Operations & People Director

Urban Adamah is an educational farm and community center in Berkeley, California that integrates the practices of Jewish tradition, mindfulness, sustainable agriculture, and social action to build loving, just, and sustainable communities. We provide training programs, educational workshops, and community celebrations for more than 10,000 visitors annually.

ABOUT THE ROLE

As Urban Adamah’s Operations & People Director, you will play a critical role leading organizational operations and People/HR management. Your role directs, drives forward, and manages or supervises the management of all aspects of our operations work, people work, staff engagement and celebrations, and office related functions. You will have the opportunity to build new and iterate on existing workplace practices, innovate and advance this work, and collaborate with colleagues across departments and roles. Additionally, you will supervise the Operations & People Manager, work closely with the Development & Technology Director, and serve as a critical resource to the leadership team.

The ideal candidate for this role is someone with experience initiating, directing, and managing projects and workflows independently, leading and doing logistics and administrative work, and supporting colleagues across a wide variety of work areas and projects. You will bring to the role experience managing and directing operations and people management in a not-for-profit, educational, or for profit setting. The role requires the ability to design and ensure operational excellence, to successfully engage across multiple areas of work, and a strong ability to build systems and processes that are as simple as they are successful. The Operations & People Director plays a key role contributing to and ensuring Urban Adamah’s overall collective success.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Operations

• Assume ownership for and drive overall operations in support of program and organizational success
• Ensure operational systems and processes are straightforward and user friendly, in order to ensure adoption and use
• Manage and ensure contracting policies and procedures for all 1099 vendors
• Manage, build, and recommend changes to the Operations and Office budgets
• Develop working knowledge of operations technologies, platforms, software, and hardware, in order to effectively support the Operations & HR Manager’s oversight and maintenance of same
• Become familiar with all insurance policies, and work with insurance brokers and providers to ensure appropriate coverage
• Work with Office & Operations Manager and Development & Technology Director to own and ensure successful organizational use of tech systems and workflows, including Salesforce, Asana, Slack, Ontraport, etc.

Supervision

• Supervise and support the work of the Operations & People Manager, including oversight of
• Operation technologies including hardware and software such as Salesforce, Asana, Slack, the phone system, computers, printer, internet, etc.
• Office management
• Workplace culture including staff retreat logistics, work anniversaries, birthday, and departure recognition, etc.
• Vendor management

People Operations & Staff Culture

• Manage and advance recruitment, interviewing, hiring, on-boarding, and offboarding processes for full-time, part-time, and seasonal positions and roles
• Consult, support, and advise leadership team scoping new roles as the need arises
• Implement and oversee talent performance management including supervision norms, professional development, performance reviews, improvement plans, etc.
• Serve as a resource and/or partner to the leadership team ensuring the success of staff meetings, staff celebrations, team building events, staff retreats, etc.
• Support leadership team with all aspects of internal employee engagement efforts including managing the Leading Edge employee engagement surveys
• Oversee and manage DEI work related to hiring, culture, and employee relationships

HR & Legal Compliance

• Manage payroll, benefits, time tracking, and HRIS administration in Rippling
• Maintain, develop as needed, and implement personnel policies and practices, ensuring compliance with CA labor law
• Support leadership team to maintain appropriate salary bands, annual raises, benefits package, etc.
• Serve as primary resource for staff benefits related questions and HR policies
• Serve as a resource on personnel concerns including performance, conflict resolution, conferring with legal counsel, etc)

ABOUT YOU

You are excited to influence and contribute to workplace culture, passionate about helping to lead a thriving non-profit to accomplish its mission and vision and be a great place to work. You possess the background and experience to plan and implement operational excellence. You understand intuitively how strong operations and people operations are critical to Urban Adamah’s success. You love building organizational systems, collaborating, and innovating to solve problems.

We are open to applicants with varying levels and types of experience, provided that the applicant displays the skills required to successfully execute the job described above. You might be a good fit if you possess/demonstrate the following:

COMPETENCIES & STRENGTHS

Administrative & Organizational Excellence

• Self-starter: You are able to manage your work independently, and are comfortable and transparent in asking for support when you need it to succeed
• Excellence in organization: You are highly organized, able to track and execute on multiple projects and tasks simultaneously, and are detail oriented.
• Prioritization: You are able to both collaboratively and independently manage your workflows to keep projects on track.
• Tech-savvy: You are very comfortable with Rippling or similar HRIS, Google Suite, Salesforce or similar CRMs, Slack, Asana, Microsoft Office Suite, etc.
• Problem solver: You enjoy problem solving, seeing it as an opportunity to turn a challenge into a success.

Self-Awareness & Partnership

• Ownership: You take broad responsibility for your work and approach tasks and priorities with a critical mindset.
• Openness: You regularly seek, incorporate, and share new information and feedback.
• Balanced: You demonstrate a good balance of self-confidence and humility, able to name and make the most of your strengths, and open to feedback that will lead you to grow and develop as a professional.
• Commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion: you value the diversity of insight, perspective, and experience brought by people from diverse backgrounds.
• Welcoming: You have a keen ability to make people feel heard, understood, valued, and honored.
• Comfort with conflict: You are able to participate in and lead challenging conversations and contribute to positive outcomes.

Communication, Collaboration & Customer Service

• Possess strong interpersonal skills: You communicate and collaborate well with a range of colleagues and other stakeholders, both verbally and in writing.
• Collaborative: You enjoy learning from and with talented colleagues, and are excited to be part of the success of the whole organization.
• Customer service oriented: You appreciate the powerful impact of providing substantive responses to inquiries, meeting people’s needs proactively, and treating staff and other community members with respect and care.

EXPERIENCES THAT COULD LEAD TO YOUR SUCCESS

• Relevant experience managing and directing operations and people management in a not-for-profit, educational, or for profit setting
• Demonstrated ability to create and manage well-functioning organizational systems

PHYSICAL DEMANDS OF THE POSITION

The physical demands listed below are representative of those that must be met by an employee in this position. Some accommodations may be made to enable people with disabilities to succeed in the role:

• Typing, writing, reading, hearing, and speaking
• Standing and walking for several hours, as well as sitting, squatting, crawling, climbing, and lifting up to 40 lbs.

ADDITIONAL DETAILS

COMPENSATION & BENEFITS

This is a full-time, benefited, and exempt position that includes healthcare, holidays, and paid time off. The salary range for this position is $87,000 to $99,000 per year. Comprehensive benefits include:

• 100% health care coverage for self and 50% coverage of dependents in a Silver Tier Kaiser plan or its equivalent in our carrier’s options
• 80% coverage of dental insurance for self
• Paid vacation days beginning at 15 days; 20 days in second year; incremental increase to 25 days
• 5 paid sick days per year
• Up to 20 paid holidays (a mix of both national and Jewish holidays)
• Tax-free retirement account after 2 years
• A pre-tax FSA for medical, dependent care, and transit
• Paid and unpaid parental, medical, and bereavement leave (following 1 year of employment)
• Paid Jury Duty leave
• Unpaid time off

SCHEDULE

This is a full-time, non-exempt position, with the opportunity to work remotely Mondays and Fridays. General hours of employment are 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM, Monday – Friday. The Operations & People Director may at times be asked to work evenings or weekends.

SUPERVISION

This position is supervised by the Executive Director and supervises the Office & Operations Manager.