Director of Special Projects

Groundwork Collaborative • Washington, DC

1d • $145,000 - $179,000 • Hybrid

About The Position

The Director of Special Projects is a creative, nimble operator in Groundwork's operations team, partnering with the COO, internal team members, and outside consultants to drive key operational initiatives. The job is equal parts inventor and builder: sometimes designing a solution where none exists, other times laying the systems and infrastructure a fast-growing organization needs to scale. The role engages projects in different ways depending on the work: as end-to-end owner, cross-vertical collaborator, or subject matter expert lending operational depth to a specific workstream. This role is built for someone who thrives in both structure and ambiguity, jumps between contexts with ease, and brings both creative problem-solving and rigorous follow-through to whatever lands on their plate. You'll work across systems, data, operations, and strategy—building the infrastructure and workflows that help the organization scale and perform.

Requirements

• 7–10+ years of experience in operations, program management, or implementation-focused roles
• Demonstrated ability to move quickly, work across diverse workstreams, and pivot without losing momentum
• Creative problem-solver who can ideate effectively in spaces without established processes or precedent
• Strong project management skills with a track record of delivering complex initiatives end-to-end
• Experience building or managing dashboards, reporting systems, or data workflows
• High comfort with ambiguity—able to structure unclear problems, not just execute well-defined ones
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills; able to work across teams and translate between technical and non-technical contexts
• Self-directed and low-ego: equally comfortable taking direction and rolling up their sleeves

Nice To Haves

• Experience in nonprofit finance and operations, startup organizations, data development, CRM and project management platforms (e.g., Airtable, Salesforce, ClickUp, Asana), creative problem solver, and servant leadership mindset.

Responsibilities

• Lead Project Management & Execution
• Own project management for high-priority initiatives, from scoping through delivery
• Translate initiatives into clear workplans and timelines.
• Drive execution, proactively unblock issues, and ensure on-time delivery at a high standard
• Establish and maintain project management norms, systems and reporting
• Pivot fluidly between initiatives as organizational priorities evolve
• Ideate and Build in New Spaces
• Partner with the COO and leadership to problem-solve in areas without established playbooks and help define success when the organization is tackling something new, then build toward it
• Bring creative, practical thinking to novel operational challenges
• Surface approaches and opportunities that leadership hasn't yet considered
• Build Data Systems & Dashboards
• Lead development of internal dashboards and reporting tools across teams
• Help define key metrics and ensure consistent data tracking across the organization
• Maintain and improve fundraising data systems for pipeline tracking, reporting, and profiles
• Translate team needs into practical, usable reporting tools that improve data visibility and reliability
• Drive adoption of tools (e.g., CRM, dashboards, project tracking) in partnership with outside vendors where relevant
• Ensure systems are practical, well-documented, and consistently used
• Improve Workflows & Reduce Friction
• Identify and implement opportunities to streamline operations
• Introduce automations and process improvements that reduce manual work
• Standardize workflows to improve clarity, efficiency, and consistency
• Help turn strategy into clear, usable workflows and documentation; support teams in adopting new ways of working
• Support Strategic Planning
• Help operationalize organizational strategy and planning frameworks
• Support progress tracking and internal reporting on key goals
• Contribute to forward projections and materials development

Benefits

• We offer a generous benefits package including five weeks of vacation and personal leave, two week-long office closures, additional time off for floating and federal holidays, zero-premium health insurance, a generous HRA, a retirement match of up to 6%, up to 16 weeks parental leave, and health club and cell-phone reimbursements.
• We are a hybrid workplace, with two days a week in the office and three days remote, as well as the occasional need to work in person for events and special projects.
• Groundwork is a unionized workplace and is represented by the Nonprofit Professional Employees Union (NPEU). This position is not in the bargaining unit.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director
• Education Level: No Education Listed
• Number of Employees: 1-10 employees