Director of Administration

Director Of Administration

Over the next two years, Emancipet will add at least three new clinics across multiple U.S. metropolitan markets, adding roughly 50 staff and serving more than 50,000 additional animals each year. For the past two years, the organization has prepared for this growth by raising significant strategic funds and strengthening its foundation. This role is the pivot point between preparing to grow and the first stages of growth.

The Director of Administration owns the administrative backbone of Emancipet. Reporting directly to the CEO, this role takes responsibility for the shared administrative functions that support a 200-person, multi-site organization: governance and board support, executive support, non-clinical operating procedures, organization-wide compliance reporting, internal meeting cadence, and the shared-services work (such as mail and intake) that today is spread across Finance, Development, and People & Culture.

This is a working leadership role, not a C-suite position. The Director builds and runs the processes personally, trains the front-line staff who execute them, and coordinates the administrative staff across departments through a defined dotted-line relationship. Success in this role means the administrative functions run reliably without executive attention, information moves across departments instead of staying inside them, and the organization is ready to add clinics without adding friction.

Scope and Structure

• Reporting line. Reports to the CEO. Not a member of the executive team; attends executive team meetings as requested.
• Dotted-line leadership. Each organizational team (Executive, Operations, Medical, People & Culture, Finance/IT/Data, Development/Communications) has responsibility for administrative functions. Those staff members who provide those functions remain managed by their department head, who retains responsibility for hiring, performance reviews, pay, and corrective action. The Director of Administration sets administrative standards and cross-department processes, provides training, assigns shared-services work within agreed limits, and provides written input into each administrative staff member's performance review.
• Shared-services staff. Hourly and front-line staff in Development / Marketing, Finance, Development, and People & Culture who perform shared administrative functions have a shared responsibility to this role for those functions. The Director designs the process and trains the staff; the department head remains the manager of record.
• Escalation. Where a department head and the Director of Administration disagree on priorities for a shared staff member, the department head's operational needs take precedence, or the matter is otherwise resolved between them, or organizational leadership.

Key Responsibilities

Administrative Leadership and Shared Services

• Take ownership of administrative functions that currently have no clear home, document the process, and train front-line staff across departments to execute it consistently.
• Establish administrative standards for onsite and hybrid work, including workflows, document handling, and shared office systems.
• Build and lead the administrative staff network across departments: regular check-ins, shared training, and a common set of tools and expectations.
• Lead the administrative planning and execution of the headquarters office move.

Governance and Executive Support

• Manage board and committee logistics: meeting calendar, materials, minutes, policy records, and follow-up on action items.
• Maintain the organization's governance records, including bylaws, policies, board resolutions, and required filings, in coordination with Finance and outside counsel.
• Provide executive support to the CEO, including calendar management, meeting preparation, and coordination with the executive team.

Process, Procedures, and Internal Communication

• Work with department leaders to develop, document, and maintain non-clinical standard operating procedures, and keep a central, current library of them.
• Coordinate the organization-wide staff meeting and the shared-services staff meeting: agenda, logistics, materials, and follow-through.
• Improve how information moves between departments; identify silos and propose practical fixes.

Compliance Reporting

• Build and maintain an organization-wide compliance calendar and quarterly compliance report that consolidates the requirements each department owns (employment, licensing, facilities, governance,…