Location: Remote position (anywhere in the US)
Compensation: To determine our staff salaries, NEC uses an equity-based compensation calculator to determine exact rates. Salary for this position is $68K, with adjustments upward to a maximum of $90,000 based on various cost of living and lived experience factors. Staff salaries are non-negotiable and are calculated from the same base rate for all positions. Compensation includes a generous benefits and PTO package.
Time Commitment: Full Time Salaried Position (32 hours per week).
Application deadline:  The application deadline is May 27th. You can expect to hear back from us by June 3rd about the status of your application.
Start Date: 2022 (flexible)

WHO IS NEC?

New Economy Coalition (NEC) is a membership-based organization working to build the power and scale of the solidarity economy movement in the United States. Our network of 200+ member organizations are working to transform the extractive economy and build up community ownership and just transition solutions with a strong intersectional lens. NEC members work across regions and various solidarity economy sectors, including co-ops, community land trusts, participatory budgeting, public banks, credit unions, energy democracy, and more!

NEC is a fully remote organization. In a typical year, we expect staff to travel within the United States several times a year to staff retreats, conferences, and donor visits. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are not currently traveling and are convening all programs virtually.

SUMMARY

NEC staff seek a full-time Chief of Staff (AKA Director of Internal Weaving) to support us in weaving together our many strands of work. This includes strengthening our organizational alignment, structure, and culture in accordance with our vision, principles, and strategic plan. 

As an organization that has recently shifted from a traditional top-down model to worker self-directed nonprofit, NEC is in the process of developing our internal structure and systems. This role has emerged out of an assessment that we need a greater level of staff coordination and peer management on our staff. It is a new position that we intend to shape and design with the incoming candidate.

We imagine the person in this role will receive many different inputs from the staff (through regular meetings, active listening, surveys, etc.) and will facilitate the team to use our filters (workplan, values, strategic plan) to help us prioritize our work and identify areas that need attention and care. The person in this role will monitor our overall work plan to make sure that each project has the support and capacity it needs, and that opportunities for greater collaboration between circles are made visible to the whole team. Finally, we imagine this person will have a key role in shaping our team and retreat agendas so that they answer the question “what is the conversation that needs to happen that only these people can have?”

The ideal candidate will want to be in an internal coordination and connector role. They will have significant group leadership experience, preferably in a variety of roles, including operations and program management. They will have excellent group facilitation skills, with experience leading challenging group decision-making processes. The ideal candidate will be deeply driven by the mission of NEC, but will also be content not doing much member-facing or programmatic work as part of their staff role. 

As a worker self-directed nonprofit, our work is organized into circles. The person in this role will be in the Sistemas (or HR/internal systems) Circle, Staff Circle and General Circle. They will not have a vote in the Staff or General circle,  both of which oversee the management of the organization, as a way to balance the amount of power this position will have in the coordination of the staff. 

This is a full-time (32 hrs/week) salaried position and can be performed remotely from anywhere in the US. Our work is rigorous, but we prioritize space for joy, healing, and connection. The ideal candidate will contribute to the creation of a liberatory work culture in which folks can bring their whole selves to the work.

RESPONSIBILITIES

NEC Staff Coordination (65%)

Strategy

• Co-lead organization-wide strategic planning cycles, including supporting the staff to develop a regular practice of assessing our changing conditions and designing our program strategies accordingly.
• Support Circle Coordinators in creating work plans to achieve circle goals 
• Listen for organizational needs outside the scope of circle work plans.
• Lead Staff Directors in staying grounded in the organization’s strategic plan and annual workplan, and identify when there are issues that need to be addressed, changes or decisions that need to be made, and/or when outside support is needed. 
• Coordinate our Staff and General Circles, including managing agendas and designing meetings. Lead the design and facilitation of quarterly all-staff retreats to ensure that our work is aligned with our strategic plan and annual work plan.
• Lead coordination for organizational (board and staff) retreats, including working with outside facilitators and other contractors to design agendas and manage logistics.

