Job Description

People & Operations Director

Location: Any of CFJ’s regional offices (Fresno, Long Beach, Oakland, or San Jose)

Spring 2024

Organization Overview

Californians for Justice is a statewide, youth-powered organization fighting to improve the lives of people of color, immigrants, low-income families, LGBQiA2S+/TGNC youth and other marginalized communities. Through organizing in schools and in their neighborhoods, youth who join Californians for Justice become leaders in their own communities. They deepen their knowledge on issues like systemic racism, gender and sexuality, and education inequity, and organize and activate their peers to take action.

CFJ organizes students to have a voice in both local and statewide education policy. Our campaign and policy reform goals include adequate and equitable school funding, increased access and success in K-12 and higher education, and creating Relationship Centered Schools - schools that invest in youth voice, in staff, and in creating space for youth and adults to build positive relationships with one another. CFJ currently has four regional offices in Fresno, Long Beach, San Jose and Oakland, 48 full-time equivalent staff and a budget of $7 million.

Californians for Justice has been successful because of our strong, dedicated staff team. CFJ staff are unwavering in their commitment to youth power and racial justice, to building connection and trust with their teams, and have a strong sense of purpose and dignity in their work.

Position Overview

We are excited about the opportunity to add a Director to our People & Operations team. The ideal candidate has 5+ years of experience in human resources and non-profit administration, is racial justice-oriented, empathetic, and effective in managing both systems and people.

The People & Operations Director will lead many aspects across the organization, including: recruitment and retention; performance management and professional development; employee relations; systems development and management; leave administration; compliance; technology and facilities, and other People & Operations duties as needed. A key leader in the People & Operations team, they will be involved in a wide range of strategic planning and internal initiatives, including the review and implementation of organizational goals, staffing plans, policies, and practices.

Reporting to the Sr. People & Operations Director, the Director will be joining an organizational culture that is values-based, agile, and mission-driven. Collaboration, participatory leadership, and inclusive decision making are characteristics of the team’s approach to working together. Embracing these qualities is essential to success in this position.

Additional Details

The position is full-time and exempt. In all duties and responsibilities, this position exercises discretion and independent judgment. The position can be based in any of CFJ’s four offices - Fresno, Long Beach, Oakland or San Jose. We are currently working in a hybrid environment with staff expected to attend in-person trainings, team, and community building events.

Organizational Competencies

Directors at CFJ are expected to demonstrate proficiency in the following competencies:

Impactful Collaboration - Leads teams in finding their personal self-interest in their work. Seamlessly manages multiple projects and competing priorities. Can take functional goals and direction and distill them down to actionable projects the team needs to complete. Able to effectively and creatively identify resources needed to accomplish goals by leveraging new or existing resources.
Problem Solving - Recommends strategies for optimizing processes that will address long-term foreseeable problems and leverages industry knowledge to creatively problem-solve for department and functional goals. Anticipates and implements solutions for some of the most complex issues that will be encountered ensuring the work is rooted in quality.
Sustainability - Models resilient protagonism for their team and coaches team(s) through rest/reflection/action cycles. Establishes systems and processes that allow the team to build resilient protagonism. Builds regular exchange of feedback into relationships and programs.
Communication - Excels at internal communication. Owns multiple external partner and/or funder relationships and manages them effectively. Multiplies the effectiveness of others by facilitating cross-team communication and partnerships. Rallies team around unified goals and is able to effectively coach employees with different learning, communication, and working styles. Able to translate the impact of an employee's work to the org and team level goals.
Relationship-Building - Models relationship-building for internal effectiveness and movement-building. Coaches others to build their own relationship-building skills. Possesses and continuously fosters a wide network of people involved in sector or movement work; shares network with others to build organizational effectiveness.
Fostering Growth - Identifies growth opportunities within the department, as well as strengths and weaknesses. Looks for opportunities to create challenging roles, responsibilities and developmental assignments that enhance the capabilities of others. Able to recruit, develop, and retain employees and to build and maintain an effective team; manages performance, provides meaningful coaching, and terminates non-performers as appropriate.

