Design Operations Manager Jobs in California (NOW HIRING)

Location: Los Angeles, CA (Hybrid, with 3 days/week on-site required)

Hours: Full-Time, Exempt

Target Start Date: November 2, 2026

Compensation: $78,000 - 85,000 depending on experience

Most operators spend their careers inside machines other people built. Maintaining them. Optimizing them. Inheriting them. Every so often, a different kind of opportunity appears: an organization with real vision, real budget, real momentum and community trust, standing at the start of its next chapter, where the operating system hasn't been written yet.

This is that opportunity.

The Liberty Ecosystem is launching a new chapter of ambitious, community-rooted work, and we are hiring the person who will build its operational foundation from the ground up. Not a caretaker. Not a maintainer. An architect, on day one, with a blank page and a funded mandate.

We'll be straight with you: we've grown faster in vision than in infrastructure. That's not a confession. That's the job.

At the Liberty Ecosystem, we're not just building projects and providing community programs. We are igniting a movement that reimagines urban investment as a catalyst for justice, equity, and transformation. Our mission is to forge a reparative, restorative, and regenerative economy that uplifts Black Los Angeles and fuels a revolution across the African diaspora.

And this is not abstract. We led the largest raise for a community-owned real estate project in American history. Our ecosystem approach has been highlighted by the Brookings Institution. Our land-justice work has been featured in Yes! Magazine and Next City. Here is the work ahead: real, resourced, and ready for an operational backbone built from day one:

• Community-owned real estate: taking land off the speculative market and putting it into community hands
• Collective investment: pooling capital from everyday people so the community can invest in itself
• An economy owned by its people: supporting co-ops, ESOPs, and other worker-ownership models locally, and investing in enterprises that address the most challenging issues of our time
• A Black-centered ecosystem: local organizations and enterprises working together, strengthened by connections across the African diaspora

We are a nonprofit and a social enterprise in the truest sense: the discipline and ambition of a growth company, the soul of a movement. The vision is proven. The resources are in place. Now we need the operating backbone to carry it.

Vision can ignite a movement. Systems are what let it endure, scale, and keep its promises.

As our Operations Manager, you will build the operating system of the Liberty Ecosystem from zero. Not inherit it. Not maintain it. Author it. The workflows, the decision rights, the rhythms, the follow-through that turn revolutionary ideas into operating projects.

You’ll report to the Chief Operating Officer and work shoulder-to-shoulder with the executive team, with real authority: you will make operational decisions, approve expenditures within established guidelines, and supervise a small administrative staff. And one commitment we make up front: the systems you build will be how all of us work, leadership included. We’re not hiring someone to design processes we intend to walk around. Ask us about that in interviews. We welcome the question.

• Design, document, and relentlessly improve systems, workflows, and tools where none existed before — the zero-to-one build
• Create the core processes, decision rights, templates, and quality-control standards that make coordination easier and execution stronger across teams, programs, and ventures
• Lead and develop our small administrative staff, ensuring routine operations and special projects land on time, every time
• Review and approve operational expenditures, invoices, and budget requests in accordance with approved budgets, internal controls, and financial policies
• Exercise independent judgment daily, resolving operational issues and bringing clear recommendations to executive leadership on priorities, staffing, systems, and resources

• Build us into one of the most technologically advanced organizations in this movement by implementing AI-integrated systems and workflow automation that multiply what a lean team can accomplish
• Manage IT solutions, vendor partnerships, and project management platforms so our infrastructure stays aligned, scalable, and best-in-class
• Build the dashboards and metrics that let us see ourselves clearly: progress, health, momentum, and follow-through

• Run organization-wide project tracking so deadlines, milestones, and priorities are visible and met across every team
• Lead the meetings people actually want to attend: aligned, unblocked, clear on who does what by when
• Hunt down process gaps and bottlenecks before they slow the mission, and build a culture of continuous improvement and collective accountability

• Represent the Liberty Ecosystem in community, partner, and coalition spaces, ensuring community voices are not just heard but built into how we operate
• Support community outreach, neighborhood engagement, event partnerships, MOUs, and partner coordination so external relationships move with clarity, care, and follow-through
• Serve as connective tissue between operations, programs, and external partners, tracking commitments and helping deliver on them, because in this work, trust is the currency

Eighteen months from now, this organization will feel different because you were here.

The work will move with more clarity, more rhythm, and more force. Decisions will travel faster. Teams will know how to move together. Commitments will be tracked, honored, and turned into visible progress. Ideas that once lived in conversation will become real and tangible through the systems, rhythms, dashboards, workflows, and habits you have built.

And you will be different too. You will have helped build the operating architecture of a growing movement, not from the sidelines, but from the center of the work. You will have operational fingerprints on a portfolio of impactful projects that most operators only read about. And as the systems you build take root, your scope can expand toward designing and launching a new venture or program from the ground up.

This role is designed to grow with the person in it. We will formally revisit your scope and your compensation together at month six. Where it goes from there depends on what you build, the leadership you demonstrate, and what we are ready to pursue together. We suspect that will be a lot.

• You've built from zero. Somewhere right now, systems are running because you created them where nothing existed, not because you inherited someone else's playbook. You can tell that story with fire in your eyes.
• You are practically fluent in AI, not just “familiar with” it. You can walk us through real workflows you've transformed with Claude, ChatGPT, automation tools, or related platforms, and what those transformations made possible.
• You move fluently between worlds: sharp and credible with executives, vendors, and business partners; authentic and grounded with community stakeholders.
• You have 4+ years of progressive experience leading operations, systems, or process improvement at a startup, social enterprise, nonprofit, or operations-intensive business. We care about what you've built, not the sector you built it in.
• You carry a genuine commitment to racial and economic justice, with the cultural intelligence to match.
• An evolving role energizes you. You anticipate needs, prioritize ruthlessly, and stay composed when the ground moves.
• You are uncompromising on confidentiality, integrity, and professionalism.
• Bonus: you've touched real estate, property, or asset operations.

• You need everything built before you arrive
• You want a fixed lane in a settled organization where the systems are already running
• AI is a keyword on your résumé rather than a tool in your hands
• You’d rather hold the spotlight than build the stage

No judgment, those are honest preferences. They're just not this role.

• Mission Alignment and Advancement: We are dedicated to our collective goals and the advancement of our community
• Mutual Commitment: We show up for our organization and for each other
• Curiosity and Creativity: We encourage innovative thinking and the exploration of new ideas
• Initiation and Follow-Through: We are proactive in our efforts and committed to seeing projects to completion
• Respect for Confidentiality: We handle sensitive information with care and integrity

This exempt position offers a salary range of $78,000 - $85,000, commensurate with experience. And because this role is built to grow, compensation is too: your scope and salary will be formally reviewed at month six.

You'll also receive:

• Generous paid time off, paid holidays, and comprehensive health and wellness coverage.
• Professional development and continuing education support - conferences, certifications, trainings, and leadership development
• Educational assistance and growth resources aligned with your development goals
• Flexible work arrangements and a hybrid schedule designed for productivity, creativity, and balance, with three days per week onsite requirement.
• A ground-floor seat in a growing nonprofit social enterprise where you will shape how the organization works
• Direct engagement and leadership opportunities across affordable housing, workforce development, community economic development, and economic justice

We are proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. As a Black-led organization, we embrace diversity, equity and inclusion, and are dedicated to fostering a supportive environment for all team members.