Organization Overview:
The Jewish Federation of Greater Houston (JFGH) helps ensure a thriving, vibrant, and engaged Jewish community locally, in Israel, and around the world. As a leading Jewish philanthropic organization, the Jewish Federation of Greater Houston serves as a convener, connector, innovator, and funder within the Jewish community.
JFGH is building a diverse team of highly motivated and qualified individuals with a variety of skills to support a new model of 21st century community engagement and philanthropy. The Federation is looking for candidates who are forward-thinking, self-motivated, and enjoy working in a dynamic environment.
JFGH adopted a set of Shared Agreements which underpin the culture that we are forming together.
Position Overview:
The Chief Operating Officer (COO) will oversee operations, financials, human resources, information technology, and compliance. Reporting to the CEO and part of the senior leadership team, the COO will take a leadership role in building, implementing, and overseeing JFGH’s processes, workflows, and procedures. This position manages day-to-day activities to enable the CEO to focus on broader strategic initiatives.
The COO will partner with the CEO and peers (Chief Marketing Officer, Chief Impact Officer, Chief Philanthropy Officer, and Managing Director, Jewish Education) and be responsible for developing, implementing, and managing the operational aspects of the annual budget. The COO creates structure, efficiency, and accountability across all departments .
Essential Functions and Responsibilities:
Operations
- Plan, develop, and implement operational policies aligned with organizational objectives.
- Establishes, builds consensus, coordinates, and administers an adequate structure for the delivery of effective and efficient administrative operations (Finance, Human Resources, Information Technology).
- Analyze operations data, identify opportunities for improvement, implement solutions and workflow enhancements.
- Oversees the development and submittal of an annual operating budget. Manages effectively within this budget and reports accurately on the progress made and challenges encountered.
- Manage relationships with outsourced Accounting, HR, and IT vendors, partners, and external stakeholders. Reviews and negotiates contracts, including coordinating legal review as necessary.
- Manages the annual compensation administration process. Conducts salary surveys and other research to assess market trends. Coordinates with JFGH leaders to ensure equity across the organization.
Financial
- Together with the Director of Finance, the COO is the primary liaison to the Finance Committee and is responsible for interpreting and explaining the results and meaning to the committee.
- Responsible for development and controlling operating budgets to ensure sound fiscal accountability.
- Summarize critical financial matters down to risk and business impacts, and have conversations with CEO to keep her up to speed on issues.
- Interact with outsourced accounting firm and external auditors to understand their issues and recommendations.
- Coordinate effective processes with Houston Jewish Community Foundation regarding JFGH funds held at HJCF and shared audit coordination.
Leadership
- Lead and mentor his/her team. Motivate team members, provide vision/guidance, and foster the organizational culture.
- Work closely with the CEO to implement organizational vision, strategy, plans, security, budgets, forecasting, reporting, and procedures.
- Build cross-functional relationships with the philanthropy, education, marketing, and impact teams.
- Provide leadership, management and oversight for all operations including finance, HR, legal, IT, facilities etc. to achieve business goals.
- Ability to anticipate and plan for changes to current organizational policies, practices, and systems needed to move in new strategic directions necessary for the long-term achievement of JFGH’s mission.
- Promote communication and adequate information flow within each of the teams, across the department, and within the organization.
- Optimize systems and processes, including CRM, budgeting, forecasting, and reporting, for scale; efficiency; productivity; and financial stability.
- Evaluate the performance of department operations and programs regularly to facilitate discussions with the CEO regarding results, obstacles, and proposed solutions.
- Manage staff performance by establishing clear goals and expectations, tracking progress against the goals, ensuring timely feedback, and addressing performance issues promptly
Skills, Knowledge and Abilities:
- Strong operations and financial skills.
- Ability to development business processes and manage projects
- Excellence in organizational and people management skills
- Strong interpersonal skills with an ability to establish a clear vision and build consensus
- Strong analytical and problem-solving abilities
- Stellar communication and public speaking skills
- Tech savvy with the ability to assess/implement technological improvements
- A “sensible risk taker” with an intelligent point of view
- Proactive mindset with ability to anticipate implications and consequences
Education and Experience Required:
- Bachelor’s degree required, Master’s degree preferred
- Ten or more years of work experience in progressively responsible roles
- Five or more years leading teams with indirect reports
- Experience working with non-profit organizations preferred
Physical Requirements:
The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
Office: The employee must be able to operate a personal computer/laptop and cell phone for approximately eight (8) hours per day. They will also be required to spend extended time reviewing both physical and electronic documents. The employee will spend most of the time in an indoor environment.
Equal Opportunity Employer:
The Jewish Federation of Greater Houston provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation and training. Federation requires all employees to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or have received an exemption by Human Resources.
How to Apply
Interested candidates should contact Amanda Hingle at ahingle@edgegroup.cc. We will contact those candidates who most closely match the requirements. We thank you in advance for your interest.