Essential Responsibilities

Human Resources (60%)

Develop and implement strategies for human resource management at CFJ. Continually improve HR practices, including aligning processes with racial justice values.
Manage performance management at CFJ, including developing an innovative performance management program that utilizes technology to incorporate individual goal-setting, regular reviews, professional development and career trajectory, and providing coaching to staff and managers to ensure quality and consistency and solve personnel issues.
Oversee benefits and retirement programs and renewals; continuously seek to improve quality, competitiveness, costs, and breadth of offerings.
Ensure compliance with ERISA, ACA, and other relevant legislation.
Maintain and implement personnel policies and practices; Understand, interpret, and share relevant laws related to personnel management and payroll and ensure all HR processes and actions comply with these laws.
Supervise the work of the People & Operations Manager, including overseeing payroll, benefits, retirement, promotions and resignations, and compliance.
Conduct ongoing evaluation of all human resources practices, policies and programs to consistently improve and create liberatory people practices.
Support other human resource matters as needed.

Organizational Culture (10%)

Partner with the People & Operations team to cultivate and maintain an organizational culture that reflects CFJ’s deep commitment to our racial justice and Black Liberation values; support a learning culture that engenders knowledge sharing, feedback, and continuous growth.
Identify and implement programs to foster an open, reflective, and inclusive culture.
Lead and implement initiatives on best practices in organizational management, performance management, and professional development.

Nonprofit Infrastructure and Technology (20%)

Oversee all nonprofit infrastructure and technology systems for CFJ’s four regional offices.

Supervise the work of the People & Operations Manager on infrastructure and technology for CFJ’s four regional offices, including office management & office moves, equipment maintenance, and email & document systems.
Oversee technology planning, including assessing current and future technology to ensure that they meet the needs of staff and the organization.
Plan for and implement new technology initiatives that enhance efficiency, effectiveness and connectedness.
Ensure organizational compliance with applicable local, state, and federal laws, including tax and nonprofit requirements and political limitations.

Organization-wide responsibilities (10%)

Participate in CFJ grassroots fundraising campaigns and events as needed.
Participate in occasional organization-wide campaign events as needed.
Represent the People & Operations team in cross-department committees and teams.

And other duties as needed.

Essential Qualifications

Minimum of five years of experience in a range of nonprofit human resource functions, including at least some of the following areas: performance management, professional development, organizational development, payroll and benefits, hiring and onboarding, personnel policies, and compensation.
Minimum of three years of experience supporting operations, including at least some of the following areas: office management and moves, technology systems, and compliance.
Proven success as an effective people manager and team leader, with a minimum of two years experience as a direct supervisor.
Familiarity with key federal, state and local labor and payroll laws.
Technology knowledge and experience working with various platforms and tools including Google Suite, Slack, Zoom, CultureAmp, HRIS and ATS platforms.
Intermediate proficiency using and building workbooks with Microsoft Excel and/or Google Spreadsheets.
Strong interpersonal skills. Ability to work and support people from a variety of racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, educational, sexual, and gender backgrounds.
Demonstrated ability to successfully implement and improve processes, systems, and workflows.
Ability to communicate, influence, and facilitate decision-making with staff and executive leadership on the short and long-term impact, specific and strategic, of HR policies and procedures.
Excellent verbal and written communications skills, including editing skills with meticulous attention to detail.
Ability to achieve goals and align interests through cooperation and collaboration with other groups and cross-functional teams, even where no direct reporting relationship exists.
Demonstrated ability to exercise sound judgment and maintain confidentiality when dealing with sensitive matters.
Ability to organize and prioritize a complex work plan with ever-changing details; Excellent time management skills.
Strong analytical and research skills; ability to research, learn, and decide how to approach new HR and technology issues.
Strong commitment to social justice, racial justice, and youth empowerment.

Preferred Qualifications

Proficiency with G Suite (formerly Google Apps)
Proficiency with Mac computers
Experience with the nonprofit fiscal sponsorship model

Physical Demands

Able to work on a computer, including sitting at a desk, for extended periods of time with or without reasonable accommodation.
Manual dexterity to operate a keyboard.
Able to see or read a computer screen and printed material with or without vision aids
Able to speak clearly and in audible tones on the phone and in person and be understood by others.
Able to hear and understand speech at normal levels and on the telephone.
Able to understand and follow oral and written instructions.
Able to occasionally lift objects weighing up to 20 pounds.

Californians for Justice Education Fund, Inc.

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