Executive Director – People, Finance & Operations

The Executive Director – People, Finance and Operations is a key member of the FYA Executive team, with primary management responsibility for shared organisational infrastructure, finances, policies, systems and communication that underpin FYA’s culture, programs and impact.

FYA has been rapidly evolving its internal systems (especially people, culture, finance and governance) to match, and are seeking a senior and experienced leader to take these to the next level of ease & excellence.

Experience, knowledge & skills

Key to success will be your engaging management style accomplished in leading and inspiring people through operational transformation; ability to see the big picture of how people and operations underpin FYA’s overall mission and business goals; quickly translate vision into manageable, practical steps; and a hands-on approach to get the job done.

To be successful in this role:

• You will have at least 7-10+ years’ experience leading People and Operations (potentially alongside other functions) in mid-sized, ambitious organisations, including those with diverse, younger-skewed workforces.
• Management is your thing. Your superb, extensive personal management experience and in-depth knowledge of human resources practice, underpin a highly caring and down-to-earth approach to organisational-level policy and system development, day-to-day implementation, and the complex matters that inevitably arise.
• You will have successfully navigated a full spectrum of organisational performance matters, reflected deeply on what works, and want to creatively bring this wisdom to FYA’s mission.
• You get things done, especially big projects. You have demonstrated ability to manage, end-to-end, multiple concurrent large-scale projects over a variety of time horizons – from short intense bursts, to multi-year, multi-phase initiatives.
• You will have supervised staff to manage (or have directly managed) projects that involve large teams of staff and contractors, ensuring successful delivery on time, budget, quality and team sense of satisfaction. Underpinning this work has been your personal productive work pattern, creativity, and solid antenna for risk.
• You will have built trust through communications. In past roles as an executive leader, you’ve established trusting and transparent professional relationships with the CEO, executive teams and other stakeholders and practised a clear, direct, open and engaging communications style. You’ve led significant change-management initiatives and kept stakeholders informed, as well as anticipated, engaged with and managed for diverse perspectives.
• You have strong cultural competence. You have played a key role in shaping specific policies or practices that promote intersectional equality and belonging in the workplace, including a strong commitment to and experience driving First Nations, gender, disability, economic or racial justice. You’ve successfully worked alongside people from highly diverse, lived experiences.
• You’re great with numbers. You have directly managed significant budgets ($500k+); love a good spreadsheet and getting into the details of budgeting, forecasting and data analysis, and can hold the detail and big picture of budgets in your head. While not essential, you may have had experience supervising Finance staff, contractors and presenting numbers to a board or executive.