Vancouver School Board | Vancouver, British Columbia
Executive Search led by KIRAH Executive Search & Leadership Advisory
KIRAH Executive Search & Leadership Advisory has been retained by the Vancouver School Board to lead the search for its next Director, Labour Relations.
This is a senior leadership appointment within VSB’s Employee Services Division and an opportunity to provide strategic labour relations leadership across one of British Columbia’s largest and most complex public education environments.
Reporting to the Executive Director, Employee Services, the Director, Labour Relations will serve as VSB’s senior labour relations leader and trusted advisor to District leadership and key stakeholders.
The successful candidate will bring deep technical labour relations expertise together with executive judgement, political awareness, leadership presence, and the ability to build trust in a highly unionized and publicly accountable environment.
About the Vancouver School Board
The Vancouver School Board is one of Canada’s largest and most diverse public school systems, serving more than 50,000 students across approximately 110 schools and programs, supported by more than 7,700 employees.
VSB operates within a highly complex labour relations environment involving 14 collective agreements and requires sophisticated leadership capable of balancing organizational responsibilities, union relationships, legislative obligations, operational realities, and broader public-sector considerations.
The Leadership Opportunity
The Director will provide strategic leadership and expert advice across VSB’s labour relations portfolio, including:
- Collective bargaining
- Collective agreement administration and interpretation
- Grievances
- Mediation and arbitration
- Workplace investigations
- Employee discipline
- Human rights matters
- Legislative compliance
- Labour-management relationships
- Leadership development
- Labour relations strategy
This is both a strategic and hands-on leadership role.
The Director will shape the direction of the function while remaining sufficiently connected to significant matters to exercise judgement, provide confident advice, and support the team through complex files.
Key Leadership Responsibilities
The Director will:
- Establish and advance the strategic direction of VSB’s Labour Relations function.
- Provide trusted advice to the Executive Director, Employee Services and senior District leadership.
- Assess legal, operational, organizational, reputational, and stakeholder implications when advising on complex matters.
- Lead collective bargaining strategy and negotiations.
- Guide the organization through grievances, mediation, arbitration, investigations, and other significant labour matters.
- Maintain credible and constructive relationships with union partners.
- Translate complex labour issues into concise, decision-ready executive advice.
- Anticipate emerging risks and recommend appropriate courses of action.
- Coach and mentor labour relations professionals.
- Strengthen succession capability, accountability, and professional standards within the team.
- Improve consistency, documentation, responsiveness, and execution across the Labour Relations function.
What Success Will Look Like
In the First 90 Days
The successful candidate will:
- Build a strong working relationship with the Executive Director, Employee Services.
- Develop credibility with senior District leadership.
- Establish productive relationships with union partners and key stakeholders.
- Gain a strong understanding of VSB’s collective agreements and major labour relations issues.
- Assess team capability, workload, practices, and priorities.
- Identify immediate risks and opportunities for improvement.
- Demonstrate calm judgement and credibility in complex matters.
Within the First Year
The Director will:
- Be recognized as a trusted senior labour relations advisor.
- Strengthen consistency and quality across the function.
- Improve team capability and succession readiness.
- Build constructive labour-management relationships.
- Establish clear priorities and a longer-term strategic direction.
- Strengthen labour relations processes, documentation, and accountability.
- Provide confident leadership through bargaining, grievances, investigations, and other complex matters.
The Leader VSB Is Seeking
VSB is seeking more than a technically accomplished labour relations practitioner.
The organization requires a leader with the judgement and credibility to operate effectively within a complex, highly visible, and highly unionized public-sector environment.
The successful candidate will demonstrate:
- Deep labour relations expertise
- Strong collective bargaining leadership
- Executive judgement
- Political and organizational awareness
- Credibility with unions and senior leaders
- Confidence without ego
- Strong relationship-building capability
- Calm and constructive conflict management
- Excellent communication and briefing skills
- Strategic perspective
- Coaching and developmental leadership
- Precision, accountability, and follow-through
Technically correct advice is only one part of effective labour relations leadership. Context, trust, timing, communication, judgement, and organizational awareness will be equally important.
Experience & Qualifications
The successful candidate is expected to bring:
- Seven to ten or more years of progressive labour relations experience.
- Significant experience leading collective bargaining and grievance arbitration processes.
- Experience within complex, multi-union and highly regulated environments.
- Strong expertise in collective agreement administration and interpretation.
- Experience with grievances, mediation, arbitration, workplace investigations, employee discipline, and human rights matters.
- Strong relationship-building, conflict-resolution, communication, and leadership capability.
- A degree in Human Resources, Labour Relations, Law, or a related field.
- CPHR designation.
- A graduate degree is considered an asset.
Experience within public education, broader public sector, healthcare, municipal government, post-secondary education, or another sophisticated unionized environment will be highly relevant.
Location and Working Environment
The Director, Labour Relations is based at the VSB Education Centre, 1580 West Broadway, Vancouver, British Columbia.
This is fundamentally an in-person leadership appointment where accessibility, visibility, and connection with colleagues and organizational stakeholders are important.
There may be reasonable situational flexibility where operationally appropriate; however, candidates should approach the opportunity with the expectation that it is primarily an onsite leadership role.
KIRAH welcomes qualified candidates nationally where relocation to Vancouver is realistic.
Compensation and Benefits
The anticipated salary range is:
$177,959 to $197,732 annually
The position also includes competitive benefits and paid time off.
Final compensation will reflect the successful candidate’s experience, qualifications, and overall alignment with the mandate.
Why Consider This Opportunity?
For an accomplished labour relations executive, this opportunity offers the chance to:
- Lead labour relations within one of Canada’s largest public school systems.
- Advise senior executive leadership on high-impact labour matters.
- Shape employer strategy across a complex multi-union environment.
- Lead significant bargaining and grievance matters.
- Strengthen the capability and succession readiness of an established Labour Relations team.
- Build trusted relationships with union and organizational stakeholders.
- Influence the longer-term direction of labour relations within an organization serving more than 50,000 students and supported by more than 7,700 employees.
Equity and Inclusion
The Vancouver School Board and KIRAH Executive Search & Leadership Advisory are committed to an inclusive search process.
Qualified candidates from diverse backgrounds and experiences are encouraged to apply.
Accommodations are available throughout the recruitment and selection process upon request.
Application Process
KIRAH welcomes applications and confidential expressions of interest from qualified leaders.
Candidates may apply directly or may be approached confidentially by KIRAH as part of the executive search process.
All applications and inquiries will be treated with discretion. Candidate information will not be presented to the Vancouver School Board without the candidate’s knowledge and appropriate consent.
