenity across 1,400 acres of astonishingly beautiful natural lands, trails, carriage roads, and three breathtaking historic pleasure gardens adjacent to Acadia National Park on Mount Desert Island, Maine, between Seal Harbor and Northeast Harbor. Visitors enjoy our lands by walking a vast network of trails and carriage roads. We steward three top-tier public gardens of wildly different character: The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Garden, Thuya Garden, and the Asticou Azalea Garden. Each is a horticultural work of art that reinforces a strong sense of place and contributes to the special wonder of coastal Maine. Our people are among our greatest assets. We proudly employ a dedicated team of talented gardeners and craftspeople with a passion for our mission to conserve and share the beauty of our historic lands and gardens.

Duties & Responsibilities

This role serves as a thought partner to the CEO and senior leadership team on organizational design, staffing strategy, compensation philosophy, supervisory culture, employee experience, succession planning, and workforce sustainability. The Director also ensures that the Preserve’s human resources practices are clear, fair, legally compliant, well-documented, and consistently applied across year-round and seasonal operations.

The Director oversees the core functions of human resources, including employee relations, recruitment, onboarding, performance management, compensation and benefits, leave administration, policy development, compliance, personnel records, employee feedback systems, seasonal workforce housing coordination, and workplace safety leadership. The ideal candidate will combine strong technical HR knowledge with excellent judgment, discretion, emotional intelligence, and the ability to build trust across a complex, place-based organization with high standards of stewardship, hospitality, and care. The role requires routine virtual collaboration and regular in-person presence at Preserve locations.

Education and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, Organizational Leadership, or a related field, or an equivalent combination of education and relevant experience.
• Demonstrated ability to serve as a strategic partner to executive leadership on organizational design, employee experience, culture, compensation, and workforce planning.
• Experience building, improving, or professionalizing HR systems in a growing or evolving organization.
• Significant progressive human resources experience, including leadership responsibility for employee relations, investigations, policy administration, compliance, and manager coaching.
• Demonstrated experience supporting or overseeing workplace safety programs, incident response processes, workers’ compensation coordination, and related training or compliance practices.
• Strong working knowledge of employment law, HR best practices, confidential records management, leave administration, accommodations, and performance management.
• Demonstrated ability to exercise sound judgment, manage sensitive matters discreetly, and build trust across all levels of an organization.
• Excellent written, verbal, organizational, and interpersonal communication skills.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office / Microsoft 365 and experience with HRIS, payroll, or employee records systems.
• Ability to work effectively from a professional remote workspace that supports confidential conversations, secure handling of sensitive personnel information, and reliable high-speed internet and videoconferencing capability, sufficient to perform the essential functions of the role.

Additional Information

See full job description and how to apply at https://www.gardenpreserve.org/employment-opportunities

Application Instructions

Send a letter of interest and resume to info@gardenpreserve.org. Visit website gardenpreserve.org/employment-opportunities to read full job description before applying.