Strategic Operations Administrator

Position Purpose

Gemstones in the Sun (GITS) seeks an experienced, adaptive, mission-aligned contractor to strengthen organizational operations, systems, coordination, and capacity.

The Strategic Operations Administrator will coordinate core operations, support Board-approved priorities, strengthen administrative systems, and connect the people, information, and resources needed to carry GITS’s work forward. The role may also contribute to governance support, resource development, partnerships, communications, and organizational sustainability according to agreed priorities.

The Administrator will have meaningful leadership responsibility and accountability for agreed work and deliverables within the role’s authority and available resources.

Consistent with GITS’s recovery-informed approach and commitment to shared stewardship, the role is collaborative. It is intended to strengthen shared organizational capacity rather than concentrate knowledge, responsibility, or decision-making in one person.

This framework is a starting point for conversation, not a fixed or exhaustive description of the role. The Board and selected contractor will work together to clarify priorities, responsibilities, authority, and a realistic scope of work.

Organizational Context and Values

Gemstones in the Sun (GITS) is a U.S.-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in Maryland. GITS supports psycho-spiritual healing for people of color and cultivates collective work toward just and equitable economies worldwide. While rooted in the United States, GITS’s footprint has expanded, with pockets of community, partnership, and support across the world.

GITS’s recovery-informed model understands healing and recovery as both personal and collective, shaped by culture, relationships, lived experience, community knowledge, and broader social and economic conditions.

These values also inform how GITS operates. Organizational development includes building sustainable systems, sharing knowledge, strengthening relationships, distributing responsibility, and creating accountable ways of working together.

GITS works through Board leadership, contractors, subcontractors, volunteers, professional service providers, partners, and community relationships. Contractors may function as part of the ongoing organizational team while remaining engaged through their respective contractual arrangements.

The Administrator will help connect these parts of the organization, strengthen coordination and continuity, and support organizational practices consistent with GITS’s recovery-informed and shared-stewardship values.

Coordination and Working Relationships

The Administrator’s contract will be overseen by a Board-designated body, with a primary Board contact for routine communication, priority-setting, review of work, and contract administration.

As part of the role, the Administrator may engage subcontractors to carry out specific areas of work, with the Board’s knowledge and within agreed priorities, authority, and resources.

The Administrator will coordinate this work by:

• • establishing clear scopes and expectations;
  • maintaining communication;
  • supporting collaboration across functions;
  • tracking progress and agreed deliverables;
  • addressing gaps or barriers; and
  • ensuring appropriate follow-through and accountability.

This coordination role does not require a traditional hierarchical structure. Consistent with GITS’s commitment to shared stewardship, the Administrator is expected to respect the expertise, judgment, and agency of those carrying the work while helping ensure responsibilities remain clear and connected.

The Administrator will also coordinate, as appropriate, with:

• • the GITS Board and its designated members, committees, or other Board bodies;
  • GITS’s Webmaster;
  • Program Coordinator;
  • Accountant;
  • Bookkeeping Assistant;
  • Insurance Broker;
  • Auditor;
  • tax preparer or other tax professional;
  • Travel Agent;
  • Videographer;
  • relevant Maryland state agencies responsible for applicable business, nonprofit, charitable, tax, registration, and compliance matters; and
  • other contractors, advisors, partners, and service providers as needed.

These relationships may take different forms. Some individuals may be subcontracted through the Administrator, while others may have separate contractual or professional relationships with GITS.

The Administrator supports communication, documentation, coordination, and follow-through across these functions without replacing specialized professional expertise or the Board’s governance and fiduciary responsibilities.

The Administrator and Program Coordinator will work collaboratively within their respective areas of responsibility unless a different relationship is established through their respective agreements.

Primary Areas of Responsibility

Specific priorities and deliverables will be agreed upon by the Board and Administrator and reflected in the contract and/or work plan.

