Senior Director, Governance and Leadership

Key Responsibilities

• Partner with the Chief of Staff to manage and support the Governing Board and Board Chair, serving as a primary staff liaison for the board’s governance functions.
• Serve as lead staff for the new Governance Committee of the Board, developing its structure, agenda, and operational cadence.
• Work closely with the Chair of Governance and Chair of Leadership to advance governance priorities and ensure strong lay-professional partnership.
• Lead and manage the Board evaluation process, identifying opportunities to strengthen board performance, engagement, and accountability.
• Oversee bylaws review and revisions, ensuring governance documents remain current, compliant, and aligned with Federation’s evolving structure.
• Develop and implement best-practice systems and processes for governance across the Governing Board, Community Leadership Council, and standing committees.
• Lead the Nominations Committee processes for both the Governing Board and the CLC, managing timelines, criteria, outreach, and onboarding of new leaders.
• Work to clarify committee portfolios, role expectations, and governance responsibilities to support effective lay-professional relationships across the organization. Oversee intentional and broad-base efforts to build a culture of trust-based lay-professional partnerships.
• Lead the Leadership Strategy Committee/JLL Task Force, ensuring it is well-structured, strategically focused, and effectively advancing Federation’s leadership agenda.
• Oversee the strategic direction of the Community Leadership Council in partnership with the CLC Chair and Director of Convening.
• Ensure the CLC is functioning as an effective vehicle for community-wide leadership engagement, strategic input into Federation priority-setting, and community needs identification.
• Support effective integration of the CLC with other Federation departments, including Impact, to foster cohesion and shared purpose.
• Manage the CLC Nominations process, including cycle planning, leader identification, and onboarding.
• Oversee Federation’s leadership pipelining work, designing and operationalizing the systems and processes that identify, track, develop, and sustain high-potential lay leaders across governance and programming.
• Build and manage leadership pathway tools in Dynamics/CoPilot to support data-informed decisions about leadership engagement and succession.
• Develop on- and off-ramping procedures for Governing Board and CLC leaders, including robust onboarding and alumni/veteran engagement strategies.
• Cultivate diverse leadership pathways that reflect the breadth of Greater Washington’s Jewish community, with intentional attention to geographic diversity (including Northern Virginia).
• Develop and oversee all of Federation’s leadership programming, integrating Jewish values, leadership skill-building, and community vision across program design.
• Co-facilitate the Jewish Community Leadership Program (JCLP) in partnership with the Chief of Staff—a flagship year-long program designed to inspire and develop top communal lay leaders.
• Oversee Federation’s partnership with the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America, leveraging this relationship as a platform for thought leadership and Jewish learning for lay leaders and professionals.
• Develop a measurement and evaluation framework for leadership programs, building a theory of change and shared metrics to demonstrate impact and guide resource allocation.
• Foster a culture of strategic clarity, professional growth, and collaborative excellence within the team.
• Consult across JLL and other Federation departments to embed a culture of leadership in all organizational strategies.
• Serve on the staff leadership working group for strategic planning, co-led by the Chief of Staff.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of progressive professional experience in Nonprofit Leadership, governance, Organizational Development, or a related field.
• Demonstrated experience managing complex governance structures, volunteer leadership, and board relations.
• Proven track record designing and implementing leadership development programs and pipelines.
• Exceptional relationship-building and interpersonal skills; ability to work effectively with senior lay leaders, executives, and diverse stakeholders.
• Strong strategic thinking, systems-building, and project management capabilities.
• Experience supervising and developing teams; ability to coach staff at multiple levels.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including facilitation and presentation.
• Commitment to JFGW’s mission and values; understanding of and connection to the Jewish community.