Senior Operations Coordinator

POSITION TITLE: Senior Operations Coordinator

PROGRAM: Administration/Operations

SUPERVISOR: Chief Operating Officer (COO)

LOCATION: US remote or DC office (must work US ET hours)

SALARY RANGE: $75,000 - $94,000/year, depending on qualifications

DEADLINE: October 28, 2025

About CIEL

The Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) uses the power of law to protect the environment, promote human rights, and ensure a just and sustainable society. We work at the intersection of environmental protection and human rights, across sectors and borders, and in close collaboration with global partners and local communities.

Position Summary

CIEL is seeking a highly organized and collaborative Senior Operations Coordinator to support and strengthen our internal systems, information flow, planning, and reporting. Reporting to the COO, the Senior Operations Coordinator will work closely with the COO to conceptualize, launch, operationalize, and maintain internal processes and ensure coordination across program, development, finance, and administrative teams. The role will have full access to COO communications, is a highly trusted team member with access to confidential information across all types of work in the organization. A successful candidate will be highly collaborative, while also able to exercise substantial independent judgment in analyzing organizational growth edges and making recommendations for systems and processes to enhance organizational communication, effectiveness, and operations. This is an exciting opportunity for someone passionate about mission-driven work who thrives on creating efficient, user friendly systems and fostering organizational alignment to drive impact.

Key Responsibilities

Organizational Coordination and Effectiveness (55%)

• Support the development, maintenance, optimization of internal workflows, tools, and systems to improve efficiency and consistency across all departments (programs, development, finance, and operations).
• Facilitate coordination and communication across teams to ensure effective execution of cross-functional initiatives and to ensure internal operations run smoothly and responsively to solve problems and seize opportunities, including:
  • Help set up, maintain, and improve use of shared systems (ie Asana), organizational calendars, contact databases, and shared resources. 
  • Assist with internal communications and documentation, including drafting templates, supporting documentation, and process guides.
• Support internal integration and change management, ensuring day-to-day operations are aligned with, scaled to, and delivering on organizational goals and strategies.
• Partner with COO and leadership to translate strategic goals into actionable plans, timelines, and success metrics with tools to monitor progress, have data-informed discussions, and recommend adjustments.
• Support cohesion across offices and remote staff around growth and sustainability through relationship building, internal communications, infrastructure, work-life balance and work culture development.
• As needed, support organization-wide project implementation, including using and supporting others with project management tools, coordinating specific initiatives, and convening meetings and other events (online, in-person, hybrid).

Executive Operations Support (35%)

• Actively manage COO email, Slack, Asana, and other communication information channels, and access/navigate confidential information to support other executive functions across all types of work in the organization.
• Support COO with calendaring, event and meeting coordination, travel support, correspondence, and followthrough with key actors.
• Assist COO in strategic, annual, and operational planning processes, including both administrative (e.g. creating templates, scheduling, tracking, and follow-up) and thought partnership (e.g. gap analyses, organizational communication insights) to drive CIEL’s vision, ensuring alignment between high-level strategies, daily operations, and cross-functional organizational effectiveness.
• Provide Ops Leadership with advice and support on administrative systems and business processes, and support the Operations team as requested, including logistical needs related to Ops team meetings.

• Identify, vet, and manage operations and org-wide travel and logistics vendors to ensure value for money and accordance with procurement policy.

Administration (10%)

• Maintain timesheets and submit them on time.
• Maintain and preserve highest levels of confidentiality.
• Meet periodically as requested, with supervisor and other team members.
• Participate in weekly staff and team meetings and other organizational activities, including an annual staff performance evaluation.

Minimum Qualifications

• Minimum 5 years of experience in operations, finance, administration, project coordination, or a similar role.
• Proven experience holding highly sensitive information confidential and assisting supporting executive level staff with communications and information flow.
• Strong organizational and time management skills, with keen attention to detail.
• Demonstrated ability to coordinate across teams and manage multiple projects simultaneously.
• Proficiency with efficiency and project management tools such as Google Workspace, Slack, and Asana. 
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• A collaborative mindset and an interest in working in a mission-driven, international, and multicultural organization.
• Commitment to environmental justice, human rights, and CIEL’s mission and values.

