Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer
Center on Economics & Foreign Affairs · United States
full timehybridExecutive
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Sign in to applyAbout the role
Translates CEFA's strategy into reliable daily operations, coordinating people, budgets, systems, compliance, and cross-functional execution.
Responsibilities
- Translate institutional strategy into annual operating plans, budgets, staffing plans, decision rights, and delivery calendars. - Coordinate cross-functional execution across research, programs, project development, finance, communications, and administration. - Establish scalable systems for people operations, contracting, procurement, records, risk management, and performance reporting. - Identify operational bottlenecks and resolve ownership, sequencing, resource, and quality issues before they affect delivery. - Maintain management dashboards and ensure leadership and the Board receive accurate, timely operating information. Reporting & working relationships Reports to the President & CEO. Works daily with all chief officers and managing directors; coordinates with Board committees, legal and audit advisers, vendors, and institutional partners as assigned. Authority & limits May direct assigned functions, staff, consultants, and approved budgets within delegated authority. May not exceed approved budgets, make reserved institutional commitments, or undertake regulated or conflicted activity without required executive, Board, and legal approval.
Required qualifications
- Executive operating experience in a nonprofit, policy institution, professional-services organization, development platform, or similarly complex environment. - Strong command of budgeting, people management, process design, vendor oversight, compliance, and organizational change. - Calm, highly organized leadership style with the credibility to coordinate senior specialists across disciplines.
Preferred qualifications
What success looks like: - Programs and projects delivered on schedule, within approved budgets, and to defined quality standards. - Clear accountability, consistent operating procedures, and useful organization-wide performance reporting. - Effective workforce planning and a healthy, compliant, mission-centered operating culture. - Reduced execution risk and faster resolution of cross-functional dependencies.
Benefits
Employment classification: Paid executive staff position. Status: Full-time. Term: Ongoing employment, subject to applicable law and CEFA policies. Compensation: Salary and benefits commensurate with experience and CEFA's approved compensation framework. Performance cycle: Annual objectives with regular check-ins and a formal performance review. Work arrangement: Location, travel, schedule, and exempt/nonexempt status determined for the final role and jurisdiction.
Equal opportunity
CEFA is an equal-opportunity employer. All qualified applicants receive consideration without regard to any legally protected characteristic.
About Center on Economics & Foreign Affairs
CEFA is a mission-driven nonprofit institution connecting research, policy, capital, and public- and private-sector partners to advance economic development and foreign-affairs priorities at national scale.