Finance & Operations Manager

Job Description

The Initiative on Land, Housing & Property Rights (the Initiative) at Boston College Law School is a vibrant and dynamic startup organization that was founded two years ago by MacArthur Fellow, Professor Thomas W. Mitchell. The Initiative is experiencing rapid growth at this time. The mission of the Initiative is to address real property issues – land, housing, and other adjacent issues – that impact poor and disadvantaged communities. Many of the activities the Initiative undertakes assist disadvantaged communities that have been harmed as a result of lacking adequate land, housing, and other property rights. The Initiative’s core activities include training law students and other students to develop legal and other technical expertise that can be used by these students when they are in school and after they graduate to help disadvantaged people and communities address their land and housing issues; catalyzing both theoretical and applied, policy-relevant research on various land and housing issues that have been understudied and undertheorized; proactively working to develop impactful legal reform and policy solutions to address property problems disadvantaged communities experience; and sponsoring both continuing legal education programs for lawyers and community legal education and other outreach programs for disadvantaged communities. The Initiative hopes to collaborate with other stakeholders in a true spirit of partnership to more effectively address land and housing issues that disadvantaged communities experience, specifically communities that are disproportionately though not exclusively communities of color.

Position Summary

The Initiative is seeking a Finance & Operations Manager to help advance our strategic priorities; to establish systems and procedures to enable the work of the Initiative to be done in an efficient and high-quality way; to manage the Initiative’s budget and fiscal resources; and to assist with sustainably growing the Initiative’s capacity, impact, and reputation. The Finance & Operations Manager will report to the Initiative’s Director and will serve as a member of the Initiative’s leadership team, which includes the Initiative’s Director, the Research Director, the Policy Director, the Faculty Director of Housing and Property Rights Programs, and the Assistant Director of Special Projects. The Finance & Operations Manager will develop and improve operational, managerial, and administrative procedures, to ensure the organization is on a sustainable growth trajectory. In collaboration with other members of the leadership team, the Finance & Operations Manager will identify new opportunities for funding, both funding to enable the Initiative’s substantive work to be done on an ongoing and growing basis and capacity building funding to build up the Initiative’s operation’s team by potentially adding communications and advancement/development staff people. The Finance & Operations Manager will also work to build strategic relationships among a variety of internal and external stakeholders to enhance the overall functioning, impact, and reputation of the Initiative and to make assessments about the overall structure of the Initiative’s operations, including, for example, assessments about significant governance issues such as organizational reporting structures and the value and timing of potentially adding an advisory board, for example, as part of the governance of the Initiative.

The ideal candidate will bring a strong track record of operational and change management work in a leadership capacity as well as experience working in a dynamic, startup environment and experience in the nonprofit sector. Knowledge or experience working with land, housing, or other property-related or property-adjacent issues and/or knowledge or experience working with research or policy organizations is a plus. The Initiative seeks candidates whose experience has prepared them to contribute to our strong commitment to diversity and inclusion, both in our internal management practices, in our work and interactions with external stakeholders, and in our work developing short- and long-term strategic plans for the future of the Initiative.

This is an on-site position with one day a week of remote work possible. There will be some minimal travel, mostly in New England and the Mid-Atlantic region, though there may be some very infrequent travel required to other parts of the United States.

Duties include:

Financial, Administrative, and Operational Management

• Oversee the creation and implementation of budgets, monitor progress and present operational metrics both internally and externally.
• Prepare and present monthly and annual budgetary and financial statements to the Director and oversees the preparation and approval of all financial reporting materials and metrics for all funders.
• Engage other members of the leadership team to facilitate collaboration that ensures that every part of the Initiative manages operations issues in a way that maximizes the overall functioning and effectiveness of the Initiative’s work and mission.
• Utilize knowledge of human resources practices and policies to effectively manage staff
• Advise the Initiative’s leadership team about human resources best practices and human resources issues that may arise, including matters pertaining to the continuing professional development of staff.
• Manage the Initiative’s communications, including social media and website design and content development. Works with other members of the leadership team to ensure that the Initiative’s deliverables and work product is disseminated in the most optimal and effective way.
• Acculturate new staff about the Initiative’s protocols, operations issues within a staff member’s areas of responsibility, and how the planning and management of various aspects of the Initiative is done.
• Work to address any barriers that may detract from the ability of Initiative staff members or the Initiative more generally to accomplish work goals, whether the particular barrier may be, for example, an issue of resource allocation, staff training, or required third-party authorizations.
• For the planning and coordination of the Initiative’s events, serve as the Initiative’s point person in working with the event planning staff of Boston College Law School and Boston College (at the university level).
• Represent the Initiative on operational matters with internal and external stakeholders.

