Director of Impact Operations

The Role

Location: Denver, Colorado Beacon
currently operates on a hybrid in-office basis, with three (3) days
per week in-office.

Reports to: Managing Director

Team: Supervises an Operations Manager
and an Administrative Assistant. Oversees a Grants Management
Associate.

Position Summary:

The Director of Impact Operations (Director) is a new role and
serves as a key partner and right hand to the Managing Director
(MD). The Director owns and advances critical cross functional
capacities, systems, and resources ensuring that initiatives have
the right level of support and technical assistance in place to
achieve envisioned impact. The ideal leader will be a strategic
systems thinker and implementer. This role will be accountable for
operations that enable strategic deployment of grants, investments,
and advocacy contributions with an emphasis on ensuring systems,
processes, and infrastructure development are geared to increase
efficiencies and effectiveness now and into the future. The
Director will also play a key role in Beacon’s organizational and
people management.

Key Responsibilities:

Strategic Operational Leadership: 

• Direct the strategy for operational excellence and oversee the
  implementation and evolution of investment and grant funding
  operations, process improvement, program workflows and capacity
  management, data planning and reporting, and compliance. 
• Lead selection of a new grants management system (GMS) and
  oversee migration and implementation, ensuring all systems
  integrate with each other and staff has the right support to enable
  the transition. 
• Assess and enhance organizational infrastructure and processes
  to facilitate advocacy contributions and impact
  investments. 
• Manage investment and advocacy enabling capacity, including but
  not limited to third party vendors and outsourced
  supports. 
• Manage selection process and relationships with external
  operations vendors. 
• Assess and identify areas for infrastructure improvement that
  anticipate the future needs of a best-practice organization.
  Identify gaps and proactively propose creative and innovative
  solutions. 
• Collaborate with Director, Learning & Evaluation to ensure
  operational systems and processes, including data collection and
  analysis, support evaluation and learning objectives. 
• Oversee systems, processes, and resources to ensure team
  compliance with all applicable financial and legal
  requirements.

Strategic Support of the Managing
Director: 

• Build and maintain a close working relationship with the MD to
  understand organizational strategic goals, initiatives, and
  aspirations and to deliver as effectively, creatively, and
  innovatively as possible against goals.
• Monitor priorities to ensure the MD’s involvement in projects
  or decision-making takes place at key times, where input is most
  beneficial and needed.
• Manage team-wide internal meetings, balancing day-to-day/weekly
  discussions with long-term strategic management and planning.
• Lead annual planning processes, in the context of
  organizational needs by acting as a project manager and ensuring
  alignment with the MD. 
• Engage with external peers and thought leaders to stay current
  on social impact trends and best practices to inform practices at
  Beacon.

People and Team Management:

• Provide advice on strategic people and culture decisions,
  including policy and system development and implementation
  especially in a time of transition and organizational evolution.
  Help build and develop a lean, nimble, and effective team of staff
  and/or vendors/consultants, while cultivating and promoting a
  culture of collaboration, transparency, accountability,
  empowerment, and well-being. 
• Manage cross-functional, organization-wide projects and
  initiatives; specifically create systems and processes to bring
  together important stakeholders to improve communication and help
  drive decisions. 
• Ensure that Beacon develops clear roles, responsibilities, and
  reporting structures for staff and consultants to maintain a
  strong, high performing organizational culture.
• Lead all aspects of the process for staff development,
  including annual goal setting and review process, needs assessments
  and partnering with MD and others to provide staff with appropriate
  training, and learning and development opportunities.
• Propose the creation of new systems and processes to streamline
  operations that promote staff leadership and effectiveness.
• Oversee team capacity management.