Desired Qualifications

• Formal training and/or certification in project management and/or business process analysis
• Experience in a nonprofit or mission-driven setting

A successful candidate will demonstrate the following competencies: 

• Action-Oriented: Makes things happen. Takes on new opportunities and tough challenges with a sense of curiosity, proactivity, and constructiveness.
• Nimble Learning: Approaches unfamiliar tasks proactively and with an open mind. Can quickly adapt to new situations and to draw on past successes and failures to solve current problems.  
• Effective Communication: Understands the value of effective communication. Can deliver messages in a clear, compelling, and concise manner. Actively listens, checks for understanding, and adjusts content and style to meet the needs of different stakeholders.  
• Collaborates: Brings people together to leverage their skills, talents, and knowledge to achieve a common purpose. Creates synergy resulting in a combined effort with greater results than what can be achieved by individuals.  
• Resourcefulness: Is able to make the best of limited resources and find a way to get things done even when the odds are against them.  Can look beyond the obvious for viable approaches to accomplish the goal. 

Instead of a cover letter, we ask that you answer the below targeted questions, which are part of the application form:

• Share your experience with project management tools and principles. How have you worked to create buy-in around these principles in the face of resistance? (250 words max)
• Describe a time when you had to “manage sideways” - that is, achieve a complex goal when you did not have any positional authority. What are one or two lessons you learned that you would bring to CIEL? (250 words max)
• When beginning work with a new executive whose professional life you will help manage, what are steps you have taken in the past to situate the two of you in this new working relationship? Which of those were successful, and which were not? (250 words max)
  
• How does this role fit into where you are at in your career right now? (250 words max)

• Work sample request:  Please attach a planning document that you have created that other colleagues have also needed to understand (i.e. a template, or collaborate project document). 

Location note: This position may be eligible to work from our Washington, DC office or remotely elsewhere in the United States (some jurisdictions excluded) provided you have the ability to legally work in the US. CIEL cannot sponsor work visas.

Working Hours: CIEL works with employees and partners all over the world; however, our main offices are located in US Eastern Time (Washington DC) and Central European Time (Geneva). Thus, all employees must have some core overlap hours for live meetings, which are generally 9am - 12pm ET / 3pm - 6pm CET. In terms of working hours, CIEL tries to support staff with life/work balance and working a 40-hour work week. However, there will be occasions when working more is required; in such cases, CIEL may provide compensatory time to use at a later date.

This is a full-time, exempt position. If you are selected for this position and elect to work remotely, you are expected to provide your own space from which to work. CIEL will contribute a one-time stipend of USD $750 for fully remote workers, with an additional USD $250 per year for the purposes of maintaining your remote work space.

CIEL offers a strong benefits package including employer-subsidized health, dental, and vision; paid vacation, sick, and parental leave; a 5% contribution of gross annual salary into a 403(b) retirement account; a relocation stipend; dedicated professional development funding; and paid sabbatical leave after 7 years. CIEL is a 501(c)3 nonprofit in the US, and full-time employees qualify for the US Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program.  

Anonymous Demographic Survey: Please complete this anonymous demographic survey as part of your application to CIEL. The survey will only be used to help us evaluate our efforts to recruit a diverse pool of candidates. Your answers will not in any way be linked to your application, and the answers to the survey will not be handled by anyone on the hiring committee for the role.

COVID-19 Vaccination Requirement: In accordance with CIEL’s duty to provide and maintain a workplace that is free of known hazards and our commitment to safeguard the health of our employees, clients, and communities, CIEL requires US candidates to be fully vaccinated/boosted against COVID-19 within the past 36 months in order to be hired for this position. ​​If you are not eligible to be vaccinated against COVID-19 or vaccination is contraindicated by a licensed medical professional, you must provide documentation verifying this ineligibility or contraindication.

About CIEL: For 30 years, CIEL has used the power of law to protect the environment, promote human rights, and ensure a just and sustainable society. CIEL’s dynamic team of international attorneys and experts work together in a collaborative and supportive work environment to tackle some of the most interesting and challenging issues facing people and the planet. 

CIEL is actively committed to justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion, and building an organization that is as diverse as the communities we serve around the world. We know that diversity and inclusion make us stronger, and we actively encourage qualified applicants with various backgrounds, identities, perspectives, and (dis)abilities to apply. If you need an accommodation or assistance with this application, please contact Human Resources at jobs[at]ciel.org.