Who We Are

International Justice Mission (IJM) is the global leader in protecting vulnerable people from violence around the world. Our team of over 1200 professionals works across more than 30 offices worldwide. Together we are on a mission to rescue millions protect half a billion and make justice unstoppable.

We are a global community that cares for one another. We believe that the way we work is as important as the results we achieve. We take pride in delivering professional excellence with integrity joy and celebration to those we serve.

The Need

For over 25 years IJM has pioneered the work of protecting people in poverty from violence. As we grow to expand our impact to protect 500 million people living in poverty from violence we are seeking an Operations Manager who will deliver operational excellence that enables the Global Risk & Legal (GRL) division to deliver on its value proposition and better equip the organization to scale protection faster and smarter.

The Operations Manager drives GRL strategic planning work planning portfolio performance management reporting and operational excellence. The role is responsible for divisional budget oversight portfolio and project management methodologies and standards change-management practices and internal communications to ensure divisional impact transparency and accountability.

Critically the role ensures that behavior-centered approaches are intentionally integrated into divisional strategy OKRs portfolio management project design change leadership and operational execution.

Currently the role has direct supervisory responsibility for a Project Management Specialist and a Learning & Development addition it provides leadership for the Project Management Community of Practice across the division serving as a trusted advisor coach and connector to enhance consistency capability and collaborationwithout formal supervisory authority.

The Operations Manager directly supports the CRO-GC and the GRL Core Leadership Team of which it is a member

This position is open to both internal and external candidates. It is hybrid (onsite Tuesdays & Thursdays) if located in the Washington DC area or remote for non-local candidates. It is only available to US-based candidates with authorization to work in the United States.

Responsibilities:

Strategy Development & Execution

• Lead GRL divisional strategic planning in alignment with global organizational priorities.

• Translate strategic objectives into actionable roadmaps frameworks OKRs and execution plans that advance the divisional pathway and enterprise strategy.

• Serve as strategy advisor to the GRL Core Leadership Team providing insight into priorities tradeoffs performance impact and problem solving.

• Ensure that behavior-centered insights are integrated into strategy formulation framing and execution.

• Ensure OKRs and success metrics are behavior centric where human decisions and actions are critical to success.

Portfolio Management & Performance Oversight

• Develop and manage a portfolio of cross-functional projects to ensure alignment prioritization integrated sequencing and effective execution.

• Establish and oversee portfolio governance tracking and reporting to monitor progress risks and impact.

• Partner with project owners and managers to manage interdependencies mitigate risk and drive decision making.

• Ensure portfolio initiatives addressing humandriven risk factors incorporate behaviorcentered design principles.

• Oversee the appropriate use of behaviorcentric OKRs and performance measures across GRL.

Budget Management

• Develop and oversee the GRL divisional budget day-to-day budget operations and resourcing of divisional initiatives.

• Partner with budget managers and Global Finance to optimize budget execution.

• Identify opportunities to maximize return on investment across competing opportunities and priorities.

Change Leadership & Innovation

• Serve as a divisional change leader designing and driving initiatives that embed new capabilities systems and behaviors.

• Build change-management capacity across GRL.

• Champion evidence-based behavioral science and human-centered design approaches in divisional projects and change efforts.

• Foster a culture that recognizes the central role of human behavior in operational legal compliance safety and security and risk outcomes.

• Drive continuous improvement through intentional and systematic experimentation measurement and analysis adaptation and iteration and learning.

Program & Project Management

• Oversee high-priority cross-functional strategic initiatives within GRL and the Operations Pathway.

• Lead the development integration and coordination of GRLs project management methodology standards and tools.

• Develop a GRL project management community of practice that shares best practices ensures consistency and fosters excellence.

• Provide coaching and support to project owners in partnership with dedicated project managers.

• Ensure project methodologies enable effective behavioral framing discovery solution design and evaluation when relevant.

People Management

• Supervise and coach direct reports to build capacity foster professional development and sustain a healthy high-performance and collaborative team culture.

• Directly supervise a Project Management Specialist and a Learning & Development Specialist including performance reviews compensation input and career development.

Non-Supervisory Leadership

• Provide thought leadership and coaching to project managers across the division.

• Establish and promote project management standards and best practices.

