We're a 17 year old boutique professional services firm based here in Boston, Massachusetts. Our team is spread out across the US, as are most of our clients. And we continue to grow. To help us with this growth, we're thinking about adding another partner to the firm that will be focused on 4 areas key to our success, but less visible to our clients-- operations, finance, administration and technology. To be clear, we see this as a part time role-- 10-25 hours a week. However, it is a key leadership role in the firm, not merely supportive. Could it be a full time role at some point? Absolutely. However, at the outset, and for the short-term foreseeable future, it is not. If you're seeking full-time, this is not the right opportunity for you.
Why is this role and its flexibility potentially just right for you?
If you've throttled back from a full-time position due to either a desire to spend more time at a later stage in your career on life vs. work, or because of young family or caretaker demands, but you still want to feel part of a team, part of building something, we'd love to learn more about you.
A week in the life for this role?
A sample week's work might include any of the following-- conference call with bookkeeping service, weekly staff check-in calls on goals progress and operational metrics management, human resource & benefits review and management, interviewing prospective new team members, or helping the office manager with decisions on insourcing vs. outsourcing of different technology platforms important to the company.
What about "face time"?
While we believe strongly that periodic in-person meetings are important for company team-building, we also believe that a virtual organization is not only possible, but in the end, stronger. Our team is mature, self-managed, and driven. We use the latest tools for virtual communication and collaboration. Therefore, most of this role can be performed remotely. While we'd prefer someone in the greater Boston area for periodic in person meetings, no daily commute into our offices in Back Bay is expected.
Key career background & experience for this position?
• Experience in professional services industry. Think billable hours environment in management consulting firms, law firms, accounting firms, investment banks. These or similar experiences will have generated a base of understanding for how we operate, best practices, and benchmarking opportunities you can help bring to the organization
• SMALL firm experience. We're a small organization. Not more than 20 soaking wet. While experience in larger corporate frameworks will be valuable in bringing processes and organization and consistency into our firm, an understanding and experience in this smaller milieu is going to be critical to success.
• Passion for operational excellence. Whether dealing with finance, operations and project management, hiring, human resources issues, health & benefits selection and ongoing management or other similar, this person needs to have 3 things:
- Passion for the role
- Desire to create structure and systems that are "suitable weight" to our size
- Curiosity, an innate drive to figure out "how things work"
• Finally, this person needs to be a personality with whom all stakeholders want to interact . This role will be working across the whole organization, both internally and externally. Internally with all team members, with contractors to the firm, and third-party service providers (banking, accounting, insurance & benefits, etc.). What's required to fulfill this requirement? Someone should never have had "runs with scissors," or "doesn't play well with others" on their report card. Self-awareness, compassion, and especially a desire to have fun and use humor as both a relief valve and tool are all critical success factors.
Prior positions of responsibility that might be good experience for this role?
Any of the below positions of responsibility might have generated the experience set required to be success in this role. However, this does not mean that if you haven't had any of the titles below, you're not qualified. Read between the lines, for intent and not literally--
• Administrative Partner
• Head of Professional Services
• Chief of Staff (less title, more "doing" required here, but worth including in this list)
• Chief Administrative Officer (of professional services boutique)
• Office Manager (with very broad responsibilities)
• Chief Operations Officer (all operations responsibility for small services firm)
• Controller
In one word, how might you describe the position?
"Glue." Because this is the person who glues the whole organization together.
How much could someone earn in this role?
The ingredients for this answer: part time, mostly virtual, ability to "flex up" and "flex down" as the business needs cycle through periodic expansion & contraction, often seasonal (slower during summer months). With all this in mind we see this as a 3 part compensation structure:
• percentage of top line revenues (paid monthly)
• percentage of profit (paid quarterly in partial, and settle up at end of year)
• Opportunity to benefit financially if the firm were to be sold/bought to a 3rd party (unlikely, but always good to put in place via phantom stock/liquidity profit sharing mechanism).
• Compensation range: in some years, could be middle double digits. In good years, could be mid-6 figures.
To apply for this position, please click here.
