Senior Director of Business Operations

Watershed Advisors is looking for a Senior Director of Business Operations to join our Strategy & Operations Team. As a fully remote organization, our team is set up to work collaboratively on projects across the country every day. This role can be based anywhere in the United States.

About Watershed Advisors

Building on the deep public sector leadership experience of its team, Watershed Advisors supports governments to design, implement, and scale transformative education plans. We match proven education and workforce ideas, investors seeking social impact, and bold governmental leaders across the country. We then embed teams of experts within government agencies, coordinating multi-year efforts to implement, communicate, finance, and evaluate ideas to impact generations of American learners and job seekers in need of access and opportunity. 

THE OPPORTUNITY

At Watershed, the Senior Director of Business Operations is a core member of the Strategy & Operations Team and reports to the Chief Operating Officer. This role leads Watershed's business development, contracts, and risk functions, works closely with our finance team to ensure business sustainability, elevate data and strategic recommendations to executive leaders. The Senior Director manages our Business & Contracts Managers, partners closely with vertical leaders and delivery teams on business development and contracting decisions and strategies, pulls strategic reports and conducts targeted FP&A to inform decisions, and partners closely with our CFO and supporting finance team. This position is best suited for someone with a strong understanding of contracting, compliance and risk, pricing strategy, and client service / consulting business strategy who is comfortable with data, leading contract-negotiations, building systems that keep the business running smoothly, holding deep relationships with delivery teams including building capacity and knowledge on business development & contracting best practices and processes, building the skills and capabilities of Business & Contract Managers, and contributing to a positive, inclusive, and engaged team culture across Strategy & Operations. In close partnership with the COO, this role will lead both day-to-day operations and key strategic projects to support business growth, sustainability, and organizational maturity.

The Senior Director of Business Operations' daily work varies, but primary responsibilities include:

Business development, contracts & risk

• Lead the business development pipeline — build and maintain reporting on the BD pipeline, bids/RFPs, and contract status, with an eye toward how that reporting should inform Watershed's growth and business strategy.
• Set contract negotiation parameters and standards, and provide hands-on negotiation support to Managing Directors and Senior Directors on terms and pricing when needed. 
• Oversee contract administration, delivery, compliance, and risk in line with state and local government, federal, non-profit, and philanthropy requirements, across a range of contract models (T&M, fixed fee, deliverables/milestone-based, grants).
• Protect Watershed's cash flow — ensure contract terms and invoicing processes are structured to secure timely, accurate payment from clients.

Pricing, finance & FP&A

• Lead resource allocation monitoring and analysis — track capacity and utilization across engagements against plan, and translate findings into recommendations and their implications for Watershed's financial model.
• Oversee targeted FP&A and elevate strategic reporting on contract economics, revenue recognition, and profitability across engagements and clients to inform executive decisions.
• Partner with the CFO, finance team, and leadership on key financial systems and processes, including setting a schedule and routine for regular financial updates.
• Support proposal pricing strategy — analyze past pricing, utilization, and profitability, and share recommendations for future pricing and rate structures based on market signals. Support project teams with pricing and resourcing strategies for specific proposals that best support the resources required to do the work. 

Systems & process

• Guide the continuous improvement and development of business systems (CRM, finance, resource management, and contracts platforms) that underpin business development, finance, and reporting — improving reliability and reducing manual work and ensure proper functionality. This may require leadership of special projects as assigned and depending on capacity. 
• Improve processes and workflows across business development, contracts, and finance to increase consistency and reduce friction — building the SOPs, routines, and controls that keep the business running smoothly.

Team & capacity building

• Manage and develop the Business & Contracts Managers — build their skills and capabilities across the full lifecycle of a deal (pipeline through delivery, invoicing, and compliance), ensuring both high quality, consistent transactional execution and proactive, insight-driven ownership.
• Build organizational capacity across delivery teams — help Managing Directors and vertical leaders understand and manage their budgets and forecasts, and build shared knowledge of business development and contracting best practices and processes.
• Contribute to a positive, inclusive, and engaged team culture across Strategy & Operations.

Build & grow

• Roll up your sleeves and build from the ground up. This is a lean, growing team; you'll design and stand up functions that don't fully exist yet, do the hands-on work yourself while building the systems and team to scale it, and take on new operations functions and areas as the organization matures.
• Partner with the COO on key strategic projects that support business growth, sustainability, and organizational maturity.

