Senior administration

About the role

Reporting to the Vice-President, Services & Sustainability, the new Associate Vice-President of Human Resources will play a high-profile, influential role in driving the transformation by implementing cultural initiatives such as organizational effectiveness, decisiveness, and human capital development, ensuring Concordia’s long-term leadership. They will be empowered to reimagine how HR contributes to Concordia’s success by creating the structures, capabilities, and culture needed to support a sustainable, healthy, and high-performing work environment.

The successful candidate will also be tasked with strengthening Concordia’s HR systems and data capabilities. The Associate Vice-President of Human Resources will play a critical role in enhancing system performance, improving user experience, and ensuring confidence in the tools and data that support effective decision-making across the University.

As the leader of the HR team, you must be a progressive thinker and a transformational leader who constantly seeks opportunities to innovate and challenge the status quo. You are a senior HR executive with a track record of leading in complex, unionized, and highly consultative environments. You understand the nuances of higher education and have the courage, insight, and diplomacy to lead change and innovation in contexts where influence often matters more than authority.

You are known for your decisiveness, integrity, and ability to inspire trust. You are as comfortable making difficult decisions as you are building consensus. You take pride in developing high-performing teams, and you bring both systems thinking and empathy to everything you do. Finally, you are adept at leveraging data and know how to make modern HR systems fully support the institution’s mission.

This is a unique opportunity to contribute to something bigger than ourselves and to help shape the future of a university that is ready to do things differently.

About Concordia

Concordia is an innovative, mission-driven university focused on transformative research, teaching and learning, collaborative action, and public impact. Located on two campuses in the heart of Tiohtià:ke/Montreal, Concordia ranks first in Canada and North America among universities under 50 years old according to QS, and is recognized as one of the most international universities by Times Higher Education. In the 2022 Impact Rankings, Concordia stands out among the world’s top 25 universities most committed to advancing the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, including climate action, reducing inequalities, and building sustainable cities and communities.

With more than 48,657 students — 20% of whom are graduate students — coming from some 161 countries, Concordia is among the most diverse universities in Canada. It has 6,700 faculty and staff, generates more than $790 million in annual revenues, holds assets valued at $2 billion, and manages a pension fund worth $1.6 billion.

Established on the unceded territory of the Kanien’kehá:ka Nation, Concordia acknowledges its responsibilities to Indigenous peoples. Its Indigenous Directions Action Plan, launched in 2019 and revised in 2021, serves as a roadmap for the university’s decolonization efforts.

Concordia is a highly unionized environment and is currently navigating a period of considerable change. Like many post-secondary institutions, they are responding to budget pressures, an evolving workforce, changing demographics, and increasing demands for agility, inclusion, and impact. Their community is asking for more from HR — not just effective processes, but trusted partnership, clear guidance, and forward-thinking strategy.

Concordia University is located on unceded Indigenous land of the Kanien’kehá:ka. Tiohtià:ke, or Montreal, is historically a gathering place for many First Nations and is now home to a diverse population of Indigenous and other peoples. Concordia University respects the continued connections with the past, present and future in its ongoing relationships with Indigenous and other peoples within the Montreal community.

To apply

To apply for this position, please submit your application and related materials to Marie-Hélène Gaudreault at mgaudreault@boyden.com and state the title of the position in the subject line of your email. Submissions will be accepted until the position is filled. Concordia will begin its formal review of applications at the beginning of November 2025.

We thank all applicants for their interest, however, only those under consideration for the role will be contacted.