Interim Head of Strategy & Operations, Full-Time

Our Minds Matter; Vermont; Hybrid; USD 129,000 - 151,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, vision & dental benefits

PTO 25 days/year

Paid federal holidays

Flexible spending accounts

Parental leave

Flexible hours & teleworking

Professional development stipend

401k with 3% match

Job summary

Our Minds Matter is seeking an Interim Head of Strategy & Operations to translate the 2030 plan into coordinated execution across the CEO’s office, the board, and operations. You will manage budgets, forecast growth, and align staffing with funding and capacity, while guiding expansion across districts and revenue streams.

The role requires engaging with senior leadership, maintaining clear communications, and driving scalable processes to support rapid organizational growth.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of progressive experience in strategy, operations, HR, or chief-of-staff roles.
• Experience working with a board of directors or board committees.
• Budgets, forecasting, and building financial or growth models.
• Translating multi-year plans into annual goals and accountable workstreams.
• Leading change and designing scalable processes for growth.

Responsibilities

• CEO strategic support and board liaison; align with CEO and leadership.
• Translate strategic plan into annual priorities and owners; track progress.
• Support hiring on upcoming senior revenue/development roles.
• Lead forecast of budgets and operating/talent models for growth.
• Keep expansion targets in sync with funding and program capacity.
• Develop scalable frameworks and go-to-market guidelines for growth.

Skills

Strategic thinking

Change leadership

Project management

Budgeting & forecasting

Executive communication

Cross-functional collaboration

Job description

Our Minds Matter (OMM) is working toward a day when no teen dies by suicide. Driven by research and led by teens, OMM clubs create safe, brave spaces where young people build social connections, practice self-care and healthy habits, and offer peer-to-peer mental health support. Originally founded as the Josh Anderson Foundation, we began with five schools in Fairfax County in 2012 and a sole employee: founding Executive Director Lauren Anderson, who named the organization in honor of her brother, Josh, who died by suicide at the age of 17. In the decade-plus since our founding, OMM has grown to become a beloved tradition at more than 200 schools, across four school district partners in the DC Metro Area (DMV), backed by a solid body of data and evidence. Now we're ready to grow this life-saving work to scale. We closed out the 2025-26 school year by approving a new strategic plan - and setting an ambitious goal to increase our impact 5x and reach 500,000+ teens a year by 2030.

The Role

The Interim Head of Strategy & Operations will be responsible for turning the 2030 Strategic Plan into coordinated, well-resourced execution across the CEO's office, the board, operations, and expansion (in both districts and revenue).

The Interim Head of Strategy & Operations will report to the CEO to keep strategy, budget, talent, and growth commitments aligned as OMM scales, so that expansion is paced to committed funding and the organization's capacity to deliver.

Competencies needed to be successful in the role:

• Strategic thinking and prioritization: Translates long-range goals into sequenced priorities, names tradeoffs clearly, and keeps the organization focused on what matters most.
• Change leadership and systems building: Designs scalable processes and structures, and guides teams through adopting new ways of working.
• Project management and leadership: Designs dashboards and project management systems to track progress and support continuous improvement, training and engaging staff to adopt the system and report timely data.
• Financial and operational acumen: Builds and manages budgets, forecasts, and growth scenarios, and connects the numbers to programmatic and talent decisions.
• Executive communication and discretion: Produces clear, board-ready materials, aligns messaging across audiences, and handles sensitive information with sound judgment.
• Influence and cross-functional collaboration: Builds trust with executives, board members, staff, contractors, and partners, and moves work forward without relying on positional authority.

OMM's Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Pursuing diversity, equity, and inclusion is a moral imperative for Our Minds Matter (OMM), and integral to our work of empowering students to improve their overall school culture around mental health so that no teen dies by suicide.

OMM affirms the inherent dignity of each employee and person we work with while dismantling any inequities within our organization’s policies, programs, and services, creating an inclusive environment where all can flourish and become one’s best self. We are building a community whose members have diverse cultures, backgrounds, and life experiences. Vital to this is leadership and staff who are representative of the communities we serve, providing culturally competent and accessible curriculum and resources and constantly learning from and adapting to the communities we work with.

OMM strongly encourages members of historically marginalized communities to apply for this position, in particular individuals who identify as Black, Indigenous, Latine or other People of Color, immigrants, people with disabilities, people who are gender expansive, members of the LGBTQ+ community, and individuals from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. OMM does not discriminate on the basis of class, race, color, sex, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran status, political ideology, age, creed, religion, ancestry, national origin, or the presence of any sensory, mental or physical disability. Excepting any undue hardship, OMM will provide reasonable accommodations upon request for candidates taking part in all aspects of the selection process.

