Associate Director, Success Teams

Sunflower Services PBC; Washington (District of Columbia); Hybrid; USD 80,000 - 95,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

401(k) with company match

Paid time off

Job summary

Sunflower Services PBC is seeking an Associate Director, Success Teams to lead a portfolio of complex fiscally sponsored projects, fostering strong relationships with staff, donors, and grantees while ensuring compliance and financial health.

The role emphasizes client service, advocacy operations, and people management, with hybrid Washington, DC, or Durham, NC, or fully remote options across several states; requires 6–8 years of experience.

Qualifications

• 6-8 years of relevant professional experience.
• Experience with operational policies and processes in nonprofit/philanthropic sector.
• Proven budgeting, forecasting, and financial statement review skills.
• Grants management experience including due diligence and reporting.
• Strong project management and stakeholder management abilities.
• Excellent written and verbal communication.

Responsibilities

• Independently manage a portfolio of complex fiscally sponsored projects across workstreams.
• Build and maintain relationships with project staff, funders, and grantees.
• Provide operational leadership with contract, financial, and compliance oversight.
• Oversee grants management and reporting processes.
• Monitor funds, spend down, and funder reporting; identify trends and propose solutions.
• Lead time management and ensure priorities align with stakeholders’ needs.
• Mentor 3–5 junior staff; manage performance and development.
• Support advocacy-related initiatives while ensuring regulatory compliance.

Skills

Project management

Relationship management

Grants management

Budget forecasting

Compliance knowledge

Nonprofit familiarity

Stakeholder management

Proposal development

Communication skills

Microsoft Office

Tools

CRM database management

Microsoft Office Suite

Job description

Position:Associate Director, Success Teams

Location: Hybrid in DC or Durham, NC or remote in NJ, NY, NC, VA, IL, MD, DC

Job Id:131-PS-108

# of Openings:1

Job Title:Associate Director, Success Teams

Department:PS Success Teams

Location:Hybrid Washington, DC or Durham, NC; or Remote (New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Virginia, Illinois, Maryland)

Who We Are

Today’s societal challenges are more complex, interconnected, and urgent than ever. Sunflower Services is comprised of over 240 professionals with deep expertise in the philanthropic sector. We provide support services to fiscal sponsors and intermediaries—and their hundreds of mission-driven projects—that are creating meaningful change. We welcome jobseekers who are motivated by results and driven by impact. For a list of current job openings at Sunflower, please visit ourLinkedIn page .

Sunflower Services is an independent, nonprofit-owned Public Benefit Corporation dedicated to providing operational excellence to nonprofit and social impact organizations. Sunflower delivers integrated solutions in finance, HR, grants management, compliance, and other administrative areas, helping mission-driven organizations and changemakers focus on what matters most: their impact.

Position Overview

Associate Directors are experienced operations professionals with strong project management skills who oversee a portfolio of fiscally sponsored projects.

This role is ideal for experienced relationship managers interested in leading management for a portfolio of complex projects, and overseeing and managing account teams in that work. They work within an assigned team and with project staff members, donors, and other stakeholders to ensure all the operational pieces move forward successfully and efficiently. This role requires deep relationship building and thought partnership with project staff and internal teams.

This position generally reports to a Director, Partner Solutions.Advocacy-focused projects are a growing component of our work, so this would be a great role for someone with experience in the operations and compliance of nonprofit advocacy initiatives.

What You’ll Do

Client Services

• Independently project manage a portfolio of complex fiscally sponsored projects by leading workstreams, fostering team communications, and overseeing the execution of work completed by junior staff members. This includes:
• Build strong relationships with project staff, earning trust through clear and consistent communication, strong project management and adherence to accountabilities, and consistently approach client service with a problem-solving mindset.
• Provide expert operational leadership, grounded in Client Service Standards, including sound contract management, financial management and legal compliance to ensure projects remain financially sound and compliant with IRS, federal, and state regulations
• Grants management including overseeing the contract and subgrant processes from initial review and due diligence to drafting and implementation
• Oversee and manage the complexities of incoming funds, including proposal oversight, spend down tracking, and reports to funders
• Highlight concerns, propose solutions, and notify internal stakeholders of trends within the portfolio
• Deftly manage towards multiple deadlines and continuously ensure priorities align with the needs of all stakeholders, pulling in subject matter expert teams as needed
• Manage relationships between multiple stakeholders, including internal team, funders, programmatic staff, and grantees
• Participate in advocacy training, applying learnings to recognize and enforce advocacy and lobbying regulations to ensure your portfolio of projects adheres to ensure compliance with IRS, federal, and state regulations
• Ensure project data is accurately maintained
• Lead scoping, pricing, and monitoring of ongoing profitability of assigned projects within portfolio

