Chief of Staff

About the Audacious Project 

The Audacious Project is a collaborative funding platform housed at TED, that surfaces ideas from the world’s most compelling social change leaders and pools the resources of philanthropists to give these big ideas lift off. 

Each year, we identify 8-10 fundable ideas (projects) from across the globe. We’re issue and geography agnostic, so support a range of important issues facing the planet, and all the funding we are able to catalyze, goes directly to the organizations and communities they serve.

Since inception in 2018, the Audacious platform has catalyzed over $4.2B for 50 organizations. 

Chief of Staff Overview

This is a great opportunity to step into a new role as the Chief of Staff for the Audacious Project. Employees can work remote, NYC preferred but not mandatory.

You will play a critical role in supporting and collaborating with the Executive Director, providing operational oversight and helping to foster effective decision-making. Your responsibilities will include activities that drive the smooth operation and momentum of the team, and key projects and workflows.

You will have a bird’s eye view across the three key verticals of work (sourcing, donor community and portfolio impact) - helping the teams to connect the dots, with an eye for efficiency and streamlining, and thrive in building and nurturing work relationships and culture.

You will wear many hats, often in the same meeting - as project manager (pushing the work forward), analyst (distilling and disseminating information at the right altitude based on the audience) and coach (using your energy and great people skills to inspire and motivate) - and must possess a high degree of humility, to be able to navigate the fast-paced, dynamic and often complex nature of the work.

Operational Planning 

• Collaborate with the Executive Director on complex cross-vertical initiatives and breaking innovations - creating key workflows, coordinating across stakeholders internal and external, to drive key deliverables to deadlines.

• Take charge of coordinating and executing all-staff and executive team meetings ensuring content meets organizational needs and objectives, across an annual calendar. This includes:

  • Weekly Executive Team meetings

  • Bi-weekly organization wide meetings

  • Quarterly Exec team retreats

  • Annual Team retreats

• Oversee the Audacious CRM (and other key team-wide management tools) offering recommendations (with support from our Salesforce consultant team) to streamline and enhance efficiency to drive the most critical projects forward.

• Strategic oversight of the annual budget; driving quarterly team budget projections and determining expense priorities. It will also include recommending to the Executive Director, key staffing/programming requirements and other financial activities.

• Facilitate and monitor progress toward annual and quarterly metrics - in collaboration with the Executive Team and Director of Evaluation & Learning

Funder and Stakeholder Management

• Support the ED in maintaining strong relationships with key operating funders, partners and stakeholders - teeing up communications and meetings to support ongoing relationship building. 

• Lead the development of key operating contracts (e.g. Bridgespan) and reporting (e.g. annual grant reports for our key operating donors) - in close collaboration with vertical team leads.

• Create and establish cadence of meetings with a newly established Audacious advisory board, preparing and sending materials in advance. 

Direct support to the Executive Director

• Act as a strategic thought partner to the Executive Director, to see around corners, helping the ED identify areas they should direct their focus as well as identify and brainstorm key operational gaps. making sure the right things are being talked about at the right time, and ensuring there is alignment across the team.

• Help to strategically manage the ED’s time - working with the executive assistant and executive leadership team to identify when the ED’s input/authority on key decisions is most needed and that there is strong preparation/follow up to big external and internal meetings.

• Oversee internal communications for the ED (presentations to the team, larger TED leadership and staff) and coordination of key external communications (annual narrative reports to operating donors, briefings to the advisory board, etc)

Team Development and Culture

• Support the professional growth and development of the team, partnering with the Executive Team and TED’s HR team, on a comprehensive talent management approach that fosters a culture of learning, growth and mentorship.

• Help to maintain an environment of collaboration across vertical

SALARY: $220,000-$240,000 base salary

BENEFITS

• Full health benefits (medical, dental, vision) 

• Paid family leave

• Work-life balance encouraged through our flexible paid time off policy. Decide for yourself when and how much time off to take during the year in support of employee wellbeing

• Free OneMedical and SpringHealth membership for you and your dependents to address physical and mental well-being 

• 401k with match

TED Conferences LLC is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. We invite all qualified candidates to apply online with their cover letter (no more than one page) and resume.