The Chief Operating Officer (COO) is the senior operational leader of U.S. Hunger, responsible for translating enterprise strategy into daily execution. This role owns P&L performance across all business lines - Full Cart, Hunger Projects, and the Data/Intelligence engine - ensuring the organization's earned-income model (97%+ of total revenue) operates with precision, accountability, and scalability.
The COO must bring the instincts of an entrepreneur and the discipline of a corporate operator: connecting dots others miss, asking tough questions that drive clarity, and building the systems that allow talented leaders to perform at their highest level. Operational excellence and mission-aligned impact are not in tension here - they are the same thing.
Enterprise Operations & P&L Execution- Own P&L execution across all business lines - each engine must meet its margin, revenue, and impact targets.
- Establish and drive the operating cadence - monthly reviews, quarterly business performance reporting, and clear accountability across departments.
- Make resource allocation decisions across competing priorities - deploying people, capital, and attention against the highest-value opportunities.
- Present operational performance, capacity, and growth execution to the Board of Directors.
- Partner with the CEO on scenario planning, structural growth strategies, and enterprise-wide decision-making.
Program Leadership - Full Cart & Hunger Projects- Provide executive oversight of Full Cart and Hunger Projects - ensuring delivery excellence, measurable outcomes, and scalability.
- Partner with program directors to evaluate, evolve, and scale programs in response to partner needs, market opportunities, and operational realities.
- Drive integration between program design, data infrastructure, and client-facing delivery - ensuring mission impact and revenue execution are operationally connected.
- Oversee supply chain and logistics operations to ensure consistent, high-quality program delivery at scale.
Revenue Growth & Partner Execution- Own enterprise revenue execution across health plan partnerships, corporate engagement, and strategic growth opportunities - ensuring acquisition and retention targets are consistently met.
- Drive strategies that deepen existing partner relationships and expand engagement across multiple service lines, maximizing long-term value and organizational sustainability.
- Represent U.S. Hunger externally with payors, partners, and stakeholders - translating operational insight into compelling value propositions that differentiate USH in the market.
- Leverage buyer-side CSR experience and existing relationships across the corporate social impact and food access ecosystem to accelerate partner acquisition and deepen engagement.
Cross-Functional Alignment & Executive Leadership- Partner with the Chief Technology Officer to define business requirements, program design priorities, and operational needs that shape the technology and data roadmap - ensuring platform delivery enables execution across all business lines.
- Manage the VP of Finance & Enterprise KPIs and VP of People & Culture - two executives who maintain direct visibility to the CEO through their seat at the executive table - ensuring fiscal discipline, enterprise analytics, and workforce strategy are aligned with operational goals.
- Actively contribute to organizational governance, strategy, and enterprise-wide decision-making as the CEO's primary operational counterpart.
Team Leadership & Development- Build, lead, and develop a high-performing operational leadership team - setting clear expectations, driving accountability, and coaching leaders who are growing into executive-level roles.
- Develop performance metrics and accountability systems that connect individual and team outcomes to enterprise financial and impact objectives.
- Promote a culture of rigorous inquiry, collaboration, and continuous improvement - where leaders are expected to think critically, challenge assumptions, and own their outcomes.
- Foster an environment where staff understand both the business drivers of USH's earned-income model and the transformative impact of their work on the communities served.
These essential job functions are not to be construed as a complete statement of all duties performed. Employees will be required to perform other duties as required.
Requirements
- 10+ years of progressive leadership in operations, business management, or revenue execution - with direct P&L ownership.
- Experience building, running, or scaling a business - including sales growth, client retention, and financial performance accountability.
- Proven ability to lead and develop directors and VPs - coaching strong operators into executive-level leaders while holding them accountable to outcomes.
- Demonstrated pattern of connecting dots across functions - seeing how operational, financial, people, and program decisions impact each other.
- Experience at the board level - presenting performance, defending strategy, and engaging C-suite stakeholders directly.
- Experience in mission-driven, earned-income environments where market discipline and social impact must coexist.
- Strong communication across corporate, nonprofit, healthcare, and community sectors - direct, polished, and confident.
- High emotional intelligence, with the courage to ask tough questions, the polish to challenge constructively, and the vision to see what's possible before it's obvious.
Essential Physical Skills- Repetitive finger motion as used in computer use.
- Extensive work with computer screens
- Everyday requirements of bending, grabbing, holding, and lifting light objects
- Work on Hunger Projects requires heavy lifting (up to 50 lbs), moving objects, pushing, and pulling, bending and kneeling
- Up to 50% travel time
