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Operations Associate

This job is no longer available

Oakland, CA, USA
Full-time

We are seeking a skilled and values-aligned Operations Associate to join our team. The Operations Associate is a creative systems-thinker and designer who enjoys building the infrastructure required for a growing team of advocates and organizers. A patient and thoughtful problem solver, the Operations Associate leverages their knowledge and comfort with non-profit finance, as well as operations software and tools in order to facilitate the overall effectiveness of our team.

The Operations Associate approaches their financial responsibilities with rigor, attention to detail and humility, which in turn enables all members of the team to be good stewards of organizational resources and the Executive Director to make sound financial decisions. The Operations Associate is honest, transparent, and operates from an unwavering commitment to ethics on a daily basis.

In 2019, the Operations Associate will design and develop the systems needed to support a team of approximately 20 staff in two locations.

Areas of Responsibility: 

Core Responsibilities:

Operations & Information Systems Management

  • Manage and improve organization-wide systems, including those focused on storage, communication, and workflow management.
  • Source new software, apps, and tech systems (password management, mass texting, donation platforms, etc.) and implement across the organization.
  • Routinely analyze and test our systems, and where appropriate, make recommendations for system and process improvements in consideration of budget and organizational needs.
  • Serve as Essie’s Salesforce administrator, train and support staff in using Salesforce, manage contractors for database customization as needed.
  • Develop, maintain, and train all staff on organization-wide digital security protocols.
  • Develop and implement trainings that equip all staff with sufficient information to be good stewards of our resources on basic non-profit finance as well as Essie’s chart of accounts, budget classes, and policies.
  • Manage technology vendors including IT helpdesk and Zoom; purchase and oversee equipment.
  • Manage Operations Fellow and up to one intern.  

Financial Process Coordination

  • Coordinate and ensure smooth and accurate financial processes including monthly closing of books, managing our bookkeeper, weekly check runs, staff reimbursements, and credit card use.
  • Prepare basic financial reports using Quickbooks Online, prepare budgets for funding proposals, and support the Director of Strategy during Essie’s annual budgeting process.
  • Coordinate materials as part of annual audit preparations and serve as an internal resource and steward of strong internal controls.
  • Collaboratively draft financial policies and procedures and recommend changes as necessary in alignment with growth of Essie’s staff and budget
Skills/Experience: 

Ideal Qualifications

  • 3+ years relevant professional experience, ideally in non-profit operations or finance.
  • Experience with sourcing and developing fluency with new tech systems and software.
  • Experience with QuickBooks Online and Salesforce.com.
  • Exceptional capacity and sense of responsibility to follow policies, procedures, and act ethically at all times.
  • Ability to train people with a range of experiences in non-profit finance and operations systems and tools.
  • Ability to develop systems and processes that are responsive to staff needs and simple to implement across the organization.
  • Experience and ability to work with large and complex businesses, vendors, or systems, advocating for an organization’s best interests.

Qualities

  • Knows good ideas require great systems. Every time you see something beautiful or impactful you marvel for a moment—but then spend most of your time imagining what was at work behind the scenes. You see great systems as key to brilliant execution. You love “the how.” What’s more, you foster excitement among a team for systems that in your view have been misunderstood as mundane, boring, or unimportant. You find fulfillment in creating the kind of systems that build confidence, effectiveness, and programmatic reach.
  • Thrives in the weeds. You approach building and problem solving with curiosity, creativity, and an obsessive attention to detail.
  • Sees #woke as a verb. You are committed to continuously deepening and evolving your own understanding of systems of oppression through study, openness, and humility. And you easily recognize your own relationship to privilege and power, examining and shifting your behaviors as appropriate.
  • Values people, process, and results. You are an exceptionally hard worker. You thrive in  inspiring environments in which stuff gets done with speed, great impact, and focus.
  • Discernment and honesty we can trust. You are a thoughtful communicator who acts in alignment with your integrity and are unfailingly trustworthy. You readily follow the rules when no one is looking and are sought-after by friends and colleagues for help to navigate gray areas because they know you’ll hold them accountable to what’s right.
  • Uplifting and additive. You see mistakes as opportunities for growth; problems as catalysts for solutions, and inspire others along the journey. You carry a positive approach, can-do attitude, a sense of humor, and authentic kindness wherever you go.
Compensation/Benefits: 

The salary for this position is between $60,000 - $65,000 depending on experience with full medical, dental, and vision benefits, optional 401(k), a substantial vacation package, and a monthly personal wellness stipend.

