Director, Business Advising

THE ORGANIZATION: 

Small business owners uplift communities and anchor local economies, while creating opportunities for themselves, their families, their employees, and our neighborhoods. Yet entrepreneurs who are people of color, women, and immigrants often struggle to secure capital and resources, as they are systematically shut out from traditional financing. 

Accion Opportunity Fund is an unparalleled financial support system that provides these small business owners with access to capital, networks, and coaching. We work to build inclusive and accessible options for these determined business owners. For over 25 years we have served a client base that is nearly 90% women, people of color, or immigrants. 

In addition to providing resources and loans to small businesses, we also conduct original research, advocate for policy changes, and finance community construction projects in low-income neighborhoods through our New Markets Tax Credit program.

Together, we are building a diverse, vibrant community where opportunity, knowledge, and access to capital are within reach.

For more information about us, visit https://aofund.org/ 

ROLE SUMMARY: 

Reporting to the Vice President of Partnership and Programs, the Business Advising Director’s main responsibility is to develop, implement, and oversee a small, dynamic team to accommodate continued growth of business advising services at scale. This includes leading a team of business advisors, developing department infrastructure to facilitate growth, shaping the business advising customer experience to ensure excellent customer service, tracking impact metrics to capture meaningful outcomes of AOF’s services over time, and curating tools and resources to support frontline business coaches. The ideal candidate has deep experience in coaching or support programs for small businesses, has experience building and managing teams, has familiarity with the business support ecosystem and best practices in technical assistance, has experience managing projects and developing organizational infrastructure and processes, and is knowledgeable about impact measurement and small business support program outcomes tracking.

JOB DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Management: Manage team members and contractors to ensure they have the tools and resources they need to be successful, ensure accountability for results, analyze performance, and identify opportunities for improvement. In addition, manage relationships, budgets, and agreements with external vendors who support the work of the business advising team.
• Customer and advisor experience: Develop tools and resources to strengthen both the advisor and customer experiences. This includes leading AOF’s efforts to build longer term relationships with clients, identifying gaps, and developing new ways to structure the advising experience to maximize impact while driving toward scale. This also includes ensuring strong, collaborative management and support of contract advisors to ensure they have the tools they need to create meaningful impact with AOF’s clients.
• Cross-departmental coordination: Coordinate with other departments in AOF including business advising, sales, underwriting, marketing, fundraising, partnerships, data analytics, and loan funding to ensure smooth execution of department projects. 
• Business operations: Plan and monitor the day-to-day running of business advising operations to ensure smooth projects and troubleshoot challenges. This includes assessing regularly the efficiency of business procedures according to organizational objectives and apply improvements.
• Monitoring, evaluation, and impact measurement: Assess and improve existing evaluation practices to better understand the long-term outcomes of our work and implement ways to improve those outcomes. This includes keen attention to trends in immediate client feedback, intermediate client outcomes, and long-term achievements of the businesses AOF advises; as well as thought leadership in how best to communicate these outcomes to key internal and external stakeholders.

MUST HAVES:

• A minimum of 8 years’ professional experience related to program management, with experience in small business support programs preferred. 

• A minimum of 3 years’ experience building and managing teams.

• Strong interpersonal and relationship building skills, with the demonstrated ability to effectively communicate with and engage and influence others. 

• Open, collaborative, and highly communicative leadership style.

• Experience managing growing programs with high volumes of beneficiaries.

• Experience building organizational processes and infrastructure.

• A proactive, strategic, and goal-oriented mindset; proven track record of exceeding goals and making strategic decisions.

• Ability to navigate and balance interests of multiple stakeholders. 

• Strong organization and project management skills and attention to detail.

• Keen ability to analyze and synthesize information and make recommendations to overcome challenges to reaching a goal with minimal guidance.

• Comfort with juggling multiple responsibilities and projects simultaneously with keen ability to prioritize.

• An entrepreneurial mindset, self-motivated, flexible, creative, comfortable in a fast-paced work culture, and ability to identify new approaches and solve problems with minimal guidance.

• Passion for helping others and commitment to community development.

• Evidence of sound judgment, discretion, and highest ethical standards. 

• Knowledge and/or familiarity using Microsoft Office Suite, CRM Systems (Salesforce, HubSpot, etc.), Slack, Asana, and other technical tools. 

NICE TO HAVES:

• Experience supporting small businesses through capital access, programs, coaching, or other interventions.

• Experience with program evaluation, impact measurement, and reporting.

• Demonstrated ability to manage an outcomes-based approach and develop and use data to inform continuous improvement.

• Strong written and verbal communication and presentation skills with the ability to develop concise and compelling materials, including narratives, guides, and presentations, to convey clear messages and instructions to a range of stakeholders.

• Spanish language fluency preferred but not required.

PERKS AND BENEFITS:

Our mission is what motivates us to come to work each day. We know that happy employees are productive employees, which is why we offer a comprehensive benefits package that includes:

• Competitive salary commensurate with experience.

• An environment that values work-life balance and monthly remote work reimbursements.

• 100% company-funded Medical, Dental, Vision, Life & Disability coverage for employees (Based upon your plan selection). 90% company-funded dependent coverage (Based upon your plan selection) as well as Flexible Spending Accounts.

• Voluntary benefits with payroll deduction for Supplemental Life & AD&D insurance and legal plans.

• Tax deferred & Roth 403(b) Retirement Plan with employer match. 

• Unlimited paid vacation days, 12 paid holidays, 1 floating paid holiday, 10 Sick days, and paid parental leave.

We are an equal opportunity employer and committed to improving diversity, equity, and inclusion at Accion Opportunity Fund. AOF does not discriminate in employment on the basis of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy and gender identity), national origin, political affiliation, sexual orientation, marital status, disability, genetic information, age, membership in an employee organization, retaliation, parental status, military service, or other non-merit factor.

Salary Range*: $124,907-$170,139

*Please note that the above salary range is a national range, and compensation is dependent upon the candidate’s experience and skill level.