Operations and Business Development Coordinator

About this position

Springboard Policy is looking for an Operations and Business Development Coordinator to join our team. This new role will be at the core of our growing organization, helping us run smoothly and successfully. If you’re an organized, resourceful problem solver who wants to work with great people on things that matter, this may be the role for you.

About Springboard Policy

Springboard is a consulting firm that helps organizations understand and shape public policy. We are founded on the belief that when more organizations have the power to share their thinking, experience, and expertise, we all get better public policy. We help our clients lead the policy conversation and influence government decision-making.

Our clients come from the non-profit, private, and broader public sectors, and include local community non-profits, national industry associations, and for-profit companies ranging from smaller businesses to global firms. Some of the ways we help clients influence public policy include research and analysis, drafting public policy reports, preparing government submissions and advocacy materials, developing public policy strategies and tactics, and building clients’ internal capacity to do great policy work.

Our firm was founded in 2018 and we have 10 team members in Toronto, Ottawa, and BC. We work on projects across Canada.

About the role

We are creating this new role – our first hire dedicated solely to the “business” side of the organization – to support our growth. As the Operations and Business Development Coordinator you will work with colleagues across our organization to ensure that our business operations are running smoothly. You will be taking on existing operations responsibilities handled by members of our team outside of their regular client work, as well as helping us to roll out some new processes and administrative systems designed to make things work better for our team and our clients. As the first person in this position you will have the opportunity to help shape and build the role. Your day-to-day responsibilities will include:

Managing our business development and proposals systems: You’ll help us make sure we’re effectively keeping in touch with our clients and partners and support the development of new project proposals. This includes:

• Managing our CRM system (Accelo)

• Tracking leads and managing our proposals pipeline

• Supporting the development of proposal materials and RFP responses (e.g. slide decks, documents)

• Scanning for new opportunities

• Working with management to create, execute, and refine business development plans

• Drafting business development outreach materials

• Preparing regular status reports on business development activities and outcomes

Operations support: As an operations “nerve centre” for the organization, you’ll help build and maintain processes to ensure that the operational needs of the team are met and we are set up for further growth. Specific responsibilities will include:

• Managing the corporate calendar to ensure key business operations and reporting deadlines are on track

• Coordinating contracts and invoicing to support our business development and project management functions

• Providing light HR administration, including tracking vacation and sick leaves, assisting with recruitment, helping to onboard new team members, and supporting our performance management cycle

• Handling corporate governance tasks, such as renewing insurance policies

• At times, playing an operations role on projects, such as coordinating logistics for a workshop or supporting team events

The rest: In a small and growing company, the role may evolve. While most of the work is spelled out above, we will make opportunities for the successful candidate to grow and learn in areas that match their skills and interests. We will work with the successful candidate to clearly define what other opportunities they may want to take on.

The successful candidate will report to our co-founder and Principal and also work across the team.

What we’re looking for

There’s no one right pathway to this role, and many different ways to build a career. If you don’t necessarily have experience in all of the areas, or you have followed a different path but think you could be a good fit, we would love to hear from you.

Must haves:

• Ability to stay highly-organized and manage multiple priorities effectively

• Strong communication skills and a collaborative working style

• Comfort learning new business tools and systems - you do not need previous experience in our systems but you will need to be ready to operate them!

• Experience in a professional office setting, including familiarity with email and calendar coordination

• High attention to detail

• Proficiency in creating clean, well-designed Word and PowerPoint documents

• Readiness to adapt and learn new skills and subjects

Nice to haves:

• Experience working directly with project management or CRM software

• Experience with proposal development, RFPs, or grant-writing

• Experience in a professional services firm

• Ability to make a great spreadsheet in Microsoft Excel

• Familiarity with basic bookkeeping

• Graphic design skills

• Fluency in French

• Some interest in/awareness of public policy (but we also want to stress that this is not a public policy role!).

The benefits

• Work with a supportive team committed to your professional growth

• Flexible work arrangements with a real commitment to work-life balance. This is a full-time role, but we are open to conversations with people looking for a reduced hours schedule

• A chance to be part of a growing, mission-driven organization that makes a difference

• A salary range of $60,000–$70,000 per year, plus health benefits and a retirement plan

• Three weeks of paid vacation annually, in addition to summer hours and office closures around holidays. For example, this year our office is closed December 20-Jan 2

• Hybrid work options - you can work from home or at our Toronto office. We have some preference for candidates in Toronto where our physical office is located, however are open to fully-remote candidates located anywhere in Canada

The hiring process

We strive to make our hiring processes as transparent and inclusive as possible. If you have accommodation requirements to facilitate participation at any point in the process, let us know by reaching out to us through the careers portal or responding to any email we send you. We are committed to equity and diversity and encourage applications from people from Black, Indigenous and other under-represented communities.

Please upload a cover letter and a resume in one document letting us know why you're a good fit for the role. The cover letter should be no more than one page and the resume should be no more than two pages.

The job posting will be open until January 20th, 2025 at 11:59 EST. We anticipate two rounds of interviews in late January/early February. All candidates will hear from us about their status.

We think recruitment should be a two-way conversation and if you have questions, we want to answer them! We have two main ways we will be opening the floor to questions in this process:

• Through our careers portal: to send in your questions log-in to the application portal and send us a message, or respond to any of our recruitment emails (please note that our offices are closed from December 20th to January 2nd)

• At a virtual “open house”: We will host a Q&A on Friday January 10th at 12:00 PM EST where we will share a bit about our company, the role, and you can ask your questions live - register for the Zoom webinar here

We will answer people individually and share the answers to the questions we receive on our hiring page by Tuesday January 14th, 2025. Any identifying information will be removed.