Chief Financial & Operating Officer (CFO/COO)

Job Description

Job Description

POSITION: Chief Financial & Operating Officer (CFO/COO)

REPORTS TO: Executive Director

REPORTS: 6

FLSA STATUS: Exempt

STATUS: Full-Time, 35 hours per week

BENEFITS: Full benefits including medical, dental, vacation accrual, 403b, and more

SALARY RANGE: $240,000 – 260,000

 

About the Frye

The Frye Art Museum is one of Seattle's most beloved cultural institutions and one of the nation's few free art museums. Founded on the conviction that art should be accessible to everyone, the Frye has served as a welcoming gathering place for nearly 75 years—where artists, audiences, ideas, and communities come together through meaningful, unique encounters with modern and contemporary art.

The museum is known not only for the quality of its exhibitions and programs centered on the art of our time, but also for its culture of experimentation, curiosity, generosity, and creative joy. Internally, we believe our best work emerges through collaboration across disciplines and departments. Externally, we partner closely with artists, educators, civic leaders, cultural organizations, and community members to imagine new possibilities for what an art museum can do and be in Seattle.

As the Frye approaches its 75th anniversary, the museum is entering an ambitious period of institutional growth. Building on a strong financial foundation and a clear strategic vision, we are investing in new earned revenue initiatives, technology, campus improvements, and organizational capacity to ensure the museum remains a vibrant public resource for generations to come.

The next Chief Financial & Operating Officer will play a central role in helping realize that vision.

The Opportunity

The Frye seeks a strategic, entrepreneurial Chief Financial & Operating Officer to serve as the chief steward of the museum's business and operational enterprise. The CFO/COO will provide executive leadership for a unique 501c3 nonprofit organization—a Private Operating Foundation—with an annual operating budget of nearly $12 million and approximately $166 million in assets.

Reporting to the Executive Director/CEO and working closely with the Executive Team, the CFO/COO ensures that the museum's financial and human resources, operational systems, technology, facilities, capital projects, and revenue functions are aligned to advance the Frye's mission and strategic priorities.

Bringing an entrepreneurial, systems-oriented mindset, this leader builds the organizational capacity, financial discipline, and operational excellence that enable innovation while safeguarding the museum's long-term sustainability.

This is an opportunity for an executive who enjoys building organizations, leading through change, and partnering closely with an engaged Executive Director and Board of Trustees. The successful candidate will help shape the next chapter of the Frye's evolution—strengthening the institution's financial resilience, operational excellence, and entrepreneurial capacity as it enters its 75th anniversary and beyond.

The Role

The CFO/COO serves as a member of the Executive Team and provides strategic leadership for the museum's enterprise functions, including:

• Finance and accounting
• Facilities, capital projects, and real estate
• Security and public safety operations
• Retail, café, and other earned revenue initiatives
• Technology and enterprise systems
• Human resources

Success in this role depends less on personally being the technical expert in every operational discipline than on building excellent teams, aligning leaders around shared priorities, and creating and integrating systems that enable the museum and its teams to perform at a high level.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership

• Serve as a trusted strategic partner to the Executive Director and Board.
• Align operational priorities, financial planning, and organizational strategy.
• Lead cross-functional initiatives that strengthen institutional performance.
• Foster collaboration, accountability, and continuous improvement across operational divisions.

Leadership & Culture

• Develop a high-performing finance and operations division through clear expectations, coaching, and accountability.
• Champion a collaborative, inclusive, and mission-driven workplace culture.
• Support organizational change with transparency, sound judgment, and empathy.
• Help cultivate an organizational culture that values continuous learning, innovation, and cross-departmental partnership.

Business Strategy & Growth

• Strengthen and diversify the museum's earned revenue portfolio.
• Evaluate new business opportunities through thoughtful financial analysis and implementation planning.
• Partner across the museum to co-develop sustainable models that support ambitious institutional growth and mission-driven investments.

Operational Excellence

• Oversee the museum's operational functions through capable department leaders.
• Build efficient systems and processes that improve organizational effectiveness.
• Ensure the museum's facilities, technology, security, and operational infrastructure support an exceptional visitor and staff experience.
• Guide institutional investments in technology, facilities, and operational capacity.

Financial Stewardship

• Lead long-range financial planning, annual budgeting, forecasting, treasury, and cash management.
• Ensure accurate financial reporting, strong internal controls, and effective risk management.
• Partner with Board committees on financial strategy, investments, and organizational sustainability.
• Steward the museum's financial resources with transparency, discipline, and long-term vision.

Qualifications

The strongest candidates will bring many—but not necessarily all—of the following:

• Significant executive leadership experience overseeing finance and organizational operations.
• Success partnering with CEOs, executive teams, and governing boards on strategic planning and institutional decision-making.
• Demonstrated ability to lead through organizational growth, transformation, or change.
• Strong financial acumen, including supervisory support of a Director of Finance / Controller.
• Experience leading multidisciplinary teams of represented and non-represented employees both independently and through other senior managers.
• A systems-oriented mindset with exceptional organizational and project leadership skills.
• Excellent communication skills and the ability to translate complex information into clear strategic recommendations.
• Experience in nonprofit organizations, higher education, healthcare, museums, or other mission-driven institutions is valued but not required.

An MBA or comparable combination of education and executive experience is preferred.

The Person

The ideal candidate is:

• A strategic, systems-oriented thinker who sees connections across the organization.
• A collaborative and communicative leader who builds trust and develops strong teams.
• Comfortable balancing strategy with execution.
• Curious, entrepreneurial, and energized by institutional growth.
• Calm under pressure and confident leading through complexity and change.
• Motivated by helping an important cultural institution realize ambitious goals.

How to Apply

Please submit a résumé or CV and a cover letter describing your interest in the Chief Financial & Operating Officer role at the Frye Art Museum. In your letter, we invite you to address what draws you to this opportunity and to the Frye at this moment in its evolution; how your leadership style aligns with a collaborative, creative, and mission-driven organization; and an example of how you have helped shape strategy and translate ambitious ideas into operational, financial, or organizational reality.

While this is a CFO/COO position, we are especially interested in candidates who are energized by the opportunity to build organizations, co-develop strategy, and lead complex business and operational functions in partnership with others. We seek a leader who enjoys creating the systems, teams, and entrepreneurial capacity that enable a distinctive, socially enterprising museum to thrive—pairing sound operational and financial stewardship with creativity, collaboration, and a passion for culture, institutional growth, and public impact.