Chief of Staff

Summary

Join the Alliance for Youth Action as their Chief of Staff! This role involves managing cross-functional projects, improving organizational efficiency, and overseeing internal communications. You will lead initiatives in organizational management, performance management, and leadership development, partnering with the Executive Director and Board of Directors. The ideal candidate possesses significant management experience (5+ years), strong project management skills, and excellent communication abilities. The Alliance offers a competitive benefits package including comprehensive health insurance, retirement contributions, paid time off, and professional development opportunities. This full-time position is based in the United States, with up to 30% domestic travel.

Requirements

• Has a core philosophy and belief in young people as change makers within their communities
• Has a well-developed skill set in project-management: organized and disciplined, deep attention to detail, and active follow up to ensure the right results
• Has a sophisticated mix of emotional intelligence, judgment, discretion, diplomacy, and political acumen
• Can anticipate and avert problems
• Has excellent and versatile writing skills including the ability to summarize detailed information
• Can demonstrate knowledge and application of strategic planning and project management principles
• Nonprofit Organizational Leadership Significant management experience (5+ years), particularly supervising professional staff in a fast-paced environment, in areas including but not limited to Belonging, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, operations, human resources, strategic planning, nonprofit financial management, and/or nonprofit governance
• Proven ability and a vision for building an equitable, diverse, and inclusive workplace, where all staff feel a sense of belonging in both a remote and in-person environment
• Experience implementing management best practices, including caring for and getting the best out of people in both a remote and in-person environment
• Tact, diplomacy, and a collaborative spirit in interacting with staff, Board, and external partners
• Experience improving organizational systems and preparing departments to utilize them with rapidly shifting organizational demands
• Critical Thinking and Strategy A self-starter with a strong initiative who - beyond directing current systems - has the willingness to identify additional processes that could be streamlined and the skills to realize that vision
• Willingness and excitement to think outside the box to ensure organizational values - especially those related to diversity, equity, and inclusion - are reflected in operations work
• Know when to answer the question someone meant to ask rather than the one they did
• Baseline Skills Proficiency in excel and/or google sheets
• Proficiency in Google Suite, Project Management Software and Slack
• Excellent interpersonal skills and patience
• Excellent written and verbal communication
• Comfortability with technology and virtual communication systems, including Zoom, Google Hangouts, etc

Responsibilities

• Oversee large, often cross-functional organization-wide projects or initiatives
• Organize the ideas, projects, people, time, and resources necessary to keep all departments moving forward
• Assign tasks to the appropriate people, support them, and hold them accountable for the results
• Improve current processes and coordinate organizational procedures for optimized efficiency and productivity
• Lead the coordination and development of departmental goal setting to ensure programmatic and operational work is efficiently and accurately reflected in the organization's annual planning
• Collaborate with senior leaders and staff to develop systems and integration of other software used by the organization for effective monitoring, analyzing, forecasting, and reporting of projects across the organization
• Manage annual performance review process, including improving evaluation instruments, providing support for staff, and ensuring accountability for staff performance
• Communicate the vision, ideas, projects, or the process to the necessary stakeholders. This includes creating content, providing context, and helping connect the dots across all departments to create opportunities and growth
• Refine and maintain internal communications systems to ensure staff have the information needed to successfully perform their responsibilities
• Improve internal meeting culture, by refining meeting structures, frequency, communications, and decision-making processes, and holding staff accountable for meeting norms
• Lead initiatives in organizational management, performance management, and leadership development
• Help develop existing managers, ensuring they are operating at their best and continuing to improve their management skills
• Build, improve, and implement core internal parts of the organization, including but not limited to Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, human resources, people and culture, cross departmental collaboration, performance evaluations, and governance
• Partner with the Executive Director and relevant staff to manage the relationship with the Board of Directors, including working with Senior Leadership/Department Heads to manage board committees, and working within the Executive Team to support Board recruitment, onboarding, engagement, and meeting planning
• In partnership with consultants and key staff, navigate and lead on implementation of the organization's new strategic plan
• Coordinate with appropriate stakeholders in all aspects of project planning, monitoring, and implementation for all capacity building activities

Benefits

• Medical, Dental, and Vision Insurance covering 100% of employee premiums
• 75% of premiums for employee dependents
• Employer retirement contributions (SEP IRA) of 5% of salary
• Employer paid life insurance, short and long term disability income protection insurance
• Cell phone and internet stipends of $100 per month
• WMATA transportation Smartbenefits for staff located in the DMV area
• Professional development opportunities and funds
• Generous paid time off policy through which staff accrue 10 hours of PTO per month
• Unlimited sick leave
• Paid family and medical leave up to 16 weeks
• Paid Sabbatical (after 4 years of service)
• 15 paid holidays
• Potential for end of year or other bonuses