Operations Director Jobs

Detroit Action is a grassroots member-led, community-based organization fighting for political power, racial and economic justice for working-class Black and Brown Detroiters. Our mission is to build the power of individuals and families to challenge the root cause of poverty, advance justice, and promote human development through neighborhood-driven community organizing and civic engagement.

POSITION SUMMARY: The Operations Director will be responsible for ensuring that the staff and members of Detroit Action have the tools and systems they need in order to organize effectively. This includes developing, instituting, and managing Detroit Action’s Operating, Finance, Human Resource, and IT Systems. This is a critical job and the right candidate must be able to both think big in terms of the systems necessary to support staff and members in building power for black and brown folks in Detroit as well as get granular on the details to effectively operationalize those systems from the back end. The Operations Director reports to the Chief of Staff and supports the entire organization.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Organizational Operations Oversight:

• Support for special events, in order to ensure efficient use of resources.
• Build and lead a 2-3 person team of service minded staff with job functions specific to organizational operations, finance and accounting, HR, IT, event logistics and other internal processes for the entire organization (and working alongside Tides, our backend operations provider), including for programs and services provided to DA members and its broader community.
• Manage internal calendars and make sure that logistics for events flows smoothly.
• Assure that the offices of Detroit Action are appropriately resourced and supported so that Organizers can focus on campaigns and member leadership development.
• Manage and and guide HR practices and culture of the organization through Diversity Equity and Inclusion
• Do what it takes from the mundane to the visionary to make Detroit Action successful.
• Create and maintain an information management system, both physical and electronic, to ensure the ready availability and safeguarding of information.

Financial:

• Ensure proper insurance coverage for organization and organizational property.
• Manage necessary relationships with vendors and other partners key to organizational and financial success.
• Work with the organization's accountant/Tides to provide necessary information to ensure that financial reports, audits, and filings are prepared on an annual and/or as needed basis.
• Ensure that check requests, deposits, employee reimbursements, accounts receivable, invoice, and accounts payable processes are handled in a timely fashion and documented appropriately.
• Create new and smart systems that anticipate organizational needs.

Human Resources:

• Manage the processing of timesheets and administration of payroll on a weekly basis, including expense and mileage reimbursements.
• Work with Department Heads to ensure employees are properly tracking time off in the Namely system. Tracking of employee leave requests.
• Lead HR functions for the organization, such as onboarding new staff, creating human resource systems as needed, and making sure personnel forms are completed and are updated as needed.
• Create Professional Development Processes and Systems, including formalizing Annual Performance Reviews
• Collaborate with hiring managers and ELT to finalize job descriptions, recruit talent and create timelines and processes for hiring
• Primary lead on responding to any HR complaints or concerns.

OTHER DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

Assist ELT in planning and conceptualizing staff retreats and leadership development training

Education and Experience:

• Experience in driving effective decision-making processes and developing proven internal
• Experience planning, leading and executing strategic initiatives, leading change and promoting strong collaboration
• Experience in managing special projects for an organization, helping senior leaders see where there are linkages across the work, and creating operational efficiencies and new processes along the way
• 5+ years in a multi-functional operations role (organizing/civic engagement, Black/Brown-centered, social justice experience a plus)

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ABILITIES:

• Management systems that drive consistent results
• Operations is your jam, with a good balance of results AND care for the whole person
• Excellent facilitation, communication, and diplomacy skills
• Analytic, dot-connector, listener
• Solid project management skills and history of successful execution of projects and campaigns
• Extremely versatile, adaptable, nimble
• Attention to detail and ability to thoughtfully prioritize
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Proactive orientation to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, embodying solidarity across many identities (race, class, gender, LGBTQIA+, ability, etc.)
• Strong people skills.
• Outstanding organizational skills.
• Strong ethical leadership abilities.
• Ability to build strong and sustainable relationships and the capability to interact within all levels of the organization and with external stakeholders and community members
• Love and respect for Black and Brown working class people of Detroit

ORGANIZATIONAL RELATIONSHIPS:

The Operations Director reports to the Chief of Staff and supervises the Operations Staff. The Operations Director also regularly works with the various departments and organizational partners to maintain program efficiency. Detroit Action and Detroit Action Education are projects of Tides Advocacy and Tides Center.

PHYSICAL DEMANDS:

• Must be able to travel domestically on an airplane 4-8 times a year.
• Must be able to lift boxes of development materials.
• Able to attend networking events throughout the United States.
• Must be able to sit in front of a computer for extended periods of time.
• Must be able to move around an office.

WORK ENVIRONMENT:

The position is a full-time position that works 35 hours per week. This position is hybrid, and hte on-site location is an office building in Detroit, MI. The position will be required to work some weekends (Saturday and Sunday). The position may require national travel up to 30% of the time. The assigned workspace is an open and shared work area with a moderate level of noise and interruptions.

About the Organization:

Detroit Action Education and its sister organization, Detroit Action, are hosted projects of Tides Center and Tides Advocacy. We are affiliate partners of the Center for Popular Democracy (CPD) and the Alliance for Youth Action. The successful candidate will receive generous benefits as provided by Tides. The salary will be determined according to a salary scale which takes into account years’ experience, location, job category, and other factors, but is expected to be $65,000-75,000 annually.

Detroit Action is an equal opportunity employer. We assure equal treatment in hiring selection,

promotion, transfer, compensation, benefits, training, discipline and other personnel practices

and terms or conditions of employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, age, national

origin, height, weight, marital status, genetic testing status, veteran status, disability, sexual

orientation, gender status, or any other protected class established by all applicable federal,

state and local laws and ordinances.