Executive Director

Job Category: Senior Management / Executive Leadership

Reports To: Board of Directors

Location: 29 West Hastings Street, Vancouver, BC

Work Arrangement: This role requires full-time (40 hours weekly), on-site presence at the VWHC’s resource centre in the Downtown Eastside to engage directly with staff, peers, volunteers, and community members

Compensation: $90,000/year (1.0 FTE)

Job Type: This is a fixed-term contract position for 12 months

Posting End Date: Open until filled

Vacation: 4 weeks paid vacation, pro-rated for the contract term

Benefits: Extended health and benefits coverage included, following a three-month eligibility period

Hours: Monday–Friday, 10:00 a.m.–6:30 p.m., inclusive of two 30-minute breaks (one paid, one unpaid), negotiable and with some flexibility, as operationally appropriate

ABOUT THE VANCOUVER WOMEN’S HEALTH COLLECTIVE (VWHC)

The VWHC is a grassroots non-profit that has proudly served our community since 1971. Our mission is to support all who self-identify as women and gender-diverse in fostering health, wellness, and equity through intersectional feminist approaches to advocacy, shared knowledge, and minimal-barrier programs and services. We operate a drop-in resource centre in the Downtown Eastside, offering essential resources, community care, and accessible education. In partnership with practitioners and community allies, we provide Indigenous cultural support, trauma-informed yoga, naturopathic care, and a range of holistic programs designed to meet the diverse needs of the people we serve.

THE OPPORTUNITY

The VWHC is seeking a passionate, equity-driven, and visionary Executive Director (ED) with proven leadership experience, preferably in an ED or equivalent non-profit role, to guide the collective through a pivotal period of transition toward stability and sustainability. The successful candidate will bring principled leadership and strategic foresight to navigate complexity, rebuild foundational systems, and strengthen organizational resilience while upholding intersectional feminist, decolonial, and trauma-informed values.

The VWHC is in a period of intentional renewal. Over the past six months, a volunteer Board of Directors has stewarded key leadership functions to ensure continuity and prepare the organization for its next phase. The ED will join a passionate, values-aligned team of four staff, alongside numerous peers and volunteers who bring heart and lived and living expertise to the shared work. This is an opportunity to shape the future of a unique intersectional feminist collective that advocates for health justice on the unceded territories of the xwməθkwəyəm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaʔɬ / Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) nations.

ABOUT THE ROLE

The ED role requires full-time, on-site presence within a highly relational, community-rooted environment where staff, peers, volunteers, and community members rely on steady, accountable, and accessible leadership. This position requires balancing immediate operational needs with forward-looking planning that is grounded in community priorities, organizational realities, and intersectional feminist, decolonial, and trauma-informed principles.

The ED’s practice will involve stabilizing existing systems as well as supporting a community-led strategic planning and implementation process. This includes leading assessment of structural needs and offering recommendations that reflect both community input and operational feasibility, to support informed organizational decision-making.

This position is funded for the next year through local capacity-building support and is offered as a one-year contract with a three-month probationary period. This is a fixed-term position. The contract may be renewed, subject to a performance review and a reassessment of organizational direction and operational needs by the Board of Directors, to be conducted no later than three months prior to the contract’s end.

The ED will steward the organization with the support and oversight of a volunteer Board of Directors. Onboarding will include orientation to governance and operations, with training provided by relevant Board officers within their respective scopes. Given the Board’s volunteer structure, sustained full-time shadowing is not possible, and the role is best suited to an experienced leader who can work with initiative and agency while engaging collaboratively with the Board.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Frontline interactions are a requisite to remain attuned to the lived and living realities of community members, and thereby foster trust, relational accountability, and effective support. Working in the Downtown Eastside requires being deeply comfortable within a vibrant neighbourhood where complex trauma, substance use, acute and chronic mental and physical health challenges, mental and physical violence, poverty, and systemic oppression intersect alongside profound resilience, cultural strength, and community care. With respect to the unique scope of practice of the ED, strong cultural humility; capacity for trauma and violence-informed, strengths-based engagement; skilled de-escalation and crisis intervention abilities; and comfort navigating dysregulation, conflict, and both mental and physical medical emergencies are necessities. Alongside fellow staff, the ED must uphold both safety and compassion, offering steady leadership while demonstrating genuine respect for the lived and living realities, unique expertise, and agency of community members.

Strategic Leadership

• Work alongside advisors, board members, staff, peers, and volunteers in both rebuilding internal systems and strategic planning, fostering stability and sustainability.
• Ensure that community needs and operational realities inform future directions by refining strategic priorities and translating them into actionable workplans.
• Conduct an organizational assessment to identify and recommend sustainable long-term structural options that reflect community needs, operational realities, and equity-based practices, including the exploration of a collective leadership model.
• Maintain accountability to community members, advisors, board members, staff, peers, volunteers, partners, and funders by nurturing a collective, inclusive organizational culture grounded in respectful power-sharing and role clarity.
• Participate actively in regular Board and committee meetings as well as the organization’s Annual General Meeting.

Organizational Oversight

• Oversee daily operations across physical and virtual spaces.
• Supervise the delivery of all programs, services, and committee activities, ensuring alignment with both community and organizational needs.
• Ensure staff, peers, and volunteers can carry out their responsibilities effectively, by strengthening role clarity, operational workflows, and coordination across teams.
• Steward the revision of organizational policies and procedures to ensure alignment with strategic planning and evolving organizational priorities.

