Chief Administrative Officer

Hope For The Warriors®; Springfield (VA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

HOPE For The Warriors seeks a Chief Administrative Officer to drive enterprise-wide operations, finance, technology, data governance, and risk management. This executive role translates strategy into disciplined execution and builds scalable infrastructure across the nonprofit.

Based in Virginia, the CAO partners with the CEO and C-Suite to shape budgets, resource plans, and governance, while leading cross-functional teams to improve accountability and organizational performance.

Qualifications

• Significant senior leadership experience spanning enterprise operations, administration, and finance.
• Experience building or transforming operating infrastructure.
• Strong financial management and analytics abilities.

Responsibilities

• Assess and strengthen operating model, systems, policies and decision rights.
• Build scalable organizational infrastructure for accountability and execution.
• Lead governance practices and risk oversight across functions.
• Translate executive priorities into budgets, plans, and processes.
• Partner with CEO and C-Suite to drive strategy into action.

Skills

Senior leadership

Enterprise operations

Administration

Finance management

Strategic translation

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent

Advanced degree welcomed

Job description

HOPE For The Warriors is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to restoring a sense of self, family, and hope for service members, veterans, and military families. As HOPE continues to grow its impact, we are strengthening the enterprise systems, leadership practices, and infrastructure needed to sustain that mission for the long term.

The Opportunity

HOPE is seeking a Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) to serve as a senior enterprise leader and member of the C-Suite. This is a builder role for an executive who can translate strategy into disciplined execution across the organization—connecting operations, finance, technology, data, people, risk, and governance so that decisions become durable systems, clearer accountability, and stronger organizational performance.

The CAO will be based in Virginia and will lead the continued evolution of HOPE’s administrative and operating infrastructure. Working collaboratively with the CEO and C-Suite, the CAO will help shape enterprise finance and organizational strategy and will be accountable for translating those decisions into execution across HOPE—embedding priorities into budgets, resource allocation, operating plans, processes, systems, controls, technology, and clear organizational accountability.

The right leader will bring enterprise judgment, financial fluency, and a practical systems mindset. They will know how to strengthen infrastructure without creating unnecessary bureaucracy and how to lead change in a way that builds trust, clarity, and organizational capacity.

What You Will Lead

Enterprise Operations & Infrastructure

• Assess and strengthen HOPE’s operating model, systems, policies, processes, and decision-making practices.
• Build scalable organizational infrastructure that improves accountability, efficiency, communication, and execution across functions.
• Create clear operating rhythms, decision rights, and cross-functional mechanisms that translate executive priorities into action.
• Lead organizational risk management, continuity planning, administrative controls, and core operational policies.
• Determine where capabilities should be strengthened internally, centralized, automated, outsourced, or redesigned.
• Provide executive oversight of technology, data, and other administrative capabilities so investments align with strategy and staff needs.

Finance Strategy & Enterprise Execution

• Collaborate with the CEO and C-Suite on organizational finance strategy, long-range planning, budgeting, forecasting, scenario planning, and resource allocation.
• Operationalize C-Suite finance and strategy decisions through enterprise operating plans, systems, processes, controls, resource decisions, and accountability mechanisms.
• Create the management discipline, visibility, and follow-through needed for leaders to execute against enterprise priorities and financial decisions.
• Bring strong financial judgment to enterprise decisions, including tradeoffs among mission priorities, capacity, risk, and sustainability.
• Strengthen the connection between finance, operations, programs, development, technology, and organizational planning.
• Help ensure financial systems and management practices are scalable, decision-useful, and appropriate for a complex nonprofit environment.
• Build and steward an enterprise data environment that gives HOPE trusted, connected, accessible information for decision-making, accountability, learning, and mission impact.
• Establish practical data governance, ownership, quality standards, systems integration, and reporting practices that reduce fragmentation and improve confidence in organizational information.
• Ensure the C-Suite and organizational leaders have meaningful metrics, dashboards, and management information to support strategy, execution, resource decisions, and mission impact.
• Build the internal capability, ownership, and accountability required for data and technology investments to deliver lasting organizational value.
• Serve as a trusted strategic partner to the CEO and an active member of the C-Suite.
• Lead complex organizational change with curiosity, discipline, and respect for institutional knowledge and culture.
• Create clarity around roles, responsibilities, decision rights, and accountability across functions.
• In collaboration with organizational leaders and People & Culture, strengthen team effectiveness, leader development, management capability, and succession readiness while building systems that reduce dependence on individual executives.
• Help cultivate a culture that pairs deep mission commitment with transparency, collaboration, accountability, and continuous improvement.