Culture & Change
Management: 

• Partner with the MD to advance an organizational environment
  that maintains a culture of trust, respect, healthy conflict,
  mutual accountability and reflects Beacon’s values, mission, and
  vision. 
• Develop methods of operating that bring new practices for
  systems and policies, resulting in increased coordination across
  teams. These practices range from developing new contact management
  systems to clear and transparent protocols for IT
  management. 
• Develop and manage processes that lead to improved internal
  decision-making and clarity of roles within and across
  teams. 
• Help continually adapt Beacon’s use of meetings to best meet
  the needs of all team members while being efficient and effective
  with its time.

Qualifications & Experience

The successful candidate will be a cross-functional, systems
thinker and culture champion, capable of managing multiple internal
workstreams simultaneously. Strong candidates for this role will
possess many of the following professional experience, personal
attributes, and competencies:

• At least 10 years of senior-level operations, systems
  improvement, strategy development and project management experience
  gained in a mission-oriented organization, nonprofit, social
  enterprise, or philanthropic foundation setting.
• Experience managing organizational complexity in a matrixed
  environment and enhancing an organization’s capacity and impact
  with a mix of both non-profit & for-profit entities and/or
  types of capital (e.g., c3/c4). 
• 7+ years of people management experience in a senior leadership
  role with a track record of empowering a diverse group of
  professionals, entrusting, and amplifying the work of
  others. 
• Demonstrated success owning operations in a multi-tool
  environment; technical operations proficiency including experience
  with legal, compliance, finance, and funding operations; experience
  rolling out new systems. 
• Experience overseeing the technology needs of an organization,
  with an affinity for forward-thinking creative solutions. Prior
  experience successfully leading system reengineering and workflow
  improvements, including selecting and overseeing software
  installations that optimize actionable grants management, financial
  forecasting, knowledge management, and strong data
  analysis. 
• Brings an understanding of how different entities can co-exist
  in the same organization deploying capital in the form of grants,
  investments, and advocacy contributions.  Demonstrated history
  of leading an effective project management process, including those
  that require change management.
• Outstanding communications skills and diplomacy, including the
  ability to listen to, relate well to, and inspire a wide range of
  people at all levels.
• Demonstrates high emotional intelligence, is self-aware and
  perceptive and serves as a connector ensuring awareness of every
  key project, connecting the dots across the organization. A
  positive can-do perspective, empathetic, flexible, curious, with a
  track record of respectful collegial relationships.
• Alignment with Beacon’s values and a deep understanding of
  social sector trends and best practices to inform ways of
  working.
• Unquestionable ethics and integrity. Demonstrated ability to
  protect privacy and maintain discretion in dealing with highly
  confidential information.

Desired Competencies

• Demonstrated track record in operational management, with the
  ability to develop and implement strategies for operational
  excellence including overseeing grants management, impact
  investment operations, and advocating for process improvement and
  efficiency gains; experience rolling out new systems and managing
  vendors. 
• Service-oriented approach, with a sense of accountability,
  empathy, and humility. Creative problem-solving ethos, seeking to
  understand the root of the problem and find a workable
  solution. 
• Balances a process-oriented approach with a big-picture vision.
  Experience setting clear goals, adapting to complex situations, and
  driving results while navigating ambiguity and uncertainty.
• Strong leadership skills, with experience in managing and
  motivating teams; ability to delegate effectively, leads by
  example, and influence up, down, and laterally.
• Bridge builder who can translate between technical and
  non-technical audiences and break down complex concepts into
  digestible and relevant information. Brings proficiency to fluency
  in operations related to grants management, advocacy, and impact
  investing.
• Ability to lead projects effectively, manage multiple tasks
  seamlessly, and adapt to changing circumstances.
• Demonstrated success applying a structured approach to prepare
  and support individuals and organizations through
  change. 
• Understanding of and appreciation for how DEI shows up in
  culture, norms, practices, operations, and strategy.

Compensation & Benefits:

• Compensation will be equitable and commensurate with experience
  within an anticipated base salary range of $165,000-$220,000.
• The Beacon Fund offers a comprehensive and generous benefits
  package which includes medical, dental, and vision insurance, a
  401(k)-retirement plan and paid time off.