Chief Operating Officer - Architecting Teams & Executing Growth Strategy

Animal Pain Research Institute; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Animal Pain Research Institute (APRI) is seeking an experienced operations leader to architect growth and scale our nonprofit scientific organization. You will own internal operations, enabling the executive director and program teams to advance APRI’s mission with strategic, well-structured processes.

You will build capable teams across finance, HR, legal/compliance, and fundraising operations, design scalable systems, and partner with leadership to resolve bottlenecks as we grow in size and

Qualifications

• Experience scaling organizations from a handful to 10–20+ personnel, ideally scientific or research bodies.
• 9AM–5PM CT overlap with occasional in-person collaboration in Chicago.
• Strategic thinker and decision-maker about needed capabilities and leadership roles.
• Comfortable entering unfamiliar domains and learning quickly.
• Ability to build and delegate across finance, HR, legal & compliance, vendors, and fundraising ops.
• Experience designing scalable systems and processes as organizations grow.
• Experience leading or delegating operations across multiple functions.

Responsibilities

• Architect growth: structure teams, guide hiring, and build capabilities.
• Executive partnership: support the ED and surface what needs attention.
• Owning operations: manage finance, HR, legal/compliance, vendor management, and fundraising operations.
• Oversee internal and fractional operations to keep the engine running smoothly.

Skills

Strategic thinking

Leadership

Operational design

Cross-functional collaboration

Communication

Adaptability

Problem-solving

Job description

APRI is advancing scientific understanding and therapeutic strategies to mitigate pain and distress in humans and animals. We’re currently a small team but undergoing major growth, with increasing operational complexity.

About the Role

Your work will be high-impact. You will build the internal engine that allows the organization to execute at a much larger scale.

Reporting to the ED, you will take ownership of internal operations so that the ED and program teams can focus on advancing APRI’s unique mission. You’ll work on something novel and exciting, think strategically, and be trusted to work autonomously to keep things running smoothly and to navigate challenges.

This is the perfect role for someone that thrives on architecting teams and departments, scaling operations, resolving bottlenecks, and designing and executing overall organizational strategy.

Responsibilities

Architecting Growth

• Shape how the organization grows: structure teams, guide hiring, and build the right capabilities.
• Protect a collaborative, efficient culture as we scale.
• Spot current and future bottlenecks and risks, and design solutions suited to our size and stage.
• Turn strategy into operating plans, budgets, milestones, and resourcing decisions, and keep the organization aligned to them.

Executive Partnership

• Serve as the ED’s ops counterpart: take decisions off their desk and surface what truly needs their attention.
• Keep the organization coordinated and support the ED in delivering clear stakeholder communications.
• Act as a strategic thought partner, challenging assumptions and bringing better solutions.
• Take initiative on operational design, and delegate, coach, and elevate appropriately.

Owning Operations

• Build and delegate across finance, HR; legal, compliance, and risk; vendors and systems; fundraising operations and grants administration.
• Oversee internal and fractional operations so the engine runs smoothly.
• Empower operational leaders and resolve bottlenecks before they slow the team down.

Criteria

• You’ve successfully scaled organizations from a handful of people to 10-20+ personnel. Ideally, these were scientific or research organizations.
• 9AM-5PM CT overlap and capacity for occasional in-person collaboration with the ED in Chicago.
• Strategic thinker and decision maker. You constantly think about what capabilities and leadership roles we need next, how responsibilities should be divided, and what bottlenecks might emerge.
• Comfortable stepping into an unfamiliar domain and learning quickly.
• Ability to build highly capable technical, scientific and operational teams, or to find the right people to delegate it to.
• Experience designing systems and processes that adapt as an organization grew.
• Experience leading or delegating operations across several of: finance, HR, legal and compliance, vendor management, or grants and fundraising operations.

Strong candidates may also have:

• Technical/quantitative background;
• Working knowledge of US nonprofit compliance;
• Direct expertise in the day-to-day activities of finance, HR, legal and compliance, vendor management, or grants and fundraising operations.

How you work

• You are motivated by enabling others' impact rather than being at the front of it.
• You adapt proven solutions to fit a growing organization, creating enough process to make work reliable without slowing a small team down.
• You make decisions with incomplete information and know which decisions genuinely need the ED.
• You are a patient, clear communicator who can make operational topics understandable to everyone.
• You are energized by scaling functions and building and proactively supporting capable teams.

We strongly encourage people of every race, color, orientation, age, gender, national origin, disability status, veteran status and background to apply. We are committed to fostering an inclusive environment where everyone can feel part of our team and is supported to deliver their best work. We do not expect any candidate to meet all the criteria. If you need any adjustments to take part in our hiring process, please let us know!