Chief Operating Officer

Project Bread envisions a Massachusetts where hunger is permanently solved for everyone. We define ourselves as a food security organization because our work is preventative in nature. We're creating a sustainable, system-wide safety net in Massachusetts for anyone facing hunger. That’s what it means to work at Project Bread. Join us as our next Chief Operating Officer (COO).

Project Bread began in 1969 at the first Walk for Hunger. Today, we are a food security organization with a radical approach to ending hunger. We do this work through prevention, policy, and partnership. As one in 5 families struggles to afford enough to eat in the Commonwealth, Project Bread’s work, team, and budget have grown to achieve both immediate and lasting impact. As part of this evolution, Project Bread has nearly tripled in size since 2019 while building robust new programs, expanding our research and policy work, and deepening our community engagement. In turn, the People and Operations Team has grown to include 6 professionals collaborating to support our high performing staff. We’re proud to be named a Best Place to Work in 2024 by both the Boston Business Journal and the Boston Globe. Consider listening to this podcast on scaling success with our CEO, Erin McAleer.

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice at Project Bread. We have a deep commitment to creating positive social change and recognize that hunger and racism are inextricably linked. Knowing its centrality to our work, Project Bread has a long-time commitment to equity and inclusion, and recently adopted a comprehensive, organization-wide Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice Action Plan outlining the next iteration of this work. We aspire to build a diverse team, including groups that are traditionally underrepresented among our sector leadership, and recognize lived experience of food insecurity as a valuable expertise in our work. We strongly encourage people of all backgrounds to apply for the COO position.

Project Bread

Project Bread serves a unique role in Massachusetts, and inspires action across the country, by engaging individuals with lived experience, developing policy based on sound research, operating a hotline accessible to 180 languages that connects families to public sector resources, collaborating with hunger relief organizations in dozens of towns and cities, and using each element of the work to achieve an end to hunger. Project Bread is committed to innovation and system change. Through the efforts of Project Bread and its partners, every child in Massachusetts receives free school meals. Through Project Bread’s collaboration with partners in the health care system, Project Bread is demonstrating how to integrate food and nutrition supports into health care, recognizing that food security is critical to improving health and thus reducing health care expenditures.

The Position

Project Bread seeks an experienced, creative, and multi-dimensional COO to secure the team, systems, and finances that permit its success. After successfully and rapidly growing the people, operations, and finance functions to support Project Bread’s growth, Project Bread is positioned to ensure that it can respond to and support sustainable growth and change as a maturing organization. The Chief Operating Officer (COO) will lead a team of individuals responsible for people, operations, and finance, as well as oversee outsourced finance, IT, and management of the Project Bread-owned office condominium.

Reporting to the CEO, the COO will join an executive team that collaborates to end hunger in Massachusetts. Beyond the responsibilities of ensuring operational excellence, the COO will contribute cross-departmental strategic thinking and leadership to permit Project Bread to reach its goals. As a colleague and mentor, the COO serves in a unique position to bring leaders and teams focused on programs, research, community engagement, and revenue generation together for meaningful, measurable outcomes. The COO provides thought leadership to the CEO and the organization in evaluating, planning, and systems building for lasting impact. In this critical executive role, the COO will also play a key role as a steward of Project Bread’s commitment to advancing DEIJ as an employer and as a food security leader.

Core Responsibilities:

Project Bread’s COO should bring the adaptability and agility to contribute to Project Bread’s impact across the organization in service to the mission. Core responsibilities for the COO will include the following:

