Operations Manager

Responsibilities

The Operations Manager will lead project coordination, manage complex logistics, and oversee internal team experiences including the annual org-wide retreat. They will partner with leadership to drive operational decision-making, maintain project momentum, and ensure high-quality outcomes across various initiatives.

Requirements

Candidates must possess outstanding project management and organizational skills with prior experience in planning large-scale conferences or retreats. A commitment to the organization's mission and the ability to travel 2-3 times per month are essential for this role.

Skills

• Project management
• Event planning
• Logistics management
• Relationship building
• Communication
• Budget management
• Data analysis
• Google Forms
• Zoom
• Time management
• Organizational skills
• Strategic planning
• Collaboration
• Problem solving
• Attention to detail

Benefits

• Medical coverage
• Dental coverage
• Vision coverage
• Org-wide holidays
• Paid time off
• Paid parental leave
• Professional development opportunities

About this role

Start Date: Immediate
Role Type: Full-time
Reports To: Jennifer Perniciaro
Team: Central Operations
Travel: ~30-35% time. Willingness to travel approximately 2-3x per month for 2-3 days depending on the location and duration of trips. There will be four to six trips per year of longer duration, lasting ~4-5 days. The number of trips will vary from month to month - some months will have more, while others will have fewer.
Location: Remote (U.S.-based); Midwest and East Coast preferred. This is a fully remote role, but given the location of our projects we’re prioritizing candidates located in the Central or Eastern Timezones.
Who We Are
Transcend is a national nonprofit that helps communities reimagine and redesign schools so every young person can thrive in a rapidly changing world. Across the country, communities are recognizing that classrooms built for the industrial age aren’t preparing learners for what’s next. Instead, schools must be designed for continuous evolution: relevant, resilient, and ready for the future. For more than a decade, Transcend has partnered with school and system leaders to build the capacity for bold, lasting change—change led by the people who live it every day. We’ve worked with nearly 500 schools and 200 districts serving over 225,000 students in 35 states. Together, we’ve seen what’s possible when communities lead redesign with proven methods, insight, and support. From that work, we develop and share tools, research, and models that help schools everywhere make the leap to extraordinary learning—for every child, in every community.
For more information, visit our website or follow us on LinkedIn.
The Opportunity
At the heart of our work across projects and teams lies our operations and events work led by Operations Managers! Operations Managers are the backstage leaders of our work and go the extra mile to ensure everyone has what they need to be able to facilitate projects across Transcend.
Operations Managers are home-based within our centralized operations team and are allocated to specific projects across teams to ensure strong coordination and execution. Across all project allocations, they are responsible for driving clarity, maintaining momentum, and ensuring high-quality outcomes. By asking thoughtful questions, anticipating needs, and deeply listening, Operations Managers help shape experiences that ensure partners and teammates feel prepared, supported, and valued.
Operations Managers partner closely with Portfolio Directors, Project Leads, and Senior Leaders to co-create project plans, lead operational decision-making, and ensure seamless execution across projects. They build and steward systems, manage complex logistics, and design experiences that are thoughtful, human-centered, and aligned to Transcend’s high bar for quality.
A defining part of this specific Operations Manager role is support for and then ownership of Transcend's org-wide Team Retreat, our flagship all-team gathering that brings together 130+ teammates for three to four days each June. Alongside it, you will support smaller-scale experiences and events for our internal central coordination team, and may take on additional lead or support roles on other operational projects across portfolios.
More than our other Operations Manager roles, this one will have a large focus on Transcend's internal team experiences and support projects that create culture and community for our organization.
As an Operations Manager at Transcend, you will get to:
Foster strong relationships - with our partners, Portfolio Directors, Project Leads, and across our internal teams!
Serve as a project manager for all things operations – creating and managing timelines, supporting our coaches in anticipating and navigating through logistics and operational needs and constraints, and coordinating project plans and calendars across a scope of work and range of projects.
Grow from supporting to owning our org-wide Team Retreat Operations end to end. In your first cycle, you’ll primarily support an operational leader and learn from them as they guide the planning and execution of Transcend’s annual, all-team retreat, a three to four day convening held each June. Over time, you’ll take full ownership of this marquee, high-visibility project, which will be your primary body of work in this role.
Lead other conference coordination - holding, stewarding, and coordinating a group of teammates and external partnerships to attend events and/or conferences. This includes preparing travel plans, planning and leading spaces we want to craft during the conferences, and communicating with conference attendees.
Craft and manage operations-focused communications with internal staff, school partners, and our learning cohorts and communities. This includes crafting emails, slack messages, participant guides, logistics memos, etc. with clear instructions and information for the team and/or school partners to ensure alignment on the overall experience and the small details.
Lead and manage operations and logistics for various workshops, inspiration visits, and events, both virtually through Zoom and in-person. This ranges from leading operations for 2-hour, 15-person Zoom calls; to operations for 4-day in-person events with ~100 participants. Additionally, some in-person events may require you to rent and drive a vehicle to transport materials, support team members, or handle other logistical needs.
Create and analyze team survey data – writing and sending surveys (often in Google Forms), analyzing that data, and sharing back the summary and next steps with the team.
Spearhead smooth internal operations such as scheduling internal team meetings and project events, preparing agendas, taking notes, and capturing (and managing follow-through on) the next steps.
Manage conference/event budgets, and other team budgets as needed. With the support of the Finance team, support your project team and/or event to stay on budge...

About Transcend

Education Management · 51-200 employees · headquartered in Hastings-on-Hudson, NY · founded 2015