JUST - Operations Director (Bilingual)

JUST is a nonprofit financial platform working to close the racial wealth gap by investing in Black and Brown female entrepreneurs in Texas through capital, peer coaching, and community. Our higher purpose is to help people live with less stress and more joy.

Launched in January 2016, JUST developed an innovation on the Nobel Peace Prize-winning approach to microcredit through a female leadership program. We are a Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) fund that makes business and personal loans across the state of Texas based on trust, not a credit score.

We are a tech-enabled nonprofit headquartered in Austin with operations opening in Dallas, Houston, and El Paso and we have plans to expand across Texas. We are motivated to prove the potential of underestimated communities to be their own change agents when given access to the right resources.
JUST has made over 6,000 loans totaling more than $14M in Central Texas to a range of businesses from house cleaning to nail artists to flea market vendors. We have plans to reach 2,500 clients by the end of 2023 across the state of Texas.

We believe in and make decisions around the JUST Core Values:

• Empathy: People First - We begin and end with curiosity.
• Action: A bias toward action - We test, not to be right, but to learn.
• Community: Juntos salimos Adelante - We focus on solutions, remain open, and act with consistency.
• Trust: Believe in potential - We believe trust is earned and a two-way street.
• Perseverance: Keep going - We believe change happens over time.

Learn more:  www.hellojust.com

We are incredibly proud of what Black and Brown female entrepreneurs in Texas have been able to accomplish with our support and we are just getting started!  We are impatient with the status quo and want to help as many women as we can, so we are adding an Operations Director to our team to help us build a scalable organization.  This person will establish our playbook of operations that will allow us to consistently deliver on our promise to our clients and increase the performance ability and enjoyment of work for our team members.

The Operations Director will lead our lending operations team, which consists of approximately 6-8 (and growing!) Community Directors and JETAs (JETAs are JUST Entrepreneur Trust Agents who organize peer support groups to help our clients).  We don’t require experience in lending.  We do need someone who has experience in turning a vision into actionable steps and leading others.  We are looking for a hands-on servant leader, not a top-down manager.  The primary function of this role will be to remove obstacles by developing and implementing internal processes that support our team members in doing what they do best. 

A confident, yet warm personality who puts others first, listens to understand the needs and perspectives of others, and can formulate and implement solutions to solve their challenges will enable the Operations Director to earn trust and credibility with our team and our clients. 

We are looking for someone who, like our clients, has an entrepreneurial mindset and loves building.  A successful Operations Director will be someone who understands how to translate our vision into actionable steps and who is naturally inclined to organize systems and processes that are efficient and scalable.  This person should also have excellent foresight and the ability to anticipate what our team members will need as we grow.

This position presents an incredible opportunity for someone who would like to have purpose in their work and the ability to create significant impact for many people, including the amazing team members they will be working with and the clients we serve.  Additionally, this role is an excellent career-building opportunity for someone who is ready to grow as a leader and who would like to join a small organization as we prepare to expand and change the lives of many more Black and Brown female entrepreneurs.

• Base salary range:  $70,000-90,000
• Eligible for discretionary bonus based on individual and organizational performance
• Health, dental, and vision insurance
• Paid time off
• Flexible schedule
• Professional development assistance 

• Highly collaborative, entrepreneurial work environment with distributed workforce
• Headquarters in Austin, TX
• This position can be based in Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, or San Antonio
• Hybrid/remote work includes occasional team meetings at our headquarters in Austin, plus meetings in person as needed to support team members and clients in the communities we serve; independent work can be done from anywhere
• Full-time, 40 hours/week with a flexible schedule
• 25-50% travel across Texas as necessary

• Design and support our team in delivering a world-class customer service experience that is purpose-driven and metrics-driven. 
• Support the CEO with strategic growth initiatives, including planning for future staffing needs, as well as hiring, supporting, and culturally integrating new team members.
• Lead the Lending Operations team (consists of Community Directors and JETAs) as a servant leader, by supporting their needs, establishing clarity around Roles, Responsibilities, and Expectations (RREs), removing obstacles, and aligning the team toward our common vision.
• Provide performance feedback to team members.
• Establish and implement an operations playbook to codify our existing processes and to set guidelines for how we do what we do going forward, utilizing input from team members to continuously build upon and improve it.
• Establish annual and quarterly organizational objectives and metrics we should track to support JUST’s vision and select or create a platform to ensure goals (and progress toward goals) are visible to all team members.
• Develop and deliver onboarding and training as needed to set new team members up for success.
• Establish norms around communication to ensure we have positive, abundant, and easy communication across teams.
• Manage a central calendar of events, ensuring data is up-to-date and team members are proactively planning for upcoming events.
• Exemplify JUST’s Core Values and be a brand champion of JUST’s culture both internally and externally.

• Experience that provides an understanding of and appreciation for the communities we serve (Black and Brown female entrepreneurs), either through lived or work experience
• 5+ years of professional work experience in business or nonprofit operations and/or customer service, including some experience leading others (directly, indirectly, or through peer leadership)
• Experience supporting a growing organization through internal operations, such as by creating and tracking goals and key performance indicators (KPIs), implementing policies and procedures, and supporting positive and efficient internal communications
• Experience that demonstrates the ability to translate a vision into actionable steps
• Drivers license and ability to travel throughout Texas

• Bilingual – fluent in Spanish and English
• Entrepreneurial mindset; a self-motivated, creative problem solver who enjoys building an organization
• Servant leader; someone who leads by helping others perform at their highest potential
• Gifted at bringing people together toward a common goal and helping them achieve it
• Desire to help Black and Hispanic communities build wealth
• Desire to be part of a growing organization
• Tech savvy; comfortable with figuring out, using, and explaining technology
• Warm, professional, and positive communication style; adaptable and effective with widely varied audiences and comfortable presenting in front of groups

We value diversity and commit to making hiring decisions based on the skills and traits needed to be successful in this role.  We are an equal opportunity employer and we welcome your application.