Strategy

• Advise and partners with the Director on all significant operational issues.
• Actively participates in the ongoing strategic planning process as a member of the leadership team, including providing strategic oversight for the development of the annual budget and making recommendations about expense priorities for the Initiative.
• Evaluate the Initiative’s organizational design, including governance matters, and makes recommendations to the Director about any recommended changes to the organizational design, including the advisability and feasibility of adding, for example, an advisory board, fellows, and/or affiliates and a timeline for doing so.

Development & Fundraising

• In collaboration with the other members of the leadership team and Advancement, develop an overall fundraising strategy.
• Assist Advancement in the stewardship of existing individual and institutional relationships, including with current funders, and identifies and helps cultivate new potential funding sources to support the ongoing growth of the organization.
• Use grant writing skills to help submit grants to build out the Initiative’s operations functions and is available as a resource for other Initiative staff engaged in fundraising work.
• Work with other members of the leadership team, helps ensure that schedules for grant-funded projects are established and adhered to and that all mandated grant reporting is completed in a high quality and timely manner.
• Serve as the Initiative’s point person in communicating with funders about potential grant opportunities as well as any matters with current grants.
• Work with Corp’s & Foundations to identify new funding opportunities and drive the application process.

Full-Time Equivalent Hiring Range: $80,000 to $104,600; salary commensurate with relevant experience.

Requirements

Education

• Bachelor's degree in related area and/or equivalent experience/training required.
• Advanced degree preferred.

Basic qualifications (at the time of application): 

• Minimum of 3-5 years of relevant operations experience in positions of increasing responsibilities.

Preferred qualifications: 

• Experience working in a startup and/or high growth, mission-driven nonprofit organization.
• Experience managing other staff and working as part of a fast-paced, dynamic team.
• Experience making effective presentations to senior management, board of directors or advisory boards, and/or critical outside partners, potential supporters, or key stakeholders.
• Knowledge of both rural and urban land, housing, and other property or property-adjacent issues.

Skills

• Expert knowledge of organizational processes, protocols and procedures including a working knowledge of organization and system-wide reporting structures, as well as an understanding of the interactive roles of management throughout the organization.
• Advanced analytical, critical thinking, planning, problem-solving, and implementation skills. 
• Expert communication and interpersonal skills with respect to various types of oral and written communication and advanced skills in communicating effectively with a diverse group of people with different lived experiences, cultures, identities, etc.
• Working knowledge of budgetary and financial analysis and reporting techniques and human resources policies and procedures for organizational employees.
• Working knowledge of a variety of administrative operations activities such as website design and content development, accounting, contracts and grants regulations and guidelines.
• Ability to work in a dynamic, startup organization in a rapid growth phase.
• Excellent administrative, budgetary, human resources, and financial skills and practices.  
• Significant, successful fundraising experience, including but not limited to the ability to cultivate new donors, the ability to draft excellent funding proposals, and the ability to manage post-award reporting and other requirements of funders.
• Ability to manage multiple tasks and deadlines.

Closing Statement

Boston College offers a broad and competitive range of benefits depending on your job classification eligibility:

• Tuition remission for Employees
• Tuition remission for Spouses and Children who meet eligibility requirements
• Generous Medical, Dental, and Vision Insurance
• Low-Cost Life Insurance
• Eligibility for both University-Funded 401k and Employer-Sponsored 403b Retirement Plans
• Paid Holidays Annually
• Generous Sick and Vacation Pay
• Additional benefits can be found on https://www.bc.edu/employeehandbook

Boston College conducts pre-employment background checks as part of the hiring process.

Boston College is an affirmative action, equal opportunity employer. In concert with our Jesuit, Catholic mission, Boston College is dedicated to the goal of building a culturally diverse and pluralistic faculty and staff committed to teaching and working in a multicultural environment and strongly encourages applications for women, minorities, individuals with disabilities, and covered veterans.

To learn more about how BC supports diversity and inclusion throughout the university please visit the Office for Institutional Diversity at https://www.bc.edu/diversity.

Boston College's Notice of Nondiscrimination can be viewed at https://www.bc.edu/nondiscrimination.