Board & Governance

• Support the CEO in ensuring the Board of Directors and relevant committees have the information, context, and governance processes needed to fulfill their responsibilities effectively.
• Help shape Board agendas, materials, and decision processes so directors receive concise, timely, decision-useful information.
• Bring integrated operational, financial, risk, technology, and organizational perspectives to Board-level discussions.
• Support strong governance practices, policy development, enterprise risk oversight, and follow-through on Board decisions.

What We Are Looking For

An Enterprise Builder. You have built or substantially transformed organizational infrastructure and know how to create durable systems where functions are still evolving.

A Financially Fluent Operator. You can engage credibly in finance strategy, understand nonprofit financial dynamics and tradeoffs, and convert financial direction into enterprise execution. You do not need to be a career CFO or CPA.

A Systems Leader. You see the connections among finance, operations, people, programs, fundraising, technology, data, and risk—and design solutions across those boundaries.

A Thoughtful Change Leader. You listen first, build trust, clarify what should be preserved or changed, and bring people into the work of building stronger ways of operating.

A Governance-Credible Executive. You communicate with clarity and judgment at the Board level and understand how effective governance supports strong organizational performance.

A Hands-On Executive.. You can operate at the enterprise-strategy level while remaining willing to get close enough to a process or system to make it work.

Preferred Experience and Qualifications

• Significant senior leadership experience spanning enterprise operations, administration, finance, organizational infrastructure, or a combination of these areas.
• Demonstrated success building or transforming operating systems, processes, and cross-functional capabilities.
• Strong financial management, budgeting, forecasting, scenario-planning, and analytical capabilities, with experience translating finance strategy into operational execution.
• Experience working with and presenting to a Board of Directors and/or Board committees.
• Experience in a nonprofit, foundation, association, social-impact, or other mission-driven environment strongly preferred.
• Experience overseeing or collaborating closely across technology, data, finance, People & Culture, compliance, risk, and other administrative functions.
• Demonstrated success leading significant organizational change and building capability in resource-conscious environments.
• Bachelors degree or equivalent combination of education and significant executive experience; advanced degree or relevant credentials welcomed but not required.

What Success Looks Like

• HOPE has a clearer, scalable operating model with stronger cross-functional execution, accountability, and decision-making.
• C-Suite finance and strategy decisions are consistently translated into resource decisions, operating plans, systems, accountability, and management practices across the organization.
• The C-Suite, organizational leaders, and Board have reliable, integrated information to support decisions, accountability, risk oversight, and long-term planning.
• HOPE has a stronger enterprise data environment, with better-aligned systems, clearer governance and ownership, and reliable information that can scale with the organization.
• Organizational change is implemented with trust and discipline, leaders have greater clarity about roles, decisions, and priorities, and leader development is strengthened in collaboration with People & Culture.
• HOPE has stronger enterprise capacity to grow its mission without adding unnecessary complexity.

Why This Role Matters

For HOPE For The Warriors to expand its impact, the infrastructure supporting the mission must evolve with it. The CAO will help build that foundation by working with the C-Suite to connect finance and organizational strategy to disciplined execution, while creating the operational, technological, data, governance, and accountability systems that allow talented people to do their best work. This is an opportunity to shape not only how HOPE operates, but what the organization can become.