Relationship & Operations Specialist

Mission-Edge; San Diego (CA); Hybrid; USD 36,000 - 40,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible hybrid work environment

Paid time off and paid holidays.

Collaborative, mission-driven team

Full-time position with pay ranging

Job summary

Mission Edge is seeking a Relationship & Operations Specialist to support our Fiscal Sponsorship team. The role focuses on deepening client relationships, optimizing processes, and enabling scalable support for 70+ fiscally sponsored projects across the U.S.

You will collaborate with Accounting, HR, and Fiscal Sponsorship, overseeing onboarding, contract drafting, and system enhancements while maintaining a high-touch service standard in a hybrid San Diego environment.

Qualifications

• Minimum 1 year of experience in client service, operations, or a related field.
• Comfortable working with AI tools and automation platforms.
• Strong organizational and time management skills with high attention to detail.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including clear explanations of complex processes.
• Legally authorized to work in the U.S.

Responsibilities

• Triage and respond to requests from fiscally sponsored projects for HR, accounting, and operations.
• Manage full cycle client relationship management from inquiry to onboarding and ongoing check-ins.
• Draft, execute, and track master service agreements using approved templates.
• Lead client onboarding and conduct systems trainings and orientation.
• Leverage AI tools and automation to identify inefficiencies and design scalable processes; document in dashboards and SOPs.
• Support donor and full cycle grants management.

Skills

Client relationships

AI tools experience

Automation platforms

Documentation & SOPs

Tools

G-Suite

Microsoft Office

Basecamp

Teamwork Help Desk

Monday.com

NetSuite

Job description

Relationship & Operations Specialist

Department: Mission Edge - Fiscal Sponsorship

Employment Type: Full Time

Location: San Diego, CA

Compensation: $26.00 - $29.00 / hour

Are you ready to join an amazing team that truly makes an impact in our community? Are you looking for more from your job than just a paycheck? If you answered yes to both, please keep reading!

About the Role

Mission Edge is seeking a Relationship & Operations Specialist to support the Fiscal Sponsorship department in providing high touch support to our fiscally sponsored clients which operate projects under Mission Edge’s 501c3 umbrella. This person will play a crucial role in deepening client relationships, answering questions, optimizing systems and processes, and helping create scalable support to nonprofit projects nationwide. You will be one of the first people our clients turn to, and the person they trust to follow through.

You will support our 70+ fiscally sponsored projects, ensure smooth office operations, and help our practice scale. You will work side by side with our Accounting, HR, and Fiscal Sponsorship teams to get clients clear answers quickly.

Mission Edge operates on a hybrid model out of our Liberty Station, Point Loma office, a historic waterfront neighborhood packed with restaurants, coffee shops, art galleries, and more — the kind of place where you’ll actually want to come into the office.

Our Values

• Enjoy the Journey: We know lasting social change doesn’t happen overnight, so we value the journey as much as the destination.
• Be Transparent: Honesty and openness are fundamental — we share information and feedback early and often.
• Never Settle: We constantly reimagine what’s possible, always looking for better ways to serve our community.
• Leverage Our Circle: We’re humble and know we’re not experts at everything, so we foster and lean on strong networks.
• Teach by Doing: Actions speak louder than words — we model what we expect from our clients and ourselves.

Key Responsibilities

What You Will Do

• Triage, respond, assign, follow up on and support requests from fiscally sponsored projects for HR, Accounting, and operational needs.
• Support full cycle client relationship management (inquiry, application, onboarding, service fulfillment & check-ins, offboarding), building trust and rapport at every stage.
• Own the drafting, execution, and tracking process for master service agreements for fiscally sponsored organizations and internal Mission Edge contracts, preparing agreements from approved templates and flagging non-standard requests for review.
• Spearhead client onboarding and lead systems trainings and new client orientation, setting a welcoming and confident tone from day one.
• Leverage AI tools, automation platforms, and emerging technology to identify inefficiencies and design intelligent systems that take repetitive tasks off the team’s plate. Document what you build in dashboards, knowledge bases, and SOPs, iterating on what works.
• Ensure proper donor and full cycle grants management.
• Track, balance, prioritize and fulfill multiple requests and tasks at a time, using judgment about what is urgent, what can wait, and when to elevate.
• Manage office and equipment inventories, order new supplies as needed.
• Send bi-weekly payroll deadline reminders, working closely with the payroll processing team to ensure all timesheets are submitted by the deadline, and working with leadership to address any projects or individuals who miss the deadline on more than one occasion or cause off-cycle payrolls as a result of missed deadlines.
• Other projects and duties, as necessary.

