Executive Operations Director Jobs in Washington

Job Description: Looking for a high-trust executive operations role for someone who is discreet, highly organized, and can bring structure, follow-through, and calm coordination to a growing national nonprofit. About PLEJ The Partnership for Large Election Jurisdictions (PLEJ) is a national, nonpartisan community of support, best practices, and peer engagement among election offices serving the largest and most diverse populations in the U.S. PLEJ empowers election leaders to address operational challenges, communicate with clarity and transparency, and drive innovation. Through collaborative problem-solving and practical innovation, PLEJ helps build more resilient, efficient, and voter-focused election systems that improve the experience and confidence of millions of Americans. PLEJ is entering a critical phase of growth and impact—expanding its capacity, strengthening its institutional role, and positioning large jurisdictions as national leaders in election administration. Position Summary The Executive Operations Lead (EOL) serves as the operational engine of the Executive Office. This is a high-trust, highly organized, senior individual contributor role responsible for ensuring executive priorities move from conversation to completion through disciplined task tracking, proactive preparation, clear follow-up, and strong coordination across internal and external stakeholders. Reporting to the Executive Director (ED), the EOL helps keep high-priority work organized, visible, and moving forward. This role manages executive workflows; coordinates internal meeting rhythms; tracks commitments, decisions, next steps, and deadlines; coordinates follow-up across staff, consultants, partners, funders, board members, and other stakeholders; prepares materials for presentations, briefings, board meetings, and other high-stakes engagements; and helps ensure the Executive Office is well-prepared, well-briefed, and focused on the highest-value work. This is not a traditional administrative support role. While the EOL may provide selective scheduling, logistics, and administrative support where needed, the primary focus of the role is executive preparation, action tracking, project coordination, follow-through, and completion. The ideal candidate is a relentless organizer, strong writer, proactive problem-solver, and trusted operational partner who helps senior leaders stay prepared, focused, and accountable to PLEJ’s most important commitments. The EOL plays a central role in helping executive priorities move forward with clarity, consistency, and follow-through. RequirementsCore Responsibilities The EOL ensures the Executive Office is prepared, organized, and keenly focused on moving priorities from conversation to completion across executive, board, funder, partner, member, and internal work streams: Executive Office Action Tracking & Follow-ThroughMaintain Executive Office master action tracker to ensure all important commitments are completed timely.Capture commitments, key decisions, next steps, owners, deadlines, and open questions from executive mtgs.Monitor progress on priority follow-ups,identifying stalled, overdue, unclear, unowned, and/or at-risk items.Draft follow-up emails, recap notes, internal task assignments, reminders, and next-step communications.Coordinate with staff, contractors, partners, and other contributors to move deliverables through completion.Help translate conversations quickly into clear next steps, timelines, owners, deliverables, and decision points.Maintain weekly view of Executive Office priorities, upcoming deadlines, pending decisions, and open loops.Regularly review open items with ED, flagging items requiring decisions, escalation, reassignment, or closure.Close loops after meetings, ensuring decisions are documented, next steps assigned, and follow-up completed.Ensure follow-up materials reflect PLEJ’s standards of professionalism, clarity, accuracy, and nonpartisanship.Executive Preparation & Stakeholder Follow-ThroughEnsure Executive Office is prepared for upcoming virtual/in-person meetings, presentations, and briefings.For each meeting: identify purpose, outcomes, key messages, asks, risks, questions, decisions, and follow-ups.Anticipate questions, missing information, needed materials, and decision points ahead of key meetings.Prepare briefing materials, agendas, background notes, talking points, timelines, etc for priority meetings.Prep presentations: tracking content/input needs, coordinating input, ensuring readiness before deadlines).Maintain organized notes/background info for key funders, partners, board, members, and key stakeholders.Track follow-ups, deadlines, open asks, pending items, commitments, and next steps from external meetings.Draft polished follow-up correspondence, meeting summaries, internal updates, and concrete next-steps.Coordinate scheduling, preparation, follow-ups, and next steps for all priority external meetings.Support the Executive Office in keeping external commitments visible, organized, and moving forward.Ensure relationships are managed proactively, timely, documented, and aligned with PLEJ’s mission/values. Executive Office Operating RhythmCompile agendas, open items, and materials for Executive check-ins and other recurring leadership meetings.Maintain a forward-looking calendar of major deadlines, meetings, deliverables, and milestones across PLEJ.Create weekly priority summaries, including upcoming meetings, preparation needs, open decisions, follow-ups, and overdue items (distinguishing between urgent, important, delegable, and lower-priority).Identify gaps in communication, ownership, or workflow and recommend practical improvements.Support stronger coordination across member engagement, communications, operations, and partnerships. Board & Governance SupportHelp prepare the ED for board and committee conversations, and support timely follow-up after meetings.Prepare board and committee meeting calendars, agendas, materials, reports, decks, minutes, and follow-up.Maintain organized meeting files, tracking board/committee requests, decisions, action items, and deadlines.Ensure materials are clear, polished, accurate, and professional/nonpartisan in line with PLEJ’s mission.Support timely follow-up after board and committee meetings. Systems, Documentation & Knowledge ManagementCreate and maintain Executive Office systems that support consistency, clarity, and follow-through.Organize Executive Office files, templates, trackers, calendars, project folders, and shared documents.Enhance standard processes for meeting prep, action tracking, follow-up, and document storage.Help document institutional knowledge, recurring processes, key decisions, and important context.Support use of shared drives, project management tools, CRMs, task trackers, canvases, and other systems.Recommend practical tools or process improvements that reduce friction and increase follow-through.Help