Chief Operating Officer

Chief Operating Officer

Dorchester Bay Economic Development Corporation (DBEDC) is hiring a Chief Operating Officer (COO) to lead the organization's internal management and serve as second in command. The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) sets direction and the standard for the organization and leads it externally. The COO makes that direction and standard real inside the organization by managing the six department leads, running the operating rhythm, leading executive-level projects, and translating where DBEDC is going into what it means for each department and for staff day-to-day.

The COO joins an Executive Leadership Team with two peers: the Chief Real Estate Officer, who leads real estate development and asset management, and the Chief Development and Communications Officer, who leads resource development and communications. The three Chiefs work as equals and as thought partners to one another and to the CEO. Much of DBEDC's most important work sits where their areas meet, and the COO is expected to build strong working relationships with both from the start.

Dorchester Bay is a dual-certified community development corporation and community development financial institution serving Dorchester, Roxbury, and nearby neighborhoods. We have about 30 staff, a roughly $10 million operating budget, more than 1000 units of affordable housing, and a community loan fund that finances small businesses and real estate in our neighborhoods. We are a small organization with a large footprint, and our management structure needs to catch up to our complexity.

Why this role now:

The Board recently adopted three strategic priorities: Expand Community Ownership and Wealth; Advance Housing as a Platform for Health; and Reframe Education as a Wealth and Power Building Tool and Prepare Residents for the Future Economy. Delivering on them requires an internal leader who can turn priorities into operating plans and hold the organization to them.

Community Engagement, Workforce Development, and Community Lending need to function as one economic stabilization and mobility engine for our neighborhoods rather than as separate lines of work.

Every senior leader currently reports to the CEO. That is too many direct reports for one person to manage well while also leading strategy, policy, the Board, enterprise finance, and external relationships. Our department leads deserve consistent executive management: clear expectations, practical coaching, direct feedback, and support in delivering results.

DBEDC is a technology-forward organization. We expect our leaders to use technology and data to work more effectively, to adopt new tools quickly, and to bring their teams along.

What the COO owns in one year:

1. The department leads. The COO manages, coaches, and develops the six department leads. Every lead has outcome goals, a development plan, and a manager who follows through. The COO raises the standard of leadership across the group and works with the CEO to make the decisions necessary to ensure every department is led at the level our residents and partners deserve.

1. The operating rhythm and executive-level projects. The COO runs the weekly, monthly, and quarterly management cadence, makes sure decisions get made and carried out, and leads the cross-department projects that require executive ownership, including those shared with real estate and development.

1. Translating direction into practice. The COO turns the direction the CEO sets and the priorities the Board has adopted into practical operating expectations for each department: what each team is expected to deliver, how the work is organized, and how the three program departments work together as one engine.

Department leads own their departments. The Director of Operations owns administrative systems, policies, and day-to-day operations. The Controller owns accounting, controls, and compliance. Program directors own their programs and the practices that connect them. As a general rule, the COO does not backfill department-level management, stepping into a lead's work only to cover an absence. The COO also recognizes when development has run its course and a leadership change is in the organization's best interest, and leads that process fairly and decisively in partnership with People and Culture and the CEO.

How the Leadership Team Works Together

The CEO sets the direction and the standard, communicates where the organization is going, and carries DBEDC's relationships with the Board, funders, partners, and the public, along with enterprise financial stewardship and the organization's most consequential risk decisions. The COO presents operating financial performance to the Board's Finance Committee alongside the CEO and develops the finance function's capacity to do so directly over time. The CEO is direct, moves quickly, and holds a high bar for quality, and expects the leadership team to bring the same clarity and care to their own work.

The three Chiefs lead their areas as peers. The Chief Real Estate Officer leads real estate development and asset management. The Chief Development and Communications Officer leads resource development and communications. The COO leads internal management and the program and administrative departments. The Chiefs are expected to think together, plan together, share information freely, and resolve cross-area questions directly with one another, bringing to the CEO only what they cannot resolve or where the CEO can add value.

The work overlaps constantly. With the Chief Real Estate Officer, the COO makes sure finance supports development projects and property-level accounting across DBEDC's affiliated entities, connects workforce development to jobs created through construction and property operations, aligns community lending with small businesses that lease space in our properties, and makes sure community engagement supports community input on new development.

With the Chief Development and Communications Officer, the COO makes sure programs produce the outcomes and data funders expect, that grant deliverables and reporting deadlines are built into department plans, that proposal budgets reflect what it will actually cost to do the work, and that staff, residents, and partners hear a consistent story about how Community Engagement, Workforce Development, and Community Lending work together. Fundraising depends on program results, and program growth depends on fundraising, so neither role succeeds without the other.

The COO offers the CEO and the other Chiefs candid counsel, surfaces risk early, and pushes back when something is wrong. Once a decision is made, the COO carries it as their own. Staff should never hear a decision described as "the CEO's call," and there is no good cop, bad cop dynamic anywhere on the leadership team.

Who Does Well Here

The right person holds a high standard for themselves first, and for others, and delivers it with care. They read people and situations well, understand that every situation carries its own context, and adjust their approach without lowering the bar. They know when a situation calls for support and when it calls for a clear decision. They understand that success in this role depends on raising concerns early, particularly about performance, and acting on them before they grow. Waiting for a problem to resolve itself is not part of how they lead.

They have managed leaders before, not just staff, and they know the difference between doing a lead's job and making sure a lead is set up to do it. They read financial statements and budget - to - actual reports without needing them explained. They are direct and firm without sacrificing compassion or respect for the dignity of others. They welcome feedback and care more about the result than about being the smartest person in the room, and more about being effective than about being liked.

They bring thoughtful ideas about how the work can run better and offer them in service of the organization's direction and the Board's priorities. They are a natural collaborator with peers. They are decisive, they can disagree and then commit, and they do not carry a grudge. They are calm and clear under pressure and quick to learn complex subject matter.

What we mean by low ego

This role carries real authority, and we want someone who uses it well. Low ego means measuring success by the results of the organization and the team rather than by personal visibility or status. It means using authority to serve the work and the people doing it, never to elevate oneself or to control others. It means sharing credit, owning mistakes openly, and building influence through judgment and results rather than through proximity to the CEO or control of information. The right person is not coming here to be the star. They are coming to make the people around them better.

Fresh perspective welcome

Experience in community development, affordable housing, lending, or mission-driven organizations is welcome but not required. We are especially interested in candidates from other geographies, sectors, and types of organizations who bring their own perspective, think creatively, have different skills, and are not tied to the way our organization or our sector has always done things.

They are fluent with technology and see it as central to how a modern organization runs. They pick up new systems quickly, look for tools that make the work better, and lead their teams through adopting them.

What Success looks like

Year one

• Every department lead has clear outcome goals, role expectations, a development plan, and a manager who follows through, and leadership decisions have been made where they were needed.
• Each department's operating plan connects clearly to the Board's three strategic priorities, and staff can describe what those priorities

Dorchester Bay Economic Development Corporation