Griffiss Institute (GI) develops the next generation of American innovators, breakthrough technologies, and entrepreneurial ventures that strengthen national security and economic growth. A trusted partnership intermediary to federal service laboratories and American industry, GI delivers nationally recognized programs that accelerate collaborative technology transfer, grow the STEM workforce, and launch mission-driven startups. GI has powered American innovation to secure the nation from its home and headquarters in the Mohawk Valley region of New York State since 2002. To learn more about how GI serves our country and communities, visit us at www.griffissinstitute.org.
Position Summary
Griffiss Institute (GI) Chief Operations and Finance Officer has ultimate responsibility for the operations that power GI’s most precious assets: our people, finances, and facilities. A key member of GI’s Executive Leadership Team, the Chief Operations and Finance Officer is a systems strategist, dot connector, and superior communicator who develops and executes strategy while building strong teams and systems to promote organizational health in the corporate core of finance, human resources, and facilities management, in alignment with organization-wide objectives. GI Blueprint 2030 outlines the five-year objectives and key results GI seeks to achieve for the communities we serve. GI’s next phase requires a transition from a period of experimentation, rapid growth, and organizational evolution to a mature, enduring operational structure that includes oversight of various wholly owned subsidiary organizations.
The Chief Operations and Finance Officer is also expected to be Board-elected to the officer position of Treasurer and serves as GI’s management liaison responsible for primary support of the activities of the GI Board of Directors’ Audit and Finance Committee. Coordination of internal and external audits (e.g., Single Audit) and regulatory filings (e.g., IRS Form 990), competitive selection processes for SaaS tools and service vendors, enterprise risk management programs, insurance, and benefit programs are key areas of responsibility to be managed with Audit and Finance Committee engagement and oversight.
In addition to leadership of human resources, finance, and facilities, close partnership with GI’s Sponsored Programs and Business Office and Chief Compliance Officer is essential, as is collaborating across the organization to capture the insights needed to deliver superior core operations that power GI’s mission divisions to achieve their strategic objectives and key results.
GI’s ideal candidate is a servant leader and systems thinker of the highest professional integrity with broad experience in finance, people, and capital facilities operations; nonprofit governance and management; workflow automation and internal controls; and, importantly, leading people responsibly. This role is evaluated on results, relationships, and revenue impact, not hours spent.
Job Duties
People: Provides executive leadership for Griffiss Institute's people strategy, ensuring the organization attracts, develops, supports, and retains a high performing workforce while cultivating the systems, culture, and organizational effectiveness necessary to achieve strategic objectives.
Responsibilities:
· Leads enterprise human resource strategy including operational execution of the HR function, overseeing benefits strategy and administration, classification and compensation, talent acquisition and retention, performance management, employee relations, HR policy, and organization effectiveness, while aligning people strategies with long-term corporate objectives. Proactively cultivating strong managed service relationships that deliver enterprise value is essential.
· Builds, scales, and automates HR processes and oversees HR systems and vendors to ensure efficiency, data accuracy, and compliance across jurisdictions. Aligns employee lifecycle management with business goals, leading initiatives that foster a high-performing and productive culture.
· Provides executive oversight of the employee lifecycle, ensuring HR programs, systems, and processes effectively support recruitment, onboarding, engagement, development, retention, and offboarding. Serves as a strategic partner to GI's mission divisions by establishing enterprise-wide HR strategies that support both corporate employees and GI's national network of student interns and fellows. Maintains executive accountability for the systems, governance, and organizational culture that enable the successful onboarding and offboarding of approximately 1,000 seasonal employees annually, while operational execution is carried out by the HR team.
· Champions organizational culture by providing strategic leadership for employee engagement, workplace culture, and employee relations initiatives. Partners with HR leadership to foster a high-performing, inclusive, and accountable work environment that supports employee success and organizational effectiveness.
Finance: Provides executive leadership for Griffiss Institute's financial stewardship, ensuring financial resources, systems, investments, and planning support organizational resiliency, operational excellence, and long-term sustainability.
