Chief Operating Officer

Job Title: Chief Operating Officer

Work Location: International Reports To: Founder Prepared Date: October 1, 2026

Position Overview & Core Purpose

The Chief Operations Officer (COO) leads the organization’s operations, ensuring effective execution of strategy through strong systems, processes, and administrative oversight. The role balances an extensive internal-facing portfolio—focused on day-to-day global execution, human resource structure, financial stewardship, and compliance monitoring—with strategic executive leadership. While the COO is responsible for implementation, staffing, budgets, operational performance, and day-to-day delivery, the position operates in close partnership with the Founder, who owns mission integrity, program philosophy, external influence, and long-term direction.

The core purpose of this role is to translate the organization’s mission and vision into high-impact, compliant, and scalable operational realities. By managing operations, country programs, and resources, the COO creates the foundation that allows the organization to pursue its mission and external partnerships effectively.

Tutapona’s dual-leadership structure liberates the Founder to expand global influence while guaranteeing that every regional operation remains efficient, metrics-driven, and fully aligned with organizational compliance mandates.

Key Responsibilities & Boundary Framework

1. Operationalizing Mission & Vision

The COO serves as the lead translator of organizational values and macro-strategies into functional systems. While the Founder anchors the overarching "where" and "why," the COO designs the practical operational "how," constructing metric-driven frameworks that protect mission integrity across all locations. The COO builds out the organizational systems, work plans, and accountability models necessary to operationalize activities safely without diluting the core institutional identity. Through rigorous project lifecycle management, the COO ensures that the strategic intentions established by the Founder and the Board of Directors materialize into measurable field outcomes.

1. Internal Leadership & Administrative Management

Operating as the internal administrative leader, the COO establishes and enforces the legal, compliance, and logistical infrastructure needed to sustain global operations. This involves directing internal workflows, managing regional support teams, and formalizing institutional systems. While the Founder navigates high-level external relationships, the COO is responsible to mobilize personnel, secure legal operating frameworks, sign agreements, and manage the administrative functions that fulfill those external commitments safely.

1. Institutionalizing Networks & Relational Assets

The COO takes responsibility for integrating high-level networks, external partnerships, and donors into the active fabric of the organization. As the Founder secures access to strategic networks through relational capital, the COO steps in to structure these opportunities. The COO translates loose relational alliances into structured operational collaborations, assigning internal team resources and tracking partnership outcomes to ensure that external goodwill results in sustained programmatic success and scaled organizational growth. The COO is responsible for development of infrastructure, CRM processes, staff oversight, compliance, and execution.

1. Budgetary Control & Financial Execution

The COO holds direct accountability for the organization’s financial execution, budget management, and resource allocation. The COO builds realistic fiscal boundaries that support the high-level donor conversations championed by the Founder. The COO is responsible for spending allocations, compliance checking, and contract approvals, ensuring that programmatic spending remains strictly inside approved financial pathways. This structural safeguard protects the organization from unbudgeted financial commitments and aligns restricted funds with real-world logistical capacity. The COO also works with the contract accountant and auditing firm to make sure proper accountability is in place for all resources.

1. Programmatic Execution & Field Evaluation

The COO exercises managerial oversight over the daily operational implementation, local adaptation, and performance measurement of global programming. Supervising all Country Directors and operations teams, the COO enforces specific work plans, establishes key performance indicators, and ensures strict adherence to safety regulations. While the Founder provides high-level input on the philosophical design and evaluation metrics of the work, the COO remains uniquely responsible for executing those workplans on the ground, correcting operational blockages, and managing day-to-day delivery.

1. People Management & Human Resources

The COO owns direct executive accountability for the functional mechanics of Human Resources and global team management. This includes structuring recruitment pipelines, executing performance reviews, enforcing labor compliance, and handling personnel hiring and terminations. While the Founder anchors the cultural spirit and values of the international team through staff care and personal development, the COO manages the actual personnel architecture. The COO owns supervision, performance management, hiring, compensation, corrective action, and human resource processes.

1. Crisis Management & Tactical Security Command

During periods of heightened geopolitical tension or field emergencies, the COO holds command authority over all internal crisis management and security protocols. The COO manages emergency task forces, establishes immediate evacuation lines, dictates staff security mandates, and directs on-the-ground tactical actions. While the Founder leads external communication and donor confidence, the COO has final authority over operational response, safety, security, and evacuation orders.

1. Operational Reporting & Governance Interface

The COO provides accurate, highly detailed operational and financial data to the Board of Directors and the Founder to facilitate robust governance. By presenting comprehensive field metrics, cash flow analyses, and risk compliance audits, the COO ensures that executive strategy rests on transparent data. The COO collaborates closely with the Founder to synthesize operational realities with future vision casting, ensuring that the Board of Directors remains fully informed concerning the functional health and regulatory standing of all global country programs.

Explicit Role Boundaries & Authority Matrix

To maintain an optimal balance of visionary leadership and operational excellence, the distinction between the Founder’s senior oversight and the COO’s executive management is clearly defined.

Qualifications, Evaluation, & Alignment

Qualifications & Profile

The position requires an executive leader with experience managing complex global operations, preferably within an international humanitarian or development context. The ideal candidate possesses expertise across financial modeling, global human resource infrastructure, regulatory compliance, risk mitigation, and field logistics. Superior project management skills and the ability to build highly standardized, scalable workflows are essential. The role demands an executive who thrives when translating visionary goals into hyper-structured, operational game plans. Exceptional communication skills are required, specifically a proven capacity to work as a trusted partner alongside a visionary Founder, while maintaining a unified, non-competitive executive front.

Performance Evaluation

The COO is evaluated by the Founder in consultation with the Board of Directors. The review focuses primarily on the efficiency, scalability, and compliance of the organization's global operations, the precision of budgetary and financial execution, the stability and safety of international field deployments, and the overall execution of strategic plans. Additionally, the evaluation heavily weighs the structural health, retention, and performance of staff members, alongside the strength, alignment, and collaborative effectiveness of the executive partnership maintained with the Founder.

Job Type: Full-time

Pay: $85,000.00 - $95,000.00 per year

Benefits:

• Flexible schedule
• Paid time off

Application Question(s):

• How much experience do you have in the non-profit world? How much experience with international non-governmental organizations (NGO)?

Education:

• Bachelor's (Required)

Experience:

• Finance: 3 years (Preferred)

Work Location: Remote