Sandy Hook Promise and Pillar Search & HR Consulting are happy to announce a new role for the organization. 

To Apply

Sandy Hook Promise has partnered with Pillar Search & HR Consulting on the search for its new Chief of Staff. Qualified candidates are encouraged to submit their resume and cover letter via email to [email protected]. No calls, please.

About Sandy Hook Promise

Sandy Hook Promise (SHP) envisions a future where all children are free from school shootings and other acts of violence. As a national nonprofit organization, SHP’s mission is to educate and empower youth and adults to prevent violence in schools, homes, and communities. Creators of the lifesaving, evidence-informed Know the Signs prevention programs, SHP teaches the warning signs of someone who may be in crisis, socially isolated, or at-risk of hurting themselves or others and how to get help. SHP also advances school safety, youth mental health, and responsible gun ownership at the state and federal levels through nonpartisan policy and partnerships.

SHP is led by several family members whose loved ones were killed in the tragic mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14, 2012.

Commitment to Belonging, Community, Engagement, and Respect

SHP strives to ensure its culture and work environment reflect the values of belonging, community, engagement and respect. They actively seek to understand and respond to the diverse perspectives and lived experiences of individuals across socioeconomic backgrounds, rural and urban communities, and diversity of thought, in addition to traditional protected categories. They are committed to ensuring that every SHP employee feels heard, valued, and a true sense of belonging. SHP encourages individuals who share their commitment to these core values and to their mission to apply.

This is remote role within the United States.

Role Overview

The Chief of Staff is a member of the Executive Leadership Team, reporting directly to the CEO.   The role serves as a senior organizational and strategic partner, responsible for ensuring internal alignment, leadership effectiveness and disciplined decision-making across Sandy Hook Promise.  This role is designed to amplify the CEO’s effectiveness by managing the internal rhythms of the organization, creating the conditions for the leadership team to work well together and for strategic priorities to be executed with clarity and accountability.

The Chief of Staff acts as a trusted extension and occasional proxy for the CEO in internal and operational meetings, holding the line on decisions that advance Sandy Hook Promise’s mission, long-term strategy, and organizational health.  This role does not focus on day-to-day execution; instead, it works with the members of SHP’s leadership team to steward organizational priorities, help guide complex cross-organizational conversations, and ensure the organization makes and sustains high-quality decisions in service of its mission and strategy.

Core Responsibilities

CEO Support and Internal Coordination

• Serve as an additional thought partner to the CEO on strategy, organizational priorities, and complex decisions.
• Represent the CEO in internal leadership, operational, and cross-functional meetings, ensuring her perspective, intent, and decision-making framework are clearly understood and adhered to.
• Prepare the CEO for internal meetings by synthesizing key inputs, flagging decisions that need to be made, and ensuring follow through afterward.
• At times, represent the CEO with external audiences, which may include partners and stakeholders, as appropriate.
• Help the CEO maintain focus on the most critical internal opportunities and risks facing the organization by synthesizing cross-organizational insights and elevating issues that require CEO attention or leadership alignment.

Decision Stewardship and Alignment

• Hold the line on decision-making that aligns with Sandy Hook Promise’s mission, strategy, and values, especially in moments of ambiguity or pressure.
• Ensure that strategic decisions are well-framed, grounded in shared understanding, and clearly communicated.
• Surface tensions, tradeoffs, and misalignments early, helping the CEO and leadership teams navigate them constructively.
• Act as a guardian of organizational clarity, helping prevent mission drift or reactive decision-making.

Organizational Effectiveness and Leadership Enablement

• Partner with the CEO to shape agendas for senior leadership meetings, ensuring time is used for strategic discussion rather than execution updates.
• Support the effectiveness of the senior leadership team by reinforcing shared goals, decision norms, and accountability at the strategic level.
• Identify patterns, themes, and systemic issues across the organization and bring insights forward to inform leadership action.
• Serve as a connective tissue across teams, without owning execution or operational management, with the exception of leading or coordinating occasional special projects if needed.