Desired Outcomes for this Role

• Clients consistently share that they receive exceptional service, with their questions answered promptly and clearly, and describe their relationship with Mission Edge as a real partnership.
• Clear and accessible record of client communications, requests, and data points is kept up to date.
• Master service agreements and internal contracts move from draft to signature without stalling, and their status is easy for anyone on the team to find.
• Understand the nuances of Mission Edge deeply enough to support current and prospective clients’ needs with a varying degree of autonomy.
• Embrace a transparent and collaborative environment where both big picture concepts and small details are openly discussed.
• Readily embrace and gracefully navigate both client and internal team conflict.

Skills, Knowledge and Expertise

What You Will Bring

• A passion for client success and customer support, and a track record of building long term working relationships.
• Demonstrated hands-on experience with AI tools (e.g., ChatGPT, Claude, or similar) and automation platforms (e.g., Zapier, Make, or no-code equivalents), with an ability to quickly learn additional systems including G-Suite, Microsoft Office, Basecamp, Teamwork Help Desk, PEX, AdobeSign, Monday.com, and NetSuite.
• A growth mindset with the ability to jump in, learn quickly, and operate with autonomy, and to adapt when priorities, systems, or client needs change.
• Demonstrated experience in process improvement.
• Comfort handling contracts and document workflows, including preparing agreements from templates, routing them for signature, and tracking them to completion.
• 2-3 years of work experience in a client facing role a plus.
• Demonstrated experience in relationship management or account management, ideally supporting the same clients over months or years, is a plus.
• Experience in the nonprofit sector is a plus.

Who You Are

• You have empathetic, active listening skills to ask clarifying questions and always exude a people-first attitude.
• You are a genuine team player who shares information early, asks for help when you need it, and gives credit freely.
• In the face of multiple tight deadlines or high demands, you remain steadfast and calm, ready to provide the highest quality support.
• You think in lists and love to organize the details, especially documenting processes.
• You love process improvement and creating efficiencies by leveraging technology and automation.
• You willingly take initiative and can hear an end goal, then go figure out possible solutions without detailed instruction.
• You are thoughtful and solution oriented, understanding which situations may require extra attention.
• You are excited to learn how Fiscal Sponsorship plays a fundamental role in Mission Edge’s greater purpose and the overall growth of the nonprofit sector.

Qualifications

• Minimum 1 year of experience in client service, operations, or a related field.
• Comfortable working in technology platforms and leveraging AI.
• Strong organizational and time management skills with high attention to detail, including the ability to prioritize competing client requests and reset those priorities as things shift.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to explain complex processes in plain language.
• Collaborative team player who thrives in a fast-paced, evolving environment, comfortable sharing context and coordinating across Accounting, HR, and program staff.
• Legally authorized to work in the U.S.

Bonus Points For…

• Experience working in or with nonprofit organizations, preferably in a client facing role.
• Familiarity with tools like Monday.com, Basecamp, Teamwork or similar platforms.
• Prior experience building workflows, automations, or process templates, plus comfort with data tracking, dashboards, and reporting.
• Experience supporting contract administration, e-signature platforms, or agreement tracking.

Benefits

Perks & Benefits

• Flexible hybrid work environment
• Paid time off and paid holidays.
• Collaborative, mission-driven team that values your growth and contributions.
• Full-time position with pay ranging from $26-29 per hour depending on experience.