Director of Operations & Culture

Position Title: Director of Operations & Culture

Reports To: Deputy Director of Operations & Culture

About Us

The Movement Innovation Collaborative (MIC) is a new time-limited e ntity that will deepen and expand the capacity, impact, and sustainability of California's grassroots movements for racial justice and social transformation. Through offerings that are additive and synergistic with existing movement efforts, the MIC will support changemakers and organizations in catalyzing innovations in movement strategy, power-building, intergenerational leadership development, and collective long-term sustainability and resilience. Through a network of physical and virtual "centers," the MIC will also contribute a key piece of infrastructure to fuel transformative structural change across California. This network will consist of new and existing centers serving hundreds of organizations and tens of thousands of grassroots leaders in California. MIC will focus on six core strategies:

• Organizing Strategy and Innovation (OS&I)
• Healing, Sustainability and Culture (HSC)
• Network of Centers (NoC)
• Regional Ecosystems (RE)
• Movement Strategy & Innovation (MS&I)
• Learning & Impact (L&I)

Position Overview

The Inaugural Director of Operations and Culture will play a critical role in shaping and cementing the organization’s culture and operations systems while ensuring smooth daily operations. This position will provide strategic leadership to ensure alignment among people and culture strategies, organizational outcomes, operational capacity, and long-term financial sustainability. This position is housed within the Ops & Culture Team, a highly collaborative and fast-paced team responsible for the organization’s HR/Personnel, Tech, Security, some Administrative and Legal Compliance, and Staff Development & Cohesion. This position is supervised by the Deputy Director of Operations & Culture and supervises the Operations Manager.

What You’ll Be Doing

As a seasoned movement leader with strong operational and people-management skills, the Deputy Director of Operations & Culture will provide oversight, leadership, management, and enhancement of organizational systems, policies, and procedures, aiming to foster an internal culture of care, discipline, resilience, and innovation. This position will work closely with program teams to assess operational needs and design and execute plans to operationalize a wide range of program initiatives. Concretely, the Director of Operations & Culture will have the following responsibilities in this phase of the MIC:

Staff Development & Organizational Culture

• Management and implementation support to establish the building blocks for a positive, values-aligned, and cohesive organizational culture that fosters a healthy, joyful, inclusive, generative, and high-impact workplace culture.
• Management and implementation support to establish clear, values-driven expectations and practices for staff conduct, communication, decision-making, and accountability.
• Management and implementation support of transformative and holistic HR practices for onboarding, supervision, evaluation, staff development, political education, employee engagement initiatives, and related talent management.
• In collaboration with the Deputy Director of Operations & Culture, provide leadership and implementation support for the development of the monthly all-staff meeting container, staff trainings, and biannual staff retreats, including agenda development and facilitation.

HR & Legal Compliance

• Contribute towards the completion of HR systems and procedures and manage their implementation.
• Ensure legal compliance and risk management in all HR systems and procedures.
• Oversee the management of MIC’s PEO (Insperity) and offer strategic leadership to ensure the PEO respects MIC’s values and approach.
• Oversee the management of MIC’s hiring processes; 10-12 new hires in 2026.

Systems Integration & Alignment

• Work with program teams to assess operational needs and design and execute plans to operationalize a wide range of program initiatives.
• Deliver senior leadership and strategic organizational oversight to ensure that MIC’s infrastructure, systems, internal culture, and policies reflect our values.
• Understand the complexity of MIC’s integration needs and offer analysis and thought leadership to help the team identify points of interconnectedness and co-create supporting practices and processes.
• Oversee the implementation of Asana protocols and support staff in gaining the skills and practice to use Asana as MIC’s primary project management tool.
• Oversee the implementation of Filing Protocols in Google Drive and support staff in gaining the necessary skills and practices for compliance.
• Develop further protocols and practices to maintain ease-of-use and security of MIC’s operational and programmatic information (CRM, Asana, Google Drive, etc.)

Supervision

• Supervise the Operations Manager's work and provide support and guidance.
• This includes conducting weekly supervision check-ins, progress reports, and annual performance reviews.

As we move beyond the transition phase, the responsibilities for this position will shift to address the needs of the growing organization.