Responsibilities:
- Provides strategic leadership and hands-on oversight to financial planning and analysis, accounting, treasury, and facilities operations in alignment with organizational objectives, standards, timelines, and performance expectations, through a combination of direct staff oversight and managed service relationships.
· Equips GI’s mission divisions with financial planning and analysis tools that help GI analyze and manage costs to position the organization to win grants and contracts, and postures the organization to perform and exceed program requirements.
· Executes strategies for robust financial planning and investments by integrating systems that support effective monitoring, reporting, and data-driven decision-making. Delivers timely and accurate analysis to inform and advise GI’s Executive Leadership Team and Board of Directors for planning and forecasting, providing insights that empower GI to be a best place to work while gaining financial resiliency and growing assets.
· Collaboratively leads the annual organizational operating plan and budget development process, monitors budget-to-actual performance, and ensures resources are allocated strategically to advance organizational priorities.
· Builds trust across GI’s enterprise by collaborating effectively with GI’s divisions to ensure that finance and administrative operations empower diverse, mission-driven teams to meet strategic objectives and deliver key results.
· Manages productive and cost-effective vendor relationships with IT and SaaS providers for ERP and HRIS systems to include but not limited to banks; outsourcing partners; auditors; benefit plan brokers and managers; and specialist consultants, as needed.
Facilities: Provides executive leadership for Griffiss Institute's facilities and physical assets, ensuring our built environments are optimized to support mission execution and sustainability.
Responsibilities:
· Develops and executes enterprise facilities strategies that align physical infrastructure, workplace environments, and capital investments with organizational objectives and long-term growth.
· Serves as the lead on-site GI executive at Innovare Advancement Center in Rome, NY to oversee day-to-day activities with engaged and purposeful leadership of our headquarters.
· Oversees GI’s real estate portfolio and facilities operations, including space planning, lease administration, capital improvements, physical assets, and maintenance. Ensure GI's physical environments support organizational growth and operational efficiency.
· Develops facilities strategies that anticipate future organizational growth, enabling Griffiss Institute to expand programs, partnerships, and operations while maintaining exceptional stewardship of physical assets and financial resources.
· Leads facilities master planning, capital improvements, renovations, infrastructure investments, and expansion projects, balancing organizational priorities, operational requirements, and financial stewardship.
· Establishes productive relationships with facilities contractors, property managers, architects, engineers, construction firms, and service providers to ensure quality, cost-effectiveness, and timely project delivery.
· Oversees enterprise space planning and workplace utilization to maximize operational effectiveness, accommodate organizational growth, and support evolving programmatic and tenant needs.
Governance & Enterprise Operations: Provides executive leadership for Griffiss Institute's administrative framework, ensuring GI operates with integrity, transparency, sound internal controls, effective risk management, and compliance with legal, regulatory, and fiduciary responsibilities.
Responsibilities:
· Partners closely with the Chief Compliance Officer and General Counsel to maintain a well-governed organization, ensuring financial operations, internal controls, and people practices are designed and executed in alignment with GI's legal, regulatory, and ethical obligations across federal, state, and contractual environments.
· Evaluates and continuously improves processes across functional areas of the enterprise. Identifies and implements efficiencies and performance enhancements, and tracks and reports on operating results to sustain progress toward organizational goals.
· Maintains robust internal controls and oversees proactive internal and external audits, ensuring organizational strategies align with applicable regulations (e.g., federal tax and grant regulations, state not-for-profit laws) and industry best practices.
· Upholds a pristine compliance environment for finance, people, and capital facilities operations in accordance with a complex juxtaposition of federal, state, and contractual requirements, always aiming to adhere to legal standards and mitigate risk.
· Represents GI in meetings with key clients, sponsors, donors, investors, regulatory agencies, and other external parties.
Supervises: Human Resources, Finance, Facilities - a staff of 6-10 professionals and service providers.
Competencies: As this role is for a senior leader, it is expected that the candidate has at least a decade of relevant experience, with demonstrated excellence in: Enterprise leadership. Systems thinking. Superior written and verbal communication. Executive presentation and public speaking skills. Ability to communicate complex financial, operational, and organizational information with clarity, brevity, and consistency among diverse audiences. Strategic planning. Financial acumen. Analytical and data-driven decision-making. Organizational effectiveness. Sound judgment. Relationship building. Change leadership. Attention to detail.
