About Tides Center

Tides Center is the leading fiscal sponsor for social change initiatives in the United States, providing strategic advisory, fiduciary oversight, financial management, human resources, and other administrative services to a portfolio of mission-aligned projects working to advance social justice and shift power in historically marginalized communities. Since 2025, Tides Center has been transforming its operating model to enable high-performing fiscal sponsorship.

About this Role

The Managing Director, Advising Services is central to leading Tides Center’s fiscal sponsorship practice to meet strategic goals. Representing the voice of “doers” across Tides, this practitioner shapes policy and ensures exceptional service, supporting partner impact, strengthening retention, and advancing the next phase of organizational transformation.

Reporting to the Executive Director, this role oversees five Senior Advisors and their cross-functional service teams, each supporting a portfolio of projects. The Managing Director ensures the model remains mission-aligned, financially sustainable, and positioned for growth.

This role serves as the operational and financial engine behind the Executive Director’s strategy, with accountability for five integrated outcomes: (1) team performance, development, and accountability; (2) partner retention and impact; (3) financial sustainability of the model; (4) market development and pipeline growth in partnership with Business Development; and (5) continuous improvement of the cross-functional service approach.

Success requires a leader who integrates strategy, people, operations, and business, and brings a customer-centered orientation to a fast-moving, transforming organization committed to social justice. As a Senior Leader the Managing Director is responsible for modeling and demonstrating Tides’ core competencies of leading self, leading people and leading results.

What you will Do

Lead and Develop the Senior Advisor Team (25%)

• Directly supervise, coach, and develop five Senior Advisors leading cross-functional service teams.
• Build an inclusive, team culture that empowers Senior Advisors and their teams to make decisions, escalate appropriately, and act with ownership.
• Lead goal-setting, performance management, and professional development planning for direct reports.
• Foster strong peer collaboration across the Senior Advisor cohort.

Drive Partner Retention, Satisfaction, and Impact (20%)

• Hold accountability for partner retention, satisfaction, and outcomes across the advising portfolio; monitor health indicators and act on early signals.
• Serve as a senior point of escalation for complex partner issues.
• Work alongside Senior Advisors to deepen relationships with key partners and identify opportunities to expand impact.
• Activate cross-portfolio opportunities for peer learning, collaboration, and movement-building.

Fulfill the Customer Service Promise Through the Cross-Functional Service Model (20%)

• Serve as the main liaison between the three core functions – advisory, finance and people – to meet partner needs and service standards.
• Ensure Tides systems align with partner priorities and expectations; Resolve friction points in the matrixed operating model; partner with peer department leaders to remove blockers to seamless partner service.
• Lead the cross-functional service team – ensuring effective collaboration between Senior Advisors and counterparts in Finance, HR, Grants Management, Legal, Risk & Compliance, IT, and other functions.
• Ensure consistent application of the Project Handbook, MOUs, service definitions, and service agreements across all teams.
• Identify and prioritize improvements to advising processes and systems; partner with operations, technology, and transformation leads to design, pilot, and scale enhancements.
• Translate the Executive Director's transformation strategy into operational priorities, work plans, and team-level goals; provide the Executive Director with intelligence on portfolio health, team capacity, partner sentiment, financial performance, and operational risk.

Steward the Financial Sustainability Model (20%)

• Hold ongoing accountability for the financial health of the advising function – balancing operating revenue, cost to serve across the portfolio, and operating expenses.
• Develop, evaluate, and evolve sustainable pricing, products and fee models for fiscal sponsorship services.
• Calibrate strategically to preserve the financial sustainability of the model.
• Partner with the Executive Director to develop, monitor, and act on portfolio and pod-level financial indicators; surface trade-offs and recommend strategic responses.
• Hold sustainability and mission together, and ensure that the model's economics are continually re-examined as conditions change.

Grow the Market and Pipeline in Partnership with Business Development (15%)

• Partner with the Business Development team to grow the broader market for fiscal sponsorship and expand the pipeline of new Tides Center projects.
• Bring the practitioner's perspective to market development — informing positioning, service design, and value proposition.
• Engage in ecosystem-facing and thought leadership activities (sector convenings, peer networks, prospective partner conversations) to build awareness of fiscal sponsorship as a vehicle for social justice impact and Tides Center's distinctive offer within it.

What you will Bring

• Strong alignment with Tides' values, mission, and impact goal. The Managing Director should embody Tides' JEDI values and demonstrate the organization's core values: future focus, accountability, transparency, respect, and collaboration in all aspects of their work.

• Strategic judgment paired with operational follow-through — a true “doer-leader” able to hold both vision and execution.

• Financial acumen and comfort making trade-off decisions where economics and mission both matter; experience working closely with Finance partners on pricing, capacity, and sustainability decisions.

• People leadership — coaching, development, performance management, and culture-building — with a track record of building inclusive, high-performing teams in matrixed environments.

• Sound judgment under pressure on partner escalations, complex risk situations, and high-stakes decisions affecting partner organizations and the people they serve.

• Comfort with ambiguity, iteration, and leading others through organizational change.

• Clear, concise communication across audiences — from project founders to the Executive Director and external sector stakeholders.

• Demonstrated commitment to advancing equity, inclusion, social justice, and the leadership and power of communities who have historically been denied both.

Ideal Experience

• 8 years of direct and progressive professional experience, including 4 years directly managing senior individual contributors or people managers in a complex services, consulting, philanthropy, or nonprofit context; or 10 years of relevant experience. An advanced degree in a related field would bring added value.

• Direct experience in fiscal sponsorship, intermediary organizations, or services to nonprofit/movement organizations is required.

• Demonstrated track record leading service delivery teams to measurable outcomes in partner or client retention, satisfaction, and operational performance.

• Demonstrated financial acumen — experience holding P&L, business unit, or service line accountability, including making calibration decisions that balance revenue, cost to serve, and mission.

• Experience leading in a matrixed or cross-functional team structure; skilled at navigating shared accountability and influencing across functions.

• Senior advisory experience with nonprofit, philanthropic, or movement leaders — including judgment on governance, organizational lifecycle, and risk.

• Experience contributing to market or business development — through pipeline qualification, ecosystem positioning, or partnership with Sales/BD functions.

• Experience leading through organizational change, including new operating models, redesigned processes, and the rollout of new systems and tools.

• Familiarity with the financial, compliance, HR, and grants management dynamics of fiscally sponsored projects preferred.

Application Instructions

Please submit your resume and a cover letter expressing why you are well-qualified for this role and your motivation for joining the team at Tides. For best consideration, apply by June 4, 2026 at 11:59pm ET.

Equal Employment Opportunity

We look forward to reviewing applications from all qualified job seekers. We strongly encourage applications from women, people of color, and bilingual and bicultural individuals, as well as members of the LGBTQIA+ communities. No applicant will be discriminated against because of their race, religion, sex, national origin, ethnicity, age, disability, political affiliation, sexual orientation, gender identity, color, marital status, or medical condition including acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) and AIDS-related conditions. Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we encourage and will consider qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records. Where required by state law, we utilize E-Verify as a part of our employment authorization process.

Applicants with Disabilities

Reasonable accommodation will be made so that all who are interested may participate in our interview process. If you are in need of an accommodation, please advise in writing at the time you apply.