Chief of Staff

Better Food Foundation’s Chief of Staff Position Description

The Chief of Staff is a leadership position reporting to the Executive Director, tasked with creating efficiencies across the organization and acting as a strategic partner to the Executive Director. The Chief of Staff will have responsibility for ensuring our programs are delivered, advancing our signature DefaultVeg campaigns and related public-facing campaigns to shift food cultures. The Chief of Staff will support the Executive Director in assessing strategic opportunities, creating program development roadmaps, and coordinating and directing our team of 8-10 people involved in campaigning, outreach and public engagement. The Chief of Staff will be able to make balanced strategic decisions for the organization and will need to be connected to all our operations, assessing our internal capabilities and capacity for program delivery and ensuring we are delivering on our commitments. 

We are seeking an experienced people-manager who is passionate about our mission and enthusiastic to help us strengthen how we work and develop our internal systems to allow us to maximize opportunities to make impact and deliver our strategic priorities. This is a remote based position. 

About Better Food Foundation

The Better Food Foundation incubates novel strategies for diet change, and our vision is a world where plant-based food is the norm. We are a highly collaborative team that values all voices. Our campaigns to change food norms are fast-paced and adaptive (current campaigns target city food policies and the coffee industry). Professionals who take initiative, demonstrate creativity, and seek collaboration tend to thrive in our organizational culture. Better Food Foundation is part of a larger nonprofit collective that includes its sister organizations Farm Forward and the Jewish Initiative for Animals. The ability to collaborate across organizations and cultures on joint campaigns is highly valued, along with enthusiasm to continually learn about the interconnected issues impacting our food system, including racism, worker justice, animal exploitation, and ecology. We aim to be a diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplace. We strongly encourage people of systemically marginalized identities and life experiences to apply. We value skills acquired in non-conventional career paths. 

Qualifications

• 10+ Years’ experience in relevant fields (e.g. nonprofit sector, corporate management)
• Commitment to our organization’s mission and ability to represent our values publicly and with partners
• 5+ Years’ experience managing teams and supervising or mentoring employees
• Excellent interpersonal communication skills
• Prior experience in coordinating and directing teams to ensure program or project delivery, managing timelines and budgets 
• Prior experience in developing strategies and assessing new opportunities 
• Familiarity with and enthusiasm for activist campaigning (e.g. pressure campaigns, awareness campaigns)
• Experience with marketing and public relations, particularly in the context of nonprofit or activist organizations
• Ability to work collaboratively with Executive and Director level team members
• Experience and willingness to use technologies for program and data management (e.g. Basecamp for project management, CRMs, Google Teams)
• Knowledgeable about the issues we address and the advocacy movements we are a part of. We are situated within the farmed animal advocacy movement, though much of our work engages partners in adjacent movements like Climate Activism, Public Health, and Food Justice.

Role & Responsibilities

• Strategic Priorities & Organizational Efficiencies 
• Acts as a strategic partner to the Executive Director to devise ongoing strategic priorities and organize the team to ensure we are delivering on our strategy
• Assesses new strategic opportunities and determines the right opportunities to explore, ensuring alignment with our mission 
• Identifies opportunities to improve internal workflows, internal communication and processes to ensure efficiencies and effectiveness 
• Determines team capability to take on new strategic initiatives
• Monitors ongoing workloads and workflows to ensure the team have the necessary resources and are delivering on our commitments in the most impactful way 
• Engages team members in strategy development work, ensuring collaboration in setting organizational goals and defining delivery milestones
• Leads internal meetings & discussions to ensure the team is informed, have clear roles and responsibilities, and are engaged and “bought in” with the organization’s goals and delivery milestones 

• Team Management & Development
• Directs team management and development
• Contributes feedback to the annual employee performance process and participates in performance conversations 
• Participates in recruitment processes to ensure we are hiring talent who have the necessary skill and understand our mission
• Onboards new hires to ensure they are set up for success in their new roles and can quickly contribute success to the organization 
• Set performance goals for the team in alignment with the organization’s strategic goals and determines criteria and process for assessing performance
• Implements best practices to improve workplace well-being and satisfaction, in partnership with the Operations Director and Executive Director
• Program Management & Delivery
• Oversees organizational programs and ensures timely execution and delivery, ensuring the team is operating within agreed timelines and budgets 
• Ensures internal communication and project management systems so that the full team are connected and have clarity on program deliverables and statuses
• Works with the team to set SMART goals, KPIs and defines success measurements for programs 
• In collaboration with ED, grow our team’s capacity to take advantage of opportunities for program growth (e.g. through hiring, contracting or shifting roles within the organization)
• Devises program schedules and calendars to ensure the team has visibility of upcoming activities and identifies potential program obstacles to find effective solutions 

Compensation

This is a full-time position, at the VP tier. Salary determination is based on a formula that takes into consideration position demand, employee’s local cost of living, education, and relevant experience on an annually recurring review process. The salary range is $80,000 - $90,000.

Additional benefits include a Healthcare Reimbursement Account, 20 days paid time off, a collaborative ‘flex time’ working week, remote/from home working environment, an annual professional development stipend and coverage of required home office equipment, as well as a stellar team of passionate individuals.

The Better Food Foundation is committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion and is an equal opportunity employer. In compliance with laws and in furtherance of our commitment to fostering an environment that embraces true diversity without bias, all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without disregard to applicant’s race, culture, religion, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation or lack thereof, national origin, nor perceived disability, age, nor any other protected status.

We look forward to receiving your cover letter and resume to [email protected] before May 31st, 2023.