ensure important info does not live only in individual inboxes, memories, or one-off conversations. Special Projects & Convening SupportCoordination support for priority projects, convenings, and initiatives that require Executive involvement.Build workback plans, timelines, trackers, and communication loops for special projects.Coordinate across staff, consultants, vendors, partners, and other contributors to keep projects moving.Support planning and follow-up for convenings, retreats, strategic planning sessions, and priority events.Track deliverables connected to grants, partnerships, operational guides, convenings, or PLEJ priorities.Help ensure that special projects have clear owners, deadlines, next steps, and decision points.Surface risks, stalled items, missing inputs, or unclear ownership before they slow down progress. Administrative & Logistical SupportSupport scheduling for high-priority meetings with funders, board, partners, members, or key stakeholders.Handle logistics for board meetings, executive sessions, retreats, presentations, and priority engagements.Support travel, timekeeping, expense tracking, and other support to keep ED focused on high-value work.Support broader organizational efforts and collaborate across teams to meet evolving priorities, including taking on additional responsibilities as needed that contribute to PLEJ’s mission and impact. Qualifications Candidate should demonstrate the following experience, skills, and leadership qualities: RequiredAt least 5 years of experience in executive operations/support, project coordination, or similar role.Demonstrated experience supporting a senior executive, leadership team, or high-visibility function.Exceptional project management (ability to track action items, deadlines, owners, decisions, and follow-up).Ability to follow up persistently and professionally with senior leaders, staff, and external stakeholders.Strong written communication (clear emails, agendas, summaries, briefing notes, and executive updates).Experience preparing leadership for meetings, presentations, briefings, or priority external engagements.Comfort operating in a fast-moving, mission-driven org with high attention to detail through completion.Proficiency with Google Workspace, Zoom, project management systems, CRMs, and similar products.Ability to work professionally with sound judgment, discretion, emotional intelligence, and nonpartisanship. PreferredExperience in an election, public administration, philanthropy, association, or public-service environment.Experience preparing materials and supporting priority briefings, meetings, presentations, or engagements.Experience building internal operating systems (project trackers, dashboards, templates, or workflows). Key CompetenciesRelentless follow-through: Tracks commitments until they are completed, closed, reassigned, or escalated.Operational discipline: Creates order, clarity, and momentum across competing priorities.Executive preparation: Ensures senior leaders have the context, materials, and messaging they need.Executive presence: Communicates professionally with senior leaders, board, funders, and partners.Clarity: Writes clearly, summarizes effectively, and helps others understand what needs to happen.Anticipatory judgment: Notices what is missing, unclear, late, or likely to become a problem.Professional persistence: Follows up in a professional manner Discretion: Handles confidential, sensitive, and complex information appropriately.Calm under pressure: Brings steadiness and structure to a high-visibility environment.Systems orientation: Builds practical tools that make work easier, clearer, and more reliable.Service mindset: Takes pride in making leaders, teams, and relationships more effective. Key Outcomes (First 1–2 Years)Stronger Executive Office Operating Rhythm: The Executive Office has a consistent cadence for priorities, preparation, decision-making, follow-up, and escalation, helping ED stay focused on highest-value work.More Reliable Follow-Through: Executive Office commitments across board, funder, partner, member, staff, and internal work streams are consistently captured, assigned, tracked, and moved to completion.Improved Executive Preparation: The ED is better prepared for funder briefings, board meetings, presentations, partner conversations, member engagements, convenings, and other high-stakes meetings.Clearer Stakeholder and Board Coordination: Follow-up with funders, board, partners, members, and other stakeholders is timely, organized, well-documented, and aligned with PLEJ’s mission/values.Stronger Systems and Knowledge Management: Key decisions, recurring processes, reference materials, project trackers, and workflows documented, accessible; not dependent on individual inboxes or memory.Greater Executive Capacity and Project Momentum: The ED has more capacity to focus on strategy, fundraising, partnerships, member engagement, field leadership, and organizational growth because priority projects, open loops, and follow-up are more effectively managed. Benefits Compensation & LocationSalary range: $91,983.00 – $109,906.00, commensurate with experience.Location: Flexible, Washington, DC or Miami, FL (preferred), with regular travel for staff meetings, member convenings, and national engagement (up to 30%).PLEJ is a fully remote team. This role must be located and performed within the United States and be online and available between the hours of 9a and 5p ET, regardless of where candidate lives. Candidates must be legally authorized to work in the United States at the time of hire.Benefits: PLEJ offers a generous benefits package including:Fully covered medical, dental, vision, short-term and long-term disability, and term life insurance premiums for the employee (employee’s family may be added at employee’s expense)Unlimited PTO14 observed holidays and generous holiday schedule401(k) retirement plan The Partnership for Large Election Jurisdictions (PLEJ) is a 501(c)(3) nonpartisan, nonprofit organization committed to providing a community of support to election jurisdictions nationwide. PLEJ is an equal opportunity employer. Employees and job applicants are protected from discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, parental status, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, political affiliation, military service, or other non-merit-based factors. These protections apply to all employment decisions, including recruitment, hiring, performance evaluations, promotions, training, and career development. Additionally, PLEJ provides employees and applicants reasonable accommodations for disabilities; for pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions; and for religious beliefs, observances, and practices. This job description is intended to outline the general scope and responsibilities of the position and may be subject to updates based on organizational needs. It does not constitute a contract of employment.