Vice President, Operations & Strategy

Key Responsibilities

Organizational Strategy & Planning

In close partnership with the CEO, and with oversight from the Board, develop and execute on the strategic priorities for the organization, including identifying the systems and processes that will allow Prysm Initiative to scale its work to raise significant funds for the global reproductive health sector.  Develop and coordinate the annual planning process and budgeting process.

Operations Leadership

Lead the Finance, Human Resources, and Technology functions, and corresponding activities being handled by Prysm Initiative’s fiscal sponsor and other vendors providing outsourcing services.  Ensure the organization has quick and accurate access to financial information to inform decision-making.

Human Resources Strategy

Lead human resources and culture strategies, instilling a “coach and mentor” philosophy within Prysm Initiative; build a human resources function that includes professional development, compensation and benefits, employee relations, performance evaluation, and recruitment.

Team Support & Training

Support and train team members in mapping workflows to metrics and annual work plans; create and run reports and performance dashboards to track progress; oversee data management and hygiene as needed.

Technology Infrastructure & Systems

Ensure contracted support for technology infrastructure and digital security is scoped and scaled for Prysm Initiative’s mission.  Design and maintain a robust content management system and process for managing client information; instituting appropriate policies, internal controls, operational standards, and procedures that reflect best practices.

Risk & Security

With support from consultants as needed, develop and implement a risk management strategy to identify, assess, and mitigate potential threats to the organization and its operations.  Monitor and analyze security systems and protocols to ensure compliance with best practices, while proactively addressing vulnerabilities.

Board and Funder Relations Support

Develop and implement systems for reporting, tracking, and supporting funders of Prysm Initiative, including supporting the administrative aspects of all grant agreements

Ideal Candidate Profile

Prysm Initiative is seeking a Vice President, Operations & Strategy who is an agile, entrepreneurial, and strategic leader with experience operationalizing global strategies.  The VP will be skilled at designing and moving start-up initiatives to scale quickly and effectively, and will have a demonstrated track record of independently collaborating and communicating with a diverse set of internal and external partners.

This is a truly unique opportunity to help launch a mission-focused organization with the aim of raising significantly more capital for the global reproductive health sector, and to ultimately have a meaningful impact on women and girls worldwide.  Prysm Initiative is poised for ambitious growth with its new leadership, governing Board, and financial resources ready for deployment.  The VP will bring a seasoned, strategic, and impact-oriented mindset with expertise in scaling start-ups through strategic planning, operations, people, and processes.

The VP will enable and empower the Prysm Initiative team to do their best work towards clear, yet evolving goals and objectives.  This includes building adaptable business strategies, effective systems, and operating infrastructure.  Given the start-up nature of the organization and its evolving business model, Prysm Initiative seeks a leader who can facilitate planning processes with stakeholders to map the strategic path to build the organization.

The successful candidate will be a self-starter and self-disciplined, driven by Prysm Initiative’s mission and a demonstrated passion for breaking new ground with an innovative business model.  Combined experience in the philanthropic and the NGO sectors is highly desirable.  Additional skills include:

• Strategic Planning:  Ability to manage strategy development processes, anticipate future consequences and trends, and incorporate them into organizational plans.
• Leadership:  Exceptional capacity for managing and leading people both directly and through influencing skills; a team builder who has experience in scaling up organizations; ability to connect to staff both on an individual level and in large groups; capacity to enforce accountability, develop and empower high performing team members, and promote entrepreneurship.
• Results Orientation:  A proven track record establishing and working towards goals; ability to consistently make good decisions through a combination of analysis, wisdom, experience, and judgment; high level business acumen including successful budget management; and problem solving, project management, and creative resourcefulness.
• Capacity Building:  Ability to effectively scale an organization and its capacity, helping to develop a top-notch team and the processes that ensure the organization runs smoothly.
• Action Orientation:  Enjoys challenges; able to act and react as necessary, even if limited information is available; not afraid to take charge of a situation.
• General Operations:  Broad experience with the full range of organizational functions and systems, including strategic development and planning, budgeting, business analysis, finance, information and risk management systems, and human resources.

Candidates must bring a minimum of fifteen years of relevant operations and project management experience with international organizations.  Comfort in start-up contexts is essential, as is an understanding of how to build systems, IT, and workflows for a global team while in growth mode.  Experience using cloud-based relational database systems, such as Salesforce, is strongly preferred.  A background in managing, building, and developing teams is required.