Chief of Staff

Holocaust Museum Houston is entering a period of extraordinary ambition: expanding our educational reach, strengthening our civic voice, deepening our work against antisemitism and hatred, and building the systems needed for long-term institutional impact.

We are seeking a Chief of Staff to help turn that ambition into disciplined execution.

This is a high-trust, high-impact role at the center of the CEO’s office. The Chief of Staff will serve as a strategic partner, executive office lead, calendar gateway, project manager, and organizational integrator — helping ensure that the CEO, senior leadership team, Board, and key stakeholders are aligned, prepared, and moving priorities forward.

This is not a traditional executive assistant role, though it includes important calendar and executive office responsibilities. It is also not a deputy CEO role. The Chief of Staff is the person who helps the CEO’s office operate with focus, clarity, responsiveness, and follow-through.

What You’ll Do
Lead the CEO’s Office

• Serve as the primary gateway to the CEO’s time, attention, decisions, and follow-up.
• Manage and prioritize the CEO’s calendar across internal leadership, donors, board members, community partners, public events, and strategic initiatives.
• Prepare the CEO for meetings with agendas, briefings, talking points, background materials, and follow-up notes.
• Track commitments and ensure that important next steps do not get lost.
• Use judgment, discretion, and emotional intelligence to determine what needs CEO attention, what can be delegated, and what should wait.
• Take on and lead key, strategic museum-wide projects as needed at the discretion of the CEO.
  

Drive Strategic Execution

• Help translate HMH’s strategic priorities into clear work plans, timelines, milestones, and accountability systems.
• Keep major initiatives moving across education, exhibitions, development, membership, public programs, partnerships, operations, and external affairs.
• Identify obstacles early and help resolve them before they slow the organization down.
• Ensure that HMH’s mission, vision, and strategic priorities are reflected consistently in internal planning, board materials, donor updates, and public communications.

Coordinate Across the Organization

• Support senior leadership meetings by shaping agendas, clarifying decisions, and tracking owners, timelines, and next steps.
• Strengthen communication across departments.
• Manage selected cross-functional projects, including strategic plan implementation, visitor and membership data systems, major exhibition preparation, donor and board communications, partnership work, and process improvement.
• Create the trackers, timelines, briefs, and systems that help a fast-moving organization stay focused.
  

Support Board, Donor, and Governance Work

• Help prepare strong, clear, strategic materials for Board, committee, advisory, and donor-leadership meetings.
• Draft and refine agendas, reports, presentations, briefings, talking points, and follow-up summaries.
• Track board, donor, and leadership commitments.
• Help strengthen transparency, accountability, and trust between staff leadership, board leadership, and key supporters.

Strengthen Communication and Alignment

• Draft and edit executive communications, staff updates, donor briefings, project summaries, and board materials.
• Help staff understand institutional priorities and how their work connects to the Museum’s mission.
• Support consistent language around HMH’s mission, vision, values, and Five Universal Lessons.
• Partner across Development, Membership, Visitor Services, Education, Operations, and Marketing to strengthen visitor engagement, membership growth, donor cultivation, and institutional learning.
  

Who You Are

• You are highly organized, mission-driven, emotionally intelligent, and comfortable operating at the intersection of strategy and detail.
• You can manage key projects and strategic priorities with minimal oversight.
• You know how to protect an executive’s time without creating barriers.
• You can write clearly, synthesize quickly, follow up relentlessly, and bring calm structure to complexity.
• You are not looking for a narrowly defined administrative role. You are looking for a role where judgment, trust, discretion, communication, and execution matter every day.
  

Qualifications

Strong candidates will have many of the following qualifications:

• Deep commitment to Holocaust Museum Houston’s mission and to the work of memory, human dignity, moral courage, civic responsibility, and combating hatred.
• Ability to take on and execute key strategic projects with minimal oversight.
• 3+ years of relevant experience in nonprofit leadership, museums, education, philanthropy, strategy, operations, executive support, public affairs, or a related field.
• Experience supporting senior leaders and coordinating complex work across multiple stakeholders.
• Strong calendar management, prioritization, and executive office skills.
• Excellent judgment, discretion, professionalism, and emotional intelligence.
• Ability to move easily between big-picture strategy and detailed execution.
• Experience with board relations, donor preparation, project management, strategic planning, or cross-functional implementation preferred.
• Familiarity with museums, Holocaust education, Jewish communal organizations, civic education, or mission-driven cultural institutions helpful but not required.
• Masters' degree strongly preferred.

Core Strengths

• Strategic judgment
• Operational discipline
• Calendar and priority management
• Excellent writing and synthesis
• Project management
• Cross-functional coordination
• Discretion and confidentiality
• Emotional intelligence
• Follow-through
• Mission alignment
• Professional warmth
• Ability to protect the CEO’s time while sustaining strong relationships

Reporting Relationship

The Chief of Staff reports directly to the CEO and works closely with the senior leadership team. Over time, the role may supervise project-based staff, interns, administrative support, or executive office support depending on institutional needs.

Compensation

Competitive and commensurate with experience.