• Work collaboratively with the Executive Team to support the CEO in operationalizing Project Bread’s ambitious mission and translating it to achievable annual goals within a sustainable budget.
• Support the CEO, in partnership with the Executive Team and the DEIJ Committee, toward the successful implementation of the DEIJ Action Plan, ensuring an organizational culture that promotes inclusion and enables each member of the team to succeed.
• Lead Project Bread’s financial strategy and systems, ensuring our finances are secure and sustainable by leading the annual budget planning and implementation processes, identifying and promptly addressing risk, and determining the resources needed, as conditions change, to secure organizational stability.
• Serve as a key strategic partner and advisor to the CEO and convenor of the Executive Team, building consensus, collaboration, and maintaining accountability to drive impact and organizational strategy.
• Consistently assess and act on systems, strategies, or supports that can drive organizational excellence.
• Support Project Bread’s Board Finance, DEIJ, and Human Resources Committees as well as its Board Treasurer in their duties, engaging routinely with other members of the Board as needs and issues arise.
• Lead financial and operational planning for complex Project Bread initiatives, ensuring that systems support both revenue generation and impact.
• Ensure that Project Bread has the proper technological and operational controls, administrative and reporting procedures, communication and knowledge sharing practices, and people systems in place to grow the organization and to ensure financial strength and operating efficiency.
• Serve as a thought partner, sounding board, and supportive manager to the Director of People Operations and the Senior Director of Operations, ensuring they are recognized for their outstanding leadership and critical management of key functions.
• With the Director of People Operations, maintain the high quality of Project Bread’s internal structures, standard policies, and total compensation package in order to attract and retain an outstanding and invested staff.
• Partnering with the Senior Director of Operations, ensure that the Project Bread office environment, technology support, and financial management is optimized for employee productivity and satisfaction, as well as risk mitigation. Proactively recommend, develop, and drive targeted process and technological improvements.

Qualifications and Qualities

Project Bread excels through the diverse backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives of its dedicated team. No one candidate is likely to have had each of the following experiences or embody every ideal quality, please apply, nonetheless, if you share our commitment to ending hunger in Massachusetts and offer exceptional operational skills.

• Executive-level operations leadership experience within nonprofit organizations with annual revenue at $10 million or above. Candidates with nonprofit experience are preferred.
• Demonstrated success in sustained excellence in people, finance, operations, and IT functions that contribute to organizational impact.
• Persistence, kindness, and confidence to build collaborative strategy among your peers and translate our high aspirations into strong systems and processes.
• Previous responsibility developing and managing the financial strategy of an organization, with the expertise to oversee Project Bread’s finances and support your colleagues in developing accurate and actionable financial projections and annual budgets.
• Strategic thinking, from the people, operations, and finance perspectives, to support the CEO, Board, and Executive Team in navigating short term opportunities or challenges and implementing longer term plans.
• Outstanding communications skills, from Board or All Staff presentations to staff management to modeling change management across the organization.
• An enthusiasm not just for Project Bread’s mission, but also its culture of inclusion, respect, collaboration, and authentic recognition of the value of lived experience. Past demonstrations of values-forward leadership is a plus.
• A willingness to receive and give feedback, engage in difficult conversations, coach, follow, and regroup with humor would all be helpful in this role.
• A recognition that Project Bread’s mission to end hunger in Massachusetts succeeds only when its people, finances, and operations are of the highest quality and unfold within a culture that constantly strives to improve its diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice practices.
• Successful examples of leading change management, including designing, implementing, and shepherding projects across functional areas to successful completion.

Additional Requirements

Working Location: Employees operate on a hybrid model including a mix of time working remotely, time in-office, and time out in community with external partners. Team members are expected to be in-person a minimum of two days a week. The COO will need to be present in the East Boston office on a more frequent basis, as both a manager and in order to meet in person with colleagues and Board members. This position may also require attendance at evening and weekend events.

COVID-19 Vaccine Policy: For the safety and protection of Project Bread Staff & Constituents we do have a COVID-19 Vaccine Policy that requires all staff to be fully vaccinated per the CDC definition. Accommodation requests will be considered through our normal request process.

Compensation

The compensation range for this position is between $175,000-$215,000. Exceptional benefits include Blue Cross Blue Shield health and dental, flexible spending accounts, retirement plan with match after one year, life and long-term disability, contributions to commuting costs and wellness expenses, and unlimited paid time off.

To Apply

Carolyn O’Brien Consulting, LLC/CoCo Search is supporting Project Bread on this search. Please upload your application at the link, including a detailed resume, thoughtful cover letter, and a link to your LinkedIn profile. All applications or nominations will be gratefully received, acknowledged, and reviewed.

Project Bread is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate based on race, color, national origin, sex, religion, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, veteran status, height, weight, or marital status in employment or the provision of services. Please contact us at jobs@projectbread.org if you would like to request special accommodations during the interview process.