About the Role

The finance and operations director keeps PPL running. This person owns the financial, operational, legal, IT, and people-management infrastructure that allows a project-driven nonprofit to do its best work — and does so with the rigor, transparency, and continuous improvement orientation that PPL’s mission demands.

This is a senior role that reports to the executive director and works closely with the senior team on organizational health, resource strategy, and staff experience. It requires someone who is equally comfortable building a cash flow model, negotiating a contract, thinking carefully about what it means to create a good workplace, and supervising part-time staff. At an organization of PPL’s size, no systems run themselves — this person builds them, maintains them, and makes them better.

PPL has a fixed pay scale, with salaries set based on minimum years of experience, skill qualifications, and time of service to the organization. The starting salary for this role is expected to be between $142,400 and $166,900, depending on experience. 

Beginning July 1, we will review applications. (Note: PPL is a human-centered organization, and as such, all applications will be reviewed by a human being.)  We’ll then schedule interviews with selected candidates on a rolling basis, with an intended start date this summer.

Key Responsibilities

Finance & Business Operations (50%)

• Supervise PPL’s part-time bookkeeper, including oversight of accounts payable and receivable, transaction coding, monthly reconciliation, and tracking of in-kind support; review bookkeeper outputs before they inform management reports or funder submissions.
• Lead the annual budgeting process in coordination with the executive director, building budgets by project, function, and organization.
• Generate financial management reports for board meetings, presenting a clear and accurate picture of organizational health.
• Own and maintain PPL’s internal budget and resourcing tools, including cash flow projections, headcount, pay scale, project costing model, and related financial planning tools.
• Develop annual rate increases in coordination with the executive director.
• Supervise annual organizational audits and project-level financial audits, serving as the primary internal point of contact for external auditors.
• Oversee project financial and funder reporting in coordination with senior principals and project leads, ensuring accuracy and timeliness.
• Manage all organizational financial accounts and instruments, including the line of credit and credit cards; conduct regular reviews of providers and instruments to ensure PPL is using the best available options.
• Maintain all business insurance policies, both organization-wide and on a state-by-state basis as required.
• Maintain PPL’s tax exemptions, state charitable registrations, and incorporation documents, ensuring all filings are current and in good standing.
• Maintain an annual organizational calendar covering key finance, HR, compliance, and operational deadlines.
• Oversee physical and digital filing systems and records retention policy in collaboration with the Design Research Director, ensuring organizational records are organized, accessible, and appropriately retained or disposed of.
• Proactively identify and implement improvements to finance and operations systems.
• Set up and maintain PPL’s registration and compliance in federal, state, and local vendor and procurement systems (SAM, Passport, and equivalents).
• Maintain all finance and business operations materials in PPL’s internal knowledge-management system.

People Operations (15-20%)

 Hiring & Offboarding

• As part of the Hiring Team, also comprising the head of design and product director:
  • Manage PPL’s recurring intern recruitment cycles, including outreach, review, and coordination with project leads.
  • Maintain an ongoing recruit pool through regular sourcing and relationship-building with relevant talent pipelines.
  • Develop and improve recruiting data systems and candidate communications.
• Lead organizational onboarding for all new staff, including systems access, tool training, and cultural orientation.
• Lead organizational offboarding for departing staff, including systems deprovisioning, exit interviews, and synthesis of exit insights for leadership.
• Continuously improve onboarding and offboarding processes and documentation
• Maintain all recruiting, hiring, and offboarding materials in PPL’s internal knowledge-management system.

 Resourcing & Staff Time

• In collaboration with the head of strategy and the senior principals, manage assignment of staff to projects.
• Monitor and report on staff allocations against FTEs budgeted, at both the project and organizational level.
• Track and analyze staff ratios of billable, unbillable, and leave time on an ongoing basis
• Track and report on staff time off and remote work.
• Manage the timing and duration of staff sabbaticals and leaves.
• Maintain all resourcing and staff time materials in PPL’s internal knowledge-management system.

 HR Administration

The following responsibilities are included in this role’s scope but may be delegated in whole or in part to an external fractional HR consultant or PEO, depending on cost-benefit and organizational capacity. Whether these functions are handled internally or by a fractional partner, the finance and operations director retains ownership of the relationship, the systems, and the organizational knowledge. 

 Payroll & Benefits Administration

• Run regular and irregular payroll and implementing compensation changes.
• Manage unemployment and disability claims.
• Manage annual health benefits renewal and open enrollment.
• Identify and implement new or improved benefits offerings, including student loan repayment programs, 401(k) plan levels, and other emerging benefits.
• Identify and implement improved HR platforms.

 HR Compliance

• Monitor and ensure compliance with all applicable local, state, and federal HR regulations, including minimum wage and exempt salary thresholds, required workplace postings, and state unemployment insurance registrations.

 Staff Development & Evaluation

• Conduct regular one-on-one meetings with all staff to surface employment issues, support professional development, and collect insights on staff needs for leadership.
• Maintain staff evaluation/bonus systems and tools.
• Manage the staff promotion process.
• Maintain all staff development and evaluation materials in PPL’s internal knowledge-management system.

