Senior Director, Finance & Operations

<h2>About Think of Us</h2> <p>Think of Us (TOU) is transforming the child welfare system into one where young people and families can heal, develop, and thrive. We drive purpose-driven work aligned with meaningful systems change, powered by data and the insights of lived experience. Our focus is on prevention, keeping families strong before crisis, and on building kinship-first systems so children grow up with people they know and trust. Through bold collaborations with leaders and innovators across the public and private sectors — from Presidential Administrations to local providers — we identify leverage points and co-create solutions that re-architect child welfare for the future.</p> <p>Here’s what this looks like:</p> <ul> <li>Built the Lived Experience Engine into the largest dataset of its kind (51,000+ voices), powering AI tools and shaping reforms</li> <li>Partnered with California to launch the Kinship Accelerator in 8 counties, backed by $150M and a budget increase from $317M → $896M</li> <li>Drove a national kin-first shift: 39 states (plus 5 tribes) adopting kinship standards, unlocking $3B for families</li> <li>Operate one of the largest direct resource networks, connecting 1,827 families to $28M+ in support </li> </ul> <p>Our team members share a commitment to driving systems change through creative problem-solving, obsessive curiosity, and a love of quickly driving innovative, measurable, and impactful results. </p> <p> </p> <h2>Position Overview</h2> <p><strong>Location:</strong> Hybrid, Washington, DC (2-3 days in-office weekly)<br><strong>Reports To:</strong> Chief of Staff, Acting VP Strategy & Operations<br><strong>Direct Reports:</strong> Director, Finance<br><strong>Category</strong>: Full-time, Exempt</p> <p> </p> <p>We are seeking a seasoned and mission-aligned Senior Director of Finance & Operations to lead and strengthen the organization’s finance and business operations infrastructure.</p> <p>This is a pivotal leadership role for someone who brings both strategic insight and strong operational ownership. As the senior-most internal finance and operations leader, you will guide the organization’s financial strategy and stewardship while also ensuring the day-to-day financial and operational foundation of the organization is disciplined, scalable, compliant, and effective. This is not a “lead from a distance” role—you will be expected to work comfortably across both executive-level strategy and hands-on operational leadership, with visibility into the details that drive organizational performance, accountability, and sustainability. In practice, this is a player/coach role. You will sit with the executive team on enterprise strategy and partner with our fractional CFO to translate big-picture, organization-wide financial needs into concrete implementation and execution plans for the finance and operations team. You will also roll up your sleeves alongside the Director, Finance to get the work done. As we build the organization’s finance capacity, you will need to be dynamic and nimble, flexing fluidly between high-level strategy and hands-on execution as each moment requires.</p> <p>You will work closely with the Chief Operating Officer, executive leadership team, external partners, and Finance Committee to strengthen budgeting, forecasting, financial reporting, cash flow management, compliance, operational processes, and organizational decision-making. The role oversees core finance and operational functions, including financial planning and analysis, grant and revenue management, audit readiness, internal controls, contracts, financial operations, and cross-functional systems that support organizational effectiveness.</p> <p>This role is highly collaborative and deeply cross-functional. You will partner with leaders across the organization to build financial clarity, strengthen operational discipline, improve financial literacy, and ensure the organization’s systems and infrastructure can support continued growth and impact. This is a powerful opportunity for a builder-minded leader to shape how Think of Us operates, plans, invests, and scales in alignment with its mission and values.</p> <h2>Key Responsibilities</h2> <h4><strong>Strategic Financial Leadership</strong></h4> <ul> <li>Set the vision for a forward-looking, mission-aligned finance function that supports strategic decision-making, financial sustainability, operational effectiveness, and organizational growth.</li> <li>Serve as the organization’s senior-most internal finance leader—partnering closely with the Executive Leadership Team, Finance Committee, and external partners to align financial strategy with organizational priorities and programmatic goals.</li> <li>Lead the development and implementation of integrated budgeting, forecasting, cash flow management, and financial planning models that support both long-term strategy and day-to-day execution.</li> <li>Act as the bridge between strategy and execution: partner with the fractional CFO to convert enterprise-level financial direction into implementation and execution plans, and work shoulder to shoulder with the Director, Finance to operationalize them, flexing between strategic and hands-on work as the organization’s finance capacity matures.</li> <li>Lead from within the work - not above it - by staying hands-on with budgeting, modeling, financial analysis, and scenario planning; you understand the numbers because you’ve built them, not just reviewed them.</li> <li>Create and use  financial modeling, sustainability planning, cost allocations, revenue analysis, and risk assessment to proactively inform organizational decisions, evaluate tradeoffs, and surface opportunities.</li> <li>Translate complex financial information into actionable insights, dashboards, reports, and presentations for diverse internal and external audiences, including leadership, staff, board members, funders, and partners.</li> <li>Bring a builder’s mindset to continuously strengthen financial systems, planning tools, and reporting processes so they are scalable, accessible, and aligned with organizational needs.</li> <li>Leverage technology, automation, and AI-enabled tools to increase organizational capacity, improve forecasting and reporting visibility, and support more informed decision-making across the organization.</li> </ul> <h4><strong>Operations, Governance & Compliance </strong></h4> <ul> <li>Oversee and continuously strengthen key organizational operations, including: <ul> <li>Finance: accounting oversight, accounts payable, payroll coordination, expense reimbursement processes, corporate card administration, banking relationships, and revenue and grant administration.</li> <li>Organizational Operations: procurement, policy and procedure governance, compliance and regulations oversight.</li> </ul> </li> <li>Ensure accurate and timely financial reporting, monthly close processes, reconciliations, cash flow visibility, and maintenance of financial records, schedules, and supporting documentation.</li> <li>Ensure TOU remains in compliance with grant management, spending, reporting, tax, audit, and regulatory requirements while aligning financial and policies and operational practices with organizational priorities and values.</li> <li>Support organizational audit readiness and oversee audit, tax filing, internal controls, and co