WITNESS is a global human rights organization, a collective of passionate human rights activists with team members worldwide. The mission of WITNESS is to help people use video and technology to protect and defend human rights. The organization is made up of a 40-person multi-disciplinary team with staff based across five continents. It is a global collective with mostly remote staff members and consultants, interns, fellows, and a vast community of partners and collaborators who reflect a group of activists with diverse skills and backgrounds. WITNESS is legally a non-profit that is registered as a 501(c)3 in the U.S.
WITNESS works in a rapidly changing global human rights, media and technology environment, where growing numbers of people stand up for human rights by turning to video and technology to fight for human rights and create change.
WITNESS is looking for a People and Systems Director who can anticipate and meet this dynamic environment head-on. To lead on designing organizational infrastructures and systems that centre our people, enable our program strategies, and foster a thriving organizational culture to help grow their impact worldwide.
The People and Systems Director will lead WITNESS to establish supportive and enabling practices, build a secure and adaptive global infrastructure, and design innovative systems and methods toward an inclusive organizational culture with equitable practices across our growing global organization.
WITNESS’ work is grounded in collaboration as well as innovative, future-forward systems thinking. The team begins their work by listening and anticipating their partners and communities’ needs and opportunities and considers how technology systems affect activists and value human rights.
Therefore, listening and anticipating is also core to this role, which requires anticipating changes in the human rights landscape and translating these nimbly into supportive people practices and dynamic, secure operational structures.