Founding Executive Director

This is a founder-type role inside a charitable structure. The Executive Director will take the organization from concept to operating institution: designing the deployment model, standing up the organization, running the first placements personally, and then converting what works into systems that scale. We are not hiring a steward for an existing program or a figurehead for external relations — we are hiring the person who architects the machine and then operates it. The ED reports to the Board of Directors.

• Design the end-to-end system: how beneficiaries are identified and qualified, how sites are secured, how homes are placed, connected, and supported after move-in
• Define the affordability architecture — grant, subsidized purchase, lease-to-own, shared-equity — and the ownership/title models consistent with charitable purpose
• Choose the initial market(s) and channel bets deliberately: where the regulatory path, land availability, and need intersect for fastest repeatable deployment
• Set the scaling thesis: what has to be true at 10 homes for 100 to work, and at 100 for 1,000

• Stand up operations end to end: governance, policies, financial controls, insurance, audit readiness
• Build the founding team lean and sequence hires against the deployment roadmap
• Create the operating infrastructure — pipeline tracking, unit economics, deployment playbooks, impact measurement — from a blank page

• Personally drive the first pilot deployments: land, approvals, logistics, family selection, placement
• Own the numbers: cost per placement, deployment cycle time, homes per quarter, pipeline conversion — and manage the organization to them
• Turn every pilot lesson into a written playbook so the third deployment is faster than the first and the thirtieth doesn't need you in the room

• You've built something from zero — a company, a division, a program, a market — and scaled it; startup or new-venture experience matters more here than nonprofit tenure
• You're a systems thinker who is equally comfortable in the field: you can design the model on Monday and walk a site with a county inspector on Wednesday
• Operationally and financially rigorous; you think in unit economics and cycle times even in a charitable context
• Experience touching housing, real estate, construction, modular/manufactured product, logistics, or community development is a strong plus — but the builder instinct is the requirement
• You can learn regulatory terrain fast and know when to bring in specialists (zoning counsel, government-affairs consultants) rather than needing to be the specialist yourself
• High ambiguity tolerance, bias to action, and genuine motivation for the mission

• 7+ years of leadership experience including at least one zero-to-one build or major scale-up
• Track record of hitting quantitative operating targets
• Working familiarity with (or demonstrated ability to quickly master) nonprofit governance and compliance fundamentals
• Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience

• Compensation will begin at the market median for comparable nonprofit executive roles, with a clearly defined path for increases tied to organizational milestones. Consistent with a founder mindset, compensation will start modestly and grow alongside the organization's success.
• At the time of hire, the Board and the successful candidate will establish objective performance milestones — such as pilot home deployments, deployment cost and cycle-time targets, funding milestones, and organizational growth. Compensation will be reviewed at 6, 12, and 24 months, with base salary increases and any performance incentives tied to achievement of these milestones.
• All compensation will be approved in advance by disinterested members of the Board, supported by independent market comparability data and documented in accordance with public charity requirements, ensuring both fiscal stewardship and performance-based rewards.