Executive Leadership Experience
- Executive oversight of people, finance, and facilities operations within a complex organization.
- Experience supporting executive leadership teams and nonprofit boards of directors, including finance, audit, investment, and development committees.
- Demonstrated success developing organizational strategy, aligning enterprise systems, and strengthening internal controls to improve organizational effectiveness and scalability.
- Experience leading cross-functional initiatives, organizational change, and project and portfolio management.
- Demonstrated ability to communicate effectively through executive presentations, board briefings, stakeholder engagements, and public speaking.
Operational & Technical Experience
- Experience managing strategic vendor relationships, including ERP and HRIS platforms, financial institutions, retirement plan providers, auditors, facilities contractors, and professional service providers.
- Experience operating within nonprofit organizations or other mission-driven enterprises.
- Proven ability to serve as a trusted strategic partner to executive leadership and governing boards.
Institutional Experience
Experience working within or alongside one or more of the following environments is preferred:
- Innovation centers and hubs;
- Defense industrial base, research institutions, higher education, and workforce development organizations;
- Startups, incubators, accelerators, venture studios and venture funds;
- Defense and national security-connected nonprofits and partnership intermediaries;
- Advancement, philanthropy, grants, donor-advised funds, community foundations, and family foundations;
- High-growth, innovative organizations building structure (policies, processes, hierarchy, managed service relationships) where systems are evolving or do not yet exist.
Governance, Compliance & Financial Acumen
- Working knowledge of nonprofit governance, human resource management, government-sponsored programs, and endowment management.
- Experience with oversight of treasury and accounting, structuring and negotiating credit facilities for scaling, cost and margin analysis.
- Experience with oversight of wage and hour compensation and benefits, employee leave and accommodations, workplace safety and health, talent and volunteer management.
- Working knowledge of the standards applicable to New York nonprofits, whether through direct management, commensurate board service, or public accounting.
- Familiarity with UPMIFA and stewardship best practices, including comfort collaborating with mission teams on sponsored programs and campaign forecasting, revenue tracking, and reporting.
Data, Systems & Performance
- Must be able to compile, analyze, and communicate data that informs executive decision-making and organizational performance, delivering human insights.
- Working knowledge of HRIS, ERP, and building management systems and experience aligning them with efficient workflows and people.
- Develop and report departmental Objectives and Key Results to leadership and board.
Education
- Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field with accounting, finance, business administration, communications, public administration, or a related discipline, preferred.
- Master’s degree in business administration, finance, nonprofit management, public administration, communications, or a related discipline preferred.
Professional certifications or advanced training in one or more of the following are preferred:
- GovCon Management
- Project Management
- Nonprofit Governance and Compliance
- Accounting
- Endowment Stewardship
- Human Resource Management (SHRM, HRCI, or equivalent)
Schedule and Location
- Location: Griffiss Institute, Rome, New York
- Work Model: On-site
- Full-time, exempt position
Salary Range: $210,000 - $250,000
Benefits: Market Competitive Health Insurance, PTO, 401K Match, and other related benefits
Standard business hours with flexibility to accommodate:
- Board and leadership team cadences
- Low to no travel required (anticipated 5%)
Regular on-site presence at the Innovare Advancement Center is expected to:
- Engage with staff and partners
- Support key events and institutional moments
Physical Requirements and Work Environment
The physical requirements and work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
Griffiss Institute is an Equal Opportunity Employer committed to an inclusive and uplifting culture and practices that make everyone feel welcome. We acknowledge diversity as a driver of good decisions and better business results. All applicants will be considered for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran, or disability status.
Pay: $210,000.00 - $250,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- 401(k) matching
- Dental insurance
- Health insurance
- Health savings account
- Life insurance
- Paid time off
- Professional development assistance
- Tuition reimbursement
- Vision insurance
Application Question(s):
- If you do not currently hold an active Secret clearance, do you meet the requirements to obtain one?
Security clearance:
Work Location: In person
