Chief of Staff

Application Instructions

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Number of Positions: 1

Work Location: 100% On-Site

Position Overview

The Chief of Staff is a senior leader who advances City Year Rhode Island’s strategic priorities while ensuring strong people, operations, and organizational systems. As a member of the Senior Leadership Team, the role oversees the Executive Office, site operations, and staff experience, supporting cross-functional coordination and execution of key initiatives. Serving as a trusted advisor to the Executive Director, the Chief of Staff helps translate vision into action and ensures the organization is positioned for sustainable impact and growth.

Job Description

Reporting to the Executive Director, the Chief of Staff serves as a senior leader responsible for advancing City Year Rhode Island’s strategic agenda while ensuring strong operational execution across the organization. The Chief of Staff oversees the Executive Office, administrative operations, and core people and operational systems, supporting the Executive Director with priority-setting, cross-functional coordination, and monitoring execution against organizational goals. As a member of the Senior Leadership Team, the Chief of Staff brings a systems-level, cross-functional mindset to translating vision into action and assumes primary responsibility for select strategic initiatives and time-sensitive projects.

The Chief of Staff is a trusted advisor to the Executive Director and, when directed, represents her in high-level internal and external meetings. The role provides oversight of site operations, staff experience, and organizational infrastructure, manages key internal and external vendor relationships, and partners closely with City Year Headquarters to ensure alignment and operational excellence. Accountable for building and sustaining effective internal structures, the Chief of Staff ensures staff and AmeriCorps members are supported, systems function smoothly, and the organization is positioned for sustained impact and growth.

Key Responsibilities

Site Strategy and Special Initiatives

• Monitor all of City Year Rhode Island’s operating goals by working with department leadership to provide internal and external reporting. Ensure the Executive Director is aware of recommended actions and ensure response interventions are executed.
• Collaborate with Executive Director and site leadership to manage the implementation, review, and modification of City Year Rhode Island’s strategic plans. Ensure departmental and site-wide progress is met and remains aligned with staff capacity, financial resources, and stakeholder support.
• Work on the behalf of Executive Director for critical staff positions searches.
• Partner with Executive Director to determine how the Chief of Staff can support managing key strategic relationships with key stakeholders (e.g. public officials, Providence, Central Falls and other Rhode Island Public School District, RIDE, elected officials, business leaders, etc.) and/or key initiatives
• Serve as convener of local AmeriCorps and Education serving organizations to collaboratively build out policy agenda.

Site People Point

• Collaborate with the People Business Partner to provide critical staff and corps support.
• Lead and advise on People policies by participating in comprehensive site and staff discussions aligned with organizational objectives.
• Support hiring managers throughout the recruitment and onboarding cycle.
• Offer guidance to the Impact team regarding the hiring and onboarding of corps and support roles.
• Act as the primary contact for employee relations, including accommodation requests and performance management issues.
• Develop and oversee professional development strategies and identify opportunities for staff growth.
• In partnership with the Executive Director, lead the design, implementation, and evaluation of the site's internal communication strategy.

Site Operations and Office Management

• Serve as the site lead for People and Operations, overseeing administrative functions, staff experience, and day-to-day site operations.
• Oversee day-to-day site operations, ensuring staff and corps have necessary tools and resources for student impact and operational excellence.
• Manage Operation team, supervise administrative staff, including the Operations Coordinator/Executive Assistant and