Executive Manager

Overview

Desired start date: April 7th, 2025

Location: Fully Remote, open to candidates nationwide, with preference for candidates in or near the Durham, NC area

Hours: 37 hours/week

Application deadline: February 22nd, 2025

Role Purpose:

Lead and manage several streams of operations  for an established queer Black artist and activist with national and international reach. This includes managing finances, partnerships, scheduling, and logistics associated with publishing, speaking engagements, a podcast, and other creative and activist endeavours in a context that centres collective liberation and intersectional social and environmental justice.

Organizational Context:

The artist is growing a garden of healing ideas. Informed by decades of social movement facilitation, somatics, science fiction scholarship and doula work, the artist has nurtured Emergent Strategy, Pleasure Activism, Radical Imagination and Loving Corrections as ideas and practices for transformation. The organization is shaped by these ideas and integrates the principles and practices into our operations.

Relationality:

This role acts as a trusted coordinating hub, holding the plot on overall day-to-day operations while managing incoming requests, coordinating logistics with the artist and partners, supervising the speaking events consultant, and liaising with supporting professionals (e.g. accountant, agent, lawyer, etc). This role reports to the fractional Business Manager.

Core attributes:

Really strong operational knowledge and experience
Can see the big picture, set the tone, and lead people through complexity
Capacity to map out projects and tasks and guide others through projects
Very comfortable with financial management and oversight responsibilities
Can wrangle and translate between different professional partners including accountant, lawyer, agent, publisher, public relations, artistic collaborators, etc.
Confident problem solver with good judgment re: when to call in additional expertise
Organization and systems builder who is keen to continue work to strengthen and simplify processes
Relationship driven, skillfully asserts boundaries, and designs projects and processes that purposely avoid urgency culture and nurture satisfaction and well-being
Highly conscientious and responsible
Knows how not to get too stressed out in the details, but can also handle the details
Skilled at values-based decision-making, including trouble-shooting when bridging to mainstream systems and structures

Relevant experience may look like:

Have managed artists/public figures
Have run your own artistic/cultural business/theater company etc.
Chief of staff/Deputy Director/Managing Director in a political office or social change organization
Executive Coordination for C-suite leaders (managing dynamic calendars, partners, financials, and personalities)
Start-up/jack of all trades

Responsibilities include:

Day-to-day organizational, operational, project, and principal management across all primary activity streams
Financial management including administering budgeting, reporting, cashflow management, accounts payable and receivable, expense management, and tax coordination. Point of contact for Accountant/Bookkeeper and Business Manager
Managing human resources systems including payroll, health benefits, and 401k through PEO
Managing, filtering and processing incoming requests
Scheduling, calendar and travel logistics
Supervising and coordinating with the consultant that manages speaking engagements
Liaising with professional partners and managing related contracts
Managing business compliance, insurance and artistic rights
Maintaining and improving internal processes and systems
Other duties as required in a small team context

Compensation:

$90k full-time; 100% employer paid health insurance, vision and dental benefits; 401k matching, 15 days’ vacation, 10 paid wellness days, 11 federal holidays, 1 floating holiday, and time off during an office close the final week of December.

Application instructions:

Please submit one combined PDF including a resume and cover letter named in the format LastNameFirstNameExecManagerApplication to hiring@tonita.pro by midnight Eastern on Saturday February 22nd. In your cover letter, please specifically address your approach to managing priorities, how your professional and lived experience prepare you for this role, and the values you bring to this kind of work. All applicants will receive an auto-response indicating your application has been received. Due to limited capacity, you will hear from us directly only if we are advancing your application. We anticipate inviting applicants to advance by February 28th, 2025.

While we may adapt the hiring process to support our ability to effectively assess candidates, we currently anticipate that our selection process will include:

An initial phone call
A time-limited practical exercise (honorarium provided)
Up to two interviews
Reference checks (please be prepared to provide 3 professional references)

We are an Equal Opportunity Employer. Black, Indigenous, People of color, queer, gay, lesbian and/or bisexual people, transgender, genderqueer and/or non-binary folks are encouraged to apply.