Director of Special Projects

POSITION OVERVIEW 

Title: Director of Special Projects

Company: Groundwork Collaborative 

Reports to: Chief Operating Officer

Location: Washington D.C. This is a hybrid workplace, with Mondays and Wednesdays in the office and three days remote, as well as the occasional need to work in person for events and special projects. 

Overtime Status: Exempt 

Salary: 145,000 - $179,000

ABOUT GROUNDWORK COLLABORATIVE 

Launched in 2018, Groundwork Collaborative is driven by the idea that We Are The Economy: when all of us are doing well, that is when our economy thrives. We fight for progressive economic policy and narrative change that builds accountable public power, breaks up concentrations of private power, and affirmatively centers people too long left out of prosperity. We understand that taken together, these actions will lead to a stronger and more resilient economy.  

Groundwork’s unique structure – part strategic communications, part think tank, and part issue advocacy organization – allows us to drive narrative and policy change with credibility, expertise, and impact. We work with four core audiences – the media, policymakers, economic policy experts, and grassroots organizations. We use targeted policy campaigns, timely research and messaging to build a community across the progressive movement to advance a truly inclusive economic worldview.  

POSITION SUMMARY 

The Director of Special Projects is a creative, nimble operator in Groundwork's operations team, partnering with the COO, internal team members, and outside consultants to drive key operational initiatives. The job is equal parts inventor and builder: sometimes designing a solution where none exists, other times laying the systems and infrastructure a fast-growing organization needs to scale. The role engages projects in different ways depending on the work: as end-to-end owner, cross-vertical collaborator, or subject matter expert lending operational depth to a specific workstream. 

This role is built for someone who thrives in both structure and ambiguity, jumps between contexts with ease, and brings both creative problem-solving and rigorous follow-through to whatever lands on their plate. You'll work across systems, data, operations, and strategy—building the infrastructure and workflows that help the organization scale and perform.

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES 

Lead Project Management & Execution

• Own project management for high-priority initiatives, from scoping through delivery
• Translate initiatives into clear workplans and timelines.
• Drive execution, proactively unblock issues, and ensure on-time delivery at a high standard
• Establish and maintain project management norms, systems and reporting 
• Pivot fluidly between initiatives as organizational priorities evolve

Ideate and Build in New Spaces

• Partner with the COO and leadership to problem-solve in areas without established playbooks and help define success when the organization is tackling something new, then build toward it
• Bring creative, practical thinking to novel operational challenges
• Surface approaches and opportunities that leadership hasn't yet considered

Build Data Systems & Dashboards

• Lead development of internal dashboards and reporting tools across teams
• Help define key metrics and ensure consistent data tracking across the organization
• Maintain and improve fundraising data systems for pipeline tracking, reporting, and profiles
• Translate team needs into practical, usable reporting tools that improve data visibility and reliability
• Drive adoption of tools (e.g., CRM, dashboards, project tracking) in partnership with outside vendors where relevant
• Ensure systems are practical, well-documented, and consistently used

Improve Workflows & Reduce Friction

• Identify and implement opportunities to streamline operations
• Introduce automations and process improvements that reduce manual work
• Standardize workflows to improve clarity, efficiency, and consistency
• Help turn strategy into clear, usable workflows and documentation; support teams in adopting new ways of working

Support Strategic Planning

• Help operationalize organizational strategy and planning frameworks
• Support progress tracking and internal reporting on key goals
• Contribute to forward projections and materials development

About you:

• 7–10+ years of experience in operations, program management, or implementation-focused roles
• Demonstrated ability to move quickly, work across diverse workstreams, and pivot without losing momentum
• Creative problem-solver who can ideate effectively in spaces without established processes or precedent
• Strong project management skills with a track record of delivering complex initiatives end-to-end
• Experience building or managing dashboards, reporting systems, or data workflows
• High comfort with ambiguity—able to structure unclear problems, not just execute well-defined ones
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills; able to work across teams and translate between technical and non-technical contexts
• Self-directed and low-ego: equally comfortable taking direction and rolling up their sleeves

Preferred: Experience in nonprofit finance and operations, startup organizations, data development, CRM and project management platforms (e.g., Airtable, Salesforce, ClickUp, Asana), creative problem solver, and servant leadership mindset. 

Compensation

The salary for this position is $145,000 - $179,000 annually. We offer a generous benefits package including five weeks of vacation and personal leave, two week-long office closures, additional time off for floating and federal holidays, zero-premium health insurance, a generous HRA, a retirement match of up to 6%, up to 16 weeks parental leave, and health club and cell-phone reimbursements. We are a hybrid workplace, with two days a week in the office and three days remote, as well as the occasional need to work in person for events and special projects. Groundwork is a unionized workplace and is represented by the Nonprofit Professional  Employees Union (NPEU). This position is not in the bargaining unit.  

How to apply

To begin the application process, please submit an application on our career page, including your resume and a cover letter detailing your interest in this role. Our hiring process includes an initial interview, a short skills assessment, one-on-one interviews, and a panel interview with members of our team.

This announcement will remain posted on our hiring page until the position is filled.

New Venture Fund Careers

Groundwork Collaborative is a project of the New Venture Fund, a 501(c)(3) public charity that incubates new and innovative public-interest projects and grant-making programs. The New Venture Fund is committed to attracting, developing and retaining exceptional people, and to creating a work environment that is dynamic, rewarding, and enables each of us to realize our potential. The New Venture Fund’s work environment is safe and open to all employees and partners, respecting the full spectrum of race, color, religious creed, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, political affiliation, ancestry, age, disability, genetic information, veteran status, and all other classifications protected by law in the locality and/or state in which you are working.

E-Verify

NVF participates in E-Verify and will provide the federal government with employees’ Form I-9 information to confirm authorization to work in the United States. Job candidates and employees authorized to work may not be discriminated against on the basis of national origin or citizenship status.

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