1. Operations and Organizational Systems
   • Coordinate agreed organizational operations and priorities.
   • Develop, document, maintain, and improve administrative systems and workflows.
   • Identify operational gaps and recommend practical improvements.
   • Support implementation of Board-approved priorities.
   • Help clarify roles, responsibilities, communication channels, and follow-through.
   • Coordinate information and work across contractors, subcontractors, Board members, volunteers, professional service providers, and partners.
   • Engage and coordinate subcontractors within the Administrator’s authorized scope and available resources.
   • Strengthen continuity and institutional knowledge through documentation and knowledge-sharing.
   • Help ensure organizational systems and practices reflect GITS’s recovery-informed and shared-stewardship values.
   • Leverage AI and other digital tools to advance GITS’s operations while safeguarding GITS’s narrative and mission from AI’s impulse to distort, displace, or overtake them.
2. Financial, Administrative, and Compliance Coordination
   • Coordinate with GITS’s Accountant, Bookkeeping Assistant, Auditor, tax professional, Insurance Broker, and other relevant service providers.
   • Help ensure organizational records and information needed by these professionals are maintained and made available appropriately.
   • Support budgeting, financial reporting, and financial-planning processes.
   • Maintain systems for tracking applicable federal and Maryland state filings, registrations, renewals, insurance matters, and administrative deadlines.
   • Support required annual reports and other filings and communications with relevant Maryland state agencies based on established requirements and professional guidance.
   • Support timely preparation and coordination of applicable U.S. federal tax reporting and filing requirements in collaboration with GITS’s tax and accounting professionals.
   • Bring significant financial, compliance, insurance, or administrative concerns to the appropriate Board contact.
   • Support follow-through on recommendations or requirements identified by qualified advisors or government agencies.

The Administrator coordinates these processes but does not independently determine specialized legal, accounting, tax, audit, or insurance requirements. Fiduciary oversight and significant financial decisions remain with the Board.

1. Governance and Board Support
   • Support Board and committee operations, including meeting preparation, documentation, follow-up, and action tracking.
   • Support implementation of Board-approved governance practices.
   • Help maintain clear communication between governance and operations.
   • Support Board orientation, leadership transitions, and succession processes as requested.
   • Identify areas where greater role clarity, documentation, or organizational follow-through may strengthen GITS.

The Administrator supports effective governance while governance and fiduciary authority remain with the Board.

1. Resource and Partnership Development
   • Support agreed fundraising, grant, sponsorship, partnership, and resource-development activities.
   • Coordinate designated resource-development initiatives.
   • Maintain and strengthen assigned organizational relationships.
   • Identify opportunities aligned with GITS’s mission, capacity, and sustainability goals.
   • Support follow-through with funders, partners, and other stakeholders.
   • Represent GITS externally when authorized.

Resource development is a shared organizational responsibility rather than the responsibility of the Administrator alone.

1. Programs, Communications, and Public Engagement
   • Coordinate with the Program Coordinator on operational needs, schedules, resources, documentation, and organizational priorities.
   • Coordinate with the Webmaster on website content, access, updates, maintenance needs, and agreed digital priorities.
   • Support organizational communications, outreach, and stakeholder engagement.
   • Help ensure public-facing information reflects GITS’s mission, recovery-informed approach, programs, and community relationships.
   • Support stewardship of publications, educational materials, digital platforms, and related organizational assets.
   • Coordinate with Board members, contractors, subcontractors, partners, and other designated representatives on communications as appropriate.
2. Organizational Stewardship
   • Support responsible stewardship of organizational records, systems, information, relationships, finances, and other assets.
   • Identify significant operational risks, gaps, or concerns and bring them to the appropriate person or Board body.
   • Help reduce dependence on organizational knowledge or systems held by only one person.
   • Coordinate with qualified advisors when specialized expertise is required.
   • Support systems for continuity, accountability, and organizational learning.
   • Encourage clear documentation and shared access to information needed for organizational continuity.

Scope and Accountability

The Administrator will be accountable for agreed responsibilities, deliverables, coordination, and follow-through within the role’s authority, including appropriate coordination of subcontracted work.

Priorities will reflect GITS’s needs, the contracted level of effort, available resources, and responsibilities carried by others.

The Board and Administrator will review priorities regularly. When significant new responsibilities arise, they will determine what can reasonably be incorporated, what should shift, and whether the scope, resources, subcontracting arrangements, or contract should be adjusted.

Performance will be evaluated against agreed responsibilities, deliverables, coordination, and progress within the Administrator’s scope of authority.

This approach supports meaningful accountability without relying on a highly centralized or traditional supervisory structure.

