Chief Administrative Officer

The Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) is seeking a Chief Administrative Officer (CAO). This position will be based in one of the following offices:
Charlottesville, VA (preferred);
Atlanta, GA;
Chapel Hill, NC;
Washington, DC; or Richmond, VA. The successful candidate will join senior executive leadership and report to our Executive Director. The CAO will integrate the systems and teams that keep SELC running — Human Resources, Finance, Administration, Information Technology, and the General Counsel’s risk‑management functions. The CAO will build the technology, operational backbone, and management discipline that enables SELC to advance our mission.

This is an excellent opportunity to join a highly successful, nationally recognized organization that is effectively addressing some of the most pressing and challenging environmental issues throughout the South and the nation.

The ideal candidate will be a seasoned operations executive with a record of leading operational functions, including finance, human resources, technology, administration, and risk management, at an organization of comparable scale and complexity, whether in the nonprofit, professional‑services, public, or private sector.

SELC has a hybrid work model that offers employees flexibility to work remotely up to two days per week. Employment is contingent on successful completion of a criminal background check and employment credit check.

• Serve as a principal partner and advisor to the Executive Director on the management and operations of the organization, helping set organizational policies, staffing, priorities, and direction.
• Attend meetings of the Board of Trustees and present updates as needed; serve as staff liaison to the Board Audit Committee.
• Assume administrative and operational responsibilities now carried by the Executive Director, Deputy Director, and Office Directors, and set annual goals, with measures of success, for each supervised function, holding each accountable for delivering against them.
• Oversee SELC’s IT function and guide development of a multi‑year technology strategy; ensure AI is adopted responsibly through governance frameworks, policies, and training; and build the IT team’s structure, talent, and service culture.
• Oversee the Finance function, providing executive leadership for budgeting, financial planning, internal controls, audit, and compliance, and ensuring finance systems are efficient, well controlled, and integrated with SELC’s broader operations.
• Oversee the Human Resources function, providing executive leadership for recruiting and retention, compensation and benefits, performance management, professional development, and employee relations, while strengthening management and supervisory practices across the organization.
• Oversee the Administration function, ensuring facilities and day‑to‑day operations run smoothly and consistently across offices.
• Integrate the General Counsel and risk‑management functions with operations, ensuring professional execution of enterprise risk management and legal compliance in areas including insurance, real estate, contracting, and records management.
• Raise SELC’s standard of project management and execution within SELC’s operations and lead the supervised functions through change with the project planning and internal‑communications discipline that makes transitions successful.
• Lead with SELC’s values: impact‑focused excellence, respectful candor and integrity, inclusion and consultation, sincere collaboration, and mission‑driven initiative.
• Partner with internal stakeholders to advance SELC’s diversity, equity, and inclusion objectives, and recruit, mentor, and develop a strong operations leadership bench.

• Minimum of 10 years’ work experience in operations management and leadership functions.
• Success leading a multi‑function operations portfolio (or several of its component functions in succession) at a high‑performing organization of comparable budget and headcount.
• A record of leading technology modernization and organizational change: setting strategy, sequencing investments, managing consultants, and…