Operations Manager

Operations Manager

Center DC

 

Job Description: New Position, September 2026

 

• Reports To: Executive Director

• Status: Full-Time, Exempt

• Target Compensation: $65,000 to $85,000, commensurate with experience

• Potential Growth Track: Operations Manager → Operations Director → Chief Operating Officer, as Center DC scales

 

About Center DC

 

Center DC is a faith-based community that has been helping people practicing and/or exploring Islam grow authentic relationships with other seekers and with God since 2015. We believe that relationships are healing and that God is for everyone; that’s why cultivating meaningful faith-centric relationships between peers is the core of what Center DC does. We are a small community made up of believers and seekers, longing to grow closer to God in community, together. Based on the prophetic model of 1-to-1 connections, we facilitate opportunities for individuals to be witnessed, cared for, and supported; many who have, for one reason or another, grown distant from their faith or community.

 

At every gathering, we work to facilitate shared moments, support spiritual wellness, and nurture Islamic literacy by providing platforms for people to learn, reflect and speak; to be both heard and listened to. We serve approximately 2,000 individuals with over 1,000 gatherings annually. Center DC is 90% donor funded.

 

Mission

 

Center DC is a community of folks practicing and exploring Islam: striving together to get closer to God, one relationship at a time.

 

Vision

 

We envision a world where all Muslim spaces are welcoming ones and where all people feel welcome in Muslim spaces. Where the Quran and the Sunnah (Prophetic tradition) are the starting point for individual and collective transformation and flourishing, measured by deeper God-consciousness, stronger relationships, and consistent acts of justice and service.

 

Why This Role Exists

 

Center DC is transitioning from a grassroots community to an established institution. This role builds the administrative and operational infrastructure that makes that next stage of growth possible, freeing the Executive Director to focus more on fundraising, strategy, and external partnerships, and maturing Center DC’s volunteer force with the structure it needs to keep growing. This is a foundation-building position: the person in this role is establishing the systems Center DC will run on for years to come.

 

Operations Backend & Administration (30%)

 

Success looks like: Center DC’s day-to-day administrative systems run smoothly and don’t depend on any one person’s memory.

 

• Create new processes & policies, especially in this phase of organizational growth

• Manage day-to-day operations, file structure, and standard operating procedures

• Monitor the info@centerdc.org inbox, responding/forwarding as appropriate

• Support budget tracking and the monthly financial review process in partnership with the Executive Director

• Approve and process organizational subscriptions, supplies, and routine purchases

• Coordinate space, utilities, and building/vendor relationships

• Oversee day-to-day physical space upkeep, including inventory, user experience improvements, organization, and cleanliness

• Manage technology needs, devices, software, organizational logins & accounts, and tech system integration

• Build and maintain light-touch HR and recordkeeping systems appropriate to a growing small nonprofit

 

Space & Volunteer Management (30%)

 

Success looks like: Center DC’s space is consistently open, covered, and safe, and the volunteer force is organized, supported, and growing.

 

• Oversee day-to-day team coverage, coordinating between paid front-of-house coverage and volunteer keyholders so Center DC can offer consistent, published open hours

• Cultivate volunteer enthusiasm, belonging, and long-term engagement by ensuring volunteers feel welcomed, respected, appreciated, and meaningfully connected to the organization and its mission.

• Build and manage volunteer team scaffolding, including: 1) recruiting; 2) training; 3) scheduling; 4) supporting, and 5) celebrating our growing volunteer base 

• Own and continue building out the Team Development Plan, including related training infrastructure, a professional development program to support and grow our teams, and a volunteer pipeline, with clear growth opportunities for volunteers to deepen their service

• Serve as the day-to-day operational point of contact for the team, empowering the volunteer force

• Serve as the day-to-day operational point of contact for the building, ensuring a strong positive relationship with building management

• Maintains the Center DC space, making systematic improvements to our physical space, anticipating user experience needs before they arise and solutionizing when issues emerge

• Keeps space clean, meticulously organized, and fully stocked

 

Special Projects Coordination (25%)

 

Success looks like: Center DC’s standing community projects run reliably without depending on the Executive Director’s direct, hands-on involvement.

 

Serve as operational point person for all special projects, including (but not limited to) the following projects:

1. DC Jail Project

2. ‘Friends Giving Back’ project

3. Coffee Project

4. Ramadān offerings

5. Retreats

6. Pilgrimages

7. Mutual Aid Project

8. Safer(s) Space Committee

 

Team & Systems Support (15%)

 

Success looks like: Center DC’s growing team has the systems and support it needs to work well together.

