Operations Director

📋 Description

• • Own the end-to-end operational backbone of Spark Climate Solutions, translating philanthropic capital into friction-free execution so scientists and strategists can focus on breakthrough climate interventions.
• • Architect and continuously refine Spark’s operational strategy, translating the Executive Director’s vision into annual and quarterly OKRs that cascade through Finance, People & Culture, and day-to-day systems.
• • Serve as the connective tissue between program, development, and leadership teams—translating mission-critical priorities into resource plans, risk registers, and decision-making frameworks that keep the organization agile and accountable.
• • Build and steward a $6–8 M annual budget, creating rolling 12-month forecasts that integrate grant schedules, burn-rate analyses, and scenario planning so leadership can make data-driven trade-offs between speed and sustainability.
• • Design and maintain a transparent financial dashboard that gives program leads real-time visibility into their budgets without pulling them away from super-pollutant research or methane-removal pilots.
• • Oversee the full grants lifecycle—from LOI to closeout—ensuring compliance with federal, state, and philanthropic requirements while streamlining sub-award management for university and NGO partners.
• • Lead Spark’s annual audit, 990 preparation, and tax filings; evaluate and manage external bookkeepers, CPAs, and legal counsel to guarantee nonprofit accountability and safeguard Spark’s reputation.
• • Direct talent strategy for a remote-first team that is projected to double in size over the next 24 months; create equitable, transparent hiring rubrics and scalable onboarding that shrink time-to-impact for new scientists and policy experts.
• • Own the performance-management cycle, coaching managers to deliver candid feedback and calibration that advances both individual growth and collective climate outcomes.
• • Codify and refresh Spark’s employee handbook, benefits guides, and remote-work policies so every staff member—regardless of time zone—understands how to thrive and how decisions get made.
• • Champion a culture of belonging by designing rituals (virtual coffee roulette, affinity Slack channels, annual off-site unconference) that combat isolation and celebrate the diversity required to solve global problems.
• • Scale operational infrastructure from “scrappy startup” to “field-leading platform,” documenting SOPs in Notion, Airtable, and Slack integrations that reduce administrative drag by 30 % within the first year.
• • Mentor and grow a 1.5-person operations team into a high-performing unit of 4–5 specialists, modeling servant leadership and creating career ladders that reward systems thinking and climate impact.
• • Partner with the Director of Program Management to launch cross-functional initiatives—e.g., a rapid-response fund for emergent methane science—ensuring legal, financial, and HR guardrails move at the speed of science.
• • Represent Operations in quarterly board meetings, translating complex financial and risk data into concise narratives that empower trustees to unlock additional philanthropic capital.
• • Continuously scan the horizon for operational innovations—whether AI-enabled expense auditing or climate-aligned 401(k) options—and pilot those that give Spark a competitive edge in attracting top talent.