Are you passionate about making a difference in education? Achieving the Dream (ATD) is seeking an HR Generalist to support our mission of helping community colleges and their students succeed.

What You’ll Do:

• Support talent acquisition and onboarding processes to attract top talent.
• Develop and implement HR policies that promote a positive workplace culture.
• Assist with employee relations, performance management, and training initiatives.
• Analyze HR metrics to drive informed decision-making and continuous improvement.

Qualifications/Experience:

• Bachelor’s degree and at least three (3) years of experience or seven (7) years of direct HR experience in various functional areas at a generalist or business partner level preferred.
• PHR certification and/or SHRM-CP preferred.
• Experience in developing, implementing, and measuring strategic programs around employee development preferred.
• Experience in successfully developing multiple areas of a human resources department as a generalist preferred.
• Experience with relevant legal requirements in relation to employment law and its application to the department’s day-to-day work, company policy documentation, and staff welfare.
• Experience in developing training and coaching for staff preferred.
• Experience with integrating Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging into functional work.

Why ATD?

Achieving the Dream is a partner and champion of more than 300 community colleges across the country. Drawing on our expert coaches, groundbreaking programs, and national peer network, we provide institutions with integrated, tailored support for every aspect of their work — from foundational capacities such as leadership, data, and equity to intentional strategies for supporting students holistically, building K–12 partnerships, and more. We call this Whole College Transformation. Our vision is for every college to be a catalyst for equitable, antiracist, and economically vibrant communities. We know that with the right partner and the right approach, colleges can drive access, completion rates, and employment outcomes — so that all students can access life-changing learning that propels them into community-changing careers.

Achieving the Dream (ATD) believes that equity — our core founding principle — is the driving force to achieve the educational, economic, and social benefits of higher education for the students we serve. We believe that when colleges intentionally design and implement antiracist and just structures, policies, and practices that combat oppression, students and their communities thrive. Higher education must interrogate the disconnect between institutionalized practices that impact student success and the systemic structures and processes that continue to oppress and exclude students based on the intersection of race, ethnicity, gender identity, language, (dis)ability, sexual orientation, economic status, and/or religion. 

Achieving the Dream remains steadfast in our commitment to delivering student-centered strategies to guide and support colleges to disrupt and dismantle historical systemic discriminatory legacies, structures, and barriers that prevent community members from prospering. We expect ATD Network colleges to honor their institutional responsibilities to create and invest in thriving local communities by leveraging their leadership positions to actualize social, economic, and racial justice. Through bold actions, colleges must transform their practices to target and eliminate specific barriers to student success and address their students’ needs by centering equity within their local context.

To learn more about ATD’s commitment to equity, review our Equity Statement: ATD’s Equity Statement  

To learn more about our organization and mission, visit our homepage: Home - Achieving the Dream

Core Competencies

• Collaboration: Demonstrates respect, humility, and willingness to collaborate when seeking to understand others and making decisions.
• Equity Mindset: Demonstrates capacity to recognize and address racialized structures, policies, and practices, that produce and sustain racial inequities.
• Learning Orientation: Embraces challenges, new ideas and different perspectives as an opportunity to learn; continually seeks out and applies new learning to activate change or improvements.
• Systems Thinking: Defines the system and one’s role in the system. Sees relationships and the dynamic elements of the holistic system and executes work accordingly. Influences the system and maps connections to ATD’s external landscape.

Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion 

Achieving the Dream believes that diversity, equity and inclusion is critical to its work and its mission.  ATD takes meaningful steps to promote inclusion in its hiring, retention, promotion, and board recruitment, and supports equity work at the community colleges it serves. 

Equal Opportunity Employer 

Achieving the Dream is committed to creating and maintaining a diverse work environment. Employment policies and decisions are based upon merit, qualifications, performance, and business needs.  All qualified candidates will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, race, color, national origin, gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, or medical conditions related to pregnancy or childbirth), gender identity or expression, religion, physical or mental disability, medical condition, legally- protected genetic information, marital status, veteran status, or sexual orientation.

What We Offer:

We continually strive to be a committed, diverse, values-based organization. We also offer a robust portfolio of benefits, including: 

• Health, dental and vision insurance coverage  
• 401K Retirement plan  
• Optional pre-tax spending account for qualified medical FSA, dependent care FSA and commuter expenses 
• Premiums paid by ATD for short-term disability insurance, long-term disability insurance, life and AD&D insurance with options to elect and pay for additional coverage for spouse and children. 
• Paid sick leave, vacation time, and personal days. Additionally, ATD observes all 10 federal holidays and is closed the day after Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, and for Winter Break between December 25 and January 1 and currently offers four paid holidays during the summer months. 
• Employee Assistance Program  
• Professional Development allowance (for full-time employees on successful completion of 90-day intro period) 
• Technology usage reimbursement
• Mobile First Work Policy: Remote work allows employees to work at home for all or part of their workweek as a viable, flexible work option to support the changing needs of employees. Upon hire, employees are notified of their work location (Silver Spring or Remote). Fully remote may not be appropriate for all positions at ATD. ATD wants to ensure that both employees and ATD will benefit from these arrangements. 

To apply please include a cover letter along with your resume. In the cover letter discuss the following: 

1. Why are you passionate about ATD’s mission? 

1. What qualities, experiences, or other considerations do you believe make you an ideal candidate for this position?