Chief of Staff

Spark MicroGrants•New York, NY

8d•$80,000 - $90,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Spark seeks a Chief of Staff to partner with the CEO as we scale a proven village-led model through national government partnerships and multi-country growth. This scope of work outlines the role's mandate, core responsibilities and first-year goals. Spark believes that families in every village and neighborhood should have the right to community, purpose, and progress. We have worked in 800+ villages across 6 countries and pioneered a community-driven development model in sub-Saharan Africa. Our model combines facilitated community meetings with a small, discretionary grant to catalyze local action and institution building. We partner with governments and NGOs to scale the model on rural communities' own terms. You can read more on our website. The Chief of Staff serves as a partner to the CEO, ensuring strategic priorities are executed, cross-functional initiatives are effective, and the Board and external partners are engaged with care. The role blends strategic insight, project management, and communication excellence to increase organizational and executive effectiveness.

Requirements

5+ years of relevant experience, including supporting a CEO or senior leadership in a global, mission-driven organization
Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with sound judgment and discretion
Strategic thinking paired with a strong bias toward action and results
Comfort working independently while anticipating needs and proactively solving problems
Self-driven and highly professional, with an entrepreneurial spirit
A genuine interest in community-driven development
Proven ability to support cross-time zone collaboration

Responsibilities

Design and manage multi-year strategic planning and review cycles, as well as annual planning and reviews. Ensure these processes reinforce Spark's values in how plans are made and reviewed.
Lead Spark's multi-year and annual planning, goal-setting, and review processes.
Establish operating practices that keep strategic priorities moving (quarterly reviews, planning cycles, dashboards, implementation calendars).
Identify and communicate bottlenecks and opportunities to advance work with greater quality and speed, including unblocking decisions that get stuck.
Support the CEO on strategic initiatives, serving as thought partner, project manager, and implementer on high-potential projects and ensuring quality and timely completion of deliverables.
Pick up and drive ad hoc projects from initiation to close as needed by the Leadership Team, including for example drafting concept notes on, and for, emerging opportunities, including populating them with the most relevant data and market numbers for possible growth scenarios.
Oversee the Office of the CEO, partnering closely with the operations and fundraising teams.
Ensure CEO priorities progress internally, from modeling a multi-country initiative, to organizing a strategic retreat with partner organizations, to introducing an HR benefit that aligns the employee experience with the organizational ethos.
Ensure the Board of Directors and other key stakeholders are engaged and updated on Spark's work through high-quality communications and effective, efficient meetings and experiences.
Own preparation for Board of Directors meetings: decks, notes, and follow-ups.
Drive engagement with key external stakeholders through improving ad hoc communications during strategic moments.
Draft high-level communications, including donor updates, strategic announcements, and stakeholder correspondence.
Deliver internal and external communications on behalf of the CEO and Leadership Team, bolstering stakeholder and staff alignment and access to the information they need to advance Spark's work.
Keep teams informed about organizational priorities and progress.
Ensure important decisions, priorities, and next steps are communicated clearly across the organization.
Build and steward channels for discussion and alignment-building for strategic work.
Act as a barometer for alignment: identify where strategy is unclear, contested, or unevenly understood, and close those gaps proactively.