Finance Senior Director of Operations and Finance
Job Description
About Morningside Center for Teaching Social Responsibility
We envision a society where people are active participants in creating a culture of liberation, healing, and deep connection to their communities, natural environments, and the world. Our mission is to facilitate transformative experiences for members of the school community to co-create joyful, equitable, and rigorous learning environments.
Since our founding in 1982, we have developed an array of programs, grounded in restorative practices and an anti-racist framework, to engage young people in learning essential social and emotional skills and to support educators in making their schools productive, supportive, and inclusive. Our programs provide sustained support for students and educators in New York City schools and in various other schools and districts throughout the country. We are part of a nationwide movement to make high quality, research-validated social and emotional learning (SEL) an integral part of every child’s education.
Through our engaging, research-based programs, tens of thousands of educators in hundreds of schools have brought transformative change to their classrooms, schools, and students’ lives. Major scientific studies have shown that our school-based programs have a positive impact on students’ well-being and behavior, their academic performance, and the classroom climate.
Our impact is possible because of our diverse, skilled, and friendly team, including 15 central office staff and approximately 30 staff developers who bring our work into schools. To learn more about the beliefs and values that bring us together, please visit https://www.morningsidecenter.org/our-beliefs-and-values.
Find information about Morningside Center at https://www.morningsidecenter.org/
The Opportunity
Now in a period of significant growth in our contracted services, we are seeking a Senior Director of Operations and Finance (Senior Director) who will ensure that we have strong infrastructure and efficient operations in place to support organizational, programmatic, and revenue growth. A key senior leader, the Senior Director will manage the business operations team, bringing particular expertise in contract development and negotiations and financial strategy, including budgeting and financial projections. The Senior Director will build and manage relationships with the schools and school districts that we serve, representing Morningside Center in the contracting process and partnering with clients to structure engagements that are designed and managed well. They will also provide leadership across the human resources, IT, legal, and facilities functions. The Senior Director will be responsible for working collaboratively with team members across program and business operations teams to ensure our processes and systems evolve appropriately to match our continued growth in staff, budget, and contracts. The Senior Director will report to our Executive Director and manage a cross-functional team. As a senior leader, they will also share and uphold our organizational values, demonstrating a commitment to anti-racism and social and emotional learning, and foster an inclusive, relationship-driven, and warm culture.
Key Responsibilities
Organizational Leadership
- Act as a skilled organizational leader, manager, and coach with a high degree of emotional intelligence, developing strengths in others and modeling effective decisionmaking
- Identify and build systems and processes that will enable contracts, program, and business teams to collaborate effectively
- Support the ED in providing ongoing strategic updates to the Board of Directors and engaging them in special initiatives
- Serve as a thought partner and sounding board to the Executive Director and other leaders, including serving on the senior leadership team
Contracts Leadership
- Establish, maintain, and refine an effective process for managing the full contract cycle, working with the cross-functional team involved in the identification, development, negotiation, and implementation of contracts
- Represent Morningside Center in contract scoping and negotiations with schools and districts
- Support proposal development efforts
Finance Leadership
- Work with the Director of Finance in leading the quarterly, annual, and long-term budgeting processes
- Guide the development of financial projections based on organizational goals and strategies
- Supervise the Finance Director, ensuring appropriate goal-setting and the supports necessary for their ongoing success and development
Talent, Culture, and Human Resources Leadership
- Provide strategic guidance for annual performance assessment and goal-setting processes, as well as professional learning programming that supports organizational and individual staff goals
- Partner with the senior leadership team in implementing effective practices for hiring and compensation and benefits
- Supervise the Human Resources Director to ensure our HR processes reflect best practices, providing support for goal-setting and ongoing success and development
Organizational Infrastructure
- Identify ways to enhance our technology infrastructure, ensuring that we are leveraging the most up-to-date tools and resources available; manage the relationship with our external IT vendor
- Serve as liaison to legal counsel
- Oversee vendor management, office administration, space planning, and facilities maintenance
Candidate Profile
As the incoming Senior Director of Operations and Finance, you will possess many, though perhaps not all, of the following skills and experiences:
- You come to this role with at least 5 years of organizational leadership experience, including past success in roles that include cross-functional team management.
- You are experienced in financial management, bringing substantial experience in developing budgets and financial projections and supervising finance staff. Prior success in nonprofit financial management is highly valued for this role.
- You bring experience in negotiating contracts and representing an organization to external clients or partners; prior success in negotiating with complex bureaucracies will be especially beneficial.
- You are a skilled leader among cross-functional teams, identifying appropriate processes, systems, and tools to promote collaboration and building alignment around shared goals.
- You are a strong staff manager, experienced in building and developing team members to ensure their success. As an organizational leader, you are a positive role model and effective coach for others.
- You are motivated by the opportunity to provide leadership across finance, contracts, HR, IT, legal, and facilities, and you demonstrate the ability to work at both a strategic level and to be more hands-on as needed.
- You share our commitment to anti-racism and racial equity, demonstrating thoughtfulness about how to integrate these commitments and values into organizational operations and culture.
- You hold a bachelor’s degree or equivalent professional experience. An advanced degree in a relevant field such as organizational management, business administration, finance, or law is preferred but not required.
Compensation & Benefits
The salary range for this position is $110,000 – $130,000 and will be determined commensurate with experience. Morningside Center offers a generous benefits package that includes fully paid health insurance and 4 weeks of vacation.