 

• Partner with the Executive Director on the organizational infrastructure needed to support staffing growth (onboarding logistics, running staff meetings, staff celebrations, professional development, project management systems for a growing team)

• Support quality control and consistency across organizational systems (Planning Center, Asana, shared Google Drives)

• Manage hybrid event roll out and digital content organization

• Provide operational support to board committees as needed

• Ensure smooth coordination across all Center DC technology

 

Qualities

 

Adaptive

 

1. Thrives in a season of change and sees organizational growth as an invitation, not a source of stress

2. Comfortable shifting between very different kinds of work in a single day (a vendor call, a volunteer conversation, a budget review, restocking the space)

3. Adjusts plans calmly when circumstances change

4. Holds structure and flexibility at the same time, building systems that serve people rather than constrain them

5. Understands what it takes to build sustainable operations with a lean team, and knows how to extend capacity through volunteers, systems, and smart prioritization.

6. Available to work on site on Fridays and select weekends & evenings

 

Takes ownership

 

1. Treats projects as their own from start to finish, including the meticulous follow-through

2. Notices what’s missing or about to break and addresses it before being asked

3. Follows through on commitments reliably and communicates early when something is off track

4. Comfortable making decisions within their scope, and knows when to bring something to the Executive Director

5. Measures success by whether things run well without them, not by how indispensable they are

6. Relationship-driven. Notices who is new to the community, who has drifted away, and who might be ready to get more involved

 

Works independently

 

1. Self-directed and organized, able to set priorities and manage their own time across competing demands

2. Can take a loosely defined goal and turn it into a clear plan, process, and timeline

3. Steady and resourceful when working alone in the space or managing a project without close supervision

4. Finds answers, figures things out, and documents what they learn for the next person

 

Enjoys collaboration

 

1. Genuinely energized by working alongside staff, volunteers, board members, and community partners

2. Builds trust and goodwill easily, and makes others feel welcomed, respected, and seen

3. Invites input, shares credit, and helps volunteers feel meaningfully connected to the mission

4. Communicates clearly and warmly, including when delivering hard news or holding a boundary

5. A thought partner to the Executive Director, not only an implementer

 

Skills

 

• Systems building: creating SOPs, policies, file structures, and workflows from scratch, and keeping them simple enough that people actually use them

• Project management: running multiple ongoing projects at once, with clear owners, timelines, and check-ins

• Volunteer management: recruiting, training, scheduling, supporting, and celebrating volunteers, with an eye toward long-term retention

• Financial and administrative fluency: budget tracking, purchasing, vendor management, and recordkeeping

• Light-touch HR: onboarding, recordkeeping, and staff support appropriate to a small nonprofit

• Technology comfort: confident with shared drives, project management tools (Asana or similar), and people management platforms (Planning Center or similar); able to manage accounts, logins, and integrations, and quick to learn new tools

• Space and logistics management: inventory, facilities upkeep, and event or retreat logistics

• Communication: clear writing, responsive inbox management, and good judgment about what to handle, forward, or escalate

• Facilitation: comfortable running staff meetings, trainings, and volunteer gatherings in a warm, engaging, and fun way

 

Experience

 

• Four (4) or more years in nonprofit operations, ideally including time at a small or growing organization where many hats were worn

• Direct experience building operational infrastructure during a period of growth or transition, such as moving from volunteer-led to staffed

• Management or team leadership experience, including supervising or coordinating volunteers

• A track record of owning and running programs or projects with minimal oversight

• Experience in event, retreat, or logistics management

• Experience in community-centered, faith-based, or mission-driven settings

 

Growth Path: Year Two, Operations Director

 

This is not the job posted today; it’s the job this role is designed to grow into within about a year, as Center DC’s staff and budget grow. Sharing this path upfront lets a strong hire see a real trajectory rather than a static administrative job, and it sets the expectation that HR ownership expands as trust and tenure build. Advancement is earned through performance in the Year One scope above, not automatic.

 

What Expands

 

Two things change: HR moves from light-touch support to full ownership, and the role gains authority to match, supervising other operations-adjacent staff and holding real budget responsibility rather than just tracking it.

 

• Own the full employee lifecycle: lead hiring coordination and onboarding for new staff, administer benefits and personnel policy, and support the Executive Director in performance management processes for the broader team

• Take primary responsibility for portions of the annual budget process, not just monthly tracking, building the operations and staffing budget in partnership with the ED and Finance Committee

• Supervise operations-adjacent staff and contractors as the team grows (e.g., a front-of-house/security contractor relationship, technology partners, administrative support, program team or a special-projects coordinator)

• Take a seat in organizational planning conversations as the operational voice, flagging capacity and infrastructure needs before they become blockers, rather than responding to them after the fact

• Formalize the volunteer team captain structure built in Year One into a fuller leadership pipeline, with the Operations Director setting standards and the captains executing

 

To Apply:

 

Send a Resume, Statement of Interest and two (2) references (personal or professional) to hiring@centerdc.org