Special Operations Manager job in New York

Note: This is a new role within a new team at Next Street. We are open to a wide variety of experiences and skillsets. If you are interested in this opportunity and think you have the skillset needed, please apply. Be sure to include a cover letter that explains tells us who you are and why you’re excited to be part of this team.

Why Next Street?

Want to work at the intersection of impact and business? Looking for a team with big ideas and bold ambitions? Interested in accelerating your career, and getting further faster by working at a scalable small business?

You have found your place – Next Street is a mission-driven, for-profit firm creating a better future for small business. We have audacious goals, and we are looking for team members who can dream big with us. Next Street was founded in 2005 with the belief that small businesses are the engines of inclusive growth in underserved markets. This philosophy is at the core of everything that we do. Next Street mobilizes capital, customers, and capabilities to small businesses and entrepreneurs that have been systemically held back. We work with foundations, government, corporations, and CDFIs.

We serve as trusted advisors to some of the country’s most dynamic organizations. We equip our clients with strategies and tools to advance small businesses and deliver a more inclusive US economy.

We are an anti-racist and anti-bias institution. Learn more about our commitment here: https://nextstreet.com/racial-equity/.

We believe Next Street is a special place to work:

• We are a group of critical thinkers and problem solvers. We work hard to get our clients the right answer, because we are successful when our clients create more impact.
• We are motivated by mission. We keep small business at the heart of what we do, and agitate for equity and inclusion, day in and day out.
• We respect and challenge each other. Our teammates come from the best professional services and social sector organizations. We learn from each other constantly.
• We push ourselves to innovate. We must think creatively and expansively to solve tomorrow’s economic and community development challenges.
• We take pride in our work, strive for excellence and work with integrity. This is more than just a job to us.

We believe in a better future for small business. Join Us.

Why this role?
We are hiring a generalist, utility player and all-around start-up maven to help us build the Next Street Network, a ground-breaking network of small business service and capital providers. The Network is a few months old start-up that is growing rapidly with the infrastructure and resources of a well-established, 15-year-old business. We have a vision for growing the Network from its infancy to a national community of small business service and capital providers with reach of 100,000+ small businesses, rooted in local communities. The network you will launch and manage will connect institutions making large commitments to racial equity and entrepreneurship with on-the-ground partners who are proximate to the real opportunities and challenges that entrepreneurs in underserved communities encounter.

You will have significant responsibility from day one to build every facet of the Network. As the second hire on this team, you will partner with the Director of the Network to take the Network from incubation to scale. This is a fantastic opportunity for an operator passionate about small business and who loves planning, building and executing and wants to put those skills to work in a high-growth, entrepreneurial environment. Your scope of responsibility will grow as the Network grows, and we envision this hire taking on increasingly more leadership responsibilities. As we build the team, you will have the unique opportunity to build the back-end infrastructure of the Network, while engaging directly our members which will create a continuous feedback loop for the Network development. If you thrive in variability, enjoy building community and doing a little bit of everything, this job is for you.

This team will function like a start-up within a 15 year old company – you will be entrepreneurial while having the connections, support, and infrastructure of an established company. This role is an exciting opportunity for those looking to use their knowledge of the small business landscape, entrepreneurial spirit, operating expertise and relationship management skills to create a ground-breaking, first-of-its-kind network. Your day-to-day work will be concentrated in: (1) Network operations and (2) community management.

Join us to build a ground-breaking Network addressing some of the most complex economic and community development challenges in the country, while working alongside an extraordinary team and accelerating your career.

Your work will consist of:

Network Operations (70%)

• Develop the infrastructure needed to scale the Small Business Network, including creating and executing workplans, developing policies and procedures and refining the enabling technology (currently using MightyNetworks as the minimum viable product)
• Execute day-to-day operations of the Network, which in the near-term including cultivating the NavNet community and managing the NavNet MightyNetworks platform
• Codify the Small Business Network’s proprietary approach, including developing the Network value proposition and creating and continuously refining Network collateral
• Monitor small business industry trends and engage subject matter experts and Network members to inform evolution of Network strategy
• Analyze historical data to identify key challenges, trends, opportunities for Small Business Network
• Manage metrics dashboard and analyze data in response to member requests
• Execute other special projects for the Network as needed

Community Management (30%)

• Manage, strengthen and expand NavNet community of 500 capital and service providers; create cohesive community identity and cultivate high-quality user engagement
• Develop and execute engagement strategies such as member events, discussion forums or sharing information
• Develop and support creation of focused sub-communities within the broader community
• Engage with members on daily basis by facilitating discussion and answering questions

Why you?

• You have a Bachelors degree and 4-6+ years of relevant experience in a start-up, professional services or community development organization
• You are motivated by mission and want to spend your days doing fulfilling work
• You have a knack for details and can create order out of chaos
• You have never missed a deadline and find a good workplan satisfying
• You can manage up artfully and pride yourself on keeping your team focused
• You love working with people and developing relationships
• You have experience creating thriving online communities and high-quality virtual events
• You are technologically curious and inventive
• You are self-directed, entrepreneurial and innovative
• You are a Salesforce, PowerPoint and Excel wizard
• You are looking for opportunities to grow and accelerate your career
• You enjoy working with teams and believe diversity of thinking gets to better answers
• You are willing to challenge and be challenged, regardless of seniority

What we offer:
We want our team members to bring their best, true selves to work every day. We will offer you:

• Competitive salary and benefits – We know you work hard, and we want to reward you for it. We offer competitive salaries and generous benefits package (including 401k and paid parental leave) for mission-driven work.
• Generous paid time off – We want to make sure that you have time to recharge and to pursue your many passions. We give our team members 20 days of paid time off per year plus standard federal holidays.
• Mentorship and Sponsorship – You will have frequent access to our diverse and dynamic senior team, given that we are a small firm. They will be committed to your growth and will invest in mentoring you.
• Career development – We take growth seriously. We want to make sure that you have a plan to get where you want to go long term, whether at Next Street or business or graduate school. We give each team member an annual professional development stipend and provide ample coaching.
• Low travel model – We do not like to get on a plane every week and we do not want you to either. We travel when we need to every few weeks.
• Flexibility – It is important to us that you can work when and where you work best. We are flexible with employees to accommodate individual schedules and work preferences.
• Social events and office snacks – We admire and value our teammates. We plan social events throughout the year, so that you have to opportunity to connect outside of the office. We also make sure that you have the fuel you need to perform your best every day.

Next Street is an equal opportunity employer and considers qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, creed, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, age, disability, or Vietnam era, or other eligible veteran status, or any other protected factor.