Salary: $150,000
Schedule: Full-time; Monday – Friday with flexibility required
Location: 314 SW 9th Avenue, Portland, OR 97205
New Avenues for Youth is seeking an exceptional executive leader to help shape the organization’s future while ensuring operational excellence today. The Chief Operating Officer will serve as a strategic partner to the Executive Director, providing leadership across finance, operations, administrative infrastructure, and enterprise activities. This role requires a leader who combines strong financial and business acumen with vision, entrepreneurial thinking, executive presence, and the ability to build the systems, teams, and strategies that support long-term organizational sustainability and impact.
Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in business, finance, public administration, organizational leadership, nonprofit management, or a related field required; MBA, CPA, MPA, or another relevant advanced degree strongly preferred.
- Minimum 10 years of progressively responsible executive or senior leadership experience overseeing complex organizations, business operations, finance, or administrative functions, including supervision of directors or other senior leaders.
- Exceptional financial and business acumen, including experience leading budgeting, forecasting, financial analysis, cash-flow planning, and organizational decision-making in environments with multiple funding streams, revenue sources, or business units.
- Demonstrated ability to think strategically beyond day-to-day operations, translating vision into execution while balancing growth, sustainability, risk, and mission impact.
- Proven experience leading and integrating multiple functions such as finance, human resources, information technology, facilities, compliance, quality assurance, contract administration, risk management, or enterprise operations.
- Strong executive presence and judgment, with the ability to build trust and credibility with boards, senior leadership teams, employees, funders, external partners, and community stakeholders.
- Entrepreneurial mindset, with experience developing, expanding, or improving earned-revenue activities, business ventures, social enterprises, or innovative operating models preferred.
- Demonstrated success leading organizational change, strengthening infrastructure, scaling systems, and building high-performing teams through periods of growth, challenge, or transformation.
- Skilled at balancing strategic leadership with operational discipline, using data, financial insight, and sound judgment to drive performance and informed decision-making.
- Ability to lead through collaboration, influence, accountability, and strong relationships in a mission-driven, cross-functional environment.
- Demonstrated commitment to equity, inclusion, youth-centered values, and trauma-informed organizational practice.
- Outstanding communication, problem-solving, organizational leadership, and change-management skills.
Who Will Thrive in This Role
The strongest candidates will be equal parts strategist, operator, and builder. They are financially sophisticated and comfortable navigating complex budgets and business decisions, but they are not defined solely by the numbers. They see connections others miss, anticipate future challenges and opportunities, and help organizations position themselves for long-term sustainability, growth, and impact.
They enjoy building strong teams, improving systems, driving accountability, and helping other leaders succeed. They are entrepreneurial enough to recognize opportunity, disciplined enough to execute, and steady enough to lead through uncertainty and change.
Most importantly, they are the kind of leader who can earn the confidence of employees, stakeholders, and the Board of Directors as a trusted organizational leader and strategic partner to the Executive Director and team.
What You’ll Do
Reporting to the Executive Director, the Chief Operating Officer is a senior executive role providing enterprise-wide leadership and oversight of core business and administrative functions. The COO will directly supervise the Human Resources Director, Director of Finance and Compliance, IT Director, Facilities, Quality Assurance, and more.
In partnership with the Executive Director and Senior Directors team, the COO will connect strategy to execution, strengthen financial and operational discipline, improve cross-functional performance, and help position New Avenues for long-term sustainability.
Key Responsibilities
- Provide executive leadership and oversight for finance, human resources, facilities, information technology, quality assurance, compliance, risk, and other core business functions.
- Directly supervise assigned directors and senior leaders, providing strategic direction, leadership development, clear goals, coordinated execution, and accountability for results.
- Partner with the Executive Director and Senior Directors team to translate organizational vision and priorities into operational plans, financial strategies, systems, and measurable outcomes.
- Bring strategic financial leadership to budgeting, forecasting, cash-flow planning, scenario analysis, investment decisions, and the assessment of organizational opportunities and risks.
- Strengthen operational efficiency, internal service, and cross-department coordination through improved workflows, policies, decision pathways, and performance measures.
- Use financial, operational, and program information to identify trends, challenge assumptions, resolve gaps, and support timely, well-informed decisions.
- Lead agency-wide business strategy, contract and vendor oversight, risk mitigation, systems improvement, and infrastructure planning.
- As part of a team, support business operations of New Avenues’ social enterprises, including revenue performance, financial sustainability, operating systems, budgeting, staffing infrastructure, growth opportunities, and mission alignment.
- Encourage entrepreneurial thinking and disciplined experimentation, evaluating new ideas through the lenses of mission, market opportunity, financial return, organizational capacity, and risk.
- Represent operational and financial priorities in strategic planning, continuity planning, change management, and organizational growth efforts.
- Serve as a trusted thought partner to the Executive Director on strategy, execution, prioritization, sustainability, organizational design, and leadership coverage.
- Participate in Board, leadership, finance, and cross-department meetings; present complex financial and operational information clearly and provide thoughtful recommendations for decision-making.
- Build confidence across the organization through visible leadership, clear communication, calm judgment, and consistent follow-through.
- Promote a culture of accountability, collaboration, transparency, equity, innovation, and practical problem-solving throughout administrative and business operations.
Why Join Us
This is a pivotal leadership role at New Avenues for Youth, with the opportunity to shape how the organization grows, adapts, and sustains its impact. The COO will help build the financial strength, leadership depth, organizational infrastructure, and entrepreneurial capacity needed for New Avenues’ next chapter.
New Avenues provides a robust benefits package that includes health, vision, dental, and alternative care insurance at no cost to the employee, with options to cover family members; generous paid time off; a comprehensive employee assistance program; a retirement savings plan; life and long-term disability insurance; and access to employee discounts.
Apply Today
If you are a strategic, financially sophisticated, and entrepreneurial leader who wants to help ignite hope, inspire change, and build a strong future for New Avenues for Youth, we encourage you to apply.
New Avenues for Youth is an Equal Opportunity Employer.
