Chief of Staff

Harvard Hillel

Location: On-Site, Harvard Hillel, Cambridge, MA

Employment Status: Exempt salaried team members

Reporting: Executive Director

Salary Range: $100,000 - $110,000 plus generous benefits

Role Overview

The mission of Harvard Hillel is to be a Jewish home, both physical and virtual, on the Harvard University campus.  Harvard Hillel welcomes all students to experience the variety of Jewish identity, tradition, practice, values, culture, and community and to inspire and enable connections on campus and beyond. Harvard Hillel students find meaningful connections and friendship while engaging in unique opportunities to make Jewish thought and culture integral in the life of the University.

The Chief of Staff (COS) is a newly created role, reporting to the Harvard Hillel executive director who has been in the role less than two years. As a team, they engage effectively with the many constituent groups and priorities associated with the Harvard Hillel  executive office. The COS is adept at moving between strategic team decision-making, governance requirements of the Board of directors, the public profile of the executive director, and the everyday tactical implementation of planning, coordination, and projects with colleagues across the organization. The COS is also a highly empathetic and positive contributor to a collaborative and engaging organizational culture.

The COS role has been established to ensure the organization’s strategy, culture, and executive operations is planned, coordinated, and tracked with and for the executive office and in close collaboration with Havard Hillel colleagues. The successful ownership of the COS role will add capacity to the executive director and make space for the director to focus on leadership, vision and goal setting, and working with the Board and stakeholders to build the organization’s future.

A primary accountability for the COS is to serve as a trusted advisor and thought partner to the executive director on organizational priorities, strategic goal setting, and effective project coordination. Key to the success of the COS is also their ability to translate strategic goals into operational plan, timelines, and accountability structures.

Anticipated responsibilities for the COS are outlined below. In year one, the COS will add capacity to a range of key projects and outputs in the design phase of the director’s executive office. Over time, the role of the COS will evolve in collaboration with the executive director as they work with the Harvard Hillel team to reshape the Harvard Hillel building and its operations to move the organization forward.

What You'll Do

Board of Directors Operations

• Working closely with the executive director, Board Chair, and Committees, plan and coordinate virtual and in-person Board and Committee meetings. Serve as the liaison with the Board of directors as needed.
  • Support development of calendars, invites, agendas, material document coordination and production; record Board meeting minutes and manage post-meeting follow up.
  • Support Committee development, structures, and governance principles and processes using the organization’s Bylaws to support and drive governance timelines and support decision-making.
  • Ensure strong compliance, documentation, and institutional records.

Annual Planning & Planning Management

• Lead annual planning and cross-departmental coordination processes.
• Establish dashboards and ways of learning to engage colleagues around annual and project planning, implementation, and tracking.
  • Develop systems, tools, and schedules to operationalize and track annual work plans, and quarterly and monthly activities against annual plans.
  • Facilitate team progress reviews with department heads and wider teams.
  • Ensure organizational priorities remain visible and actionable.
  • Lead and directly manage internal communications related to institutional planning and coordination, working closely with colleagues across the institution to ensure alignment between the Board, leadership, and staff.
  • Serve as a trusted colleague and coach across the institution around execution and accountability.

Operations of the Executive Office

• Oversee financial and administrative functions of the executive director’s office.
• Manage workflows, priorities, and communications on behalf of the executive director.
  • Manage discretionary budgets, fiscal sponsorship operations, and executive office expenditures.
  • Prepare briefings, reports, and presentations for internal and external engagements of the executive director. Support positioning and materials for executive director’s public-facing activities.
  • Ensure timely follow-through of executive director’s commitments. Build and maintain systems and tools for information flow and decision-tracking.
  • Partner with colleagues across the organization to build and manage budget process, forecasting, and reporting in relation to the executive office budgets, ensuring responsible stewardship of the organization’s resources.
  • Directly manage cross-functional initiatives and special projects.
  • Work closely with director of operations and colleagues to design, write, and coordinate business processes for finance and compliance obligations implemented through the executive office.

Development & Community Engagement

• Serve as an active participant in the executive director’s community and student-facing work. Directly coordinate and participate in internal and external engagements of Harvard Hillel’s communities, as agreed with the executive director.
• Work closely with the director of development and executive director on Board-related fundraising strategies.
• Support planning and presence around High Holidays and key moments in the Jewish calendar.
• Work closely with the director of development and executive director to support donor stewardship and engagement related to the Board of directors.
• Lead planning and coordination of Board-related special events, in close partnership with the director of development and central services coordinator. Directly manage appropriate follow up correspondence and gift acknowledgements.

Human Resources

• Work closely with colleagues on HR-related initiatives. Lead initiatives as appropriate, and serve as a guide and contributor as appropriate, to best support the organization’s goals to design and manage human resources policies and practices as they evolve.
  • Lead and contribute into initiatives that establish a structured set of onboarding activities for new hires. Coordinate with colleagues to actively welcome new colleagues into the organization in a way that reflects the executive director’s values and the positive team environment being threaded through the Harvard Hillel community experience.
  • Serve as an advisor as needed with hiring managers to design job descriptions, job needs assessments and hiring practices through the organization. Serve as a trusted colleague and guide on staff hiring, introducing prospective candidates into hiring pipelines where possible.
  • Work closely with the director of operations to maintain and record HR / personnel records and materials.
  • Work closely between the director of operations to establish and coordinate state or federal mandatory staff trainings, and broader professional development opportunities.
• Work closely with the central services coordinator to promote and manage staff events and events, such as birthdays and other special occasion events.

Other projects and activities agreed with the executive director.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• No less than 6 years of progressive experience in nonprofit or mission-driven leadership roles.
• Commitment to the organization’s mission and respectful of Jewish values.
• Demonstrated success in strategic planning and execution, operational systems and tracking, and Board governance. People-center systems thinker, with strong success operationalizing strategies into trackable, measurable action plans.
• Strong financial, project management, and institutional administration skills.
• Exceptional written, verbal, and interpersonal skills. A keen eye for detail and accuracy.
• Highly effective manager of people, projects, and budgets.
• Adaptable, sound judgment, diplomatic, and respectful of holding sensitive information.
• Ability to successfully balance high emotional intelligence with result-driven project management and serving as an empathetic culture carrier who models collaborative leadership and teamwork.
• A connector, of ideas, people, projects, and outcomes.
• Both strategy and implementation, success in this role is being both a hub of information and a project management expert.
• Open and willing to engage in conversations about religion, and to learn about Judaism and Israel in a way that inspires stakeholders to invest in our work.
• Highly collaborative problem-solver with curiosity to engage across teams both inside and outside of Hillel to successfully manage competing priorities.
• A self-starter, adept at project management tools and practices, time-management and effective communications both verbally and in writing.
• Highly comfort working effectively both independently and in teams to meet goals and deadlines.
• Skilled at creative, data driven presentations.

Minimum Qualifications

• 6+ years of experience in similar nonprofit, community engagement role.
• High comfort in Microsoft Office tools, project management tools, PowerPoint and Canva.
• Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent.

Benefits

• A comprehensive benefits package, including health insurance, retirement plan, Life, AD&D and Long-Term Disability (LTD) insurances, Flexible Spending accounts, generous vacation/sick time, and parental leave.
• A unique opportunity to develop and promote a vibrant, pluralistic Jewish community at Harvard Hillel.