Board Partnership and Governance Support

• Serve as a strategic partner to the CEO in advancing strong Board governance and engagement.
• Support the CEO in shaping Board agendas to focus on mission, strategy, and long-term impact rather than operational detail.
• Ensure Board materials are clear, strategically framed, and aligned with organizational priorities.
• Help track and steward follow-up on key Board decisions and commitments at the strategic level.
• At times, represent or support the CEO in Board committee meetings, reinforcing alignment between governance and organizational strategy.
• Act as a connector between Board insights and leadership team priorities, ensuring thoughtful integration without creating additional layers of process.

Core Competencies

• Strategic altitude: The role operates at the level of organizational direction, decision quality, and leadership effectiveness, not day-to-day execution. This person has a strong instinct for what really matters internally. They listen carefully, synthesize quickly, and know when to ask the hard question that sharpens thinking or reframes a problem. They are trusted because they are consistent, discreet, and deeply grounded in the mission and priorities of SHP.
• Organizational integrator: The Chief of Staff serves as the connective tissue of the leadership team, ensuring that information flows clearly, decisions are made cleanly, and priorities stay aligned across teams. They are not a second-in-command nor an operational leader, but over time they will be trusted to represent the CEO’s perspective in the room when the CEO cannot be present. They are not attached to owning outcomes or running teams, but they care deeply about the quality of decisions and the integrity of the organization’s direction. Their impact is felt internally in how the organization operates, how the leadership team functions, and how the CEO’s time and attention are protected and used well.
• Decision stewardship: Rather than driving projects, the role focuses on how decisions are made, who is involved, and how they advance SHP’s mission and strategy.
• Influence without authority: Success depends on credibility, judgment, and relationship-building rather than formal control over teams or budgets. The ideal Chief of Staff is someone who brings calm clarity to complexity and steady judgment to high-stakes moments. They are deeply comfortable operating behind the scenes, advancing impact through influence rather than visibility or control.
• Connector across complexity: The role helps leadership see the whole system, surfacing patterns and tensions that might otherwise remain fragmented.

Qualifications and Experience

• Significant experience in senior-level strategy, management, advisory, or leadership roles, ideally within mission-driven, or complex organizational environments.
• Demonstrated ability to facilitate complex internal processes, operate as a trusted support to senior leaders, and drive alignment across teams without owning direct authority.
• Strong strategic judgment and comfort navigating ambiguity, tradeoffs, and sensitive dynamics.
• Exceptional communication skills, with the ability to influence without authority.
• Above all, this person believes in the mission and values of Sandy Hook Promise and brings both conviction and humility to the work, knowing when to lead, when to support, and when to step back.

Benefits and Salary Range 

The salary range for this position is $200,000-$210,000 dependent on experience and qualifications. Please note: SHP uses a structured internal rubric to guide salary placement and ensure equitable pay. Typically, new hires are placed at the start of the salary range to ensure equity with current employees, and as a practice, we do not negotiate salaries.

SHP offers a competitive benefits package, including:

• Unlimited PTO
• Flexible schedules
• Paid holidays and 10 days of sick leave
• Paid parental leave
• Health, dental, and vision
• Employer paid life insurance and short- and long-term disability
• 401k match
• Professional development stipend
• Wellness & mental health support
• Employer Paid Employee Assistance Program.

Sandy Hook Promise operates within a distributed workforce, allowing for location flexibility across the country for most positions. They provide remote office support for all staff, which includes a laptop, home office reimbursement, and monthly cell phone reimbursement up to $50 & internet reimbursement up to $40.

To Apply

Sandy Hook Promise has partnered with Pillar Search & HR Consulting on the search for its new Chief of Staff. Qualified candidates are encouraged to submit their resume and cover letter via email to [email protected]. No calls, please.

The deadline to apply is Monday, April 27, 2026.

Equal Opportunity Employment 

SHP is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. They strive to be an employer of choice: where a diverse mix of talented people want to come and do their best work. SHP does not make employment related decisions based on race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, or veteran status, or any other protected characteristic. They are focused on promoting multiculturalism and inclusion so that all SHP employees feel valued and respected. They believe deeply that a diverse workforce comprised of people of all beliefs, backgrounds, and life experiences who seek to prevent gun violence and stop the tragic loss of life will make SHP a stronger, more effective organization.