BACKGROUND

Our Futures Institute is a not for profit organisation providing online evidence-based drug, alcohol, vaping, tobacco, and mental health education courses to high school students.

The programs were developed by researchers at The University of Sydney, and utilise social influence and harm minimisation approaches.

Recent funding from the federal government health department will enable all high schools in Australia to access our new vaping prevention program and we need an amazing COO/Program Director to lead this incredibly important initiative.

Did you know that 1 in 6 high school students have vaped recently and 12-year-olds who have vaped are 29 times more likely to go on to try cigarette smoking? Youth vaping is on the rise, and in turn, a new generation of nicotine addicts is being created. We need to stop this in its tracks and you could play an absolutely critical role in addressing a major health issue for young people in Australia.

Reporting to the CEO, the COO/Program Director will be based at the Sydney Knowledge Hub, the University of Sydney’s co-working space in Camperdown and will build, lead and motivate a team of ten to twelve staff, ensuring the organisation continues to advance its mission of preventing harms to young Australians from substance use and mental health disorders.

The COO will be entrepreneurial and innovative, ideally with experience in managing start up enterprises. Experience with software as a service is desirable, as is leadership of aquisition/sales and support teams. A keen understanding of SaaS metrics, how to build loyalty and strategically expand footprint into accounts is critical. This position offers a great opportunity for someone who has excellent business acumen and leadership skills, is highly driven and focussed, and can work in an high-paced environment delivering brilliant operational leadership to achieve business and personal success.

The successful establishment of our Vaping prevention and other programs within schools will have marked and significant impact on the wellbeing and potential of young people in Australia.

This full-time four-year fixed term role is for hire in early 2025.

Your key responsibilities will be to:

• Recruit staff, with guidance from the CEO, to grow the school acquisition/sales, support, technical and operations teams.
• Drive, with a sense of urgency, the adoption of our vaping prevention program to all high schools around Australia
• Provide effective leadership and people management and coordination of Our Futures Institute staff members
• Help implement and when required provide strategic input into the Business Plan.
• Help strategically grow the business by identifying potential client, distribution and business models and opportunities
• Deploy fit for purpose processes and systems to maintain high performance operations.

QUALIFICATIONS:

Candidates should possess the following:

• A bachelor’s degree or advanced degree, MBA or equivalent and/or considerable experience (3-5 years) as a COO, Program Director, or in a related position.
• Experience in a senior strategic leadership role and/or tertiary qualifications in business or management
• Experience building and leading a sales, customer success and support, and operations teams
• Capacity to work effectively with and foster collaboration with senior stakeholders and decision making as part of a management team.
• Proven experience executing organisational growth and leading a similar or larger size business unit
• Familiarity with other diverse business functions such as Marketing, Public Relations, Human Resources, etc.
• Experience and success in recruiting, motivating, developing, retaining, and mentoring high performance, mission-driven, and results-oriented teams.

The following experience is desirable:

• Experience working in the education sector
• Experience working with and reporting to CEO
• Experience with driving business growth and operations

Knowledge

• Knowledge of the education sector, Software as a Service or education technology sector advantageous
• Demonstrated knowledge of contemporary business and management concepts and issues, with the capacity to apply this knowledge to help meet KPIs and achieve impact.

Essential skills

• Organisational leadership and management skills with a demonstrated ability to inspire and motivate staff
• Detail orientated
• Ability to build a high performance operations teams
• High level collaborative, relationship building and networking skills
• Financial management and budgeting skills

Personal Characteristics:

• Strong business acumen and experience in providing leadership at the executive level
• Thoughtful and visionary leader and strategic thinker, ability to stay calm under pressure and manage multiple priorities
• Self-motivated with an ability to motivate others to drive the organisation
• Desire to explore innovative approaches and new ideas to solving problems
• Agile, drives change quickly and effectively, inspires the team and understands the impact and consequences of change
• Possess integrity, tact and discretion
• Has excellent oral and written communication skills and excellent listening skills
• Is flexible and well informed, continuously expands sector knowledge
• Has the ability to consider and manage risk, and a sense of accountability to take risks and manage the consequences.

SALARY AND CONTRACT:

This opportunity offers the ability to make significant impact leading and growing the not-for-profit organisation Our Futures Institute. This career opportunity offers a strong starting base salary and a team-oriented atmosphere that is both positive and rewarding.

Starting compensation includes: a competitive salary dependent on experience plus 11.5% superannuation with a 4-year fixed term contract. In addition FBT exemption benefits and a performance bonus for exceeding KPIs

If you have any questions about the role please email [email protected] using the subject line: COO/Program Director enquiry via EthicalJobs.