Who You Are

This is an exciting opportunity for a collaborative leader who thrives in complex, values-driven environments and balances strategic vision with tactical execution. The most successful candidate will have extensive experience demonstrating the following leadership competencies:

• Strategic Systems Thinker : Sees the full organizational landscape, understands interdependencies, and designs scalable, people-centered strategies that align with values, mission, and structure.
• Transformational Change Leader : Navigates complexity with clarity and courage. Faces disagreements, debates, and conflict with emotional maturity and integrity; constantly procuring greater clarity and unity. Welcomes feedback with openness and curiosity and provides timely, generative feedback to others.
• Culture Catalyst: Operates with a deep understanding of what culture is and how it is shaped and reproduced. Aligns people and culture strategies with organizational outcomes, operational capacity, and long-term financial sustainability.
• Institution Builder : Approaches operations with methodological precision, designing strategies that resolve immediate needs and institutionalize more permanent practices and systems.

The ideal candidate will have many of the experiences and qualifications described below but need not possess them all for consideration:

• A strong alignment with the MIC's mission, values, and culture
• 10+ years of experience and demonstrated passion for organizational development, operations, and human resources in the context of community organizing and base building.
• 5+ years of experience building, growing, and managing teams in the context of social justice, human rights, or community organizing environments.
• 5+ years of experience in facilitation, training, and consultation skills to convene groups to interpret and examine data, make decisions, and move to action.
• Experience in establishing Operations and Culture systems in new organizations.
• Demonstrated up-to-date knowledge of standards, trends, developments, and legal updates in human relations, organizational operations, and culture.
• Thrive when handed a challenge and developing and executing a solution, and be highly organized, detail-oriented, and adept at handling multiple projects simultaneously in a high-volume, fast-paced environment.
• Values cross-functional collaboration and building strong and trusted relationships across diverse individuals and groups of stakeholders
• High level of cultural awareness and experience working with different demographic and cultural groups
• A flexible and resilient approach, with the ability to handle strong opinions/feedback well, and adapt to the dynamic nature of a startup environment.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to effectively present information to diverse audiences (MIC staff, Board of Directors and Advisors, movement organizations, funders, etc.)
• Exceptional project management, prioritization, and planning skills, with demonstrated success producing high-quality deliverables on time and with attention to detail and accuracy.
• Proficient in Asana, Google Workspace, 1Password, Acrobat, DocuSign, Insperity Portal, Expensify, Airtable, and Salesforce.

Employment Classification and Salary

• This is a full-time, exempt position starting as soon as possible. This role is remote; however, the candidate must be in California.
• The starting salary for this position is $160,000.
• The MIC has a 90-day trial period policy for all new hires. This allows both the organization and the employee to ensure a great fit. During this period, performance, adaptability, and cultural alignment will be assessed through ongoing feedback and a formal review.

Benefits

• 100% organization-funded medical, dental, and vision coverage for employees, their spouses or domestic partners, and their children. Coverage begins on the first day of employment.
• Paid Time Off: As a full-time employee, you will receive 15 days of vacation, 12 sick days per year, and a generous paid family leave policy. Accrual of this benefit begins on the first day of employment and becomes available upon completion of the 90-day trial period.
• Paid Holidays: 21 days total, including a 10-day Winter Break overlapping with Christmas and New Year’s Day. Additionally, 4 Floating Holidays will be made available upon completion of the 90-day trial period.
• Retirement Plan: MIC offers a 403b retirement plan. MIC contributes an employer-paid amount equal to 5% of your salary. Vesting for this contribution is immediate. Employees have a default 3% personal contribution rate and may adjust it at any time. This benefit becomes available after the 90-day trial period.

MIC’s salaries and benefits reflect our commitment to collective care and sustainability. They may evolve as the organization grows, and employees will be updated as changes occur. Additional details will be provided upon hiring.

Movement Innovation Collaborative is an equal-opportunity employer.

We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. We encourage those who see alignment with our mission and believe they have the relevant skills and experience to apply. We commit to providing an inclusive work environment where everyone is treated with fairness, dignity, and respect.