Sr. Director of Development Operations - Rancho Palos Verdes, CA

DEPARTMENT: Community Relations and Development · TITLE: Sr. Director of Development Operations & Project Management · STATUS: EXEMPT - Full Time · SALARY RANGE: $130,000 - $140,000 · THE SALVATION ARMY MISSION · The Salvation Army, an international movement, is an evangelical pa ...

Job description

DEPARTMENT: Community Relations and Development

TITLE: Sr. Director of Development Operations & Project Management

STATUS: EXEMPT - Full Time

SALARY RANGE: $130,000 - $140,000

THE SALVATION ARMY MISSION

The Salvation Army, an international movement, is an evangelical part of the universal Christian Church. Its message is based on the Bible. Its ministry is motivated by the love of God. Its mission is to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and to meet human needs in His name without discrimination.

POSITION SUMMARY

The Sr. Director of Development Operations & Project Management leads the Community Relations and Development Operations Team—the "engine room" of CRD—ensuring strategic clarity, alignment, and execution across the department. This position is part of the CRD leadership team and provides strategic guidance and direction in project management, advisory organization support, events planning, operational systems, and staff supervision.

This role ensures that CRD strategies move forward with clarity, accountability, and efficiency, with a strong focus on project leadership, cross-team coordination, and professionalizing operational systems.

This role also serves as the Territorial Advisory Board (TAB) Liaison and maintains oversight of advisory organization resources and communication to divisions.

EDUCATION AND WORK EXPERIENCE:

• Commitment to the Mission of The Salvation Army.
• Bachelor's degree required; Master's preferred.
• 8–10 years of progressively responsible experience in development operations, nonprofit management, project management, or related fields.
• Extensive project management experience and/or a certificate in PM.
• Demonstrated experience planning and executing major events and/or conferences.
• Strong organizational leadership and staff supervision experience.
• Experience working with Advisory Organizations or familiarity with Salvation Army governance is strongly preferred.
• Excellent interpersonal, written, and verbal communication skills; strong public speaking presence.
• Advanced project management skills; certification and/or mastery of PM tools strongly preferred.
• Ability to manage complex initiatives and timelines with minimal oversight.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ABILITIES REQUIRED:

• Maintains professional, positive, and collaborative relationships.
• Protects confidentiality and exercises sound judgment.
• Demonstrates initiative, adaptability, and organizational excellence.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

1. Project & Operational Leadership

• Lead project planning, cross-departmental coordination, and accountability to timelines and deliverables.
• Implement and champion use of project management and collaboration tools (Asana, Teams).
• Maintain planning frameworks, SOPs, workflow structures, and documentation for operations as well as the other disciplines within the department.
• Operationalize recommendations from commissions, reviews, evaluations, and advisory groups.
• Maintain a CRD-wide annual master calendar (budgeting cycles, conferences, reviews, NAB/TAB calendar, Echelon initiatives, and key milestones).
• Provide policy, process, and compliance guidance to CRD leaders and staff.
• Serve as a partner to the Territorial Executive Director of Development, providing proactive updates, reports, and guidance related to process and dependencies.
• Ensure executive support is provided at the highest level of excellence to the TEDD and department.
• Maintain excellent and professional communication with leadership at all levels related to all areas of oversight.
• Keep the team proactively apprised of project progress, upcoming events and deadlines, and any news that may impact them or our operations as a team.
• Create clear systems for collaboration and coordinate training and onboarding for the team in partnership with the TEDD and Sr. Directors.
• Provide oversight, mentorship, training and resources to direct reports.
• Oversee the effective management of department budgets, adherence to department policies, and maintenance of vendor contracts in partnership with the TEDD.
• Keep accurate and transparent record of any/all operation critical documentation.
• Provide an excellent onboarding experience for incoming CRD team members.
• Coordinate logistics related to visitors to the CRD team as needed.

2. Advisory Organizations & Territorial Advisory Board (TAB) Liaison

• Consult and resource the Territorial Commander, TAB Chair, and TAB taskforce leaders, helping them prioritize and implement board goals, track progress and outcomes.
• Create and maintain the TAB Executive Dashboard in the Boardable platform.
• Manage the Territory's relationship with Boardable and share relevant and timely information with the divisions as needed.
• Coach and collaborate with individual board members and subcommittees on board initiatives.
• Support the Chair in communication and development of the new TAB management model.
• Consult with the National Headquarters Advisory Organizations staff member on provision of resources, trainings, and opportunities for collaboration.
• Maintain and disseminate an organized and current library of Advisory Organization resources.
• Provide regular progress reports to the Territorial Commander, TAB, TEDD, and BA.

3. Echelon Support & Continuity

• Work collaboratively with the Territorial Director of Volunteer Engagement on the growth of Echelon chapters in the Western US by providing resources, tools and guidance.

4. Events, Gatherings & Leadership Engagement

• Lead planning and execution of major CRD conferences, workshops, and gatherings.
• Oversee logistics, vendor negotiations, project timelines, communications, and quality standards in partnership with the TEDD and CRD leadership team.
• Coordinate CRD representation in National events and initiatives as required.
• Ensure consistent excellence in event experience, messaging, and execution.
• Coordinate logistics related to the West's participation in CRD Commission in partnership with the TEDD.

5. Department Administration & Staff Leadership

• Supervise and develop the Operations Team (Business Operations Manager and Executive Associate).
• Maintain a positive, collaborative, service oriented, and strategically aligned team culture.
• Ensure proactive executive support systems for TEDD (calendar, meeting prep, briefing materials).
• Steward departmental assets, continuity archives, and operational knowledge.

PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS:

Qualified individuals must be able to perform the essential duties of the position with or without accommodation. A qualified person with a disability may request a modification or adjustment to the job or work environment in order to meet the physical requirements of the position. The Salvation Army will attempt to satisfy requests as long as the accommodation needed is reasonable and no undue hardship would result.

• Ability to travel to anywhere in the territory to conduct statistics trainings/seminars.
• Ability to sit, walk, stand, bend, squat, climb, kneel, and twist on an intermittent or continuous basis.
• Ability to grasp, push, pull objects such as files, file cabinet drawers, and reach overhead.
• Ability to operate telephone.
• Ability to operate a desktop or laptop computer.
• Ability to lift up to 25 lbs. (usually file boxes).
• Ability to access and produce information from a computer.
• Ability to understand written information.

REPORTS TO: TERRITORIAL EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT