Employee Experience Strategy Lead

ReNEW Schools; Washington (District of Columbia); On-site; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Center City Public Charter Schools in Washington, D.C. seeks an Employee Experience Strategy Lead to architect systems and leadership behaviors shaping the employee experience across campuses.

This role translates complex organizational dynamics into actionable solutions, reducing organizational risk through ER expertise and design. The Strategy Lead partners with senior leaders to shape manager expectations, design frameworks for consistent decisions, and contribute to long-term organizational

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree and 5-7 years of progressive HR or employee relations experience; Master's Degree preferred.
• Ability to independently lead investigations and navigate sensitive or high-risk situations with judgment.
• Expertise in employment law and policy application in multi-site environments; familiarity with DC regulations preferred.
• Exceptional communication skills to influence senior leaders and shape organizational thinking.
• High-level project management skills to design and implement scalable systems.
• Strong interpersonal intelligence to navigate organizational dynamics with discretion.

Responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end strategy for handling complex, high-risk employee relations matters with culture, legal compliance, and leadership accountability.
• Conduct analytical, impartial investigations informing long-term organizational decisions.
• Provide strategic recommendations addressing root causes and patterns in employee concerns.
• Establish decision-making frameworks to increase consistency and ER practice sophistication.

Skills

Investigations

Policy analysis

Communication

Leadership development

Project management

Discretion

Education

Bachelor's degree

Master's degree preferred

Job description

Center City Public Charter Schools (Center City PCS) empower our students for lifelong success by building strong character, promoting academic excellence, and generating public service throughout Washington, D.C. In this endeavor, we are committed to attracting, developing, and retaining one of the best faculty members in the district. Center City staff are teachers, mentors, and leaders, and they play an essential role in ensuring our students maximize their potential. Our network serves over 1,400 students annually at our six campuses across the District, with a staff of over 250 dedicated individuals.

The Employee Experience Strategy Lead is the organization’s go-to expert responsible for architecting the systems, practices, and leadership behaviors that shape the employee experience across all campuses. This role operates at a strategic level, translating complex organizational dynamics into actionable solutions, building manager capability at scale, and proactively reducing organizational risk through high-quality judgment, advanced ER expertise, and systems design.

The Strategy Lead partners closely with senior leaders to identify emerging trends, shape manager expectations, and design the frameworks that guide consistent, mission-aligned decision-making. In doing so, the role contributes to long-term organizational health in ways that extend beyond individual employee relations cases or transactional HR work.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Employee Relations Leadership

• Lead the end-to-end strategy for handling complex, high-risk employee relations matters, ensuring outcomes that reinforce organizational culture, legal compliance, and leadership accountability.
• Conduct deeply analytical, impartial investigations that anticipate downstream impact and inform long-term organizational decisions.
• Identify organizational patterns and systemic drivers of employee concerns and provide senior leadership with strategic recommendations to address root causes.
• Establish decision-making frameworks and standards that increase consistency, reduce exposure, and elevate the sophistication of ER practice across the network.

Manager Coaching & Leadership Development

• Serve as the organization’s primary strategic thought partner to managers and campus leaders navigating sensitive performance, behavior, or culture challenges.
• Design and deliver high-impact coaching that strengthens leaders' supervisory practice, communication skills, and judgment.
• Build scalable tools, guides, and frameworks that raise the leadership bar and shift the organization toward more proactive, competency-based management.
• Play a key role in leadership development efforts, aligning ER practice with broader organizational strategy and cultural expectations.

Policy Strategy, Compliance Architecture, & Risk Management

• Shape the evolution of employee-facing policies by analyzing organizational needs, legal requirements, and cultural implications.
• Partner with legal counsel to anticipate risk, craft strategic responses, and advise on emerging issues that require senior-level discernment.
• Build systems that ensure ER data, documentation, and reporting meet high standards of accuracy, transparency, and audit readiness.
• Translate complex legal and policy guidance into user-friendly frameworks that support consistent execution at the campus level.

Culture Strategy, Systems Design, and Organizational Influence

• Architect enterprise-wide processes, templates, training modules, and ER systems that reinforce healthy culture, managerial consistency, and operational excellence.
• Integrate ER strategy with onboarding, performance evaluation, leadership development, and organizational effectiveness workstreams.
• Build long-term, trust-based relationships with campus teams to strengthen early issue-spotting, reduce escalation, and ensure responsive, high-quality support.
• Demonstrate sustained, strategic influence through ownership of high-stakes initiatives, cross-functional collaboration, and leadership of complex organizational priorities.

Qualifications

Required

• Bachelor's degree and 5-7 years of progressive HR or employee relations experience; Master's Degree preferred.
• Demonstrated ability to independently lead investigations and navigate sensitive, ambiguous, or high-risk situations with exceptional judgment.
• Expertise in employment law and application of policy in complex, multi-site environments; familiarity with DC regulations preferred.
• Exceptional communication skills, with the ability to influence senior leaders and shape organizational thinking.
• High-level project management skills, with the ability to design and implement systems that scale.
• Strong interpersonal intelligence and the ability to navigate organizational dynamics with discretion

Preferred

• Experience in K-12, charter schools, nonprofits, or multi-site organizations.
• HR certification (PHR, SHRM-CP, or higher).
• Experience building ER systems or supporting organizational or cultural change.