Financial Management

• Provide executive oversight of organizational finances to ensure transparent, ethical, and sustainable financial practices.
• Strengthen financial systems to support accurate reporting and compliance.
• Develop and manage annual budgets, ensuring alignment with organizational priorities and capacity.
• Ensure timely and accurate execution of payroll and bookkeeping.
• Steward and approve financial reports, funder expenditure tracking, and budget-to-actual analyses as well as annual financial reporting to ensure accuracy and alignment with funder and regulatory requirements.
• Ensure compliance with CRA charitable reporting, grant requirements, and all other financial regulations.
• Collaborate with the Resource Development Manager and Board on high-level financial planning related to revenue diversification and fundraising strategy.

Community Partnerships & External Relations

• Represent the VWHC in coalitions, advocacy tables, and community initiatives that advance the organization’s mission, vision, and values, and contribute to health equity and systemic change.
• Build and maintain reciprocal, values-aligned relationships with funders, allies, media, service providers, and community organizations to strengthen service delivery, visibility, and collective impact.

Human Resources & Collective Culture

• Strengthen and steward HR policies, onboarding/offboarding processes, supervision practices, performance evaluations and management, and conflict-resolution pathways.
• Serve as the primary HR administrator by maintaining personnel files, overseeing benefits administration, managing leaves and accommodations, upholding appropriate documentation, and ensuring WorkSafeBC and Employment Standards Act compliance.
• Provide coaching-oriented supervision that fosters role clarity, equitable workloads, and sustainable practices that prevent burnout.
• Ensure a safe, supportive, and anti-oppressive work environment by proactively addressing workplace issues, strengthening communication systems, and ensuring consistent implementation of policies.
• Model and nurture a collective, relational, and power-conscious organizational culture rooted in justice, transparency, accountability, and shared care, while creating supported pathways for meaningful involvement of those with lived and living expertise.
• Stay current with trends in non-profit development, and engage in professional development opportunities to strengthen the VWHC’s impact.

Risk Management & Compliance

• Develop and maintain clear, transparent policies and procedures that reduce operational, safety, and organizational risk and strengthen accountability.
• Identify, assess, and mitigate risks related to staff and community safety, funding stability, organizational reputation, and legal or regulatory compliance, ensuring proactive and timely responses to emerging issues.
• Support the Board in maintaining the VWHC’s good standing with the BC Societies Act, CRA charitable regulations, WorkSafeBC requirements, the Employment Standards Act, and other relevant standards by upholding accurate documentation, preparing required filings, and implementing effective compliance systems.
• Hold overall organizational responsibility and serve as the point of escalation for emergencies involving safety, legal, or reputational risk, recognizing that this does not constitute continuous on-call duty and that after-hours involvement is expected to be infrequent.

ABOUT YOU

• You are a values-driven, steady, and relational leader who brings both vision and care to complex organizational environments. You:
• Lead with systems-thinking, translating values into sustainable structures while supporting meaningful community involvement.
• Approach organizational transition with clarity and purpose, strengthening capacity and fostering long-term resilience.
• Embody an intersectional feminist, decolonial, and trauma-informed approach across all aspects of leadership and decision-making.
• Bring both lived and living experience, alongside professional expertise, in navigating structural oppression and inequities within health care and social services.
• Balance strong non-profit leadership with emotional and relational intelligence, demonstrating a deep commitment to collective care, accountability, and ethical practice.
• Regulate yourself effectively in complex and high-stakes environments, navigating conflict, feedback, and boundaries with composure and discernment.
• Engage challenges with steadiness and a solution-oriented mindset, offering stability, clarity, and trust during periods of change.

Required Qualifications

• A minimum of 5 years of senior leadership experience within the non-profit sector, preferably as an ED or in an equivalent role, with demonstrated responsibility for organizational management and community-based service delivery.
• Proven financial management and fundraising experience, including oversight of complex budgets and successful grant development, implementation, and reporting.
• Demonstrated experience stewarding human resources, including staff supervision, performance management, and the application of trauma-informed workplace practices.
• Strong strategic and operational problem-solving abilities, with demonstrated capacity to manage multiple priorities, exercise sound judgment, and lead effectively in high-pressure environments.
• Experience applying equity-based frameworks to policy, procedure, and systems development, with the ability to co-create and sustain internal structures.
• Ability to cultivate and maintain values-aligned relationships within the organization and with external partners, grounded in integrity, respect, and mutual accountability.
• In-depth knowledge of intersectional feminism, health equity, and decolonial practices, alongside familiarity with relevant community resources and networks.
• Meaningful connection to the Downtown Eastside community.
• Capacity to provide trauma-informed, accessible support to individuals experiencing acute and chronic mental health challenges, substance use, and neurodivergence; including skills in de-escalation as well as crisis and emergency response.
• Applicants must be legally entitled to work in Canada. A vulnerable sector check will be required for the successful candidate.

HOW TO APPLY

Please submit your resume and a role-specific cover letter to vwhcboard@womenshealthcollective.ca.

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis until the position is filled. In alignment with our mission and commitment to providing safer spaces for women and gender diverse community members, this position is restricted to individuals who self-identify as women or gender-diverse. This hiring requirement is a bona fide occupational requirement as permitted under the BC Human Rights Code. The VWHC values diversity and encourages all qualified applicants within these identities to apply.

We sincerely appreciate the time and effort of everyone who applies. While we are only able to contact those selected for an interview, we are grateful for your interest in supporting this important work.

The VWHC is committed to accessibility and inclusion. If you require accommodations at any stage of the recruitment process, please contact us so we can support your needs.