Contracts & Legal (10-15%)

Project Legal

• In collaboration with the head of strategy and the senior principals, conduct initial review of every project contract, grant agreement, and award letter.
• As needed, refer contracts to external counsel and manage the resulting dialogue.
• Manage communications with partners on legal and contractual matters.
• In collaboration with the head of strategy and the senior principals, onboard project teams to executed contracts, covering milestones, deliverables, invoicing schedule, and amounts.

Organization Legal

• Maintain and improve standard staff agreements, including offer letters, termination and furlough agreements, subcontractor agreements, and independent contractor agreements, in consultation with external counsel as needed.
• Manage staff immigration legal matters in coordination with external immigration counsel.
• Maintain all contract and legal materials in PPL’s internal knowledge-management system.

IT (5-10%)

• Supervise the office manager on day-to-day IT tasks, including machine assignment and tracking, orders, repairs, returns, software provisioning, and OS upgrades.
• Supervise the office manager on field equipment assignment and tracking; ensure field packs are maintained and equipment is upgraded or reordered as needed.
• Retain direct management of software license and seat management, including negotiation and tracking of nonprofit discounts.
• Review and approve the office manager’s IT work; serve as the escalation point for issues beyond their scope.
• Proactively identify and implement improvements to PPL’s IT systems and applications.
• Maintain the organizational passwords tool.
• Maintain all IT materials in PPL’s internal knowledge-management system.

Office Experience & Event Operations (5%)

• Retain direct ownership of evaluating the office environment against PPL’s brand and mission, and set direction for improvements to furnishings, layout, and overall atmosphere.
• Supervise the office manager on all aspects of day-to-day office operations, including staff Knolling routines, grocery inventory, supply ordering, plant maintenance, and facilities upkeep.
• Hold the office manager accountable to PPL’s standards for office staging, cleanliness, and readiness.
• Own and manage the contract with the janitorial company, as well as ongoing vendor relationships for essential office services including internet, water delivery, and other utilities.
• Review the office manager’s advance preparation for upcoming meetings and events — visitor lists, room setup, supply and food orders — and ensure standards are met.
• Manage desk licenses and office space allocation for remote and hybrid staff.
• Maintain all facilities materials in PPL’s internal knowledge-management system.
• Manage occasional event logistics, vendors, budgets, and timelines, with significant event support from staff event committees.

Organizational All-Hands/Senior Meetings (5%)

Along with all PPL staff, the finance and operations director will participate in all-hands planning and professional development activities, as well as in senior decision-making around organizational matters. 

Skills & Requirements 

PPL only hires people who are based in the New York City area or who are willing to relocate. (We do not provide relocation expenses.)

PPL maintains a hybrid work model. New York City staff are required to work at our Dumbo office at a minimum on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and are welcome to come to the office more frequently. Anyone who comes to the office must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

For this role, we’re seeking candidates who have the following experience and skills:

• Between 11 and 19 years of experience in administration/operations roles, preferably at nonprofit organizations and/or professional-services firms for a majority of that time
• Extensive experience with Excel and Quickbooks (or equivalent bookkeeping software) and with financial modeling/management tasks
• Extensive experience with people management, from recruiting and hiring to payroll and compliance
• Past experience with contract management, plus the confidence to assess and propose contract language
• Highly organized and intensely tidy, with extraordinary attention to detail and problem-solving skills — this is a role for person who can happily spend hours alone, focused on a detailed spreadsheet
• Demonstrated capacity to self-manage across multiple projects, juggle priorities, and produce high quality work on deadline
• A restless intolerance for not getting the best deal, for not working the best angle, for not achieving the optimal outcome when facing any administrative challenge
• A proactive interest in finding new, better ways to run operations
• Other valuable skills include familiarity with Airtable, WordPress, Adobe Creative Suite, and Claude Code

Organizational Approach & Culture 

PPL uses methods from design, technology, and social science to improve policies and services for low-income and marginalized Americans. Note that we’re not an advocacy organization. We work inside of complex systems to create change, primarily by conducting policy- and service-design projects with government agencies. (Over the years, we’ve learned that staff with a community or advocacy focus can find our systems orientation frustrating.)

Our work is challenging. The policies we seek to (re)design often serve people who are dealing with poverty or ill health or violence. In response, we work with intensity and purpose. We have a fast-paced, demanding work environment, and we strive for excellence in our analyses and product-making. 

That said, we are a friendly and optimistic bunch of people. We like to have fun while we struggle, and we believe in taking time off. We close our office for several weeks each year and generally restrict work communications to weekday business hours. We offer extensive paid leave and weekly personal hours.

 We are learning to make our hiring practices more inclusive and accessible to those coming from varied professional and personal backgrounds. If you need further support or have feedback on ways to make this application easier to navigate, please send us an email at info@publicpolicylab.org. 

Employment Policies 

The Public Policy Lab is an Equal Opportunity Employer; all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, creed, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, citizenship status, age, disability, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state or local laws. 

We can only consider candidates already authorized to work in the United States. Nothing in this job posting or description should be construed as an offer or guarantee of employment.