Bold Agenda is a small, growing consulting, coaching and training firm helping leaders navigate the complexities of managing change in their organizations. We provide the guidance and support needed to build stronger boards, develop solid strategic plans, and educate and coach leaders to lead high performing teams. While our projects vary from client to client, they often focus on mission-driven organizations working to enhance the following areas: Board Development, Strategic Planning, and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
Who We are Looking For:
Bold Agenda seeks an experienced researcher, project manager and facilitator to join our team on a full-time basis as a Research and Program Delivery Associate.
You will be the visionary behind understanding how mission-driven organizations work today and how those insights translate into opportunities in the future. You will conduct multimodal research into clients’ organizations and sectors, analyze and interpret that research, and develop custom strategic recommendations aligned to action plans and timelines.
This role will play an integral and crucial part in driving Bold Agenda’s growth and teamwork by supporting the delivery of consulting client work, grounding deliverables in data-informed recommendations, and improving the workflow efficiency across all projects.
What You Will Do:
Workshop & Meeting Design & Facilitation - 35%
- Design and prepare meeting agendas, presentations, meeting notes, reports, and action plans that build consensus through feedback loops and analysis of evidence around key client priorities
- Polished and confident communicator with outstanding presentation skills
Strategic Project Management - 30%
- Coordinate detailed project implementation tasks with support team and regularly communicate updates with clients
- Develop clearly defined project work plans and timelines and ensure support team is able to organize implementation
- Innovate project management processes through the creation of tools and proactive collaborative redesign to enhance efficiency, accuracy, and impact of deliverables
Research Design, Implementation, and Analysis -35%
- Develop and deliver surveys, focus group scripts, and one-on-one interview questionnaires to understand our clients’ organizational and board cultures, DEI practices, and strategic opportunities
- Conduct independent research through various methods and sources to develop benchmarks, inform our strategic recommendations, and understand our clients’ sectors and markets, aligning qualitative with quantitative data wherever possible and applicable
- Ability to sift through large amounts of information and distill it down to some key ideas that tell a story
Background and Skills You Have:
- Graduate Degree in a relevant field and/or 4 years of relevant experience in marketing, research, project management and/or training
- Proficiency in MS Office (MS Word, MS Excel, and MS PowerPoint, in particular), Google Suite (e.g., Drive, Docs, Slides, Sheets), and Asana and/or comparable project management tools
- Excellent written and verbal communications skills with attention to detail and problem-solving
- Experience working in or with education, social justice, arts and culture, community development, philanthropy or other mission-driven organizations is helpful
- Comfortable working with a diverse team and client base who regularly engage in difficult but critical conversations
- Ability to travel (10-15%)
Work Identity. You are:
- Client-focused with diversity, equity, and inclusion infused into your professional DNA. It isn’t an add on, but your way of being.
- Able to manage the details of each project and the workflow challenges across a portfolio of projects without losing the big picture.
- Action-oriented. You are proactive and take initiative with building processes and systems needed to see a project through. You’re more interested in designing the steps needed to reach specific outcomes.
- Comfortable with managing change, ambiguity and relationships in environments where power and influence impact our clients’ ability to have impact.
- Interested and curious about the practical applications of research. You like to learn things but care most about making the ideas work in practice.
What We Offer/How We Invest in You:
- Full-time, flexible hours with hybrid work - ability to work remotely most of the time but live within the Chicago metropolitan area for in-person meetings 6-8 times annually
- Interaction with and support of dynamic leaders in local and national non-profit, government and for-profit organizations instrumental in leading change
- Health, dental, vision and life insurance benefits; flexible spending account; paid time off
- Opportunity to learn about the latest ideas and approaches in managing cultural change, good governance, transformational leadership and equity, diversity, inclusion and anti-racism.
- Salary range of $70,000 - 80,000 depending on experience, eligible for performance bonus
Job Type: Full-time
Pay: $70,000.00 - $80,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- Dental insurance
- Flexible schedule
- Flexible spending account
- Health insurance
- Life insurance
- Paid time off
- Professional development assistance
- Vision insurance
Schedule:
- Monday to Friday
- Weekends as needed
Experience:
- Project management: 2 years (Preferred)
- Research: 2 years (Required)
- work: 2 years (Required)
Ability to Commute:
- Chicago, IL 60602 (Required)
Ability to Relocate:
- Chicago, IL 60602: Relocate before starting work (Required)
Work Location: Hybrid remote in Chicago, IL 60602