Location: New York City–based; hybrid
Engagement: Initial three-month contract opportunity
Time Commitment: Approximately 12+ hours per week
Compensation: $90–$100 per hour, based on experience
Schedule: Must be available during core East Coast business hours
Reports to: Chief Executive Officer
Leadership Level: Senior-most executive leader below the CEO, providing guidance and oversight to SVPs, VPs, and other senior team members

Overview:

Align Social Impact is seeking an Executive Vice President, Client Strategy, Growth & Operations to join our growing social impact practice in New York.

Align is a full-service impact agency working at the intersection of storytelling, research, culture, philanthropy, and systems change. We partner with brands, nonprofits, foundations, government entities, and influential talent to accelerate impact in ways that can be felt and measured.

Reporting directly to the CEO, the EVP will serve as Align’s senior-most executive leader below the CEO. They will provide leadership, guidance, and accountability to the agency’s SVPs, VPs, account leaders, and other senior team members.

The EVP will provide senior oversight across priority client engagements, business development, growth operations, team management, and agency operations. They will help senior leaders navigate complex decisions, coordinate work across divisions, and ensure that important organizational and client priorities move forward.

This is a hands-on fractional leadership role for an experienced executive who can serve as a trusted partner to the CEO while strengthening and supporting the senior leadership team. By taking ownership of selected client and organizational priorities, the EVP will enable the CEO to focus on high-level strategy, external relationships, visibility, and long-term growth.

Key Responsibilities

Executive Leadership:

Serve as the senior-most executive leader below the CEO in internal and external environments, representing the company, its vision and its standards of practice.
Provide direction, guidance, coaching, and accountability to SVPs, VPs, and other senior leaders on key accounts
Help senior leaders make decisions, resolve challenges, and advance priorities within their areas.
Drive workstreams forward and lead on specific work product wherein there is expertise (example M&E or strategic planning)
Support coordination of work across divisions and ensure alignment with agency-wide goals with a focus on specific accounts only.
Clarify responsibilities, decision-making authority, and escalation paths.
Step in when issues require leadership beyond the SVP or VP level.
Provide the CEO with concise updates on organizational performance, risks, decisions, and emerging needs, noting part time structure limitations.
Take ownership of selected responsibilities that would otherwise require the CEO’s direct involvement.

Client Leadership:

Provide executive oversight and strategic guidance across selected priority accounts.
Assume an active role in the day-to-day leadership of a limited number of high-touch client relationships.
Support SVPs, VPs, and account leaders in managing complex client needs and expectations.
Serve as a senior point of contact or escalation resource for clients when appropriate.
Guide teams in managing priorities, budgets, timelines, scopes, and deliverables.
Help resolve complex client, scope, staffing, and team challenges.
Review key strategies, proposals, presentations, and deliverables.
Identify opportunities to deepen and expand existing client relationships.
Reduce the need for the CEO’s involvement in routine client decisions and follow-up.

Business Development and Growth:

Partner with the CEO and senior leadership team to develop new client, partnership, and revenue opportunities.
Guide SVPs and VPs in identifying and advancing growth opportunities within their areas.
Cultivate relationships with prospective clients, partners, funders, and influential connectors.
Lead or support discovery conversations, proposals, scopes, budgets, pitches, and negotiations.
Connect prospective clients’ needs with Align’s integrated capabilities and expertise.
Maintain momentum and clear ownership across active opportunities.
Identify opportunities to reconnect with former clients and expand current relationships.
Represent Align at selected meetings, conferences, and convenings.

Growth Operations:

Oversee Align’s pipeline, proposals, opportunities, and anticipated revenue.
Establish a consistent cadence for pipeline review, follow-up, forecasting, and decision-making.
Hold opportunity owners accountable for progress, next steps, and reporting.
Track the status, timing, value, risks, and ownership of priority opportunities.
Improve coordination between business development, contracting, staffing, onboarding, and delivery.
Develop practical systems for monitoring growth goals and organizational priorities.
Share market insights and client feedback to inform Align’s positioning and services.

Team Leadership and Management:

Provide leadership and management support to SVPs, VPs, account leaders, and other senior team members.
Directly manage selected senior leaders as assigned by the CEO.
Coach senior leaders in team management, client leadership, decision-making, and accountability.
Help address performance, capacity, workflow, and team-dynamic challenges.
Ensure senior leaders have clear goals, priorities, and measures of success.
Lead selected senior leadership and management meetings.
Foster a culture of collaboration, accountability, communication, and professional growth.
Help identify staffing needs and support recruitment, onboarding, and leadership development.
Strengthen consistency in how teams plan, communicate, manage clients, and deliver work.

