Director of People & Talent

Reports To: CEO

About Arboreal

Great Expectations and its affiliate Arboreal Management is a rapidly growing affordable housing owner, developer, and property manager serving communities across Washington and Oregon.

Over the past four years, we have doubled in size each year and today manage more than 8,000 apartments with a team of approximately 200 colleagues across the United States and the Philippines.

Our mission is simple: provide below-market rents for residents while delivering above-market returns for investors.

We are also building something unusual. Alongside our property management business, we are developing Maynard, our internal AI and operations platform that powers resident support, leasing, maintenance coordination, communications, and business operations.

We are looking for a people leader who is excited by growth, enjoys building systems, and wants to help shape the next chapter of a company that is scaling quickly.

The Opportunity

As Director of People & Talent, you will lead recruiting, onboarding, training, employee relations, and people operations across a rapidly growing organization of approximately 200 employees across the United States and the Philippines.

This role is responsible for helping Arboreal attract, develop, and retain exceptional people while building the systems, processes, and leadership capabilities needed to support continued growth.

Our greatest people challenge is not administration—it is recruiting, onboarding, developing, and retaining great team members across a growing portfolio of affordable housing communities. The successful candidate will be excited to spend as much time building talent pipelines, onboarding new hires, and developing managers as they do handling traditional HR responsibilities.

This position reports directly to the CEO and is expected to build and lead a small People & Talent team over time.

Key Responsibilities

Talent Acquisition & Recruiting

• Lead recruiting strategy across corporate, operations, maintenance, and site-level positions
• Build and maintain talent pipelines for property managers, leasing consultants, maintenance professionals, and corporate staff
• Improve hiring processes, interview training, candidate evaluation, and hiring manager effectiveness
• Oversee recruiting systems, vendors, and candidate experience
• Develop partnerships with colleges, industry associations, workforce development organizations, and community partners
• Build and manage recruiting support resources in both the United States and the Philippines
• Track recruiting metrics and continuously improve hiring outcomes

Onboarding & Learning Development

• Own company-wide onboarding programs and processes
• Design and coordinate training programs for site teams, managers, maintenance staff, and corporate employees
• Develop leadership development and management training programs
• Create clear career pathways and internal promotion frameworks
• Maintain training resources, documentation, and learning systems
• Measure onboarding effectiveness, retention, and employee development outcomes

People Operations

• Provide guidance and support on employee relations matters
• Conduct workplace investigations and performance management processes as needed
• Partner with leaders on coaching, employee development, and team effectiveness
• Support compensation planning, organizational design, and workforce planning
• Ensure compliance with employment laws, policies, and best practices
• Oversee employee engagement and culture initiatives

Strategic Leadership

• Serve as a trusted advisor to the CEO, business unit VPs, and broader leadership team
• Help scale the organization through a period of rapid growth
• Identify opportunities to improve systems, processes, and organizational effectiveness
• Build a high-performing People & Talent function that can support future expansion
• Leverage technology, automation, and AI to improve recruiting, onboarding, training, and employee experience

Qualifications

Required

• 7+ years of progressive experience in talent acquisition, people operations, human resources, organizational development, training, or related leadership roles
• Experience supporting organizations with 150+ employees
• Demonstrated success recruiting for high-volume frontline operations roles
• Experience building onboarding, training, or leadership development programs
• Strong employee relations and performance management experience
• Experience partnering with senior leaders on organizational and people challenges
• Excellent communication, coaching, and relationship-building skills
• Ability to balance strategic thinking with hands-on execution
• Strong project management and organizational skills

Preferred

Experience supporting distributed, multi-site service organizations such as

• Property management
• Hospitality
• Healthcare
• Senior housing
• Retail operations
• Call centers or business process outsourcing
• Other high-growth service businesses

Additional experience with recruiting systems, learning management systems, and HR technology platforms is a plus.

Who Will Thrive Here

The ideal candidate is a builder.

They are equally comfortable recruiting a development executive, leading a front-line new-hire orientation, coaching a supervisor through a performance issue, creating a management training program, or improving company-wide hiring processes.

They enjoy being at the cutting edge of technology and business, creating systems from scratch, are energized by growth, and are excited by the opportunity to help scale a mission-driven organization.

They are practical, hands-on, and willing to roll up their sleeves. While they can think strategically, they are not afraid to personally conduct interviews, facilitate training sessions, solve problems, and help leaders navigate difficult situations.

Why Join GE/Arboreal?

• Help build one of the fastest-growing affordable housing companies in the Pacific Northwest
• Work directly with the CEO and executive leadership team
• Shape the future of a 200-person organization during a period of significant growth
• Build recruiting, onboarding, and leadership development programs that will impact hundreds of employees
• Join a mission-driven company focused on expanding housing affordability
• Help create innovative systems powered by technology and AI
• Opportunity to build and lead the People & Talent function as the company continues to grow

At Arboreal, we believe that great housing starts with great people. If you are excited about building teams, developing leaders, and helping a growing organization reach its potential, we would love to hear from you.