Program & Operations Associate (Impact Accelerator)

Who We Are:

The Orthodox Union (OU) is the largest Orthodox Jewish organization in the United States. Founded in 1898, the OU supports a network of synagogues, youth programs, Jewish and Religious Zionist advocacy programs, programs for the disabled, localized religious study programs, and international units. The OU maintains a kosher certification service, whose circled U symbol, Ⓤ, is found on the labels of over 100,000,000 kosher commercial and consumer food products. 

The OU Impact Accelerator supports innovative, mission-driven Jewish nonprofits that are addressing urgent challenges within the Orthodox community. Since 2018, we’ve helped develop and scale organizations through tailored support, education, mentorship, and grant funding.

As we expand, the Impact Accelerator will continue to grow our flagship cohort model, strengthen our alumni network, build community-wide programming, and broaden lay leader engagement. Our work strengthens the ecosystem in which

Jewish nonprofits can thrive.

Position Summary:

The Program & Operations Associate plays a key role in helping our department grow and in ensuring the success of our Accelerator programs. This role is ideal for an early-career professional who is organized, thoughtful, motivated, and excited about innovation in the Jewish nonprofit space.

You will work closely with the Director to manage daily operations, support the cohort experience, engage alumni, track impact, and help build new initiatives as the department expands.

Duties and Responsibilities:

Program Support & Execution

• Support all elements of the Accelerator cohort cycle: recruitment and selection, program planning, workshops, logistics, mentorship coordination, and program completion.
• Manage logistics for events such as invites, set up, ordering, scheduling, etc
• Maintain calendars, schedules, invitations, communication, and documentation for all Accelerator programming.
• Support the OU Strategic Grant Program, helping with tasks such as organizing applications, coordinating the review process, and tracking grantee progress throughout the year.
• Assist with grant evaluations and departmental support, including gathering information from grantees, preparing review materials, and helping departments strengthen their proposals to meet program goals.
• Help identify learnings and opportunities for improvement, including capturing successful practices, supporting cross-department collaboration, and exploring ways programs can grow and remain sustainable.

Operations & Systems

• Create and maintain workflows and processes to ensure programs run smoothly and consistently.
• Support data collection, evaluation, and the development of metrics that measure program effectiveness and impact.
• Assist with the creation of clear internal materials, reports, and operational guides.

Stakeholder Engagement

• Communicate professionally with OU staff, lay leaders, nonprofit founders, donors, and other partners.
• Build strong, responsive relationships with cohort members and alumni.
• Support external representation of the Accelerator, including communications, media, and event presence.

Strategic Growth

• Work with the Director to brainstorm and help shape future Accelerator initiatives.
• Help identify opportunities to expand programming, strengthen our reach, and align the Accelerator with broader OU priorities.
• Collaborate with other OU departments on projects related to creativity, innovation, and intrapreneurship.

Qualification Requirements:

• A Bachelor’s degree and 1–3 years of work experience (nonprofit, startup, or innovation experience a plus)
• Experience managing projects or operations in a professional or internship setting
• A desire to build skills in program management, research, evaluation, and strategic thinking
• Interest in measuring impact and working with data

Competencies:

• Strong organizational and pr