Jew­ish Book Coun­cil seeks an inno­v­a­tive, steady-hand­ed, high­ly moti­vat­ed full-time Chief Oper­at­ing Offi­cer. Report­ing to the CEO, the COO has pri­ma­ry respon­si­bil­i­ty for struc­tur­ing and over­see­ing JBC’s day-to-day oper­a­tions and finan­cial health, cre­at­ing effi­cien­cies while iden­ti­fy­ing growth oppor­tu­ni­ties. As a trust­ed senior mem­ber of the lead­er­ship team, the COO will play a key role in help­ing to shape and deliv­er on the organization’s strate­gic vision and goals. The COO will work close­ly with CEO, lead­er­ship, and exter­nal stake­hold­ers as a thought part­ner, ideat­ing and suc­cess­ful­ly exe­cut­ing strate­gies that best ful­fill JBC’s mis­sion to edu­cate, enrich, and engage the com­mu­ni­ty through the Jew­ish lit­er­ary arts.

A Man­hat­tan-based non­prof­it, JBC has pro­mot­ed Jew­ish-inter­est lit­er­a­ture through its foun­da­tion­al pro­gram, Jew­ish Book Month, since 1925, and has added pro­grams such as the Nation­al Jew­ish Book Awards, author tours, book club resources, a lit­er­ary jour­nal, and more to meet the needs of an ever-chang­ing Jew­ish and pub­lish­ing land­scape. JBC is sit­u­at­ed at the inter­sec­tion of the Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty and the pub­lish­ing world, a role that has become even more vital in recent days, as JBC is a cru­cial advo­cate and sup­port sys­tem for authors, pub­lish­ers, and readers. 

The COO will help JBC move into this next cru­cial phase of deep­ened impact, cre­ative ini­tia­tives, and diver­si­fied rev­enue. JBC is a small, ded­i­cat­ed, col­lab­o­ra­tive team. We seek an enthu­si­as­tic new mem­ber who is pas­sion­ate about lit­er­a­ture, pub­lish­ing, and the ways in which Jew­ish lit­er­a­ture can be an excit­ing access point to Jew­ish life, iden­ti­ty, and culture. 

Respon­si­bil­i­ties and Required Skills

Lead­er­ship

• In part­ner­ship with the CEO and Board, cre­ate, refine, and exe­cute strate­gic pri­or­i­ties and goals, eval­u­ate new areas for growth, and help estab­lish and exe­cute orga­ni­za­tion­al pri­or­i­ties on a week­ly, month­ly, and long-term basis
• Help scale JBC’s work to new audi­ences and iden­ti­fy oppor­tu­ni­ties for redi­rec­tion, expan­sion, and growth, while design­ing and imple­ment­ing orga­ni­za­tion­al sys­tems to grow the brand and prod­uct with­out sac­ri­fic­ing quality
• Gen­er­ate annu­al report in col­lab­o­ra­tion with CEO for inter­nal and exter­nal use

Orga­ni­za­tion­al Performance

• Imple­ment sys­tems and tech­nol­o­gy to enhance staff effi­cien­cy, opti­mize data pro­cess­ing and improve report­ing across the organization
• Over­see the imple­men­ta­tion of effi­cient oper­a­tional sys­tems that sup­port the over­all orga­ni­za­tion, includ­ing our CRM (Sales­force) 
• Eval­u­ate pro­grams and grants, report­ing find­ings to the CEO

Finance

• Devel­op long-range finan­cial plans that align with JBC’s strate­gic priorities
• Over­see all aspects of orga­ni­za­tion’s day-to-day finances, project/​grant bud­gets, cash flow, and reporting/​annual audit 
• Man­age exter­nal finan­cial con­sul­tants and bank­ing relationships
• Part­ner with CEO, Board, and oth­er stake­hold­ers to secure resources nec­es­sary to sup­port orga­ni­za­tion­al pri­or­i­ties, and iden­ti­fy new rev­enue streams 
• Act as liai­son with the Board’s finan­cial com­mit­tees, includ­ing audit and invest­ment committees

