Chief Finance and Operations Officer (Pivotal)

Chief Finance and Operations Officer (Pivotal)

Posted on April 14, 2019

As a population, foster youth struggle to succeed in school and the workplace. It's not because they're doing anything wrong. In fact, 95% want to go to college. But being in foster care is a tough road, no matter how you look at it. So, while they dream of brighter futures, on a national level, 50% of foster youth drop out of high school and most never make it to college. Pivotal specializes in guiding foster youth towards academic and employment success.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Pivotal is a nonprofit committed to supporting young people in and from foster care to realize their educational and career goals and ensure their equitable access to opportunity. Envisioning a community in which every young person gets the education, career, and life they want for themselves, Pivotal’s proven programs directly impacting foster youth and improving the policies and systems surrounding them, with a business model that supports sustainability and significant scale.

Recently rebranded from the merger of the Silicon Valley Children’s Fund, established over twenty years ago to address the unfulfilled educational needs of foster youth, and TeenForce, a Silicon Valley non-profit with a solid reputation for finding foster youth jobs, Pivotal is seeking nominations and applications for the newly-created role of Chief Finance and Operations Officer (CFOO). Through its integrated mission Pivotal is the only nonprofit in the Silicon Valley that focuses exclusively on education and employment support for high school and college age foster youth. This strong combination of support includes 1:1 coaching support, college scholarships, tutoring, summer internships, and professional development training. With Pivotal’s support, foster youth in the Silicon Valley have proven to graduate from high school and college at significantly higher rates than their foster youth peers.

Reporting to the CEO, the CFOO will join a passionate, highly experienced leadership team to help achieve these strategic goals. As a member of the senior leadership team, the new CFOO will help Pivotal solidify its financial and operational capabilities, build efficient and adaptive infrastructure, and scale strategically for greater impact. The CFOO will also help build effective policies, learning experiences, and practices to create a culture grounded in community engagement; data-informed innovation; and diversity, equity, and inclusion. To drive holistic change, the CFOO will lead and oversee key capabilities areas including accounting and financial management, programmatic learning and evaluation, program administrative support, human resources, technology, physical space and related operations as Pivotal grows both its organizational footprint and impact.

The successful candidate will be passionate about youth and human services and deeply inspired by Pivotal’s mission. The new CFOO will demonstrate the ability to ensure the financial soundness and integrity of the organization as it grows in revenue and related complexity. S/he/they will have experience successfully designing, implementing, and evolving operational and service delivery systems to support a rapidly growing organization, as well as effectively analyzing data, trends, and evidence to inform enterprise-wide decisions and continuous improvements. S/he/they will be a strategic thinker grounded in design thinking and have the proven ability to enable efficient organizational growth and scale. Leadership experience and emotional intelligence in collaborating with internal and external stakeholders is crucial along with the ability to inspire and manage high-performing teams and foster a culture of curiosity, innovation, excellence, and purpose in which all staff can grow and thrive. Finally, as a key member of the Pivotal leadership team, the CFOO will serve as a thoughtful and active ambassador for Pivotal and advocate for foster youth throughout and across all sectors of the community.

QUALIFICATIONS OF THE IDEAL CANDIDATE

While no one candidate will embody all the qualifications enumerated below, the ideal candidate will possess many of the following professional and personal abilities, attributes and experiences:

• Sophisticated leadership skills and presence developed through a minimum of ten years of progressive strategic leadership in a high-growth, best-in-class organization, ideally in a social sector or cross sector context;
• Clear record of achievement in financial management and experience with the intersection of finance, development, and program management;
• Demonstrated resourcefulness in setting priorities and guiding investment in people and systems;
• An unwavering commitment to quality programs and excellence in strategic, organizational, and budget management;
• A strong, intuitive communicator, skillful at managing through influence with humility;
• A high tolerance for ambiguity and the ability to adapt quickly to change;
• An optimistic outlook and the natural tendency to forego individual promotion in the interest of mission;
• A demonstrated passion for Pivotal’s mission and commitment to helping guide foster youth towards academic and employment success;
• Bachelor's degree required with an advanced degree in a related field strongly preferred.

Due to the pace of this search, candidates are strongly encouraged to apply as soon as possible. Applications including a cover letter describing your interest and qualifications, your resume (in Word format), and where you learned of the position should be sent to: PIVOTAL-CFOO@nonprofitprofessionals.com .

PIVOTAL is an equal opportunity employer and proudly values diversity. Candidates of all backgrounds are encouraged to apply.

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