VP Community Support

The Vice President of Community Response is accountable for amplifying WCK’s impact at the local level by building and leading a comprehensive, competency-driven community response strategy. This role ensures that communities are fully embedded in both organization-led and community-led responses, aligned with WCK’s foundational principle of “neighbors feeding neighbors.”

The VP oversees the attraction, support, engagement, and retention of community responders and volunteers; cultivates and sustains a global network of chefs, food partners, and local leaders; and serves as the central hub for WCK’s community response teams. By integrating communities into WCK’s multi-participant response model, the VP ensures their readiness and seamless integration into the organization’s emergency responses.

This individual leads multiple director-level functions and partners closely with Response Operations and Security in their frontline command role, ensuring community teams are embedded in activations. They also collaborate with Response Support to connect community responders into global systems of support and with Response People Operations to align community engagement with broader people strategies.

The focus is on building, maintaining, and scaling a strong community response structure as a critical global asset — one that grows WCK’s capacity, strengthens resilience, and ensures that both communities and WCK teams can respond together effectively to global food crises.

Key Responsibilities:

Strategic Leadership & Vision

• Lead the development and execution of WCK’s community response strategy, ensuring alignment with the organizational mission, with Response Operations and Security in their frontline command role to fully embed community involvement in activations, and with Response Support systems
• Lead the readiness of community teams, Response Corps, and volunteers for both community-led and WCK-led responses
• Build and maintain the structural framework (including KMS-integrated playbooks, competency definitions, and databases) for community engagement that serves as a critical asset to WCK's global response capabilities
• Partner with the whole spectrum of Response teams to ensure community response strategy enhances overall organizational impact and effectiveness

Network Development & Management

• Cultivate and sustain a worldwide network of chefs,food partners, and local partners ensuring global coverage and local expertise
• Develop and manage the Response Corps — a skilled pool of community response leaders validated as competency holders in the Knowledge Management Systems (KMS)
• Build relationships with community leaders globally to create sustainable, locally-rooted response capabilities
• Develop KMS-linked playbooks to rapidly identify, engage, and mobilize community assets during emergencies, ensuring timely allocation of resources and alignment with defined competencies and escalation protocols

Volunteer Operations & Development

• Lead volunteer management operations, overseeing the largest pool of community participants who serve as primary contributors to capacity building during emergencies
• Develop clear pathways for volunteer development, including progression from general volunteers to specialized Corps members
• Create systems for talent identification within volunteer networks, ensuring data is captured in the KMS to build well-rooted community structures linked to defined competencies and activation readiness
• Ensure volunteer operations are scalable and can rapidly expand during major response operations to match community skills effectively with activation needs

Community Team Leadership

• Builds and supports the Community Teams function as the cornerstone of collaborative, community-led response strategy
• Implement the "reservist" approach that maintains community teams ready for activation while allowing members to remain rooted in their communities
• Provide ongoing training, development, and engagement for community team members to maintain readiness and skills
• Ensure community teams maintain readiness and remain fully connected to WCK’s broader response ecosystem
• Facilitates a seamless integration of communities teams into

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Partner with Response Operations and Security in their frontline command role to embed communities into both organization-led and community-led responses
• Collaborate with Response People Operations to ensure alignment with people management strategies, playbooks, and organizational policies.
• Work with Response Support to connect community teams into the Omnichannel platform and ensure their support needs are met seamlessly
• Partner with Digital and Data to design and implement digital tools and systems that support training, capacity building, onboarding, database enhancement, and compliance
• Maintain dotted-line relationships with Communications and Development functions to support community engagement and fundraising efforts
• Partner across the entire organization to ensure community response efforts augments organizational capabilities and impact

Innovation & Continuous Improvement

• Ensure lessons learned from community responses are captured, validated, and embedded into the Knowledge Management System for continuous improvement, while continuously refining the community response model based on operational feedback, lessons learn and global needs.
• Develop and enhance the community participant database while applying innovative, competency-driven approaches that leverage local knowledge, and cultural context to match members with activations.
• Develop metrics and evaluation systems to assess effectiveness, scalability, and readiness of community-led response.