Agency Operations:

Take ownership of selected day-to-day leadership and operational responsibilities.
Improve internal workflows, meeting structures, and decision-making processes.
Support resource and capacity planning across client and internal work.
Identify operational gaps and implement practical improvements.
Help ensure teams have the information, resources, and support required to succeed.
Strengthen coordination across client services, growth, operations, and administration.

Our Ideal Candidate:

Is passionate about social impact and aligned with Align’s mission and values.
Has served at an EVP, Chief Operating Officer, Managing Director, or comparable executive level.
Has experience leading and supporting SVPs, VPs, directors, and other senior professionals.
Can establish authority and accountability while maintaining a collaborative leadership style.
Can work effectively across client leadership, business development, operations, and team management.
Thinks strategically while remaining practical, responsive, and hands-on.
Creates structure and forward movement in a dynamic agency environment.
Builds trust with clients, colleagues, partners, funders, and senior stakeholders.
Is decisive, resourceful, and able to solve complex problems with sound judgment.
Understands how professional-services agencies operate, grow, and serve clients.
Can contribute meaningfully within a focused, part-time executive schedule.

Skills and Experience:

15+ years of relevant experience in the nonprofit, government, corporate social responsibility, corporate-purpose, philanthropy, or social-impact sectors, including significant executive leadership responsibility.
Demonstrated experience leading senior leadership teams and managing SVP-, VP-, or director-level professionals.
Success overseeing complex client engagements, teams, organizational operations, and growth initiatives.
Agency or professional-services experience strongly preferred.
Experience managing senior client relationships across corporations, nonprofits, foundations, government entities, or philanthropy.
A record of developing new business or expanding significant client relationships.
Strong operational judgment and experience improving systems, workflows, and accountability.
Strong financial acumen, including experience with budgets, scopes, staffing, and resource allocation.
Excellent written, verbal, interpersonal, presentation, and facilitation skills.
Ability to manage multiple priorities and make sound decisions in a fast-moving environment.
Knowledge of current trends and practices across social impact, philanthropy, CSR, communications, culture, and organizational strategy.
Commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

An advanced degree is welcome but not required. Align places greater value on demonstrated leadership, judgment, results, and relevant experience.

What Success Looks Like:

SVPs and VPs have clearer direction, stronger support, and greater accountability.
Senior leaders can resolve more decisions without requiring CEO involvement.
Selected high-touch client relationships receive consistent executive attention.
Client work remains strategic, high-quality, timely, and well-managed.
Ownership and coordination improve across teams and divisions.
Operational systems and decision-making become clearer and more effective.
The business-development pipeline advances consistently.
Current client relationships expand and new engagements are secured.
The CEO has greater capacity for high-level strategy, relationships, visibility, and long-term growth.

Engagement Details:

This is a New York City–based contract position beginning with an initial three-month engagement. The engagement may be renewed, extended, or modified by mutual agreement.

The role requires approximately 10 hours per week, regular in-person participation in New York City, and availability during core East Coast business hours. The specific schedule may vary based on client meetings, leadership needs, deadlines, and organizational priorities.

Some travel may be required and will be discussed in advance. Candidates must be authorized to work in the United States.

How to Apply

Please submit a résumé or professional biography and a brief introduction addressing:

Your experience leading and supporting SVPs, VPs, and other senior leaders.
Your experience overseeing client work, operations, growth, and teams.
An example of how you helped a CEO or founder step back from selected day-to-day responsibilities.
Your experience developing business or expanding important client relationships.
Your interest in Align’s mission and next phase of growth.

About Align Social Impact

With more than two decades of experience, Align’s team works at the intersection of research, communications, culture, philanthropy, and social change.

Our mission is to drive community, business, and social outcomes through strategy, storytelling, campaigns, organizational development, philanthropy, transformational partnerships, and experiences that bring people together.

Align is a women-owned business with offices in New York City and Amsterdam. We work with corporations, nonprofits, foundations, government entities, and influential talent to support a shared vision of a just, inclusive, and vibrant world where people, planet, and culture thrive.

Learn more atalignsocialimpact.com.

Equal Opportunity:

Align Social Impact is an Align Communications & Creative LLC company and an Equal Employment Opportunity employer. We are committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion and to building a team that represents a wide range of backgrounds, perspectives, experiences, and skills.

All employment and contracting decisions are based on qualifications, merit, organizational needs, and alignment with our values.

Align Social Impact

Executive Vice President, Client Strategy, Growth & Operations

About the Job