Chief of Staff

Who We Are

The Chicago Architecture Center (CAC) is a certified nonprofit organization that uses tours, public programs, and exhibitions to support education and community engagement. From 75+ walking tours and an award-winning river cruise to a striking riverfront Center, CAC connects visitors with Chicago’s architectural heritage and urban future. Revenue from tickets and programs directly funds youth education initiatives, world-renowned events like Open House Chicago, and public information campaigns. These efforts empower residents and visitors to better understand architecture, urban design, and their role in shaping the future of cities. Team members contribute to an organization recognized for its impact on civic engagement and architectural education.

Job Summary

The Chief of Staff serves as the CEO’s primary strategic partner and is responsible for strengthening executive alignment, organizational visibility, and enterprise accountability across the organization. This role translates executive vision into coordinated organizational focus by ensuring that strategic priorities are clearly defined, actively monitored, and effectively supported across the Executive Team.

The Chief of Staff does not own or direct operational initiatives, departmental functions, or human resources. Instead, the role ensures alignment, visibility, and accountability of execution owned by department leaders. The Chief of Staff enables effective execution by maintaining enterprise-wide performance visibility, surfacing risks and dependencies, and ensuring the CEO and Executive Team have the information needed for timely decision-making.

Serving as an extension of the CEO, the Chief of Staff provides strategic counsel, executive coordination, and organizational insight to ensure initiatives remain aligned with the organization’s mission, strategic plan, and Board priorities.

Duties and responsibilities

Executive Performance and Strategic Accountability (30%)

• Maintain enterprise visibility of the organization’s strategic plan, including priorities, KPIs, milestones, and executive commitments and report progress to CEO
• Develop and manage executive dashboards and reporting tools that track organizational performance and highlight progress, risks, and dependencies.
• Surface execution risks, cross-functional misalignments, and barriers to progress, and escalate them to appropriate executive leaders for resolution.
• Support a culture of accountability by ensuring executive leaders provide consistent updates on progress, outcomes, and performance metrics.
• Recommend enhancements to organizational performance systems that improve transparency, alignment, and decision-making.
• Lead new initiatives until handing off to department leader

CEO Partnership and Executive Office Support (25%)

• Serve as the CEO’s primary strategic thought partner on enterprise priorities, organizational alignment, and executive decision-making.
• Prepare weekly executive briefings, analyses, and decision-support materials to inform CEO priorities and actions.
• Ensure CEO priorities are actively tracked, communicated, and supported through coordination and follow-up with executive leaders.
• Maintain situational awareness of organizational activity and provide timely updates on emerging risks, opportunities, and strategic developments.
• Represent the Executive Office in internal meetings and initiatives as delegated by the CEO.

Enterprise Strategic Coordination (20%)

• Sponsor and coordinate enterprise-wide strategic initiatives as directed by the CEO, ensuring alignment across functional leaders.
• Facilitate cross-functional collaboration to support successful advancement of strategic priorities.
• Track initiative progress, milestones, and interdependencies, and escalate risks or delays to responsible executive owners.
• Support refinement of enterprise initiatives to improve clarity, alignment, and organizational focus.

Executive Team Alignment and Support (15%)

• Partner with executive leaders to ensure departmental priorities remain aligned with CEO objectives.
• Facilitate executive discussions focused on strategic alignment, performance visibility, and organizational priorities.
• Provide oversight and support to Executive Office staff, including roles such as the Revenue Strategist and Executive Project Manager.
• Reinforce accountability by ensuring commitments made in executive forums are documented, tracked, and followed up.
• Foster a cohesive internal culture that values both professional staff contributions and the essential role of the volunteer community

Board Support and Executive Communications (10%)

• Prepare Board materials, executive reports, and strategic presentations in partnership with executive leaders.
• Ensure Board deliverables are accurate, aligned with enterprise priorities, and completed within established timelines.
• Support drafting and refinement of executive communications in collaboration with the Communications team.
• Ensure the CEO is prepared for Board meetings and executive presentations.

Skills and Qualifications

Required

• Seven to ten years of progressive experience supporting executive leadership, strategic operations, or enterprise-level coordination.
• Bachelor's degree in non-profit management, business administration, architecture/art history, or a related field
• Demonstrated experience supporting or coordinating complex, cross-functional initiatives in a senior leadership environment. Comfort managing multi-faceted logistics simultaneously
• Strong ability to develop executive dashboards, performance reporting systems, and organizational metrics.
• Exceptional strategic thinking, communication, and executive presence.
• Proven ability to influence senior leaders and drive alignment without direct authority.
• High level of discretion and judgment in handling sensitive and confidential information. Deep empathy and a strong collaborative mindset

Preferred

• Experience in nonprofit, cultural, museum, architecture, tourism, or arts organizations.
• Master’s degree in Business Administration, Public Administration, Organizational Leadership, or related field.
• Project management certification (PMP or equivalent experience).
• Demonstrated commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA).

Direct reports

• Revenue Strategist
• Executive Project Manager

Benefits & Perks

• Health & wellness: Medical, dental, and vision plans for full-time employees, plus an Employee Assistance Program, FSAs, and pre-tax commuter benefits.
• Financial security: 401(k) with a dollar-for-dollar match up to 4%, employer-paid life and disability insurance, and optional voluntary benefits.
• Time off: 11 paid holidays, 2 floating holidays, vacation starting at 10 days, personal time starting at 12 days, and paid parental leave.
• Work-life: Hybrid schedule for eligible roles and professional development support.