People & Culture Associate

Kitchen Table Advisors (KTA) fuels the economic viability of sustainable small farms and ranches through practical business advising and trusted relationships. Our vision is that regenerative farmers and ranchers are thriving leaders of a vibrant community-based economy that is rooted in equitable distribution of power and resources. Kitchen Table Advisors work aims to both directly support farmers and ranchers as well as shift the ecosystem in which they operate to be more supportive of their agricultural practices and their lived experiences. We focus our efforts on land markets and capital which we see as key levers of change as small sustainable farms and ranches strive towards long-term economic viability.

Job Title: People & Culture Associate

Classification: Full Time Exempt

Salary Range: $72000 - $82000

Total Rewards Include: Professional development stipend medical dental vision life insurance and employer-matched 401k. Flexible working schedule generous vacation and leave policies.

Work Location: This role is hybrid and is expected to work from our Berkeley office at least once/week; Applicants must be located in or willing to relocate to one of the regions that we serve which includes the following counties: Yolo Solano Sacramento Sonoma Marin Napa San Mateo Alameda Contra Costa Monterey Santa Cruz San Benito Santa Clara Madera Merced Stanislaus.

Post Date: 1/23/26

Priority Review Date: 2/13/26

Job Overview

The People & Culture (P&C) Associate will play a key role in supporting the People & Culture function at Kitchen Table Advisors through project management research and administrative assistance. This is a new role for our P&C team and will report to the Director of People & Culture. The Associate will be responsible for supporting the director in employee lifecycle process management staff engagement personnel policy research and development and administrative work and will also provide essential thought partnership to the Director. They will play a big role in supporting our growing team and cultivating an equitable and joyful organizational culture. The P&C Associate will work collaboratively with other parts of the broader Organizational Resourcing team in particular Operations and Finance in order to support P&C related-tasks.

The P&C Associate will embody the organizations values of equity empathy transformational leadership ecological responsibility and resilience. This is an exciting opportunity for a collaborative emotionally intelligent people & culture professional with knowledge of and experience in the nonprofit sector.

Responsibilities

The primary responsibilities of this role include but are not limited to:

1. Employee lifecycle administrative management (20%)
   • Manage external posting and promotion of new KTA jobs
   • Manage our applicant tracking system including platform troubleshooting and training staff in the platform
   • Schedule candidate interviews and internal hiring-related meetings
   • Update hiring process workflows and supporting resources as necessary
   • Project manage both onboarding and offboarding processes and related resources.
2. Information accessibility and transparency (20%)
   • Manage the P&C Intranet space keeping it up-to-date and proactively making improvements to content and structure in order to improve accessibility
   • Manage the P&C shared drive ensuring resources are accessible by the appropriate team members
   • Create new written resources for staff as needed
3. Policy research & development (20%)
   • Research best practices and synthesize data to inform the development of personnel policies
   • As appropriate draft language for personnel policies
   • Draft proposals for new policies
4. Staff engagement (20%)
   • Administer and synthesize staff surveys to support improvements
   • Organize and project manage staff retreats
   • Provide thought partnership to the Director of P&C on opportunities to improve staff engagement
5. General administrative support (10%)
   • Support with scheduling of People & Culture meetings listening sessions and events
   • Prepare P&C presentations to be shared with all staff
   • Collaborate with Finance team on timesheet- and PTO-related tasks
   • Other projects as assigned and as capacity allows
6. Organizational Collaboration (10%)
   • Contribute to team meetings retreats and shared leadership activities
   • Participate in the recruitment process for new team members as needed
   • Handle personal administrative tasks like timesheets expense reports and scheduling

Ideal Candidate

You are a collaborative empathetic and enthusiastic people professional who is excited to help KTA be an inclusive fun and values-aligned place to work. You have professional experience in People & Culture HR or a related field. You are naturally inclined to support others and make sure they have the resources they need to be successful in their jobs. You possess excellent emotional intelligence and a high level of integrity and discernment around confidential information. You genuinely love to think about organizational structure values and how organizations can best support their people. You are detail oriented and self-motivated and you have a demonstrated ability to prioritize and effectively manage your time. Youre a proactive problem solver who demonstrates creativity and resourcefulness. You possess great interpersonal and communication skills including strong writing skills. You welcome both positive and constructive feedback and you want to grow in this position and with KTA.

Qualifications

We recognize that each applicant will bring unique skills knowledge experiences and background to this position. We welcome diverse experiences and perspectives in our applicant pool and will be looking for candidates who possess many but not necessarily all of the following qualifications and experience:

• 2 years of experience in HR People & Culture or other related work
• Excellent written and verbal communication in particular around complex or delicate topics
• Demonstrated ability to exercise good judgment and maintain confidentiality
• Exceptional emotional intelligence demonstrated ability to navigate delicate situations with grace
• Experience with mediating interpersonal and/or workplace conflict management
• Experience in worker self-directed nonprofits and/or consensus-based models is a plus
• Excellent attention to detail and organizational skills
• Ability to prioritize plan organize and independently manage multiple tasks and deadlines effectively
• High degree of integrity and sense of accountability
• Ability to work collaboratively in a team environment while also being able to work independently
• Highly motivated with demonstrated ability to learn on the job and identify opportunities for innovation
• Demonstrated personal and professional commitment to KTAs values of empathy equity transformational leadership resilience and ecological responsibility.
• Demonstrated cultural competence and ability to collaborate with others that possess a diversity of backgrounds skill sets and experience
• Connection to agriculture: family background or business work experience etc. highly preferred.
• Bilingual English/Spanish preferred.

Travel and Schedule Considerations

• Due to the nature of the work candidates must possess a valid drivers license with access to a vehicle for periodic travel throughout Northern California to meet with colleagues and attend work events.
• There will be occasional work responsibilities that occur during the evenings and/or weekends.

Kitchen Table Advisors celebrates diversity and is committed to building teams and partnerships that represent a variety of backgrounds perspectives and skills. Kitchen Table Advisors is also committed to providing an environment of mutual respect that is free from discrimination and harassment. Kitchen Table Advisors prohibits discrimination in its governance programs and activities on the basis of race color religion creed sex gender (including pregnancy childbirth breastfeeding or related medical conditions) sexual orientation gender identity gender expression ancestry national origin age (40 and over) disability (mental and physical) medical condition genetic information marital status military or veteran status or for any other non-merit based factor.

If you require a reasonable accommodation for any part of the application process please contact peopleandculture (at) kitchentableadvisors (dot) org with the subject line Accommodation Request.