Chief of Staff to the CEO

About this role

Mozilla Foundation is a non-profit building a better technology future — powered by people, open by design, fueled by imagination.

We deliver people-first alternatives to today’s extractive systems. We build side by side with developers, innovators and advocates, united in the belief that a better technology future is not only possible — it’s ours to create!

Team

Our CEO is increasingly focused outward on the Board, funders, partners, and public conversations that will shape the Foundation’s next chapter. This newly created Chief of Staff role exists to extend the CEO’s reach inside the organization and make that outward focus possible.

Reporting directly to the CEO, you’ll serve as the CEO’s strategic partner, internal proxy and trusted extension of their leadership. You’ll hold the CEO’s strategic agenda, translate the CEO’s priorities into organizational alignment, represent the CEO internally where needed, and make decisions on the CEO’s behalf within clearly delegated authority. You’ll determine what reaches the CEO, prepare the CEO for consequential moments, and escalate only what requires the CEO’s judgment.

As a member of the Executive Leadership Team, you’ll partner strategically with other members of the ELT and work closely with the CEO’s Executive Program Manager to make sure the CEO’s time, priorities, and commitments stay aligned and moving.

You’ll also partner with the Foundation’s Investment Committee and its technical and strategic advisors, keeping their focus on the right questions, their recommendations aligned with the Foundation’s strategic priorities, and decisions moving efficiently from evaluation to funding.

Job responsibilities

Here’s what you’ll likely be focused on for the first 6 months:

• Building a strong working partnership with the CEO, aligning on priorities, ways of working and clearly defining the scope of your delegated authority.

• Establishing a trusted partnership with each member of the Executive Leadership Team, learning their priorities, pressures and ways of working.

• Developing a deep, cross-functional understanding of the Foundation’s work and how each function connects to the CEO’s priorities.

• Translating the CEO’s priorities into a concise, clear set of strategic outcomes that leaders understand and can use to guide the decisions they own, with a current view of what’s changing and which decisions are approaching.

• Defining with the CEO what truly requires their attention, and ensuring issues reach them decision-ready, with context, options and a recommendation.

• Getting up to speed with the Investment Committee and its advisors, and helping keep their focus on the right questions so decisions move efficiently from evaluation to funding.

As the Chief of Staff to Mozilla Foundation’s CEO, you will…

• Serve as the CEO’s thought partner in developing, pressure-testing and refining strategic priorities, synthesizing executive insight and external developments to anticipate what will need to be known or decided in the next 30, 60 and 90 days.

• Direct the CEO’s time toward strategy, external relationships, development, Board leadership and the Foundation’s highest-consequence decisions.

• Filter rather than forward, so significant shifts in strategy, material risks, major budget decisions and Board-level matters reach the CEO early, with context, options and a recommendation.

• Maintain a current view of the CEO’s top priorities, identify where work is drifting from strategic intent, and surface conflicts in priorities, resources or attention before they become emergencies.

• Enable the Executive Leadership Team to operate as one team around the CEO’s priorities, so the right issues reach the ELT at the right level and decisions and commitments are followed through.

• Partner with ELT members on cross-functional issues that need CEO-level alignment but not the CEO’s direct involvement.

• Represent the CEO’s position in internal discussions and make decisions on the CEO’s behalf within delegated authority, bringing anything beyond it back to the CEO promptly.

• Ensure the CEO enters every Board meeting, funder and partner conversation, speech and public engagement fully prepared, with concise briefings, organizational context and answers to likely questions.

• Identify external opportunities that warrant the CEO’s attention, and ensure commitments the CEO makes externally translate into clear internal follow-through.

• Steward alignment between the Investment Committee’s work and the Foundation’s strategy: keep its technical and strategic advisors focused on the right questions, surface gaps, risks or competing views, and bring forward matters that need the CEO’s judgment.

What this role is not

This is a role of influence. It exists to ensure the CEO can lead effectively through the Executive Leadership Team.

• The Chief of Staff does not manage the Executive Leadership Team or run the Foundation’s operations. Each executive leader owns execution and decisions within their area.

• This role does not make decisions beyond the authority the CEO has delegated. Anything outside that authority returns to the CEO.

• This role does not have any direct reports and also doesn’t manage the CEO’s calendar, scheduling or administrative support.

Your Professional Profile

• Significant, verifiable experience as a strategic partner at CEO or executive-team level, with a track record of leading high-stakes work and turning ambiguity into structure and action.

• Experience working across multiple legal entities is a plus, including navigating differences, building influence, and coordinating work across entities where relevant.

• A proven record of driving complex, cross-functional priorities from idea to execution by defining outcomes, ownership, milestones and decision points.

• Exceptional judgment and discretion, including handling confidential information and navigating complex executive dynamics with integrity.

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