Director of Operations

ORGANIZATION OVERVIEW

The Seattle Social Housing Developer (SSHD) is a Public Development Authority (PDA) committed to creating, owning, and stewarding permanently affordable, mixed-income social housing that is publicly financed, publicly controlled, and free from market speculation. As we lay the foundation for this transformative model, guided by international examples and rooted in public accountability, we are building a team to define a new standard for equitable, sustainable, and community-centered social housing development in Seattle. Our goal is to expand access, strengthen the social fabric of our city, and ensure housing that is affordable forever and inclusive by design for current and future generations.

POSITION OVERVIEW

The Director of Operations reports directly to the Chief Operating Officer and converts SSHD’s operational strategy into consistent, accountable execution. The Director builds the operating routines, tools, workflows, and cross-functional coordination needed to support a growing portfolio, implement the social housing model, prepare for property acquisitions and transitions, and ensure that commitments move from decision to completion. 

This is a hands-on leadership role for an operator who can establish structure in a rapidly evolving public development organization. The Director does not replace the COO’s enterprise leadership or the day-to-day responsibilities of third-party property management, asset management, finance, compliance, resident governance, communications, human resources, information technology, or real estate development. The Director connects those functions, manages implementation, identifies gaps, and escalates matters requiring executive judgment.

POSITION DETAILS

Job Title: Director of Operations

Department: Operations

Reports To: Chief Operating Officer

Direct Reports: Yes

FLSA Status: Exempt

Pay: $145,000 - $185,000

SCOPE OF AUTHORITY & ORGANIZATIONAL RELATIONSHIPS

• The COO sets enterprise direction and remains accountable for organizational performance. The Director of Operations owns the management discipline that turns that direction into coordinated execution.
• Internal: Chief Operating Officer; Interim CEO; CFO; Chief Real Estate Development Officer; future CIO; Director of Real Estate and Governance; Communications; Asset Management; Compliance; Human Resources; Finance; resident governance staff; and administrative staff. 
• External: third-party property managers; legal counsel; operational, compliance, asset-management, resident-governance, and other consultants; security and facilities vendors; community partners; and public-agency counterparts as delegated.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Operational Infrastructure and Management Systems 

• Develop and maintain SSHD’s operational calendar, annual work plan, decision log, policy inventory, standard operating procedure library, and implementation trackers. 
• Establish clear 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 in partnership with the COO and future CIO; serve as a business-process owner rather than the technology owner.

Portfolio Growth and Acquisition Readiness 

• Lead the operating-readiness workstream for acquisitions, new developments, property transitions, and lease-up activities 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 surfaced early and completed on schedule. 
• Facilitate post-acquisition and post-launch reviews and ensure lessons learned are incorporated into future playbooks. 
• Support the long-term evaluation and stand-up of internal property-management capacity while preserving clear accountability for current third-party property managers. 

Property Management and Vendor Coordination 

• Monitor third-party property-management 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 maintain 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 the decision rights of the accountable function. 
• Support vendor scopes, procurements, onboarding, performance monitoring, renewals, and closeout in partnership with Finance and the designated procurement lead. 
• Ensure vendor and consultant deliverables are integrated into SSHD operations rather than remaining stand-alone reports or recommendations. 

Social Housing Program Implementation 

• Coordinate implementation of the approved social housing operating model, including resident-facing materials, internal playbooks, affordability progression processes, internal and external 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 being applied. 
• Track operational impacts and patterns and elevate policy questions, financial tradeoffs, resident impacts, or legal risks that require COO or executive-team decisions. 
• Support consistent implementation of resident services referrals, restorative-justice processes, resident governance commitments, and housing-stability procedures without assuming the technical ownership of those functions. 

Organizational Operations 

• Oversee coordinated 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 implementation of organizational policies. 
• 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. 
• Supervise and develop operations staff, establish service standards, and build capacity that can scale with portfolio and headcount growth.

Performance, Risk, and Executive Support 

• Prepare concise operational dashboards and decision-ready briefing materials for the COO, executive team, and, as requested, the Interim CEO or Board. 
• Maintain an enterprise operational risk and dependency log and ensure responsible leaders act 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 that 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.

REQUIRED SKILLS AND ABILITIES

• 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 executive 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.