Organizational Development

• Offer regular assessments (at least quarterly) to Circle Coordinators with recommendations addressing challenges and needs that arise.
• Regularly gather input from staff to assess cultural health of the group — and make assessments and recommendations to guide our internal culture work accordingly.
• Facilitate staff through decision making processes that affect the full organization (including compensation proposals, hiring decisions, etc.).
• Co-lead regular staff review process.

Logistics and Administration (25%)

• Administrative support for NEC Board: coordinate meetings, maintain board documentation systems, and act as staff point of contact for Co-Chairs).
• Manage our organizational project management systems (i.e. Asana)
• Support other Staff, General Circle or HR Circle related projects and tasks as determined by the respective circles.

Other Organizational Responsibilities [10%]

• Participate in staff-wide trainings, staff study group, and strategic planning processes.
• Occasionally attending NEC member meetings and gatherings.

What is this person NOT responsible for:

• Fundraising
• Financial management
• Public speaking representing NEC
• Membership-facing communications or organizing
• Leading HR work beyond annual reviews & supporting the Director of Organizational Resilience 
• Serving on the NEC Board (NEC has a staff-elected representative on the board, but the person in this position will be ineligible for this seat to ensure distribution of power among the staff.)

SKILLS AND QUALIFICATIONS

Any combination of formal education, paid work experience, unpaid/volunteer experience, and life experience will be considered to meet the following:

• Demonstrated ability to encourage, train, and support people as collaborators.
• Proficiency with project management systems, remote workspaces, and CRMs. NEC uses Asana, Powerbase (or a similar CRM), Slack, Zoom & Google Workspace as our primary tools.
• Comfort and experience working in a fully remote work environment
• Willingness to learn from mistakes, receive feedback, and give feedback to others.
• Commitment to practicing a culture of mutual accountability, liberation, and respect.
• Understanding of and commitment to solidarity economy values, such as racial, economic, and climate justice; cooperative ownership; democratic governance; and systems change. 
• Desire and interest in serving in an exclusively internal coordination role.
• Have considerable management experience in groups, preferably in a variety of roles, including operations and program management. 
• Have significant experience in high-level organizational management, organizational culture, and HR work
• Have experience in the kind of organizing that NEC does (network, membership-based, movement-rooted)
• Have excellent group facilitation skills, with extensive experience leading group decision-making processes.
• Willingness to travel for in-person retreats, meetings and gatherings when that is safe

While NEC is a remote work organization, employees are expected to travel periodically for in person staff, board, and/or member meetings and events with advanced notice as part of the organization’s work.

To center the safety and well-being of its community, NEC requires that all staff and board members participating in NEC-organized meetings and events in person must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 within four weeks of the upcoming event (as of January 2022, fully vaccinated implies having received all doses of the initial COVID-19 vaccine and the appropriate booster).  Accommodations may be sought and approved in accordance with the law by contacting the Director of OrganizationalResilience.

BENEFITS

Full benefits including healthcare, dental, short and long term disability, retirement fund, employer-provided laptop and home office stipend, flexible schedule, and 16 vacation days (in addition to federal holidays). NEC aspires to build an inclusive and liberatory organization. We value having a diversity of life experiences, identities and perspectives on our staff. We are an equal opportunity employer.

How to Apply:

To apply, fill out an application here.

1. Resume 
2. A short (no more than one-page) response to the following: Based on the Director of Internal Weaving job description, what do you think are key attributes and skills for someone coming into this role? What are some (2-3) examples of ways you embody these attributes?
3. Work sample that gives us a sense of your communication style, approach to project & team management, facilitation skills, and/or critical and analytical skills. 

After submitting an Application:

The application deadline is May 27th. You can expect to hear back from us by June 3rd about the status of your application. NEC is an equal opportunity employer that does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion or belief, disability, gender, nationality, ethnicity, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, or any other status protected by law. Women, people of color, and LGBTQ candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.

Click Here To Apply