Director of People & Culture

Director of People & Culture

Position Profile

This is a unique opportunity to join one of the nation’s leading cultural institutions at a moment of meaningful transition and renewal. The Director of People & Culture will lead a team with the goal to help stabilize, strengthen, and reimagine the employee experience, supporting both the people and the art at the heart of the organization. The Director of People & Culture will serve as a key member of the senior leadership team, responsible for shaping and stewarding a people-centered culture within a highly collaborative and uniquely complex theatrical environment.

This is a pivotal moment for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Following a period of leadership transition, evolving labor dynamics, and recovery from the pandemic closures, the Festival is experiencing an exciting time of revival. Audiences are growing; critical reception for the work is thriving; and the artistic vision for the future of the company is expansive and inclusive. The Director of People & Culture will play a central role in strengthening internal systems and fostering a cohesive and supportive workplace culture at a time when the impact of their work will be pivotal to the continuing success of the organization.

This is both a stabilization and an impact opportunity—requiring a leader who can balance empathy with rigor, listening with action, and relationship‑building with operational discipline.

The Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) was founded in 1935 in Ashland, OR, and has grown from a three-day festival of two plays to a nationally renowned theatre arts organization that presents a rotating repertory season of up to 10 plays and musical productions, including illuminating interpretations of Shakespeare, other enduring classics, and new works. OSF productions have been presented on Broadway, internationally, and at regional, community, and high school theatres across the country.

OSF received the 1983 Special Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre and is one of the largest nonprofit theatres in the nation with three stages, including an outdoor Allen Elizabethan Theatre.

The Oregon Shakespeare Festival creates world-class theatre, revealing our collective humanity through illuminating interpretations of new and classic plays, and inspiring a love of our art form for current and future generations. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Tim Bond and acting Executive Director Javier Dubon, a team of over 500 theater professionals produce thrilling theatrical experiences to audiences of over 130,000 from every state in the U.S.

Nestled in the Rogue Valley of southern Oregon, where the Cascades meet the Siskiyou Mountains, Ashland is a beautifully unique town in a beautifully unique setting. The small town atmosphere of Ashland (population 21,000) holds many surprises for first time visitors – this small community has the rich cultural life of a city many times its size, with a varied artistic community including and beyond the Festival;

a culinary scene that includes world class chefs and home grown cooking stars; access to nature that is literally at one’s doorstep; a nationally recognized wine growing region and industry; and an engaged and active local population. The Festival’s impact on the town, the presence of Southern Oregon University, and the thriving tourism industry has helped build a population of both residents and visitors who represent a wealth of backgrounds, education, and life experiences that gives Ashland its vibrancy.

It is a town that is self‑reflective in grappling with both its history and its future, and invites involvement from all who choose to call it home. Located roughly equidistant between San Francisco and Portland for weekend road trips, and with an airport in nearby Medford that makes travel out of the valley easy, Ashland offers the experience of small town life with great convenience to travel when desired.

The Director of People & Culture will be a visible, trusted, and relationship-driven leader, responsible for fostering a people-centered culture…