Naicu

• American Board of Foot and Ankle Surgery

With a 50-year history of ensuring excellence in podiatric surgical care, the American Board of Foot and Ankle Surgery (ABFAS) is entering its next chapter from a position of financial stability and organizational strength. As Director, Strategic Operations, you will build on those strengths by modernizing the systems and processes that support the organizations work, while optimizing the infrastructure behind its board, committees, and volunteer leadership.

Reporting to the Chief Operations Officer, you will serve as a cross-functional force multiplier, translating strategic priorities into repeatable workflows and measurable follow-through. You will partner with colleagues across departments to assess current processes, improve efficiency, and establish greater consistency in how the organization works across functions, makes decisions, and documents its work. You will also work closely with the CEO/Executive Director on governance and board matters, helping formalize practices and maintain continuity through leadership and committee transitions.

You will also oversee the meetings and volunteer engagement function, establishing the structure and standards that ensure board, committee, volunteer, and stakeholder activities are supported through clear expectations, professional communication, effective planning, and accurate documentation.

How Youll Make an Impact

Success in this role requires a proactive approach and an enterprise-wide perspective to identify inefficiencies, research options, present recommendations to the executive team, and follow through on implementation. Early priorities include:

• Strengthening governance, board, committee, and volunteer support infrastructure, developing systems that can be easily maintained and scaled across the organization.
• Improving organizational effectiveness by identifying opportunities for automation and process improvements that reduce time spent on administrative tasks and free staff to focus on higher-value work.
• Ensuring the meetings and engagement function provides a concierge-level, service-oriented experience for ABFAS volunteers and stakeholders.

Work Environment, Salary, and Benefits

• This is a fully remote position with domestic travel up to 10% throughout the year to support and attend in-person meetings and events (committee meetings, board meetings, staff retreats, and other events).
• The budgeted salary range for this position is $125K – $155K, with an outstanding benefits package including generous paid time off, 100% employer-paid medical, dental, vision, and life insurance for employees, a 4% retirement match, and more.
• Our team is proud to have a supportive culture of trust, respect, and collaboration. Your perspective and contributions will be valued, and you will like who you work with.

Responsibilities

Governance, Infrastructure and CEO Partnership

• Partner closely with the CEO/Executive Director to support effective governance processes for the board, committees, task forces, and volunteer leaders.
• Develop and maintain governance calendars, agenda planning tools, workflows, templates, support materials, and documentation standards aligned with ABFAS bylaws, policies, committee charges, and organizational priorities.
• Coordinate governance-related activities, including tracking decisions, assignments, and follow-up items to promote accountability and continuity.
• Support periodic review of governance practices, committee structures, volunteer engagement processes, and decision-making workflows.
• Review ABFAS bylaws and, when appropriate, recommend updates that reflect organizational needs and established governance practices.
• Maintain strong working relationships with the CEO, COO, department leaders, and volunteer leadership.

Meetings and Volunteer Engagement Oversight

• Supervise the staff member responsible for meeting coordination, volunteer engagement, and related operational support.
• Ensure board, committee, volunteer, staff, and stakeholder meetings are planned and executed in accordance with established expectations, timelines, policies, and service standards.
• Oversee the tools and practices that support meeting preparation, communication, documentation, follow-up, and issue escalation.
• Partner with executive leadership, department heads, and volunteer leaders to support effective committee operations and consistent volunteer experience.
• Monitor and improve meeting and volunteer engagement processes to strengthen service, continuity, and organizational accountability.

Organizational Effectiveness and Cross-Functional Coordination

• Identify process gaps, clarify workflows, document procedures, and develop tools that improve consistency, execution, and accountability.
• Facilitate cross-departmental collaboration and coordinate initiatives involving process improvement, policy implementation, system integration, organizational change, and strategic execution.
• Help departments align interdependencies, handoffs, decision rights, timelines, resource needs, and ownership.
• Support the translation of strategic priorities into practical project plans, operating routines, documentation standards, and measurable outcomes.

Policy, Standard Operating Procedure (SOP), and Documentation Management

• Oversee the creation, review, revision, dissemination, and maintenance of organizational policies, SOPs, forms, templates, and related operating documentation.
• Establish and maintain standards for version control, review cycles, approval workflows, document retention, and communication of policy and process changes.
• Maintain a centralized knowledge management structure for policies, SOPs, templates, forms, governance records, process maps, and related documentation.
• Collaborate with department leaders and subject matter experts to ensure procedures remain accurate, current, and useful.
• Coordinate centralized tracking of key contracts, renewal dates, notice requirements, and related follow-up in partnership with department owners and legal counsel as needed.

Quality Improvement, Compliance Readiness, and Organizational Controls

• Establish quality improvement practices that promote consistency, accuracy, reliability, compliance readiness, and continuous learning.
• Create mechanisms to review process performance, identify recurring issues, document lessons learned, and implement improvements.
• Partner with department leaders to identify operational risks, documentation gaps, training needs, and opportunities to strengthen internal controls.
• Maintain or coordinate tracking systems for recurring compliance-related obligations.
• Provide concise updates to the COO, CEO, and executive leadership on governance, organizational effectiveness, process improvement, and quality priorities.

Qualifications

• Bachelors degree with 8+ years of progressive leadership experience in association, nonprofit, or related operations.
• Advanced degree or relevant certification in nonprofit or association management, governance, organizational effectiveness, quality improvement, compliance, or project management preferred.
• Demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional initiatives and translate strategic priorities into practical workflows, SOPs, systems, and accountability measures.
• Experience working with boards, committees, volunteers, executive leadership, or complex stakeholder groups is strongly preferred.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to prepare clear materials for executives, board, staff, and volunteer audiences.
• Strong judgment, discretion, attention to detail, and follow-through, with the ability to manage multiple priorities in a lean mission-driven organization.
• Proficiency with Microsoft 365 tools and comfort using shared systems, templates, dashboards, and documentation platforms.

About the American Board of Foot and Ankle Surgery

Founded in 1975 and located in San Francisco, CA, ABFAS works to protect and improve the health and welfare of the public by advancing the art and science of podiatric (foot and ankle) surgery. ABFAS facilitates the board certification process, from preparing and supporting candidates for certification to helping members maintain their certification.