Position Announcement
February 21, 2008

POSITION: Operations Manager
ORGANIZATION: Berkeley Student Cooperative (aka the University Students' Cooperative Association), Berkeley, California

The Berkeley Student Cooperative (BSC) is one of the largest and oldest student housing cooperatives in the United States. Our mission is to provide affordable housing for college students and support their learning experience. The BSC manages 20 properties with a capacity to house over 1200 students. We seek a strategic leader to work with our student-led Board of Directors and co-op staff to ensure the successful fulfillment of our daily operations in support of our mission. The BSC has a property portfolio of $27,000,000 at today’s market value, and an annual operating budget of $8,500,000. We have 21 professional staff members in our administrative office, located at 2424 Ridge Road, on the north side of the UC Berkeley campus.  The housing units are managed by elected house members, who use Central Level services for on-going training and support of house level operations.

Specific Responsibilities:

• Departmental Supervision:  Maintain oversight of administration and supervision of Housing, Warehousing, Bookkeeping, and Member Resources departments.  Works with departmental supervisors in the implementation of policies and strategic goals.  Oversees general workload of the department, approves schedules, vacations and hires temporary workers as needed.  Hires, supervises, disciplines and fires employees as needed in accordance with organizational employee contracts and personnel policies.

• Student/Member Relations:  Establish strong, positive relations with members of the co-op, student leaders and managers.  Acts as a resource and provides staff support to elected house level officials. 

• Membership Eligibility Administration:  Ensures that students meet membership qualifications; deal with contractual issues in regards to membership and tenancy; implements and upholds BSC policies and procedures. Work with Board of Directors in regards to membership issues, including disciplinary procedures.  Act as policy advisor to Board and subcommittees on membership and operational issues.

• Human Resources:  Acts as the designated Human Resources staff member.  Serves as benefit administrator; and applies procedures, and policy applications regarding leave eligibility, health and dental benefits and/or COBRA eligibility, and overtime compensation, FMLA leave, worker compensation, and terminal vacation pay.  Works with the Board of Directors Personnel Committee.

• Fulfills the duties of the Executive Director in his/her absence, and therefore must have the willingness and ability to take on additional duties as necessary.

Ideal candidate background would include:

• Strategic and visionary capability:  Experience establishing organizational vision, developing strategy, and carrying it through to successful completion.  Demonstrated ability to work rapidly and accurately under deadline pressure and frequent interruptions in a fast-paced and changing environment.  Creative problem-solving is an essential part of this job.
  
  
• Communication: Articulate, with excellent writing skills; able to represent the organization’s vision and views.  Works well with diversity, has demonstrated experience maintaining relationships with student or youthful populations, and has the ability to engage with diverse audiences such as university administrators, city government, and the media.  Must possess critical thinking skills, independent judgment, initiative, and political acumen.  Ability to troubleshoot complex problems involving students, student staff, and full-time staff.    Experience in communicating complex material in written and oral forms.  This job requires quite a bit of public speaking; the ability to be persuasive is necessary.
  
  
• Collaboration:  Ability to work collaboratively with both long-time staff-members and a volunteer student workforce with a high level of turnover.  Ability to work independently as well as part of a team.  Ability to develop and write policies and procedures; prepare comprehensive reports; make recommendations; and respond appropriately and in a timely manner to resolve difficult and sensitive issues. 
  
  
• Management:  Experience with administration, staff supervision, performance evaluations, employee development, and program management. Have familiarity with property management and residential life issues.

Required Background:

• A four-year college degree
• Four years supervisory and management experience, including 1-2 years in a democratic or cooperative living or working situation. Management experience should involve responsibility for the output of at least two departments within an office environment.
• At least one year experience with accounting, bookkeeping, and/or office record-keeping systems
• Must possess the technical and advanced computer skills necessary to perform the functions listed above.
• Experience with student populations and student leadership
• Previous experience living or working in a democratic or cooperative environment is preferred

Compensation:

The annual salary range is $56,015–$78,980.  Final salary offered will be based on the applicant’s meeting job qualifications and commensurate relevant experience. Benefits include annual cost-of-living salary adjustments, fully paid health & dental insurance, long-term disability insurance, life insurance, generous vacation and sick leave plans, and a 12% 403-B retirement contribution after 2 years. 

Applicants must fill out a BSC job application. 

Download the application in PDF or in Microsoft Word. 

Please email a cover letter and completed application (with resume, if desired) no later than April 7, 2008  to jobs@usca.coop. Your cover letter should focus on how your background and qualifications relate to the job task and candidate profile outlined above.  The BSC is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer.