Business Manager

Business Manager$65,000–$75,000, with flexibility for exceptional fit and experienceThe Business Manager will run the back office, including finance administration, people administration, compliance and renewals, and administrative support, with minimal day-to-day input from the President. The role documents how the business runs, follows and enforces those processes, and directs administrative staff to execute routine work, so the technical team can remain focused on client work.This position is appropriate for someone who has worked across several back-office functions in a small business or professional-services environment and is ready to turn informal practices into documented, consistently followed processes. The role combines hands-on execution during the transition with ongoing management, delegation, and continuous improvement.Partial List of Responsibilities include:Financial administration: accurate and timely invoicing, consistent receivables follow-up, controlled exceptions, and reliable work-in-progress review.People and compliance administration: payroll, benefits, onboarding, personnel records, worker's comp claims, renewals, and required filings are handled on time without routine President involvement.Pipeline and project data discipline: every open inquiry and proposal has a current status, inactive items are flagged to their owner, and project data is accurate enough to support reliable utilization, budget, and margin reporting.Approve spending within a defined dollar limit and approved budget categories.Apply approved invoicing, delinquency, collections, and stop-work policies without case-by-case approval.Use approved agreements and commercial templates, reject unauthorized edits, and handle defined commercial exceptions within a written authority matrix.Escalate legal, liability, indemnification, intellectual-property, confidentiality, unusual financial, and other nonstandard risk provisions to the President or outside advisor.Direct and supervise administrative staff and assign routine execution work.Escalate major personnel decisions, business strategy, unusual commercial risk, and matters outside documented policies.Develop reporting that gives the President clear visibility into receivables, cash, work in progress, and operating exceptions.Required Skills and QualitiesThree to five or more years of progressive experience in business management, practice management, office management, or operations, including meaningful responsibility across multiple back-office functions in a small business or professional-services setting.Direct ownership of accounts receivable and collections, including client-facing payment conversations and escalation decisions.Hands-on experience with payroll, benefits, onboarding, and core people-administration workflows.Demonstrated success creating or improving a process, policy, control, or routine that other people consistently followed.Ability to work independently within defined policies, make decisions within defined authority, and respectfully challenge the owner when needed.Strong written communication, follow-through, judgment, discretion, and attention to detail.Working proficiency with QuickBooks Online and Microsoft 365, or closely comparable systems with the ability to learn quickly.PreferredExperience in consulting, engineering, legal, accounting, architecture, testing, certification, or another professional-services environment where time is billed to projects.Experience with work-in-progress, project budgets, utilization, realization, or margin reporting.Familiarity with Productive.io, BigTime, Harvest, or another project and time-tracking platform.Experience in a regulated industry. Children's-product or product-compliance experience is welcome but not required.