Chief Operations Officer

ROLE: Chief Operations Officer

SALARY:  €70,000 pa

LENGTH OF CONTRACT: 3-year fixed term contract

LOCATION: Dublin Office – Hybrid position 

Chief Operations Officer

Background & Context:

An Taisce is a charity that works to preserve and protect Ireland’s natural and built heritage. We are an independent charitable voice for the environment and for heritage issues. We are not a government body, semi-state or agency. The work of our staff is focused in three areas.

• Advocacy: Our Advocacy Unit is dedicated to promoting the conservation of Ireland’s nature and biodiversity as well as its built heritage.
• Properties: We own a range of heritage properties in trust, including historic buildings and nature reserves.
• Education: An Taisce is the national operator of several highly successful environmental education programmes such as Green-Schools, Blue Flag, Clean Coasts and the Climate Ambassador programmes among many more.

Purpose:

Chief Operations Officer has a critical role to play to ensure the operational success of An Taisce operations through strong internal governance supports and controls. They will lead and manage the Operations function providing the required oversight to achieve its intended outcomes. These include operational delivery and maintenance, developing, mentoring and leading the operations team, and working alongside the Chief Programme Officer (CPO) towards the key priorities of An Taisce’s strategic plan. The Chief Operations Officer (COO) will lead an operations function that is healthy, agile, and delivery-focused, ensuring the organisation has the capability, systems, and culture to deliver on its strategic priorities. The COO will foster operational excellence by enhancing these teams, driving continuous improvement, enabling cross-functional collaboration, and ensuring that resources, processes, and governance support efficient, effective, and sustainable organisational performance. The COO will provide leadership and support as directed through the CEO and the Board.

Key Responsibilities:

Strategic Leadership

The Chief Operations Officer will ensure that strategy is translated into clear priorities, effective planning, strong management oversight and consistent delivery across its support functions. Working across Finance, HR, IT, CRM, Internal office operations, Membership & Advocacy the COO will strengthen organisational coherence, accountability, systems development, performance management and governance follow-through. A key priority is to lead and embed the organisations strategic plan, including improved structures, delegated responsibilities, reporting arrangements, cross-functional ways of working and systems that support sustainable growth and high-quality service delivery.

Operational leadership Lead day-to-day operational management and coordination between support functions and internal systems. 

Cross-functional leadership Align Finance, HR, IT, CRM office operations, Membership, Fundraising, Comms & Advocacy with organisational need. 

Performance and risk Strengthen performance management progress reporting, risk oversight and follow-through on agreed actions. 

Governance and systems Ensure decisions, actions and reporting requirements are progressed effectively through clear systems and management processes. 

Change ManagementLead implementation of key areas of the organisations strategic plan and support wider change across An Taisce.

People Management Support HR, Finance, ICT, CRM, Office, Membership & Advocacy and to operate effectively at both strategic and operational level.

Other  Any other duties within the general requirement of the role which may be required by the CEO from time to time.

PERSON SPECIFICATION

We are seeking a calm, collaborative, organised, values-led and delivery-focused leader. Able to build trust while strengthening role clarity, decision-making, performance, risk oversight and management discipline with 3 years + of experience in a similar role.