• Serve as a resource and escalation partner for complex or highrisk projects.

• Build strong relationships to influence outcomes without positional authority.

• Participate on the Operations Global Programs and Resources Councils as a representative of the GRL Leadership Team.

Division Operations & Internal Communications

• Lead the divisions annual planning cycle including project identification workplan development and resource allocation.

• Develop and execute internal communication plans for divisional strategy and performance.

• Lead divisional reporting aligned with Board Operations Pathway and enterprise reporting.

• Create stakeholder management and communication plans for critical strategic projects to ensure key stakeholders are appropriately informed of the overall process timeline milestones outputs results and other pertinent information.

GRL Process Optimization & Alignment

• Partner with divisional project managers to identify opportunities to improve GRL processes and tools to enhance efficiency and effectiveness of divisional operations.

• Lead the continuous improvement of GRL processes.

• Ensure optimized processes are designed with end users in mind and reduce friction to engaging in vital behaviors.

Networking & Partnership

• Build strong transparent relationships with divisional project managers and cross-functional partners.

• Engage internal and external stakeholders to inform project design and execution.

• Foster trusted peer relationships across functions divisions and regions.

• Model a collaborative empathetic and humancentered approach to partnership and execution.

Qualifications:

Education & Experience

• Graduate degree in pertinent area of study or equivalent combination of bachelors degree and relevant work experience.

• 7-10 years of professional experience in project or portfolio management strategic planning and change management.

• Project management or operations management certification preferred.

• Agile certification preferred.

• People management experience strongly preferred.

• Demonstrated experience leading or sponsoring initiatives requiring significant behavior change across teams or systems.

• Experience partnering with specialists (e.g. behavioral science design learning or change experts) and integrating their work into enterprise execution.

• Strategic and critical thinker.

• Highly organized and detail oriented.

• Exceptionally collaborative across diverse teams.

• Clear concise and persuasive communicator verbally and in writing.

• Budget management experience strongly preferred.

• Ability to translate strategy into behaviorally grounded execution plans.

• Ability to assess whether solutions are likely to be adopted and sustained in real operating contexts.

Critical Qualities:

• Eager commitment to IJMs Core Values: Christian Professional and Bridge Building.

• Holds a valid passport and is able to travel both domestically and internationally on short notice.

• Relational servant leadership orientation.

• Strong cross-functional strategist and influencer.

• Self-starter with strong initiative and disciplined with priorities.

• High emotional intelligence and cultural intelligence.

• Flexible solutions-oriented and adept creative problem-solver.

• Customer-experience oriented.

• Demonstrated empathy for end users and stakeholders.

• Curiosity about how and why people behave at work and openness to evidencebased approaches for enabling behavior change in service of mission impact.

Application Process:

Upload Resume Cover Letter & Statement of Faith* in one PDF document.

*What is a statement of faith
A statement of faith should describe your Christian faith and how you see it as relevant to your involvement with IJM. The statement can either be incorporated into the cover letter or submitted as a separate document and should include at a minimum a description of your spiritual disciplines (prayer study etc.) and your current fellowship or place of worship.

What does IJM have to offer

• ComprehensiveMedical/Dental/Visionbenefits

• Monthly commuter and parking benefits in the DC metro area

• Retirement benefit options

• Paid leave starting at 23 days

• 12 holidays (plus early release the day prior)

• Daily quarterly and annual community spiritual formation

• Robust staff care resources

IJM holds strict safeguarding principles and a zero tolerance to violations of the Safeguarding Policy Protection against Sexual Exploitation Abuse and Harassment Policy and Code of Ethics. Candidate selection is based on technical competence recruitment selection and hiring criteria subject to assessing the candidates value congruence and thorough background police clearance and reference check processes.

At IJM were committed to building a diverse workforce through fair and equitable employment practices. IJM encourages people of any race color age sex marital status or political ideology to apply for employment. While we welcome everyone into this work we truly believe that the work we are doing is Gods work not our own and practice spiritual disciplines together daily. Thats why we legally require under SEC. 2000e-1 Section702 of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that all employees practice a mature orthodox Christian faith as defined by the Apostles Creed.

IJM requires a background check police clearance and thorough review of references with an employment offer and/or employment contract.