Chief Operating Officer

Serve as chief operating partner to the Executive Director, translating strategy into cross-functional execution, with particular attention to financial sustainability and long-term modeling.
Sit on the executive leadership team and contribute to organization-wide strategic and financial planning.
Represent finance, operations, HR, legal, technology, and risk matters to the Board and relevant committees.
Partner with the Strategy and Impact team to assess whether current systems, capacity, risk tolerance, and resource allocation are fit for purpose, and own the operational and financial changes required to close any gaps.

Lead financial strategy, including long-term planning, business modeling, budgeting, and reporting.
Review and approve major financial decisions, capital planning, and reserve strategy.
Ensure financial strategy is tightly aligned with organizational priorities and drives sustainable growth.
Lead engagement with the Board of Directors and Finance Committee on financial reporting and budgeting.

Oversee the entire employee lifecycle, ensuring all staff recruitment, onboarding, development, retention, and offboarding policies and practices align with organizational values and legal requirements, and support a healthy and productive workplace culture.
Oversee labor and management relations.
Provide strategic direction on organizational design and workforce planning, including its budget implications.
Oversee the strategic design of organization-wide compensation frameworks, total rewards, and succession planning in alignment with long-term fiscal sustainability.

Set strategic direction for operational infrastructure, systems, and process efficiency.
Oversee facilities and vendor management.
Oversee the execution of internal and external events, demonstrating operational excellence and achieving program goals.

Set strategic direction for enterprise technology infrastructure and internal digital tools, ensuring investments align with organizational priorities and budget.
Oversee vendor and platform evaluation, selection, and implementation.
Oversee data security and the organization's posture on data governance.
Ensure responsible adoption of emerging technologies that strengthen organizational effectiveness.

Oversee enterprise risk assessment and risk reporting to the Board.
Oversee risk mitigation strategy, crisis response protocols, and business continuity planning.
Oversee regulatory compliance and nonprofit governance obligations.
Oversee insurance, liability, and internal controls.

Mentor department heads and build high-performing, values-aligned teams.
Ensure coordination across Finance, People & Culture, Legal, Technology, and Operations so policy and process don't work at cross-purposes.
Sponsor organization-wide initiatives requiring multi-functional coordination.
Build and maintain dashboards and metrics, with financial performance central, for executive and Board visibility.

10+ years of senior leadership experience, preferably as a COO or equivalent, managing multi-functional teams.
Direct experience overseeing organizational finance at a senior level.
Proven track record designing and executing business modeling, long-term financial forecasting, and cost management.
Strong data analysis and strategic thinking skills, with the ability to identify trends and drive data-based decisions in a fast-paced environment.
Enough fluency in HR, legal, technology, and operations to ask sharp questions, make sound judgment calls, and go deep when a situation demands it, without needing to be the technical expert in every domain.
Systems thinking: sees how decisions in one function ripple into others (for example, how a compensation policy affects budget, or how a vendor contract creates legal or operational risk) and spots cross-purpose friction before it becomes a problem.
Trusted executive presence; able to build credibility with the Executive Director, Board, and functional leaders, and to represent operational and financial health externally (funders, auditors, regulators) and internally with equal clarity and confidence.
A collaborative, not controlling, leadership style…