Status: Permanent, Full-time
Salary Range: $110,000 to $145,000
Build a workplace where people can do the best work of their lives—while advancing Coast’s mission.
The Opportunity
As Coast Mental Health continues to grow in scale, complexity, and impact, we’re looking for a senior leader to strengthen the culture and people practices that enable our employees to thrive.
As Director, People and Culture, you will lead an engaged team with a comprehensive portfolio spanning human resources, recruitment, labour relations, compensation and benefits, occupational health and safety, training and professional development, performance management, employee engagement, and the volunteer program.
Reporting to the Chief Operating Officer and serving as a member of the Senior Leadership Team, you will shape strategic and operational decisions that influence how Coast attracts, supports, develops, and retains people in an evolving social and health services unionized workforce environment.
This role requires a leader who can think strategically while staying grounded in execution, and who can approach high-stakes priorities with compassion and collaboration. You will continuously improve People and Culture systems, coach leaders through complex and sensitive situations, and translate values into consistent day-to-day practice that advances care for thousands of people with mental illness and addiction.
The work is meaningful. The stakes are real. The impact is human.
What You’ll Do
Lead Coast’s People Strategy and Culture
- Set the strategic direction for People & Culture to strengthen organizational health, workforce stability, and employee experience.
- Champion a values-driven culture grounded in equity, inclusion, belonging, and Reconciliation across the employee lifecycle.
- Use workforce insights and practical change management to promote adoption of policies, programs, and tools.
Enable Leaders to Hire, Grow, and Lead Well
- Strengthen recruitment and onboarding systems so Coast can attract and retain talent in a competitive social sector environment.
- Coach leaders on performance management and goal planning by building a consistent rhythm of expectations, feedback, development planning, and documentation.
- Build leader capability with practical tools and training that works in the real world of community-based mental health services.
Provide Senior Labour Relations and Employee Relations Leadership
- Lead labour relations strategy and practice in a unionized environment, including interpretation/administration of collective agreements and implementation of negotiated changes, working closely with HEABC.
- Provide senior oversight for grievances, investigations, conflict resolution, and complex employee relations matters, ensuring fair, timely, and consistent outcomes.
- Build effective working relationships with unions and support leaders to navigate difficult conversations with professionalism and care.
Oversee Total Rewards, Safety, and Wellbeing Practices
- Lead compensation and benefits strategy and administration to support internal equity, market alignment, and retention, ensuring alignment with HEABC direction.
- Provide leadership for Occupational Health & Safety and compliance, strengthening safety culture, training completion, and consistent practices.
- Oversee disability and injury/illness management processes, including WorkSafe, short/long-term disability, and absence management.
Drive Learning, Development, and Engagement
- Design and oversee training and professional development programs that support continuous learning, leadership development, and mandatory training requirements.
- Lead employee engagement strategy and action planning, supporting leaders to translate feedback into visible improvements.
- Strengthen systems and processes to deliver responsive, high-quality People & Culture services across all Coast programs and sites.
Strengthen Coast’s Volunteer Program
- Provide oversight for Coast’s volunteer program as part of a total workforce approach, providing role clarity, onboarding, training, supervision, recognition, and risk management.
- Build structures that support volunteer retention and engagement while protecting operational integrity and staff capacity.
Who You Are
Experience That Counts
- Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, or a related field; CPHR/CHRP (or equivalent) is an asset.
- Significant progressive HR/People & Culture leadership experience, including accountability for multiple functional areas (labour relations, total rewards, talent, engagement, safety, learning).
- Demonstrated experience leading labour relations and employee relations in a unionized environment, including grievance and investigation processes.
- Experience in non-profit and/or public sector environments—preferably in health, housing, social services, community health, and/or mental health settings.
- Proven commitment to equity, Reconciliation, and supporting mental health and housing.
- Exceptional emotional intelligence, with well-honed self-perception skills, a compassionate approach to leadership, and an authentic commitment to collaboration.
