Chief of Staff, Development Operations
Chief of Staff, Development Operations
Department
Development
Employment Type
Full-Time
Minimum Experience
Senior Manager/Supervisor
Compensation
Starting Salary Range: $136,200 - $153,700
Who are we?
Malala Fund is working for a world where all girls can learn and lead. Malala Fund advocates for resources and policy changes needed to give all girls a secondary education, invests in local education leaders and amplifies the voices of girls fighting for change. Learn more at malala.org.
What does this team do?
The Development Team raises funds, builds partnerships, and keeps supporters engaged so Malala Fund can advance girls’ education worldwide.
What does this position do?
The Chief of Staff, Development Operations serves as the operational and strategic backbone of Malala Fund’s Development team, ensuring our people, systems, and priorities are aligned to maximize fundraising impact. This role blends thoughtful people leadership and coaching with strong project management, operational oversight, and organisational excellence to support a high-performing, collaborative team. Acting as a trusted strategic partner to the Chief Growth Officer, this leader translates vision into action, bringing clarity, structure, and momentum to complex initiatives. They function as a central point of coordination and decision support for the Development team, ensuring work is well-sequenced, risks are surfaced early, and priorities move forward efficiently.
Supports the growth of Development staff as confident, external-facing leaders, creating space for team members to thrive while maintaining access to and partnership with the CGO. This role requires a synergistic leader with exceptional relational skills, a commitment to building inclusive, sustainable systems, and the ability to navigate complex, cross-functional work. They have excellent written and verbal communication, international nonprofit and development experience, strong time and project management abilities, and the discretion to handle confidential information with care.
Duties and Responsibilities
People Leadership & Team Performance
- Serve as a senior people leader for the Development team, coaching staff, strengthening internal leadership capacity, and positioning the team to consistently perform at a high level.
- Cultivate an inclusive team culture grounded in clarity, accountability, and continuous professional growth.
- Empower Development staff to show up as confident, effective, and external-facing leaders.
- Supervise staff and portfolio providing strategic leadership, overseeing vision, growth, and performance across online fundraising channels to drive revenue and donor engagement.
Strategic Partnership & Planning
- Serves as the primary operational lead and first point of coordination for the Development team, translating the CGO’s strategic priorities into strategic priorities into clear plans, timelines, and sequenced execution ensuring work is aligned, resourced, and moving on schedule.
- Partner with the CGO to monitor and advance annual Development objectives, KPIs, and proactively monitor risks, resolve bottlenecks, filter issues, decisions, and recommendations before they escalate to the CGO.
Operations, Project Management & Ways of Working
- Act as the Development team’s primary operations and project management lead, overseeing planning, sequencing, and prioritization of work to optimize team capacity and leadership time.
- Establish and maintain clear, consistent ways of working across the Development function to strengthen execution, alignment, and accountability.
- Lead cross-functional Development projects, campaigns, internal communications, and special initiatives from planning through delivery, ensuring alignment with organizational strategy and priorities.
Calendar, Meetings & Execution
- Coordinate complex calendars, meetings, deadlines, campaigns, and events, balancing long-term planning with emergent needs and shifting needs.
- Support planning and execution of key meetings and moments, including board meetings, staff retreats, advocacy opportunities, and major fundraising engagements.
- Oversee Development events and campaigns from an operational and project management lens, ensuring timelines, staffing, and logistics are tightly coordinated and delivered with excellence.
Systems, Process Improvement & Capacity Management
- Continuously assess and improve Development systems, workflows, and processes to increase efficiency, reduce friction, and strengthen team performance.
- Identify gaps, redundancies, and capacity constraints and implement practical, sustainable solutions that improve effectiveness across the function.
- Our values guide how we work and how we show up every day: we set ambitious goals, act with integrity, and dare to be brave. We think creatively and seek out diverse perspectives, embedding these principles into every decision, collaboration, and outcome.
- Maintain behaviour and conduct that uphold the highest standards for safeguarding, professionally and personally.
- Performs other related duties as assigned.
What you bring to us and the role!
- 10+ years of relevant experience in development, operations, advancement, or a closely related field.
- Demonstrated experience in executive-level administration and operational leadership, with success supporting senior leaders and complex organisational priorities.
- Proven experience managing and coaching teams, with a demonstrated ability to support professional growth and foster collaborative, high-performing teams.
- Demonstrated strength in project management, process design, and operational execution across multiple, complex priorities.
- Experience overseeing events, campaigns, calendars, and high-volume ,including those that are time-sensitive or high-impact.
- Exceptional organizational skills, attention to detail, and consistent follow-through.
- Ability to engage in both strategic thinking and hands-on execution, adapting to the needs of the work.
- Strong interpersonal, communication, and relational skills, paired with sound judgment and emotional awareness.
- Ability to bring structure and clarity while supporting creativity, learning, and innovation.
- Deep commitment to Malala Fund’s mission, values, and purpose.
Supervisory Responsibilities
This position directly supervises and provides leadership and guidance to Development team members.
Travel Required
Moderate Travel (three to five trips per year; mostly domestic with potential for international travel)
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Malala Fund is an equal opportunity employer and inclusive organization who welcomes employees from under-represented and intersectional communities including BIPOC, LGBTQ+ and persons with disabilities. We seek people with diverse backgrounds, cultures, ages, experiences and identities to provide a wide range of perspectives, ideas, views and insights into the strategy, policies, culture and ambitions of Malala Fund.
Malala Fund is committed to safeguarding and ensuring the safety and dignity of all of those involved in our work. Our first priority is protecting everyone who comes in direct or indirect contact with our organization, including staff, partners, grantees, and the communities in which we work
Malala Fund has a zero-tolerance approach to abuse, exploitation, harassment, or discrimination of any kind by any of our staff, representatives or partners. We commit to ensuring that those who work with Malala Fund or on our behalf are able to work in an environment that is safe, respectful, and free from harm. To uphold this commitment, Malala Fund reserves the right to conduct background checks on prospective and current employees.
Location
Washington, District of Columbia (Hybrid)
Department
Development
Employment Type
Full-Time
Minimum Experience
Senior Manager/Supervisor
Compensation
Starting Salary Range: $136,200 - $153,700