Operations Manager

***NOTE: Do not submit your application using Idealist. Submit via email as specified below.

Organization: Governments, landlords, employers, and other powerful actors use artificial intelligence (AI), algorithms, and related technologies to make decisions about how low-income people work, live, learn, and survive. When people are hurt by AI decision-making, they have few places to turn. TechTonic Justice exists to change this.

TechTonic Justice is a newly launched organization to fight the ground-level harms AI causes low-income communities. We do this mainly by supporting local justice movements--legal aid organizations, frontline service providers, grassroots organizers, and affected communities--to identify and fight harmful uses of AI. We emphasize a multidimensional advocacy approach that blends litigation, community activation and organizing, public education, and narrative advocacy. We are based in Los Angeles and offer our services nationwide, with emphasis on the South and the West Coast.

Position description: This permanent, full-time Operations Manager position is fully remote with modest travel anticipated (~2-5 trips per year). This position will support a growing organization of 5 employees (including you)—with more teammates likely to be added by the end of 2025—to manage all key aspects of operations in collaboration with the President, who has been performing these functions. Primary activities include:

• Research, draft, revise, and make recommendations about key organizational policies, personnel manuals, and benefits and compensation practices
• Manage human resource issues and trainings for staff in multiple states, including staff recruitment, onboarding, and retention
• Manage relationships with external vendors, including insurance brokers, accountants, lawyers, and technology services
• Support development and use of standard operating practices in all relevant areas, with special attention to financial, personnel management, and compliance
• Track grant reporting requirements, facilitate completions of grant reports, and support grant prospecting
• Manage and track day-to-day finances, including payroll, travel reimbursements, credit card usage, bill payment, incoming funds, subscriptions, and other expenses
• Research organizational technology needs, make recommendations, and help shepherd implementation
• Assist with Board of Directors relations, including by preparing and distributing board packets, scheduling meetings, tracking member and officer terms, arranging meeting logistics, and attending meetings
• Supervise staff time-keeping practices to ensure compliance with grants and laws
• Track and oversee organization’s filing requirements with local, state, and federal governments to ensure compliance with tax, employer, fundraising, lobbying, and charity laws
• Shepherd the organization through audits and tax preparation
• Assist with donor relations by, for example, maintaining donor lists and potentially support donor prospecting
• Maintain organizational calendar to ensure effective staff coordination
• Assist in planning and arranging logistics for in-person staff meetings or retreats
• Support President in other organizational management needs

Job requirements:

• Candidates must have at least 7 years of experience managing organizational operations, preferably with significant experience in a nonprofit environment
• Commitment to justice for low-income people and other groups facing marginalization
• Incredible attention to detail
• Flexibility and patience to build good organizational practices and governance in a startup environment where immediate needs and timelines may shift
• Familiarity with bookkeeping practices, financial reports and oversight, human resources, Board of Directors relations, grant reporting, applicable legal compliance requirements (tax, employment, lobbying, charity registration, etc.), and relevant technology needs (including project and data management systems and, preferably, Gusto and Xero)
• Independent initiative that does not require intensive supervision
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, particularly with respect to summarizing research, thought processes, and recommendations
• Collaborative spirit and the skills needed to work affirmingly with teammates, vendors, partners, and the communities we exist to serve
• Ability to manage several different kinds of work activities concurrently, prioritize appropriately, and deliver quality work product promptly
• Comfort moving with urgency (meeting tight deadlines, shifting focus, etc.)
• Comfort articulating the intersections between poverty, race, ethnicity, sex, gender, sexual orientation, language, age, disability, and related characteristics and aligning organizational practices with these understandings
• Operates with emotional intelligence, empathy, and righteous fury
• B.A. required; Master’s degree in a relevant field is a plus
• Familiarity with lawyers, the practice of law, community organizers, and/or community organizing is a plus

We encourage applications from Black, Indigenous, and other people of color, women, LGBTQI+ people, people with disabilities, formerly incarcerated people, and people most impacted by systemic injustice.

Salary: $90K-$120K, depending on experience. Current budget projections anticipate annual cost-of-living salary increases. Service time raises are anticipated but still to be determined (subject to budget considerations).

Schedule Flexibility: TechTonic Justice will allow flexibility in scheduling regular work hours to fit the successful candidate’s personal situation, including health needs or caregiving responsibilities. This flexibility will be limited by reasonable organizational needs, including sufficient availability for internal and external meetings. Candidates should anticipate occasional deviation from scheduled work hours to complete deadline-driven projects.

• * Presently, we do not anticipate offering regular four-day workweeks. ***

Benefits: The benefits package presently includes (1) 100% of quality medical, dental, vision, life, and disability insurance for the employee, (2) 50% of dependents’ medical, dental, and vision insurance, (3) an automatic contribution by TechTonic Justice of 4% of annual salary to a Vanguard 403(b) retirement account (employees may also choose to contribute a portion of their salaries), and (4) unlimited paid time off, subject to approval by the President in accordance with relevant operational considerations.

To apply: Submit the following to admin@techtonicjustice.org by 8:59 p.m. pacific time on July 1. Applications will be considered on a rolling basis. Applications received after this time will not be considered.

• Cover letter of up to 2 pages explaining your specific interest in and qualifications for the job, including your suitability for a small, start-up environment
• Resume of up to 4 pages
• Optional: Candidates with work product samples may submit up to 10 pages, with 1 additional page to explain. Candidates will not be penalized for not submitting.

Process: Applications will be reviewed as they come in. The most promising applicants will be selected for a first interview. The most promising interviewees will be selected for a second interview. We will check references of finalists. We reserve the option to conduct a third round of interviews if necessary. We plan to make a decision in July with the successful applicant starting in August (the specific start date is flexible).

Accommodations: We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to people with disabilities during the application process and after hiring. Please write admin@techtonicjustice.org to request any needed accommodations.

Questions: Please submit any questions to admin@techtonicjustice.org. Please do not call unless needed for purposes of accommodations.