What You Bring
- Strong strategic thinking paired with disciplined execution and operational follow-through.
- Exceptional written, verbal, and interpersonal communication skills.
- Ability to manage complexity, multiple priorities, and changing demands.
- High degree of judgment, discretion, initiative, and professionalism.
- Excellent judgment and steady leadership in sensitive, high-stakes situations.
- Ability to simplify complexity, build practical tools, and improve consistency across sites and teams.
- Confidence with technology and digital tools (including M365), and comfort leveraging enabling technology responsibly
- Financial acumen and experience managing budgets and resources.
How You Show Up
- Mission-driven and deeply committed to advancing mental health, substance use health, and housing supports.
- Values-centered, collaborative, compassionate, courageous, and trustworthy.
- A pragmatic problem-solver who balances compassion with accountability.
- Innovative and curious, with a commitment to continuous learning and improvement.
- Curious and committed to continuous learning, improvement, and building capacity in others.
Compensation
Status: Permanent, Full-time
Salary Range: $110,000 to $145,000
The Salary Range is the estimated minimum and maximum annual salary based on fulltime equivalent hours. This range is currently under review with HEABC and is subject to confirmation.
Incumbents are typically hired, transferred, or promoted between the minimum and midpoint of the range, based on their knowledge, skills, abilities, and experience in relation to the role requirements.
The top 10% of the pay range is reserved for incumbents who are industry experts in the role and bring an exceptional combination of experience and competencies required to perform all duties and responsibilities at a superior capability level.
About Coast
Coast Mental Health (Coast) is one of the largest mental health non-profit societies in Canada and operates a large array of innovative housing and community-based rehabilitation services for people with a mental illness living in and around Vancouver. Coast operates in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia providing approximately 1000 people with supportive housing and 4000 clients living in the community with a wide variety of programs and services.
Coast fosters a client-driven, recovery-oriented environment that promotes restoring health, personal growth and a return to society for individuals with a mental illness through advocacy and providing direct programs and services. Coast is deeply invested in cultural safety, reconciliation, and anti-racism. Our employees receive training on cultural humility, trauma-informed practice, and inclusive leadership. We strive to reflect the communities we serve and value lived experience alongside professional qualifications.
Why Coast
- We recognize safety as a top priority for the organization.
- We believe in our people and recognize hard work.
- We operate client-centered care under the principles of psychosocial rehabilitation.
- We offer a variety of work placement opportunities within the organization.
- We strive to be the best that we can be.
- We hold Exemplary Standing with Accreditation Canada.
- We have been recognized with numerous awards for our innovative programming.
- We care about our employees and believe in living our values and culture throughout the organization.
Some of the Benefits we Offer
- 100% employer-paid benefits for employees and their families.
- Vision Care, Dental Care, Prescription Drugs, Naturopath, Acupuncture, Chiropractic, Group Life, Massage therapy, Physiotherapy, and Unlimited Out-of-Province and Out-of-Country Emergencies.
- General sick-leave accruals.
- Long-term disability programs. Short-term disability programs available to exempt positions only.
- 5 days of paid leave for Indigenous Employees for Ceremonial, Cultural, and Spiritual events per year.
- 8 weeks of paid leave for gender affirming care for medical procedures for transgender and gender diverse employees, cumulative total.
- Employee and Family Assistance Program, which includes personal counselling, Life Coaching, Financial Coaching, Legal Referral and Advisory Services, and Health Coaching. In addition, Coast provides a cognitive behavioural therapy program (CBT abilities program) and Headversity for managing a variety of life issues and includes self-paced therapeutic support.
- Municipal Pension Plan with guaranteed lifetime monthly pension when you retire. More information can be found at: https://mpp.pensionsbc.ca.
Coast Mental Health is committed to creating a culture of diversity and is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will be considered for employment without regard to age, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion or disability.