SKILLS AND CHARACTERISTICS

We are looking for people who are interested in education and its role in society, and who are eager to learn about approaches to improving the United States' system of public education, from birth to postsecondary to the workforce. At Watershed, we work with a wide variety of clients and are seeking team members with diverse backgrounds and experiences. We encourage people of color, people with disabilities, immigrants, and others with diverse experiences to apply for this role.

The Senior Director of Business Operations must have:

• Contract negotiation experience, including setting negotiation strategy and standards, and providing hands-on support on terms and pricing when needed.
• Government contracting, compliance, and risk expertise — a strong understanding of state and local government contracting; federal contracting and grants management a plus; comfort navigating various contract models (T&M, fixed fee, deliverables/milestone-based, grants).
• Business development and contracts experience on the business services side of a government and/or social sector consulting / client services firm, such as operations, pricing, contracts, or business development.
• A strong sense of pricing and profitability, and the business strategy judgment to see how contract and pricing decisions affect Watershed's bottom line.
• Comfort working across finance, contracts, and CRM systems, and using data to inform decisions.
• Strong analytical and modeling skills, the ability to build and audit models, structure messy inputs, and communicate assumptions.
• Management experience, with a demonstrated ability to lead, coach, and develop a growing team.
• A builder's mindset and willingness to get your hands dirty — excitement about building functions, systems, and teams from the ground up, doing the hands-on work yourself, and growing into new operations areas as the organization matures.
• Clear, concise communication, the ability to translate data into leadership-ready narratives, visuals, and recommendations.
• High attention to detail and data integrity, a disciplined approach to version control, documentation, and reconciliations between sources.
• Systems thinking and process orientation, the motivation to streamline finance, contracts, and reporting workflows, and improve repeatability.
• Ability to manage deadlines in a fast-paced environment, the capability of juggling recurring deliverables with ad hoc requests.
• Excellent organizational skills, including time management systems, project planning skills, and an ability to meet goals and deadlines in a fast-paced environment.
• A growth orientation, including curiosity about new ideas and approaches to work, openness to feedback, and a willingness to learn new skills.
• An entrepreneurial mindset that leads to flexibility and creativity in pursuit of goals and resilience in the face of setbacks.
• A focus on outcomes, with a history of achieving goals despite challenges.
• Collegiality. At Watershed, we work collaboratively, engaging others in decisions, exchanging and challenging one another's ideas and assumptions, and providing deep feedback on all written material, as defined by our Core Values. We expect every member of the team to embrace this approach and to operate with transparency, integrity, and a sense of humor.
• A personal commitment to social justice. At Watershed, we believe that systemic, longstanding bias within our nation's institutions has too often harmed Black and brown Americans, low-income individuals and families, people with disabilities, and immigrants. Our work aims to build systems that serve all people and that bolster the prosperity and rights of those who have been excluded from educational and economic opportunities.

EXPERIENCE

Applicants will have 8–10 years of experience in business operations, contracts, pricing strategy, or business development, including demonstrated experience managing teams and negotiating contract terms. Experience on the business side of a consulting or client-services firm — operations, pricing, contracts, or business development — is valued, as is experience in a government-facing client-service environment. We are especially interested in candidates excited to build: to stand up new functions and systems, take on unfamiliar operations areas, and grow the role as the organization matures.

COMPENSATION

The salary for this position is $140,000–$150,000. It includes a comprehensive benefits package, including medical, dental, vision, short-term disability, life, and AD&D insurance, paid sick and personal leave, and stipends for work-from-home expenses and professional development. All employees are eligible for end-of-year bonus pay contingent on the business's profitability.

LOCATION

This position is fully remote. Travel is required for 3-4 staff events per year.

TO APPLY

Please submit your application through our careers page linked here. In addition to submitting your information and resume, please submit brief (no more than 1-2 paragraphs for each question) responses to the questions on the application. Your answers will help us to better understand your interests, experiences, and perspectives in addition to our review of your resume. 

EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER

Watershed is an equal opportunity employer. All applicants will be considered for employment without attention to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran, or disability status.