Key Responsibilities

CEO strategic support and board liaison. Works closely with the CEO, executive leadership team, and Strategic Planning Board Committee Chair. Tasks related to this job include:

• Serve as thought partner to the CEO on strategic priorities, tradeoffs, and sequencing toward the 2030 Strategic Plan ("2030 Plan")
• Translate the 2030 Plan into annual and quarterly priorities, workstreams, and owners, and track progress through quarterly reviews and leadership dashboards
• Serve as liaison to the board's Strategic Planning Committee
• Support the CEO in optimizing the board for organizational growth
• Prepare documents and materials for key internal and external meetings
• Align and streamline internal and external strategic communications to ensure clear messaging across leadership, staff, board, and partners
• Flag risks, gaps, and decisions that need CEO attention before they become urgent

Operations and budget management. Works closely with the CEO, Fractional CFO/Operations Team, HR Contractor, and department leads. Tasks related to this job include:

• Ensure department budgets align to the organizational budget, in partnership with the CFO
• Lead forecasting of future budgets and of the operating and talent model needed to support growth
• Identify process bottlenecks as OMM scales and elevate solutions
• Lead change management strategies to ensure smooth adoption of new operational processes, structures, and tools across teams
• Define the key operations role(s) needed after the six-month interim period, including:
  • Determining the tipping point for moving contracted work to full-time hires, and what that structure looks like
• Partnering with the fractional HR and CFO/Operations team as the bridge arrangements wind down
• Serve in a key role on the hiring team for the upcoming lead revenue/fundraising role

District expansion and revenue integration. Works closely with the CEO, Chief Revenue Officer (TBD), Public Education Funding SME, VP of Programs, and Director of Program Partnerships. Tasks related to this job include:

• Keep expansion targets and funding plans in sync: which districts, when, what they cost, and who is paying for what
• Model scenarios (pace of growth vs. funding secured) to inform sequencing and go/no-go decisions
• Ensure expansion commitments are not made ahead of committed funding or the programmatic capacity to deliver
• Codify early expansion and fundraising learnings into scalable frameworks and go-to-market guidelines

Other Responsibilities

Assist with organization-wide priorities and special projects where all hands are needed. Tasks related to this job include:

• Lead or support cross-functional initiatives assigned by the CEO
• Support preparation and follow-through for board meetings and staff retreats
• Assist with senior hiring and onboarding beyond the Chief Revenue Officer search, as needed
• Step in to cover critical gaps during periods of transition or rapid growth

• 8+ years of progressive experience in strategy, operations, HR, or chief-of-staff roles, including direct support of a CEO or executive team
• Experience working with a board of directors or board committees
• Demonstrated experience managing budgets, forecasting, and building financial or growth scenario models
• Track record of translating multi-year strategic plans into annual goals, workstreams, and accountability systems
• Experience leading change management and designing processes in a growing organization
• Experience leading initiatives through influence and coordination without direct supervision or authority
• Experience handling confidential information, exercising discretion and judgement regarding staff, board, or financial matters
• Experience working with contracted or fractional teams (e.g., finance, HR) and planning transitions to in-house staff
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, including preparing materials for senior and external audiences

Desired Qualifications

• Background in a mission-driven or youth-serving nonprofit during a period of significant growth
• Experience scaling programs across multiple sites or districts
• Experience serving on a hiring team for senior executives, especially revenue or development leaders
• Familiarity with go-to-market planning or building replicable expansion frameworks
• Experience in K-12 public education, including school district partnerships or public education funding streams

The salary range for this temporary, full-time, position is $128,894-$150,990 (annualized, prorated bi-monthly). The interim role is expected to start by December 1, 2026 and will last until May 31, 2027 (6 months), with the option to renew depending on organizational needs.

OMM offers generous benefits that include:

• Full premium coverage of medical, vision & dental benefits
• Generous Paid-time off (PTO) policy of 25 days/ year for new employees
• Paid leave for all 12 federal holidays, one Floating Holiday, a two week break at the start of July, and the week between Christmas and New Years
• Flexible spending accounts
• Office expenses, technology and cell phone reimbursement
• Paid parental leave
• Flexible hours and teleworking
• Professional development stipend
• 401k retirement plan with 3% match immediately

Location

Primary office location is 1140 3rd St NE, Washington, DC 20002. All staff generally meet in the office weekly on Wednesdays and work remotely the rest of the week. Additional in person asks may arise periodically and will be communicated in advance. The ideal candidate would be located in the DMV (Washington DC, Maryland, & Northern Virginia) metro area.

Please let us know what accommodations you might need when applying or if asked to be interviewed.