Staff Man­age­ment 

• Work with CEO to man­age staff as needed
• Man­age direct reports and dot­ted-line reports; clear­ly com­mu­ni­cate expec­ta­tions and orga­ni­za­tion­al goals to all team members 

Busi­ness Operations

• Over­see and ensure accu­ra­cy of pay­roll, employ­ee ben­e­fits, busi­ness insurance 
• Han­dle all con­tracts, includ­ing grant agree­ments, and busi­ness and ven­dor con­tracts. Review all legal doc­u­ments and Terms of Services
• Man­age phys­i­cal facil­i­ties and assets
• Devel­op orga­ni­za­tion poli­cies based on non­prof­it best prac­tices and grant require­ments and ensure that all writ­ten poli­cies and work prac­tices are up-to-date and com­pli­ant with regulations
• Iden­ti­fy and work with con­sul­tants (legal, HR, etc.) as needed

Addi­tion­al

Like all mem­bers of the JBC team, the COO will work at JBC events, includ­ing our annu­al three-day Net­work con­fer­ence, annu­al Writ­ers’ Con­fer­ence, evening pub­lic pro­grams, and the Nation­al Jew­ish Book Awards annu­al celebration.

JBC cur­rent­ly works a hybrid sched­ule and team mem­bers are expect­ed to work from the office in New York a min­i­mum of two-three days a week, depend­ing on work­flow and spe­cif­ic events. 

We val­ue and main­tain a work cul­ture that is col­lab­o­ra­tive and inclusive.

The ide­al can­di­date will have: 

• A proven track record (5 – 7+ years) lead­ing, cre­at­ing, man­ag­ing, and over­see­ing suc­cess­ful organizations/​initiatives/​programs in the non­prof­it or for-prof­it sectors 
• Hands-on expe­ri­ence and com­fort in man­ag­ing peo­ple and teams 
• Com­fort and abil­i­ty in assess­ing, refin­ing, and over­see­ing finan­cial sys­tems, oper­a­tions, tech­nolo­gies to improve effi­cien­cy, per­son­nel, legal, insur­ance, and risk-management 
• Nuanced under­stand­ing of how finances and oper­a­tions sup­port an organization’s broad­er mis­sion and goals
• Famil­iar­i­ty with non­prof­it finan­cial man­age­ment; expe­ri­ence with annu­al audits a plus 

The ide­al can­di­date will be:

• An expe­ri­enced leader with strong integri­ty who inspires con­fi­dence among team mem­bers and stakeholders 
• Famil­iar with Jew­ish cul­ture; knowl­edge of Judaism is a plus
• Pas­sion­ate about JBC’s mission 
• Pas­sion­ate about lit­er­a­ture, the arts, and/​or publishing 
• Dri­ven by a strong set of per­son­al val­ues and eager to make a pos­i­tive impact 
• Able to set and achieve clear goals and exer­cise good judg­ment about set­ting priorities
• A strong, com­pelling com­mu­ni­ca­tor (ver­bal and written) 
• Com­fort­able meet­ing with high-lev­el sup­port­ers and stakeholders 
• Able to work in a fast-paced, dynam­ic envi­ron­ment and wear mul­ti­ple hats
• A ​“hands-on” per­son will­ing to pitch in when necessary

The salary range for this posi­tion is $135 – 150k, plus benefits. 

Inter­est­ed appli­cants should send a cov­er let­ter and resume to jbc-​jobs@​jewishbooks.​org. In your cov­er let­ter, please indi­cate how you heard about this position. 

JBC will con­tin­ue to accept resumes and cov­er let­ters until the can­di­date search is complete. 

JBC does not dis­crim­i­nate on the basis of race, reli­gion, col­or, gen­der expres­sion or iden­ti­ty, sex­u­al ori­en­ta­tion, nation­al ori­gin, cit­i­zen­ship, age, mar­i­tal sta­tus, dis­abil­i­ty sta­tus, or any oth­er char­ac­ter­is­tic pro­tect­ed by law.