Senior Director of Business Operations

Watershed Advisors•New Orleans, LA

3d•$140,000 - $150,000•Remote

About The Position

Watershed Advisors is seeking a Senior Director of Business Operations to join their Strategy & Operations Team. This is a fully remote position that can be based anywhere in the United States. Watershed Advisors supports governments in designing, implementing, and scaling transformative education plans by connecting education and workforce ideas, impact investors, and government leaders. They embed expert teams within government agencies to coordinate multi-year efforts in implementation, communication, financing, and evaluation to improve outcomes for American learners and job seekers. This role is a core member of the Strategy & Operations Team, reporting to the Chief Operating Officer. The Senior Director will lead the organization's business development, contracts, and risk management functions. Key responsibilities include working with the finance team to ensure business sustainability, providing data and strategic recommendations to executive leaders, managing Business & Contracts Managers, partnering with vertical leaders on business development and contracting strategies, conducting financial analysis (FP&A), and collaborating with the CFO. The ideal candidate will have a strong understanding of contracting, compliance, risk, pricing strategy, and client service business strategy. They should be comfortable with data, contract negotiations, building operational systems, developing team members, and fostering a positive team culture. This position will drive day-to-day operations and strategic projects to support business growth, sustainability, and organizational maturity.

Requirements

Contract negotiation experience, including setting negotiation strategy and standards, and providing hands-on support on terms and pricing when needed.
Government contracting, compliance, and risk expertise — a strong understanding of state and local government contracting; federal contracting and grants management a plus; comfort navigating various contract models (T&M, fixed fee, deliverables/milestone-based, grants).
Business development and contracts experience on the business services side of a government and/or social sector consulting / client services firm, such as operations, pricing, contracts, or business development.
A strong sense of pricing and profitability, and the business strategy judgment to see how contract and pricing decisions affect Watershed's bottom line.
Comfort working across finance, contracts, and CRM systems, and using data to inform decisions.
Strong analytical and modeling skills, the ability to build and audit models, structure messy inputs, and communicate assumptions.
Management experience, with a demonstrated ability to lead, coach, and develop a growing team.
A builder's mindset and willingness to get your hands dirty — excitement about building functions, systems, and teams from the ground up, doing the hands-on work yourself, and growing into new operations areas as the organization matures.
Clear, concise communication, the ability to translate data into leadership-ready narratives, visuals, and recommendations.
High attention to detail and data integrity, a disciplined approach to version control, documentation, and reconciliations between sources.
Systems thinking and process orientation, the motivation to streamline finance, contracts, and reporting workflows, and improve repeatability.
Ability to manage deadlines in a fast-paced environment, the capability of juggling recurring deliverables with ad hoc requests.
Excellent organizational skills, including time management systems, project planning skills, and an ability to meet goals and deadlines in a fast-paced environment.
A growth orientation, including curiosity about new ideas and approaches to work, openness to feedback, and a willingness to learn new skills.
An entrepreneurial mindset that leads to flexibility and creativity in pursuit of goals and resilience in the face of setbacks.
A focus on outcomes, with a history of achieving goals despite challenges.
Collegiality. At Watershed, we work collaboratively, engaging others in decisions, exchanging and challenging one another's ideas and assumptions, and providing deep feedback on all written material, as defined by our Core Values. We expect every member of the team to embrace this approach and to operate with transparency, integrity, and a sense of humor.
A personal commitment to social justice. At Watershed, we believe that systemic, longstanding bias within our nation's institutions has too often harmed Black and brown Americans, low-income individuals and families, people with disabilities, and immigrants. Our work aims to build systems that serve all people and that bolster the prosperity and rights of those who have been excluded from educational and economic opportunities.
8–10 years of experience in business operations, contracts, pricing strategy, or business development, including demonstrated experience managing teams and negotiating contract terms.
Experience on the business side of a consulting or client-services firm — operations, pricing, contracts, or business development — is valued, as is experience in a government-facing client-service environment.
Candidates excited to build: to stand up new functions and systems, take on unfamiliar operations areas, and grow the role as the organization matures.

Responsibilities

Lead the business development pipeline — build and maintain reporting on the BD pipeline, bids/RFPs, and contract status, with an eye toward how that reporting should inform Watershed's growth and business strategy.
Set contract negotiation parameters and standards, and provide hands-on negotiation support to Managing Directors and Senior Directors on terms and pricing when needed.
Oversee contract administration, delivery, compliance, and risk in line with state and local government, federal, non-profit, and philanthropy requirements, across a range of contract models (T&M, fixed fee, deliverables/milestone-based, grants).
Protect Watershed's cash flow — ensure contract terms and invoicing processes are structured to secure timely, accurate payment from clients.
Lead resource allocation monitoring and analysis — track capacity and utilization across engagements against plan, and translate findings into recommendations and their implications for Watershed's financial model.
Oversee targeted FP&A and elevate strategic reporting on contract economics, revenue recognition, and profitability across engagements and clients to inform executive decisions.
Partner with the CFO, finance team, and leadership on key financial systems and processes, including setting a schedule and routine for regular financial updates.
Support proposal pricing strategy — analyze past pricing, utilization, and profitability, and share recommendations for future pricing and rate structures based on market signals. Support project teams with pricing and resourcing strategies for specific proposals that best support the resources required to do the work.
Guide the continuous improvement and development of business systems (CRM, finance, resource management, and contracts platforms) that underpin business development, finance, and reporting — improving reliability and reducing manual work and ensure proper functionality. This may require leadership of special projects as assigned and depending on capacity.
Improve processes and workflows across business development, contracts, and finance to increase consistency and reduce friction — building the SOPs, routines, and controls that keep the business running smoothly.
Manage and develop the Business & Contracts Managers — build their skills and capabilities across the full lifecycle of a deal (pipeline through delivery, invoicing, and compliance), ensuring both high quality, consistent transactional execution and proactive, insight-driven ownership.
Build organizational capacity across delivery teams — help Managing Directors and vertical leaders understand and manage their budgets and forecasts, and build shared knowledge of business development and contracting best practices and processes.
Contribute to a positive, inclusive, and engaged team culture across Strategy & Operations.
Roll up your sleeves and build from the ground up. This is a lean, growing team; you'll design and stand up functions that don't fully exist yet, do the hands-on work yourself while building the systems and team to scale it, and take on new operations functions and areas as the organization matures.
Partner with the COO on key strategic projects that support business growth, sustainability, and organizational maturity.