Transition and Knowledge Transfer

The incoming Administrator will be stepping into an organization with systems, relationships, records, practices, and institutional knowledge developed over several years.

An intentional handoff from the outgoing Administrator will be part of the transition. This will include, as appropriate, access to:

• • key organizational and professional relationships;
  • records, accounts, systems, and documentation;
  • financial and administrative processes;
  • compliance calendars, registrations, and federal and Maryland state filing information;
  • website and technology systems;
  • program coordination practices;
  • subcontractor and professional-service relationships;
  • current organizational priorities; and
  • significant pending or unresolved matters.

The goal is to provide continuity and context while giving the incoming Administrator space to work with the Board and others to determine what should be maintained, improved, simplified, documented, or changed.

The transition will also strengthen documentation and help ensure essential organizational knowledge and access are appropriately shared rather than concentrated in one person.

Desired Qualifications

GITS seeks a candidate with a strong combination of the following qualifications. Deep professional expertise in every area is not expected.

Core Qualifications

• • Experience coordinating organizational operations, administration, projects, or systems.
  • Strong organizational, documentation, communication, and follow-through skills.
  • Experience developing or improving administrative systems and workflows.
  • Ability to establish priorities and manage competing demands.
  • Ability to work effectively with Boards, contractors, subcontractors, professional service providers, partners, and community members.
  • Experience coordinating the work of others through clear scopes, communication, and accountability.
  • Working knowledge of nonprofit operations, governance, budgeting, and administration.
  • Experience working with Maryland nonprofit and business compliance requirements, including annual reporting and other required state filings, and the ability to maintain current familiarity with applicable Maryland policies, regulations, filing requirements, and administrative practices.
  • Ability and commitment to maintain up-to-date working knowledge of applicable U.S. federal tax laws, regulations, reporting requirements, and other federal filing obligations affecting 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations.
  • Ability to recognize when Board action or specialized professional expertise is needed.
  • Ability to work independently and collaboratively.

Recovery-Informed and Relational Competence

• • Experience in community-centered, culturally responsive, healing-centered, recovery-oriented, relational, or similar environments.
  • Willingness and capacity to learn and work within GITS’s specific recovery-informed framework.
  • Respect for lived experience, cultural knowledge, community relationships, and multiple ways of knowing.
  • Strong cross-cultural communication and relationship-building skills.
  • Ability to support accountability and coordination without relying on unnecessarily hierarchical approaches.

GITS will provide orientation to its recovery-informed model, organizational history, systems, and relationships.

Valued Experience

Experience in one or more of the following is valued:

• • nonprofit finance or financial coordination;
  • grants, fundraising, sponsorships, or resource development;
  • Board and governance support;
  • partnership development;
  • communications or digital coordination;
  • subcontractor or project coordination;
  • community-based or international work;
  • cooperative development, recovery, psycho-spiritual healing, or social and economic justice; and
  • multilingual or cross-cultural environments.

Proficiency in more than one language is strongly preferred. Translation, interpretation and cross-cultural adaptation proficiency is a plus.

Personal and Professional Characteristics

The successful candidate will likely demonstrate sound judgment, emotional maturity, strong organization and follow-through, adaptability, humility, relational leadership, and respect for community knowledge and lived experience.

The role also requires comfort navigating ambiguity, coordinating across areas of expertise, communicating priorities and capacity clearly, and supporting accountability within a collaborative and less hierarchical organizational structure.

Initial Role Development

During the transition, the Board and selected contractor will use GITS’s current needs, the outgoing Administrator’s institutional knowledge, and the incoming Administrator’s experience to refine initial priorities, authority, working relationships, subcontracting responsibilities, deliverables, and scope.

The final contract will identify the agreed scope of services, level of effort, compensation, term, authority, deliverables, and process for reviewing or adjusting the work.

The intent is to provide enough clarity for meaningful accountability while allowing the role and GITS’s organizational systems to develop through experience, dialogue, coordination, and shared stewardship.

Engagement Details and How to Apply

Compensation: To be determined based on experience and the final scope and level of effort.

Location: Remote; Maryland-based candidates are preferred.

Travel: Depending on the contractor’s location and agreed scope of services, the role may involve occasional local or domestic travel. Rare international travel may also arise by mutual agreement and as appropriate to the contracted scope of services.