People Management

• Oversee and manage performance accountabilities including setting individualized goals and managing to role expectations for each direct report
• Contribute to professional growth and satisfaction of early career staff on your project teams by providing appropriate direction, support, guidance, and mentorship on project work
• Promote a firm culture that centers equity and belonging; develop and share relevant skills and issue-area expertise
• As needed, people manage a team of 3-5 junior staff members, including performance management and a focus on developing, motivating, and mentoring direct reports
• Oversee time keeping for direct reports; liaising with assigned capacity director as needed
• Convey, support, and as appropriate, translate firm messages from leadership to direct reports

Other Responsibilities

• Participate in specialized team initiatives as assigned
• Support the development of more efficient processes, systems, and technologyas assigned
• Participate in training and learning activities throughout the year
• Support new business development by meeting with potential clients, evaluating projects, and developing collateral, proposals, and budgets as assigned
• Implement and adhere to department and organizational policies and procedures

What You’ll Bring

• 6-8 years of relevant professional experience
• Experience with operational policies and processes such as finance, HR, compliance and legal in the nonprofit, philanthropic, or business sector
• Demonstrated proficiency with budgeting, forecasting, and/or reviewing nonprofit financial statements
• Experience with grants management (either as incoming or outgoing funds), including due diligence and reporting
• Strong project management and elevated stakeholder management skills, including delegation, conflict management, and management of highly sensitive situations
• Excellent time management skills, effective prioritization, ability to meet deadlines, and drive multiple projects simultaneously
• Ability to solve complex challenges by identifying innovation and creative solutions
• Ability to work inclusively and collaboratively with diverse teams and audiences
• Strong written and verbal communication skills and the ability to effectively communicate difficult messages; adapt style, tone, and content to meet various needs
• Ability to use available resources and feedback to continually pivot, adapt, and grow
• Ability and understanding of how to use Microsoft Office Suite and CRM database management
• Ability to work inclusively and collaboratively with diverse teams and audiences
• Ability to facilitate team and project-level learning
• Preferred
  • Familiarity and/or experience working within a fiscal sponsorship structure is a plus
  • Experience making processes more efficient
  • Experience with or understanding of nonprofit (c3 & c4) advocacy compliance
  • Experience in compliantly structuring lobbying and politically related activitiesand guiding those projects
  • Experience in tandem/shared 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) contracts
  • Experience with grantmaking for lobbying or political purposes
  • Experience working with funders in the advocacy/political space
  • Experience with complex restricted funding, such as voter registration, project grant rule, etc.

Compensation and Benefits

The annual salary range for this position is $80,000 - $95,000. Our salary ranges are based on national compensation benchmarks of similar sized companies in professional services. This position is eligible for an annual bonus at 10% of the annual salary.

We offer a comprehensive benefits package that includes medical, dental, and vision insurance, plus a flexible spending account and health savings account, in addition to a 401k with a company match, and commuter benefits.

We give generous paid time off, with 16 days of vacation time, 10 days of personal time, 20 hours of volunteer time, 11 company holidays, and 4 optional holidays.

We support work-life balance with parental leave, UrbanSitter membership, Employee Resource Groups, and fitness and telecommunications reimbursements.

We value growth and development with options for education reimbursement and professional development.

We also offer disability, life insurance, additional voluntary insurances, and access to Teladoc and Health Advocate.

Work at Sunflower Services

Location Requirements

This is a full-time position. The position can operate on a hybrid schedule, based in our Washington, DC,or Durham, NC offices, or it can be fully remote from the following locations: Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, or Virginia.

Physical Requirements

• Prolonged periods of sitting at a desk and working on a computer

We will make reasonable accommodations under the guidelines of theAmericansWithDisabilities Act.

SunflowerServicesis an Equal Opportunity Employer without regard to race, gender, disability status, veteran status, or any other category protected by federal, state, or local law.