Senior Director of programs

Remote (U.S. based)

The future of social justice work is multi-entity. Over the last four years, New Left Accelerator (NLA), our 501(c)(4) and The Capacity Shop (TCS), our separate but affiliated 501(c)(3), have grown to be leading capacity-building providers serving the complex needs of multi-entity organizations.

Today, most of the effective and innovative organizations building power in our country today are multi-entity. They are using more than 501(c)3’s - often 501(C)(4)s, PACs, for-profit corporate structures, or other entities - to build power, increase their impact, and win. Progressive movements and state ecosystems are experimenting with innovative ways to make multi-entity power-building work possible at scale. As a result, the complex needs of the multi-entity field continue to grow.

Staff at these organizations seek access to multi-entity informed technical assistance to do bold work safely. We have met this growing need by working with leading multi-entity experts and innovative leaders in the field to build the financial, operational, and compliance infrastructure that power-building organizations need to maximize impact and do bold work in compliance with the law.

We prioritize partnering and collaborating with organizations that center the experiences and voices of marginalized groups at the intersection of race, gender, and class. To guide our internal practices and partnerships, NLA and TCS developed a set of core values including a commitment to creating systemic change; deep collaboration with stakeholders and leaders to build power; sustainability within the progressive ecosystem; and a commitment to equity and work that address systemic oppression. You can read more about NLA and TCS vision and work in our Theory of Change.

The Role

New Left Accelerator is seeking a Senior Program Director responsible for leading the strategic design, implementation, and growth of our portfolio of innovative and impactful programs that support multi-entity organizations. In 2024, we are focused on the delivery of programs that we have run over the last four years. As we look to the future, we seek to re-evaluate and redesign our core programs to meet the needs of this growing field and allow for scale.

This crucial new role will manage our program team and work with some of the most innovative executive directors, COOs and other senior leaders of multi-entity power-building organizations across the country. We support organizing groups in Arizona, Texas, Virginia, Wisconsin, Michigan, California, Pennsylvania, Florida, and North Carolina, among other critical states. Our three core program areas are:

• Accelerator Cohort: NLA supports social justice organizations in an 18 to 20-month program that provides in-depth organizational capacity-building support, training, and ongoing technical assistance to multi-entity organizations. In 2022-2023, NLA supported 19 power-building organizations that advanced immigrant rights, reproductive justice and gender equity, and criminal justice reform.

• Movement Infrastructure Cohort: In 2022 and 2023, NLA ran its first Movement Infrastructure cohort for groups experimenting with building shared infrastructure solutions that support multi-entity work at scale in an issue or geographic area. Through our work with networks such as NAKASEC, Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition (CIRC), Carolina Federation and the Arizona Tables, we have seen first-hand how implementing such solutions benefits the movement. We seek to fund an expanded cohort of state networks in 2024.

• Empower & Protect – State and Network Investment: The E&P program is built for scale with states and c4 networks; a streamlined offering focused on operations in election years. Working with state and network partners, E&P provides training and critical technical assistance for emergent multi-entity organizations. With a focus on compliance, HR and multi-entity financial infrastructure it strengthens operational capacities needed to boldly work safely in election years.

Our ideal candidate has experience in a program leadership role within a multi-entity organization or as an intermediary who has built capacity-building initiatives. We are looking for someone who understands the complexities of building financial, operational, and compliance infrastructure across multiple entities.

As this is a new role that was previously held between the Executive Director and the Chief Operating Officer, we are seeking a highly collaborative and experienced leader who is motivated by complex problems and is willing to learn and grow with us.

Primary Job Functions

Program Vision & Strategy

• Oversee the delivery of strong programs that support our groups in building organizational capacity to do bold work safely

• Ensure NLA is delivering programs that are valued and absorbed by our movement partners, troubleshoot challenges that arise, and ensure that the delivery of our services are in line with NLA and TCS’s values

• Onboard new groups, assess the strengths and needs of each group, develop scopes of work, and match groups with subject matter leads and consultants that can support them in achieving their capacity building goals

• Collect, analyze and utilize data to measure the impact of our work against our learning framework, develop reports for key stakeholders and funders, and improve the delivery of our programs

Program Design & Partnerships

• Work with program staff, the leadership team, and program partners to redesign our core program offerings for 2025 and beyond

• Co-design existing program and funder partnerships with the Executive Director

• Work with program and operations staff to develop core program strategies and goals as well as implementation plans that support our updated strategic plan and new program partnerships

Management & Leadership

• Oversee program staff, project managers, consultants and coaches who collectively support several active capacity-building projects simultaneously

• Set program priorities, objectives, and key results; develop and manage work-planning process; and work with operations to allocate program budgets and staffing resources accordingly

• Recruit and vet new multi-entity experienced consultants to support the work of the organizations

Minimum Qualifications

• 10 years of experience in nonprofit management and/or program implementation, including a minimum of 2 years of experience leading in a multi-entity organization or capacity-building intermediary

• 5 years of experience managing people, including multiple teams with their own direct reports

• Strong understanding of operationalizing multi-entity organizations, including an understanding of resource sharing agreements, time tracking across entities, and developing finance and compliance systems across legal entities

• Significant experience working with historically and currently underrepresented communities that work at the intersection of race, gender and class communities and the ability to connect that to programs

• Share our values, principles of collaboration, and commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)

• Experience implementing liberatory practices, disrupting the expert stance of traditional capacity-building programs, and centering organizational leaders in the work they do.

• Ability to coordinate a team of subject matter leads (attorneys, accountants, compliance advisors, etc.) to execute each organization’s body of work

• Experience with program oversight, evaluation, and process-improvement

• Experience building trust and collaboration within a team, including fostering feedback loops and implementing feedback

• Motivated by complex problems and challenges and able to thrive in a growing and quickly changing environment of power-building and election cycle work

• Strong writing and public speaking skills with the ability to adapt messaging and communications to fit audiences of varying technical levels

• Strong project management and process design skills, preferably with direct experience using collaborative tools such as Asana, Airtable and Google Suite

• Experience working in the progressive ecosystem with power-building organizations working to win elections, hold elected officials accountable, and shape how policy is created and implemented

Additional Desired Qualifications

• Additional leadership experience overseeing staff distributions, legal compliance, and budget across multi-entity organizations

• Experience with data management and analysis

• Experience in supporting fundraising and helping to maintain donor relationships.

• Experience facilitating conversations in a manner that embraces equity, justice, liberation, and transformative collaboration.

• Experience engaging partners in programmatic evaluation and improvements

Details

Title: Program Director

Reports to: Co-Director/Chief Operating Officer

Direct Reports: 2

Hours: Full Time

Location: Remote (must live in the US)

Compensation: $110,000-$140,000

Benefits: NLA offers a competitive benefits package available to all full-time employees including:

• Health: Medical, Dental, Vision, Life, Short-term Disability, and Health FSA

• Flexible paid time off including vacation and sick time, 11 paid holidays, 1-week Summer Break, and 1-week Winter Break

• Parental Leave

• Professional Development Opportunities

• Working from home stipend

How to Apply

Applications will be accepted until the position is filled. To apply, please submit your application here.

In lieu of a traditional cover letter, please submit a document that answers the following:

1. Tell us your experience working in organization(s) with multiple legal entities.

2. What is your management style? What is your approach to giving, soliciting, and implementing feedback with direct reports?

3. What does it mean to you to bring a social justice or equity lens to your work?

4. Tell us about a time you designed or redesigned a program that required the involvement, work, and support of other people to succeed. What did you learn from that experience? How did you implement liberatory and equity practices into the program?