Chief Operating Officer

Chief Operating Officer

Palo Alto, CA | Onsite Tuesday–Friday, remote Mondays

Full-Time | Exempt

Salary Range: $140,000–$150,000 annually plus comprehensive benefits

About The Foster Museum

The Foster Museum is a 14,000-square-foot museum in Palo Alto dedicated to the watercolor wilderness Journeys of British artist Tony Foster. Funded by the Foster Art & Wilderness Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, we unite, understand, and share Foster’s work to inspire connection to art, nature, and the protection of place. Through our collection, archive, exhibitions, and programs, we invite visitors to experience art as a pathway to deeper connection with the natural world. We are a small core team supported by a broader group of hourly team members and a handful of specialized consultants.

The Opportunity

The Foster Museum is at an inflection point, with an ambitious vision for its next chapter and a need for stronger infrastructure to support it. This is a newly created role, designed to build the operational foundation the museum needs for its next stage of growth. Some systems need thoughtful stewardship; others need to be built. We seek a Chief Operating Officer who is energized by both—creating practical systems and maintaining them as the museum grows.

The COO is responsible for the internal operations of the organization, owning people operations, finance, risk and compliance, facilities, capital projects, and cross-functional execution. This is a hands-on builder-operator role, with a strong onsite presence at the museum.

The Foster is a founder-led organization. The COO serves as the Executive Director’s key operational partner and has delegated authority across core operational functions, including management of the operating budget, vendor selection and contract execution, and development and implementation of operational policies and systems. The COO leads the organization’s internal operating cadence and serves as the Executive Director’s delegate in coordinating with staff, vendors, and partners. The role does not have formal direct reports at the outset. As the organization grows, supervisory responsibilities may be added to the position.

What You’ll Own

This role is broad by design. In each area, the COO builds what is missing and maintains the routines, documentation, and accountability that make the organization dependable—practical infrastructure staff can understand, use, and trust.

People & HR Operations

• Establish and steward The Foster’s internal people-operations function, serving as the primary and trusted point of contact for routine employee and manager needs.
• Translate HR groundwork led by the Executive Director and external HR support into durable processes, documentation, templates, and an annual calendar for recurring people and compliance needs. Deploy performance-review, goal-setting, and compensation cycles, and coordinate professional development.
• Manage employee-lifecycle administration, from recruiting coordination and onboarding through benefits and offboarding. Keep personnel files, job descriptions and classifications, required training, and core HR policies current.
• Serve as the internal point of coordination for employee relations, leave, accommodations, and compliance, bringing in the Executive Director and external HR or legal expertise for complex or higher-risk situations.
• Own wage-and-hour compliance for our hourly team, including classification, timekeeping, meal and rest break practices, and overtime, partnering with staff who handle day-to-day scheduling and coverage.

Finance & Administration

• Build the annual operating budget with the Executive Director and maintain a reliable cadence for forecasting, budget review, and decision support.
• Review monthly financial statements and reconciliations prepared by our external accounting partner, resolve discrepancies, and surface material issues to the Executive Director.
• Oversee our annual audit: organize documentation, manage the timeline, and serve as primary contact for our external accounting team and audit firm.
• Coordinate with accounting partners, retirement-plan administrators, and insurance brokers on enrollment, renewals, claims, plan changes, and required filings.
• Own expense administration and payment-approval workflows, including expense and card-use policies, organizational credit cards, and accurate coding and documentation.
• Establish and maintain internal financial controls, and document them for our auditors.
• Administer grant disbursements, reporting, and related compliance documentation.
• Assess our earned income from private events, programs, and retail, and give direction on where the opportunities are.

Governance & Board Support

• Prepare operational and financial reporting for the Board in partnership with the Executive Director.
• Maintain core governance records and the annual policy review.
• Support the Executive Director with the operational logistics of Board meetings.

Operations, Compliance & Technology

• Build and maintain operational manuals, workflows, and decision pathways that create clarity and preserve institutional knowledge.
• Manage vendor relationships and service contracts: set clear expectations, review terms, ensure follow-through, and coordinate legal needs including identifying external counsel.
• Own internal technology, data, and security decisions, working with our external IT partner to keep systems and policies current, protected, and documented.
• Maintain oversight of operational permits, licenses, and core organizational records, coordinating filings with external partners as appropriate.
• Serve as the operational liaison with city departments and local stakeholders on issues affecting our site, attending public meetings, and coordinating practical solutions with the Executive Director.

Facilities & Capital Projects

Facilities responsibilities will transition to this role over time. At the outset, the focus will be capital and improvement projects.

• Lead one-off capital and building-improvement projects—such as soundproofing, storage buildouts, and similar upgrades—from scoping and vendor selection through completion.
• Take on facilities vendors, contracts, and budgets over time, establishing preventive-maintenance schedules, response protocols, and a multi-year view of operating and capital needs.
• Ensure security and emergency-preparedness systems are current, tested, and well documented.