How to Apply: 

To Apply

Please address a thoughtful cover letter to the “Essie Hiring Committee” and submit along with a resume through our hiring portal (https://essiejusticegroup.bamboohr.com/jobs).

Additional Information: 

The Operations Associate is a full-time exempt position. This position is supervised by the Director of Strategy. The position is not remote and can be based at Essie’s office in Oakland, California.

About Essie:

Essie Justice Group (Essie) is building grassroots power to dismantle the US incarceration system, the most egregious creator of racial and gender injustice of our time. We are a loving and powerful community of women with incarcerated loved ones and include cisgender women, transgender women, formerly incarcerated women, gender nonconforming people, elders, and young people. On the precipice of significant organizational growth, Essie is focused on intentional institution building to catalyze the accessibility of our programs to reach 1 in 4 women who have loved ones behind bars and sustain bold decarceration advocacy.

 

Essie values and specifically seeks applicants who are people with incarcerated loved ones, formerly incarcerated people, people of color, women, queer, transgender, gender non-conforming, and gender fluid people. We welcome applicants who thrive in the pursuit of social justice.

Essie Justice Group provides equal employment and advancement opportunities to all staff members. Employment decisions are based on merit, qualifications, and skills. Essie does not discriminate in employment opportunities or practices on the basis of race, color, creed, religion, national origin, ancestry, age, size, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, familial status, veteran status, disability, AIDS/HIV status, medical condition, prior conviction, arrest history or any other characteristic protected by law.

Organization Info

Essie Justice Group

Overview
Headquarters: 
Oakland, CA, USA
Size: 
1-10 employees
Founded: 
2014
About Us
Mission: 

Essie’s mission is to harness the collective power of women with incarcerated loved ones to end mass incarceration’s harm to women and communities.

Programs: 

Healing to Advocacy Program

The incarceration of a loved one is a life altering experience. Women with incarcerated loved ones take on an extraordinary financial and emotional toll as we strain to bring resources into our families in the context of often overwhelming criminal justice costs (phone calls, prison visits, commissary bills, attorney fees, bail bonds debt, and more). Moreover, the separation from a loved one by prison or jail is traumatic. Although millions of people experience the effects of mass incarceration, social support for women with incarcerated loved ones can be hard to find due to the intense stigma surrounding incarceration. The result is isolation. Women with incarcerated loved ones experience significant or extreme isolation, which is a barrier to our health, joy, and power to create change in our families and communities. Read more in our report “Because She’s Powerful: The Political Isolation and Resistance of Women with Incarcerated Loved Ones.

Breaking Isolation from Healing to Advocacy

Our nine-week Healing to Advocacy model works to break isolation, increase wellness, and facilitate personal and community transformation among women with incarcerated loved ones. Women who join one of our cohorts commit to nine-weeks of 3 hour weekly sessions. During the nine weeks,12 -15 women move together through individually held pain to begin journeys of collective healing, share resources that offer beams of support to families during crisis, and gain confidence to advocate for change. To reduce barriers for women’s leadership, Essie provides transportation support, childcare, and meals. All cohorts are facilitated by graduates of our Healing to Advocacy program and follow three pillars: advocating for self, advocating for family, and advocating for community.

Our Nominations Process

Joining Essie begins with a nomination. Incarcerated men and women serve as the organization’s most important partners, writing nomination letters about the women in their lives, which they mail to us. The women they write about are then invited to join our Healing to Advocacy cohorts. If you are a woman with an incarcerated loved one, you can also nominate yourself. Formerly incarcerated people, or members of the community may also nominate.

Why Work For Us?: 

About Essie

Today, we live in an age of mass control. Patriarchy, racism, and punitive criminal justice policies are devastating women’s health, resources, and civic engagement. This is especially true for women who are low-income, women of color, queer and trans women, and all women whose loved ones are caged and criminalized. Essie Justice Group is building a nationwide bold and loving network of women with incarcerated loved ones to end all state-sponsored violence against women and communities of color, and queer communities. We work through holding nine-week Healing to Advocacy cohorts, leading local and statewide campaigns to bring all of our loved ones home, and building platforms to uplift the thought leadership of women with incarcerated loved ones who are creating transformative visions for how we will end mass incarceration’s harm to women and communities.

We are looking for exceptionally hard working applicants who have a fierce commitment to race and gender justice to join our Team. We strongly encourage people with incarcerated loved ones, people who are formerly incarcerated, people of color, queer people, and people who are trans, gender variant, or gender nonconforming to apply.

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Listing Stats

Post Date: 
May 10 2019
Active Until: 
Jun 10 2019
Hiring Organization: 
Essie Justice Group
industry: 
Nonprofit