Application & Cover Letter
This application requires a cover letter that explains your interest in this position and in working for WCK.

References and Background Checks
To help ensure the safety of our communities and our teams, our selection process will include reference and background checks, subject to any legal or regulatory requirements.

Equal Opportunity
WCK is an equal opportunity employer committed to inclusion and diversity and to ensure equal opportunity for all applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status, or other protected characteristics.

Applicants must be authorized to work for any employer in the United States. We are unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of employment at this time.

E-Verify
For US based employment, WCK participates in E-Verify and will provide the federal government with your Form I-9 information to confirm that you are authorized to work in the U.S. Employers can only use E-Verify once you have accepted a job offer and completed the Form I-9. Please view the E-Verify posters here with important information.

Para empleados en los EEUU, WCK participa en E-Verify y proporcionará al gobierno federal la información de su Formulario I-9 para confirmar que usted está autorizado para trabajar en los EE.UU.. Los empleadores sólo pueden utilizar E-Verify una vez que usted haya aceptado una oferta de trabajo y completado el Formulario I-9. Haz clic aquí para ver los carteles de E-Verify con información importante.

No recruiters or agencies, please.

• 10–15 years of progressive leadership experience in community engagement, volunteer management, or international development

• Proven track record of building and managing large-scale volunteer or community networks
• Experience in emergency response, humanitarian operations, or crisis management
• Demonstrated success in cross-cultural relationship building and community organizing
• Strong background in network development and partnership management
• Experience managing multiple direct reports and complex organizational structures
• Experience implementing or working within competency-based frameworks, ensuring authority and readiness are tied to verified skills
• Familiarity with Knowledge Management Systems (KMS), including capturing lessons learned, playbooks, and escalation protocols
• Digital and data fluency, with experience using omnichannel platforms and volunteer management systems for onboarding, training, compliance, and engagement
• Proven ability to design and manage scalable systems that integrate local and community responders into global response structures
• Experience applying continuous improvement frameworks, embedding feedback and lessons from activations into organizational systems
• Ability to deploy to emergency response locations when needed
• Physical and mental resilience to work in challenging field conditions
• Capability to maintain effectiveness in high-stress, rapidly changing environments
• Must be able to adapt to varying cultural contexts and operational environments
• Alignment with the mission and values of WCK
• Valid passport and ability to travel internationally

Skills and Competencies

• Exceptional relationship-building and networking abilities
• Strong understanding of community dynamics and local engagement strategies
• Cultural competency and sensitivity for working across diverse global communities
• Strategic thinking with hands-on execution capabilities
• Excellent communication and influencing skills across multiple stakeholder groups
• Experience with volunteer management systems and community engagement platforms
• Crisis leadership and decision-making abilities
• Bilingual capabilities preferred (Spanish highly valued)

Preferred Experience

• Background in culinary arts, food service, or hospitality industry
• Experience with peer-to-peer or grassroots organizing models
• Knowledge of international humanitarian standards and best practices
• Experience working with chef networks or culinary professionals
• Background in rapid response or emergency management operations
• Experience leveraging digital platforms or knowledge systems to manage large-scale community or volunteer networks
• Exposure to omnichannel engagement or global contact center models in humanitarian, emergency, or community response contexts

ZERO Premiums: WCK covers 100% of insurance premiums for employees and their dependents, including medical, dental, vision, and group life coverage. Benefits begin on your date of hire.

• Voluntary Benefits:
•  Options include:
• Additional Life Insurance
• Pet Insurance
• Supplemental AD&D
• Flexible Spending Accounts (Dependent Care and Health Care)
• 403(b) Retirement Plan:
•  WCK offers a 50% match up to 8% of employee salary deferrals, beginning within 30 days of hire.
• Life & Disability Insurance:
•  100% employer-sponsored group life and disability insurance provided within 30 days.
• Paid Time Off (PTO):
•  Responsible PTO, including vacation, sick, and personal leave, plus paid holidays.
• Growth Opportunities:
•  Learning and development support to grow your career.
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP):
•  Free and confidential support for life’s challenges.
• Annual Salary Reviews and additional benefits outlined in the Personnel Manual.

Salary Range: $160,000 - $200,000 USD Per Year