Chief Administrative Officer (Austin)
South Site 3700 S 1st St Austin, TX 78704, USA Description LifeWorks of Austin, TX is looking for a Chief Administrative Officer to join our Executive team! The Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) is a senior executive leader responsible for stewarding and strengthening LifeWorks’ operational, administrative, and risk infrastructure in service of the organization’s mission, strategy, and long-term sustainability. The CAO provides executive leadership of Risk Management, Facilities, Administrative Operations, and Technology, ensuring the interdependent systems supporting LifeWorks’ people, programs, clients, and physical locations are safe, reliable, scalable, and aligned with organizational strategy. Owns and continuously improves the agency’s operating model, including cross-functional workflows, processes and service standards to drive efficiency, consistency and staff and client experiences. The CAO translates organizational strategy into effective systems, service standards and cross-functional processes. The CAO balances strategic leadership with disciplined execution, developing leaders, systems, and organizational capacity that promote continuity and safety that allow LifeWorks to operate effectively across a multi-site, multi-program nonprofit environment. This full time, exempt position earns a competitive rate ranging from $146,939.00-$194,727.00 annually, depending upon experience. Benefits are also included, which consist of 24 PTO days per year (accrued); 11 paid holidays per year; a premium-free employee medical plan with $100 per month HSA contribution (plus other affordable employee or family medical, dental, and vision options!); a retirement savings plan with 50% match on the first 6% of contributions, and much more! RESPONSIBILITIES Executive Leadership and Strategic Partnership: Acts as a strategic thought partner to the CEO and Executive Team regarding operational risk, administrative strategy, and enterprise-wide initiatives. Serves as a key member of the Executive Team, participating in organizational strategy, policy development, and long-term planning. Translates organizational strategy into clear administrative, technology, facilities, and risk management priorities and execution plans. Identifies emerging organizational risks, capacity constraints, and infrastructure needs and develops proactive strategies to address them. Leads or sponsors significant cross-functional initiatives requiring coordination across multiple departments. Establishes and monitors operational performance metrics to assess effectiveness, identify risks, and inform decision making. Provides clear, data-informed recommendations to executive leadership and the Board as appropriate. Participates in Board meetings or committees as requested by the CEO. Operational Risk & Organizational Resilience: Ensures the agency maintains effective risk management frameworks, policies, and procedures to protect staff, clients, assets, and reputation. Establishes systems to identify, assess, prioritize, mitigate, monitor, and communicate significant organizational risks. Oversees enterprise-wide business continuity and emergency preparedness, response, and recovery planning to ensure continuity of critical operations across programs, sites, facilities and systems. Promotes an organizational culture of thoughtful, proactive risk management. Establishes clear roles, decision rights, escalation protocols, and communication processes for organizational emergencies and significant operational incidents. Ensures appropriate organizational response, review, documentation, and learning following critical incidents, with an emphasis on prevention and continuous improvement. Establishes appropriate enterprise vendor governance, contract-management standards, and risk controls in partnership with the CFO, CEO, CPPLO, and other organizational leaders. Ensures significant operational risks are appropriately escalated to executive leadership and the Board. Facilities Management: Provides executive leadership for LifeWorks’ agency facilities and maintenance operations, including preventive and corrective maintenance, safety, security, accessibility, space planning, in-kind inventory management, and facilities-related emergency response. Develops a long-term facilities maintenance strategy aligned with organizational growth, program needs, workforce needs, client experience, and financial sustainability. Ensures facilities are safe, welcoming, functional, well-maintained, and compliant with applicable regulatory, accreditation, funder, and organizational requirements. Establishes facilities performance standards and preventive-maintenance systems designed to reduce risk, improve reliability, and responsibly steward organizational resources. Oversees facilities-related vendor strategy, procurement, contract performance, and service quality. Ensures clear roles, handoffs, and accountability between facilities operations and affordable-housing/property-management functions. Provides executive oversight and strategic direction for LifeWorks’ enterprise technology infrastructure. Ensures the agency’s technology strategy aligns with organizational goals, program needs, and future growth. Oversees technology asset management, network infrastructure, end-user systems and support, telecommunications, cybersecurity, system reliability, disaster recovery, and technology continuity. Ensures appropriate governance, controls, and accountability for technology investments, vendors, technology lifecycle planning and replacement, and major infrastructure initiatives. Ensures appropriate organizational controls related to cybersecurity, data privacy, access management, technology continuity, and infrastructure risk. Partners with organizational leadership to assess technology needs and infrastructure implications associated with digital transformation, data systems, analytics, and emerging technologies. Ensures clear governance and effective integration between technology infrastructure and organizational data systems. Administrative & Workplace Operations: Provides executive oversight and strategic direction for agencywide administrative operations. Ensures front- and back-of-house administrative services provide consistent, welcoming, efficient, and client-centered support across LifeWorks locations. Establishes appropriate standards and controls for physical access and site security, including access management, visitor management, and coordination of security-related systems and vendors. Ensures effective records management and storage practices, including appropriate retention, access, security, and disposition of physical and administrative records, in coordination with applicable organizational functions. Ensures administrative staffing models, workflows, and service standards are aligned with organizational needs, site complexity, and client volume. Ensures administrative functions effectively support program operations without assuming responsibility for clinical or programmatic services. People Leadership & Organizational Accountability: Responsible for the hiring, orientation, training, supervision, evaluation, and dismissal of direct reports, including senior leadership positions, in accordance with Agency policies and procedures. Ensures staff are informed, their activities are well coordinated, and they have the necessary resources to carry out their work. Establishes and maintains clear governance structures, decision rights, and escalation pathways across assigned functions. Promotes strong cross-functional collaboration between technology, facilities, administration, programs, and other departments to ensure coordinated and defensible organizational practices. Establishes appropriate service standards and performance measures across assigned functions, using data and stakeholder feedback to evaluate responsiveness, reliability, effectiveness, and user experience. Ensures their departments comply with all requirements outlined by funding sources, licensure and accrediting bodies, the program, and the agency. These requirements may pertain to data, paperwork, training, processes, and procedures, among other things. Represents their departments at leadership meetings as appropriate and communicates agency and leadership decisions to their teams. Prepares for and actively participates in supervision meetings and all other required meetings or trainings. QUALIFICATIONS Requires a Bachelor’s degree in business, public administration, nonprofit management, or a related field; Master’s degree preferred; and Requires 8 years of progressive leadership experience in administrative, operational, or organizational management roles; and Minimum 5 years of senior-level management experience overseeing multiple functional areas; or Equivalent combination of education and experience. Minimum of 5 years supervisory experience. Sound judgment and experience navigating organizational risk, compliance, and crisis situations. Demonstrated experience leading complex, cross-functional teams in a multi-site, multi-program organization. Nonprofit, public sector, or human services experience preferred. Experience with risk management, facilities, and technology governance strongly preferred. Demonstrated ability to balance operational detail with executive-level perspe
