Sr. Manager Operations

Seattle Social Housing Developer•Seattle, WA

12d

About The Position

The Sr. Manager Operations reports directly to the Chief Operating Officer and manages SSHD’s operations function and team, translating approved operating priorities into consistent, accountable execution. The role establishes operating routines, tools, workflows, and cross-functional coordination to support a growing portfolio, implement the social housing model, prepare for acquisitions and property transitions, and move commitments from decision to completion. It is a hands-on management role in a rapidly evolving public development organization. The position connects operational functions, manages implementation, identifies gaps, and escalates matters requiring director or executive judgment. It does not replace the COO’s enterprise leadership or assume the day-to-day responsibilities or technical ownership of third-party property management, asset management, finance, compliance, resident governance, communications, human resources, information technology, or real estate development. The job posting lists the role as “Sr. Manager Operations” in the title and “Director of Operations” under Position Details. It is an exempt position with a stated pay range of $135,000–$161,000, direct reports, and a requirement to reside in King County. The employee must pass a background check and is generally prohibited from residing in housing owned, developed, operated, or managed by SSHD, except where a limited operational exception is approved.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in business, public administration, real estate, or a related field, or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
Five or more years of progressively responsible experience in operations, housing, property management, public administration, real estate, nonprofit management, or a related field.
At least one to two years leading people or complex programs.
Demonstrated ability to build operational systems, standard operating procedures, accountability structures, and performance dashboards in a growing or changing organization.
Experience coordinating multiple departments, vendors, consultants, and senior stakeholders around time-sensitive deliverables.
Strong judgment regarding escalation, decision rights, confidentiality, resident impact, and organizational risk.
Excellent project management, written communication, meeting facilitation, analytical, and follow-through skills.
Ability to organize incomplete information, clarify ownership, and move work forward without overstepping functional expertise or delegated authority.
Commitment to racial equity, public accountability, housing stability, resident dignity, and SSHD’s social housing mission.
Must pass a background check.
Must reside in King County.
As a condition of employment, generally must not reside in housing owned, developed, operated, or managed by SSHD, except where SSHD has approved a limited operational exception.
Ability to adapt to shifting priorities and take on additional responsibilities as the role and organization evolve.

Nice To Haves

Experience with affordable housing, social housing, multifamily operations, property transitions, acquisitions, lease-up, or third-party property-management oversight.
Knowledge of housing compliance, waitlist or leasing administration, resident engagement, public procurement, contract administration, emergency management, or organizational change.
Experience implementing work-management, document-management, property-management, or enterprise information systems from a business-operations perspective.
Experience working in a public development authority, government, mission-driven real estate organization, or similarly regulated environment.

Responsibilities

Develop and maintain the operational calendar, annual work plan, decision log, policy inventory, standard operating procedure library, and implementation trackers.
Establish operating rhythms, including cross-functional meetings, dashboards, action-item ownership, deadlines, escalation protocols, and executive follow-up.
Translate approved policies and executive decisions into workflows, templates, training, controls, and measurable deliverables.
Identify process gaps, duplicated work, unclear ownership, and operational risks; recommend and implement practical improvements.
Support implementation and adoption of enterprise work-management and information systems with the COO and future CIO, serving as a business-process owner rather than technology owner.
Manage operational readiness for acquisitions, new developments, property transitions, and lease-up after strategic direction and transaction parameters are approved.
Maintain integrated readiness plans covering property-management onboarding, staffing, vendor mobilization, resident communications, compliance, leasing and waitlist workflows, building operations, security, emergency preparedness, insurance coordination, and opening-day requirements.
Coordinate owners, consultants, property managers, and internal departments so operational dependencies are identified and completed on schedule.
Facilitate post-acquisition and post-launch reviews and incorporate lessons learned into future playbooks.
Support evaluation and establishment of internal property-management capacity while preserving accountability for current third-party property managers.
Monitor third-party property managers’ compliance with approved work plans, service expectations, reporting requirements, management agreements, and escalation protocols; route performance concerns to the COO and Asset Management.
Coordinate recurring property operations reviews and follow up on occupancy, delinquency, work orders, incidents, security, resident communications, building conditions, and other operating indicators.
Track high-priority incidents and corrective actions across property management, vendors, counsel, insurance, communications, and internal staff while preserving accountable functions’ decision rights.
Support vendor scopes, procurements, onboarding, performance monitoring, renewals, and closeout in partnership with Finance and the designated procurement lead.
Integrate vendor and consultant deliverables into SSHD operations.
Coordinate implementation of the approved social housing operating model, including resident-facing materials, internal playbooks, affordability progression processes, waitlist administration, eligibility workflows, and staff training.
Partner with Compliance, Asset Management, Finance, Resident Governance, Communications, legal counsel, and property management to operationalize approved program rules.
Maintain implementation controls, readiness checklists, exception-routing procedures, and records showing how policies are applied.
Track operational impacts and patterns and elevate policy questions, financial tradeoffs, resident impacts, or legal risks requiring COO or executive-team decisions.
Support consistent implementation of resident-services referrals, restorative-justice processes, resident-governance commitments, and housing-stability procedures without assuming technical ownership of those functions.
Manage day-to-day administrative operations, including office operations, shared operational calendars, records and workflow management, business continuity, and cross-department logistics.
Partner with Human Resources on onboarding and offboarding operations, role clarity, training logistics, and organizational-policy implementation.
Partner with Finance on purchasing workflows, invoice and contract routing, budget tracking for assigned operating initiatives, and internal controls.
Coordinate emergency-response and continuity plans and help ensure staff understand roles, escalation paths, and documentation expectations.
Hire, supervise, coach, and evaluate operations staff; set team priorities and assignments; establish service standards; and recommend staffing changes as the portfolio and headcount grow.
Own the operations team’s work plan and results and approve routine operating expenditures within delegated limits.
Prepare operational dashboards and decision-ready briefing materials for the COO and, as requested, the executive team.
Maintain an operational risk and dependency log and follow up with responsible owners on mitigation plans.
Distinguish routine operational issues from matters requiring legal, financial, policy, reputational, resident-impact, or executive review and escalate promptly.
Analyze operating data and trends, recommend corrective action, and verify approved corrective actions are completed.
Serve as the COO’s delegate on implementation matters within defined authority; do not make policy, financial, personnel, legal, or external commitments beyond delegated authority.