Arena Careers

About the Obama Foundation

At the Obama Foundation, we are guided by a core belief: that ordinary people working together can change history. Our mission is to inspire those people to take action, empower them to change their world for the better, and connect them so they can achieve more together than they can alone.

We were founded by community organizers, so when we seek change, we do it by bringing people together.

That approach begins at home, on the South Side of Chicago, where we are building the Obama Presidential Center. The Center represents a historic opportunity for Chicago: a chance to build a world-class museum and public gathering space that celebrates our nation’s first African American President and First Lady, steps away from where he began his career, where she was raised, and where—together—they made their home.

But that approach extends to all our work, whether it’s holding leadership training sessions in communities throughout the U.S., bringing local leaders together in countries around the world, working to support the global education of girls, or ensuring young men of color have pathways to opportunity.

As President Obama has said, “we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together.” So join us.

For more information, please visit www.obama.org.

Purpose of the Role

Joining the Obama Foundation’s Product & Technology team, the Manager, Strategy & Operations will hone and optimize the team’s delivery and communications processes, helping the Foundation achieve its vision of building a 21st century cultural institution befitting the vision and legacy of the first digital president, with rich interactive multimedia experiences that will inspire millions to bring change home.

In this role, you will oversee the execution of the team’s work, collaborating with product and engineering managers to ensure smooth delivery and support of key digital experiences that will highlight visits to the Obama Presidential Center. You will oversee budget, consultant coordination and other strategic project planning to support the evolution of the technology team.

You will also work closely with colleagues on other teams -- including other Foundation Operations and Project Managers -- with an emphasis on ensuring alignment on priorities and coordination of shared initiatives.

Core Job Responsibilities

• Strategic Planning and Process Development: Leads strategic planning and priority-setting processes for the team, participates in defining work and assessing impact across multiple workstreams, and contributes to broader organizational planning efforts. Develops and manages the team’s annual budget. Supervises one program manager coordinating workstreams across museum, marketing, and technology teams.
• Team Operations: Schedules and coordinates agendas for regular and one-off full team meetings, and keeps track of and reports on team milestones. Takes the lead with team-related contract and expense management. Oversees maintenance of team’s shared Google Drive and document management processes. Serves as an advisor to the Head of Product & Technology and other team leads with an emphasis on improving team’s efficiencies, culture, and relationships across the organization.
• Communications and Presentations: Collaborates with product & tech leads to assemble presentation materials for internal and external stakeholders, including Foundation leadership, department heads, and potential donors. Regularly evaluates flow of information within and across the team, and optimizes for clarity, collaboration, and predictability. Coordinates with other Chiefs of Staff on broad Foundation initiatives.
• Perform other duties as assigned

Key Deliverables / Outcomes

• Build and maintain the team’s budget, ensuring that it captures and reflects the team’s present and upcoming needs. Work with the Head of Product & Technology to forecast technology spend for both the runup to opening and post-opening.
• Work with product & tech leads to setup and maintain an appropriate level of syncs, stakeholder meetings, and reports to foster awareness of both evolving needs across the Foundation and alignment around major decisions and considerations in the work to build the Obama Presidential Center.
• Collaborate with product managers in overseeing the team’s strategic planning process and ensuring that key initiatives and work streams are properly defined, prioritized and evaluated.
• Foster and spread a culture of mutual respect, inclusivity, accountability and opportunity within the Product & Tech team and more broadly across the Foundation.

Required Qualifications

• At least five years of work experience focused on strategic management of organizational priorities, processes, and internal operations
• Effective project management skills, including the ability to successfully manage multiple projects simultaneously and to see connections and dependencies between projects, as well as experience supporting agile software delivery teams
• Interest in new developments in the intersection of digital technology and cultural institutions; ability to quickly understand and adapt to new technology. Experience creating digital experiences for cultural institutions, museums, or other experiential environments a plus
• Skilled, confident, and detail-oriented communicator -- written, visual, and verbal -- able to adapt tone, style, and approach based on a wide range of audiences . Track record of building relationships vertically and horizontally within an organization based on mutual trust, positive intent, and shared success.

In the interest of employee health and safety during the pendency of the COVID-19 global pandemic, the Obama Foundation is requiring that all prospective employees present proof that they are fully-vaccinated against COVID-19, or seek a reasonable accommodation for religious or medical reasons, prior to their first day of employment.

Equal Opportunity Employer

The Foundation is committed to creating a diverse work environment and is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. The Foundation does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, gender identity, religion, sexual orientation, age, disability, parental status, veteran status, or any other protected status under applicable laws. We encourage individuals of all backgrounds to apply. If you are a qualified candidate with a disability, please e-mail us at careers@obama.org if you require a reasonable accommodation to complete this application.