Operations Director

The Tulsa Flyer seeks a Director of People & Operations to oversee organizational culture, human resources, and administrative functions for an independent, community-centered nonprofit news startup.

The director will lead the design and upkeep of key components of the organization’s human resources infrastructure and organizational culture, including employee policies, handbooks, support systems, and internal communications. They will work collaboratively with organization leaders to develop performance management and professional development systems, and take lead on management of vendors, including outsourced IT support, event coordination, and our office and facilities.

The ideal candidate will be a highly organized self-starter and a collaborative team player; they will have an understanding of the complex issues facing startups and nonprofits, and the ability to develop the strong operational systems necessary for this organization of diverse, talented individuals to thrive. This position presents an opportunity for someone who can manage multiple tasks meticulously and juggle several conversations across departments with a steady “can do, will do” nature.

This is a broad strategic operations role; as such, candidates do not need to have a human resources background; if you do not have SHRM Certification , Tulsa Flyer will support you in getting certified.

This role is based in our downtown Tulsa office and is expected to work in person on a regular basis.

The Tulsa Flyer is a startup nonprofit organization that has raised $14 million so far in service of a vision to give everyone in Tulsa the local news they need to live more informed and more connected lives. The newsroom produces high-quality journalism while engaging with residents to produce and distribute reporting, employing an innovative model for local journalism that is directly responsive to local information needs.

In addition to a team of editors and beat reporters, the Tulsa newsroom has best-in-class community engagement expertise, multimedia production, dedicated capacity for service journalism and research, and a program that trains citizens as government watchdogs called the Tulsa Documenters.

At the Tulsa Flyer, we value learning, curiosity and diverse perspectives. We are dedicated to equitable hiring and follow best practices to create an inclusive hiring process.

• Work collaboratively with the leadership team to develop institutional standards, policies, and processes that create a welcoming and inclusive culture where employees feel supported and are able to do their best work, within budget. Support team leads in the rollout of these standards, policies, and processes.
• Assess and monitor Tulsa Flyer’s ongoing hiring, onboarding, offboarding, and other people-related processes, and identify ways to make them continuously more consistent, transparent, inclusive, and equitable, in line with our values.
• Act as a central project management discipline for all vendor, contracting, and payment processes across departments
• Oversee the maintenance and continuous upgrade of the appropriate infrastructure and resources, including: data, security, systems, technology, policies, procedures and controls; search for, vet, and hire outsourced support when needed.
• Manage facilities to ensure employees can safely, comfortably and efficiently operate, within budget.
• Assess and monitor systems that impact employees such as professional development, expense reimbursement, and ethical guidelines, to identify areas in need of standardization or improvement. Work with managers to ensure successful roll outs of system changes when needed.
• Develop an organization-wide performance management system that creates a supportive workplace and healthy feedback loops for employees and managers, while maintaining high performance and delivery of impact across the organization. Work with team leaders to be trained on the system and to roll it out, monitor its effectiveness, and make changes as necessary.
• Lead all internal organizational communication with staff. Develop a plan for a regular cadence of sharing…