Operations Coordinator

Jews for Racial & Economic Justice; New York (NY); Hybrid; USD 43,000 - 48,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Healthcare (100% employer paid)

401(k) contribution

Hybrid work schedule

Paid holidays

Vacation days

Sick leave

Job summary

Jews for Racial & Economic Justice (JFREJ) seeks an Operations Coordinator to support HR, Operations, and Finance. You will manage day-to-day administrative lifecycles, maintain internal systems, and coordinate with PEOs to ensure smooth payroll and benefits processing.

The role emphasizes process improvement, cross-team collaboration, and safeguarding compliance. Hybrid work requires 2 days/week in Manhattan office; candidates must reside in NYC.

Qualifications

• Real-world administrative and organizational skills preferred.
• Experience coordinating payroll, HR, and office operations.
• Ability to manage multiple projects across departments without errors.
• Experience working with PEO platforms like Justworks, TriNet, or ADP.

Responsibilities

• Serve as operational anchor for HR, Operations, and Finance lifecycles.
• Handle day-to-day administrative tasks and contractor communications.
• Maintain systems across HR, Operations, and Finance to reduce compliance risk.
• Manage payroll processing, timesheets, and benefits verification.
• Coordinate with PEOs and external service providers; track renewal timelines.

Skills

HR systems

Operations management

Payroll coordination

Compliance tracking

Vendor/PEO coordination

Process improvement

Data entry/DB work

Team support

Tools

Justworks

ADP

TriNet

Airtable

Google Workspace

Job description

Reports to: Finance Director

Location: New York City (Hybrid – minimum 2 days/week in our NYC office)

The Opportunity

As our Operations Coordinator, you are the engine that keeps our organization running smoothly by providing critical, day-to-day support across our HR, Operations, and Finance departments. Managing these internal systems across both our 501(c)(4) and its sister 501(c)(3) protects our team from behind-the-scenes roadblocks and minimizes compliance risks. Your work directly enables our organizers and leadership to focus on long-term strategy and winning critical campaigns for racial and economic justice.

If you are energized by creating order out of complexity and want to use your operational strengths to build a more just New York, we want you on our team and in our community.

What You’ll Own (Your Core Impact)

In this vital role, you will build capacity across our HR, Operations, and Finance functions by serving as the operational anchor that handles day-to-day administrative lifecycles. By stepping in to own these essential tasks, you will directly clear the runway for the Finance Director and Leadership to focus on long-term organizational strategy work.

Your impact will center around three key areas:

• Growing & Optimizing Our Systems (Operations): You will learn our platforms inside and out, finding creative ways to optimize and improve our day-to-day tools. This is a space where you can stretch your problem-solving skills, turning complex administrative tasks into streamlined, user-friendly workflows that make daily life easier for all JFREJ staff.

• Sustaining the Movement (Finance & Compliance): You will protect the organization and reduce operational risk by streamlining financial tracking (like check processing), handling contractor communications, and serving as the primary administrative point of contact for our fiscally sponsored grassroots projects.

• Empowering our Team’s Success (HR): You will directly fuel our team's day-to-day success both inside and outside our physical office. This means running accurate payrolls, managing the full employee lifecycle (from onboarding logistics to offboarding), tracking timesheets and expense reports, and confidently navigating daily communications with our PEO so our staff feels fully supported.

Our approach to qualifications:

JFREJ is deeply committed to economic and racial justice, which extends to how we hire. We recognize that traditional credentials—like university degrees or formal corporate corporate titles—are historically gated by systemic bias.

We care about what you can do and your readiness to learn, not where you learned it. If you have gained your administrative and organizational skills through grassroots volunteering, mutual aid, family care, or non-traditional work histories, your real-world experience is highly valued here.

What you’ll need to be successful:

Your real-world capabilities and problem-solving mindset matter more than a specific number of years on a resume. To be successful in this role, you’ll need to have:

Day-to-Day Operations & Systems Management:

• Successful experience having served as the primary point of contact for external service providers (such as PEOs, office host facilities, or tech support teams), which included tracking contract renewal timelines, troubleshooting day-to-day service issues, and notifying affected parties of deadlines as needed.

• Successful experience building and streamlining operational, administrative, and tracking systems.

• Expertise in using, learning, and adapting to productivity suite and collaboration software tools.

• Proficiency in relational databases and no-code automation (like Airtable).

• Successful experience writing clear instructions to staff about a new tool, system or process and where to find more information or who to ask for more guidance.

• Proven track record of resolving workflow bottlenecks without a software budget by building creative, no-cost workarounds using everyday tools like Google Workspace or basic database features.

• Comfortable moving, organizing, and managing physical action inventory and office supplies (with or without assistive devices or reasonable accommodations).

Administration and Compliance:

• Successful experience organizing and tracking the intake of complex documentation to ensure compliance.

• Proven ability to simultaneously track timelines, assets, and tasks for 3 or more independent projects or departments without losing data or dropping deadlines.

• Track record of identifying data errors and timeline shifts early, with a proactive approach to supervisor escalation.

Staff Support and Payroll Coordination:

• Hands-on experience running non-exempt payroll on time and with very minimal errors, tracking employee timesheets, and verifying benefits through at least one major Professional Employer Organization (PEO) platform like Justworks, TriNet, or ADP.

• Demonstrated experience exercising good judgment in handling sensitive organizational data—such as staff salaries, private personnel files, and donor/member details—with absolute confidentiality and care.

• Proven experience training people in new technology in a kind, patient and effective manner that ultimately leads to seamless and frictionless workplace systems.

Championing JFREJ’s Mission and Values:

• Successful experience calmly pivoting daily tasks and adjusting focus to handle unexpected requests when urgent priorities or rapid-response actions suddenly shift.

• Strong ability to give and receive feedback, direction, and instructions effectively.

• Deep care and pride for one's work and the impact it has on the organization's ability to pursue its mission.

• Demonstrated ability to pursue all of the above in alignment with JFREJ’s core values.

JFREJ recognizes that systemic barriers limit access to traditional credentials. If your real-world experience aligns with the responsibilities above, we strongly encourage you to apply.

Salary and Benefits: The salary for this position $31.00 – $35.00 per hour for 32 hours per week (Hourly, non-exempt | ~$51,584-$58,240 annualized), with an extremely competitive benefits package and generous personnel policies including: 100% employer paid premiums for healthcare, employer 401(k) contribution, flexible work schedule, up to 18 paid holidays per year, 12 vacation days in first year and 16 in following years, 10 sick and safety leave days, family leave benefits that exceed NYS requirements, and sabbatical leave every 5 years. This is a hybrid role with a minimum 2 days on site at our Manhattan-based workspace. This role is mostly 9am-5pm but occasional evening and weekend participation in external JFREJ events is encouraged and at times required. The role includes occasional site visits to our storage facilities. This person needs to reside in NYC.

For questions, reach out to [e-mail]. We will begin interviewing for this position in mid-October and hope to have the person in the role by the end of November.

Our Commitment to Equity

JFREJ is an equal opportunity employer. People of color, Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews, women, gender nonconforming people, people with disabilities, immigrants, LGBTQIA+, and people who live or have lived in poverty are strongly encouraged to apply.