Vice President Program Operations

Reading Is Fundamental•Washington DC, DC

1d•$135,000 - $140,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Reading Is Fundamental (RIF), the nation’s leading children’s literacy nonprofit, is seeking an experienced and strategic Vice President of Program Operations to lead and strengthen the operational backbone of our national literacy programs. This executive-level role is responsible for ensuring the high-quality, scalable, and compliant delivery of RIF’s programs nationwide—across both print and digital formats. The Vice President of Program Operations oversees end-to-end program execution, ensuring that millions of books and literacy resources are sourced, managed, distributed, and experienced by children in ways that advance program outcomes, equity, and funder commitments. This is a highly collaborative leadership role for a systems-minded operator who thrives at the intersection of logistics, technology, data, and mission impact.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree required.
10–15 years of progressively responsible leadership experience in program operations or operational management.
Proven experience leading complex, multi-stakeholder programs at scale.
Strong background in process design, operational execution, and performance management.
Strong project management, budgeting, and data analysis skills.
Excellent written, verbal, and executive communication skills.
Demonstrated ability to lead teams through growth, change, and continuous improvement.
Comfort leveraging enterprise systems (e.g., Salesforce) and emerging technologies, including AI, to drive efficiency and insight.

Nice To Haves

Experience with large-scale book distribution, inventory management, fulfillment operations, and/or digital program delivery strongly preferred.
Experience in K–12 education, literacy, or adjacent mission-driven sectors.

Responsibilities

Provide strategic leadership for RIF’s national program operations, ensuring consistent, high-quality implementation aligned with organizational goals and funder requirements.
Oversee end-to-end program execution, including planning, deployment, logistics, compliance, monitoring, and performance measurement.
Establish and continuously improve operational standards, workflows, and playbooks to support scale and consistency across geographies and partners.
Partner with program leadership on proposal development and project budgeting, aligning operational capacity with funding and impact goals.
Lead inventory and fulfillment operations supporting large-scale distribution of books and literacy resources nationwide.
Oversee forecasting, inventory management, vendor coordination, and shipment execution for print materials.
Ensure accurate tracking, reconciliation, and reporting of inventory and fulfillment data for compliance, funder reporting, and decision-making.
Collaborate closely with digital teams to align physical distribution with digital program access, ensuring a seamless and equitable experience for children and families.
Identify opportunities to improve efficiency, reduce waste, and strengthen impact through data, systems optimization, and process improvement.
Design and implement scalable operational frameworks that support program growth and increasing complexity.
Ensure strong responsiveness to internal teams, external partners, and funders.
Align stakeholders across program, book operations, and digital teams to ensure coordinated execution and shared accountability.
Proactively identify operational risks, dependencies, and capacity gaps, and implement solutions.
Champion best practices in compliance, documentation, workflow management, and performance tracking.