The Managing Director will be responsible for the effective functioning of all internal processes, people, and resources at Harmony Labs, in support of our mission, vision, and growth, including stewarding and supporting a culture of exploration, innovation, collaboration, creativity, and service, a culture that is grounded in science and an expression of our values. 

The Managing Director will be part of a remote senior leadership team, called the Leadership Circle, that includes the Executive Director, Development Director, Principal Scientist, Engineering Director, Marketing and Communications Director, and Operations Director.

Please email a cover letter and resume to jobs@harmonylabs.org. Due to the number of emails we receive, we regret that we are unable to respond to each one.

What You Will Do

• Manage and support members of the Leadership Circle in doing their work and managing their teams; and facilitate Leadership Circle meetings
• Design and facilitate organizational strategic planning, budgeting, decision-making and goal-setting processes and ensure the organization is on track to realize its strategic plan, work within budget, and meet goals to maximize impact and realize its full potential 
• Evolve fee-for-service, advocacy-related work at the Narrative Observatory away from one-off, totally bespoke consulting gigs into a stable, repeatable product-service offering and “business unit” that operates seamlessly, from business development through to project delivery and reflection, and can grow to meet demand
• Design and implement a process to facilitate innovation and experimentation, within the context of the fee-for-service, advocacy-related work of the Narrative Observatory
• Oversee, stabilize, and grow the operations and project management teams to support the needs of the organization and specifically the advocacy-related product-service offering at the Narrative Observatory 
• Nourish and grow an existing organizational culture of exploration, innovation, collaboration, creativity, and service, that is grounded in science and based in Harmony’s values, and affords a lot of autonomy and nimbleness to the highly-skilled, mission-driven, curious professionals that make Harmony Labs go 
• Identify and implement ways to offer meaningful professional development to the team, and improve organizational cohesion and communication

Who You Are

• You are results-driven, empathetic, understanding, willing to have tough conversations and enjoy management, especially in all-remote settings
• You are able to adjust your management style to the needs of different colleagues and their teams
• You feel comfortable managing up to an Executive Director and keeping them informed on the day-to-day of the organization, while exercising judgment on when to get their input and when to make decisions on your own
• You are excited about building complex organization-wide processes and systems to improve efficiency, facilitate collaboration, provide clarity, and support growth 
• You are as eager to stabilize and grow existing lines of work as you are to experiment and innovate, and are comfortable “failing” and learning from “failure”
• You value collaboration and the varied perspectives enabled by a diverse team

Desired Experience

• This is a senior position, 10–15 years of relevant, progressive experience is preferred, but not strictly required; prior experience as a Managing Director, Chief of Staff, or COO is preferred; consulting or client-driven experience is a plus
• You have experience managing managers, especially in areas where you are not a subject matter expert, and supporting them to help their teams excel through systems, processes, clarity of expectations, and professional development
• You have experience designing and implementing strategic planning, budgeting, and goal-setting processes within an organization, including tracking progress to goals and pivoting
• You are an excellent project manager, with experience coaching and training on project management, including supporting clients and partners in identifying their needs as a project evolves
• You have experience supporting and improving organizational and operational culture, both through systems and processes and as a resource for individuals
• You have experience co-creating organizational processes to facilitate innovation and experimentation including developing ways to assess success and learning in such experiments

Details and Compensation

• This is a full-time, exempt position reporting to the Executive Director and participating in and facilitating the Leadership Circle. 
• This is a Level 5 position with a salary between $170K - 224K. 
• There is a generous benefits package, including:
  • Health, dental and vision insurance, employer paid across all categories, including for partners, children, and families
  • Unlimited paid time off, with minimum thresholds for use
  • 401(k) with 100% match of up to 6% of salary per pay period, with immediate vesting
  • Pre-tax spending plans for commute, parking, dependent care, healthcare 
  • Professional development stipends, paid parental leave, sabbaticals 
• Harmony Labs is a 100% remote workplace, with home office set up and annual reimbursements, periodic in-person retreats, and access to WeWork conference space.
• Meeting-free Flex Fridays give teams a chance to catch up on work or unplug completely. 
• Harmony Labs provides a laptop.

Broad perspectives and diverse experiences are key to serving society, and innovating in a way that responds to our complex, interdependent global context. While you must be eligible to work in the United States, in compliance with national regulations, we strongly encourage people from backgrounds currently underrepresented in tech, research, media, and data science to apply. Harmony Labs is an equal opportunity employer. We value and welcome diversity in the workplace and strongly encourage all qualified persons to apply. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, or veteran status.

We are a media research lab, using science, data, and creativity to research and reshape our relationship with media. For more than a decade, Harmony Labs has helped storytellers and strategists, decision makers and dreamers, harness the immense power of media to shape a positive, pluralistic future. With the Narrative Observatory, for the first time ever, we're harnessing powerful industry relationships to deliver one-of-a-kind data infrastructure that empowers partners to find, reach, and resonate with the right audience in today's media minefield. The Narrative Observatory delivers audience-based insights, narrative and network analysis, and empirical validation of cultural strategy and content---all derived from the actual behavior of real people and true audiences, not survey results, demographic groups, or inauthentic online activity.

We work with a wide range of partners on issues of existential importance, like climate, gun violence, political corruption, artificial intelligence, and more, using an approach to research that is rigorous, participatory, and public. One of the first papers we co-authored looked at fracking narratives in documentary film. The outputs we've created with our partners include websites, presentations, peer-reviewed publications, toolkits, curriculum, interactives, white papers, and media. And our work has been covered in the press, like in this recent New York Times article.

Founded by John S. Johnson in 2008, Harmony Labs is a 501(c)3 incorporated in New York State. Funders include Atlantic Foundation, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Open Society Foundations, Nathan Cummings Foundation, Google, and more.