Chief Operating Officer

Habitable exists to make the materials economy healthier for people and the planet. For more than two decades we have turned science into tools, data, and campaigns that expose chemical hazards, drive transparency, and push industry toward safer choices. The Chief Operating Officer will turn that mission into a durable operating system so our research, partnerships, and products reach further, faster, and with the integrity our partners expect.

Performance Objectives

• Build an operating rhythm that delivers Habitable’s annual plan on time and within budget, with clear owners, milestones, and a quarterly review the leadership team actually uses.
• Stand up financial and operational controls that give the board a reliable picture of cash, program costs, and reserves within the first two quarters.
• Scale delivery of research, tools, and initiatives—including chemical-hazard data products—so partner commitments are met without sacrificing scientific rigor or data integrity.
• Design a people system that hires, develops, and retains a small expert team, with role clarity, equitable pay practices, and measurable engagement within the first year.
• Create a partnership and revenue operating model that grows mission-aligned funding and earned income while protecting independence and transparency standards.
• Institutionalize cross-functional decision-making so science, communications, and operations move as one, cutting cycle time on priority initiatives.
• Embed equity, health, and climate outcomes into how we prioritize work, allocate resources, and report impact to funders and the field.

Environment & Resources

You will report to the Chief Executive Officer and partner closely with scientific, program, and external-affairs leaders. Habitable is a small, early-stage team (about 11–50 people) based in Washington, D.C., working nationally with researchers, manufacturers, designers, and advocates. You will shape the operating budget, core systems, and vendor relationships, and you will have the authority to redesign workflows that no longer serve the mission.

Essential Qualifications

• Proven operator who has run finance, people, and delivery for a mission-driven or knowledge organization of similar scale.
• Track record building planning, budgeting, and accountability systems that leaders trust and staff can follow.
• Experience scaling programs or data-informed products without diluting quality or scientific standards.
• Skill translating complex technical work—materials health, chemicals, sustainability—into clear operational priorities.
• Demonstrated commitment to equity in hiring, pay, partnerships, and how impact is defined.
• Calm judgment under ambiguity, and the ability to say no so the organization can say yes to what matters.

Role Selling Points

• Shape the operating backbone of an organization that has influenced the materials economy since 2000, including work behind tools such as the Pharos chemical hazard database.
• Sit at the intersection of human health, climate, and equity—not as a side program, but as the point of the work.
• Lead in a small team where your systems will be felt immediately by scientists, partners, and the people who use our data.
• Help define how a science-based organization grows without compromising transparency or independence.

Call to Action

If you have built the machinery that lets a bold mission actually land, we want to hear from you. Apply with a short note on an operating system you built and the outcome it produced.