Potential Second Facility

The Foster is evaluating a potential second facility. If the project proceeds, the COO will lead the organizational and operational side of it and will take on operations across both sites. Technical design, permitting, and construction will remain with external experts.

• Maintain a centralized source of truth for project decisions, timelines, dependencies, responsibilities, and key documentation.
• Establish and manage the project cadence, including scheduling and facilitating meetings, coordinating internal and external stakeholders, tracking commitments, and ensuring follow-through.
• Identify and surface risks and decision points early.
• Prepare the operating model for a two-site organization and lead its implementation.

What Success Looks Like

• The Executive Director has a trusted operating partner who takes problems through to resolution.
• People operations are planned, documented, and dependable, with a trusted internal point of contact and outside expertise used deliberately.
• Core operational functions—including finance, compliance, technology, vendor management, and facilities—are reliable and visible; capital projects move forward with clear ownership.
• Staff know where to go and when to escalate, and critical knowledge lives in durable systems rather than only in people’s heads.
• The Executive Director’s capacity shifts to the museum’s direction, its partnerships, and its growth.

What You Bring

You are a builder and steward by nature: comfortable creating structure, improving systems that no longer serve the organization, and maintaining what works. You can create a budget, untangle an HR process, build a project plan, or find out why something keeps falling through the cracks. You see the whole system and get into the details when needed.

Experience & Skills

• Meaningful responsibility for operations in a nonprofit, museum, foundation, small business, or similarly complex environment, with a record of building or professionalizing durable systems. What you have owned matters more to us than years of experience.
• A record of getting things done through people you do not directly manage and building trust and accountability across staff and partners.
• Strong financial fluency, including budget development, review of externally prepared financials, and audit support.
• Experience owning or building people operations in a small organization, including HR administration, benefits, employee lifecycle processes, and coordination with outside experts.
• Experience managing vendors, contracts, compliance, operational risk, and technology partners.
• Excellent project-management and communication skills, including coordinating stakeholders, priorities, timelines, and decisions.

Preferred: Experience bringing HR or operational functions in house; leading complex projects with strong project and stakeholder management; exposure to real estate or facilities management; and/or work in a mission-driven organization.

How You Work

• Ownership and follow-through: You notice what needs doing, make responsibilities and next steps visible, and reliably close loops.
• Humility and judgment: You care more about reaching the right answer than being the person who had it, and you know when to build a system, use a practical workaround, or escalate.
• Curiosity and adaptability: You ask good questions, learn quickly, and can make progress while the answer or scope is still taking shape.
• Equity and team orientation: You notice whom a process or policy serves—and whom it may leave out—and bring warmth, perspective, and good humor to periods of change.

If you don’t check every box but recognize yourself in the shape of this role, we’d still like to hear from you.

Position Details

• Reporting: This role reports to the Executive Director.
• Anticipated Start: December 2026 with flexibility for the right candidate.
• Work Arrangement: The Foster observes a museum-wide remote-work day on Mondays. The COO will work remotely on Mondays and onsite Tuesday through Friday at our Palo Alto museum. If a second facility (nearby) moves forward, the role will include time at that site.
• Schedule: Full-time and exempt, Monday through Friday during regular business hours. Occasional evening and weekend work is required for key museum events, Board meetings, contractor work, and urgent facilities or security matters.
• After-Hours Availability: As facilities responsibilities transition to the COO, this role will become a point of escalation for issues that genuinely cannot wait until regular business hours.
• 90-Day Introductory Period: This role includes a standard 90-day introductory period.

Benefits

We offer a robust benefits package, including 100% employer-funded health, dental, and vision insurance, company-paid life insurance, a 401(k) with a 6% employer match, and public-transit reimbursement. Staff receive 20 days of annual vacation, 11 observed holidays, and paid sick leave in accordance with applicable state and local law.

Physical Requirements

Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions of the role.

• Frequent computer and desk work, including extended periods of sitting, typing, and reading.
• Regular movement throughout the museum and grounds, including stairs, storage areas, and back-of-house spaces.
• Occasional lifting or moving of items up to approximately 25 pounds, as well as occasional bending, reaching, kneeling, or use of a step stool or ladder during facilities walkthroughs and project oversight.

To Apply

Please submit a resume and cover letter to careers@thefoster.org with “Chief Operating Officer” in the subject line. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis, with priority consideration given to applications received by October 17, 2026.

The Foster Museum is an equal opportunity employer and considers applicants without regard to any characteristic protected by applicable law.

We offer a robust benefits package, including 100% employer-funded health, dental, and vision insurance, company-paid life insurance, a 401(k) with a 6% employer match, and public-transit reimbursement. Staff receive 20 days of annual vacation, 11 observed holidays, and paid sick leave in accordance with applicable state and local law.