Description

ABOUT THE CLEAN SLATE INITIATIVE 

Established as its own nonprofit organization in 2024, The Clean Slate Initiative (CSI) exists to help the roughly 70–100 million American adults with an arrest or conviction record — nearly one in three adults nationally, and a disproportionate share of Black adults (nearly 50%, compared to 27% of white adults) — move past their records and access employment, housing, education, and economic assistance. CSI's mission is to pass and implement "Clean Slate" laws that automate record sealing for people who have completed their sentence and remained crime-free, and to expand who is eligible for that relief. Clean Slate legislation remains a rare bipartisan-appeal issue even in a polarized political environment, with wins in both red and blue states. 

Operating nationally with a talented 48-person staff, CSI expects continued growth as it seeks to build out its leadership and program capacity. The organization works across a national footprint, with active legislative campaigns and implementation support in states nationwide and a growing regional focus in the South. CSI operates as a multi-entity structure, including a 501(c)(3) and an affiliated 501(c)(4) (Clean Slate Now), each with its own distinct Board of Directors. At this inflection point for the organization, CSI is expanding its programmatic focus from passing legislation to a more expansive, multi-front strategy that includes implementation and notification, narrative change, and regional groundwork with a focus on Southern states. 

The organization’s growth trajectory is being guided by a new five-year strategic plan (July 2026-December 2031), which sets ambitious goals including the passage of full Clean Slate legislation in 24 states plus DC and ensuring eligibility for automated sealing for 24 million people. To support these goals, an organizational restructuring, made effective in August of 2026, has consolidated departments, redefined the role of the CEO, created a new President position, and added new senior leadership positions to the team. 

THE OPPORTUNITY

The projected growth and ambitions outlined in CSI’s new strategic plan require an internal realignment to match them. As part of this evolution, the organization’s talent & culture, operations, and finance functions are being brought together within a single department, headed by a new Chief Financial and Administrative Officer (CFAO). As CSI’s first CFAO, this leader will create an integrated strategy across finance, grants administration, talent and culture, and operations, ensuring these functions work together seamlessly to support CSI’s mission and growth.

As CSI scales, the CFAO will bring greater structure, visibility, and integration to the organization’s internal infrastructure. They will build modern financial and organizational systems that give staff and board members real-time visibility into CSI’s financial position and $20 million annual budget, while also bringing rigor to an organization growing rapidly on the strength of recent gifts of $75 million and $55 million, roughly 35% of which is deployed directly to the field through grantmaking. Reporting to the President and serving as a peer to the Chief Program Officer, the Chief Marketing Officer and Chief Development Officer, the CFAO will have four direct reports and an overall team of seven employees. 

More broadly, the CFAO will serve as a strategic steward of the systems, culture, and infrastructure that will enable CSI to grow well. They will provide leadership across financial systems and organizational operations, ensuring these pieces work together as a cohesive whole; help shape a vision for grantmaking that balances compliance and flexibility; steward culture and employee experience, ensuring CSI’s values are reflected in day-to-day practices and that staff feel connected and supported across a remote environment; and lead on compliance and risk, setting direction for CSI’s capacity in areas such as C3/C4 structure and lobbying compliance as the organization grows. The CFAO may also help shape CSI’s emerging investment strategy as the organization considers how to grow and steward its financial reserves over time.

COMPENSATION & BENEFITS

CSI offers a comprehensive benefits package that includes health, dental, and vision insurance (with some plans 100% employer-paid), a 6% employer match towards 401k retirement, pre-tax transportation benefits, and paid holidays, vacation, sick, and casual time off.

The Clean Slate Initiative is committed to transparent and fair compensation. The hiring range for this position is an annual salary range of $225,000 – $260,000. The final salary within this range will be determined based on qualifications and relevant experience.  Once an offer is made, we do not negotiate the compensation package. 

This is a full-time position and is considered exempt for overtime purposes. This is a remote position, and we are location agnostic regarding where in the US you are based.  However, we will discuss a hybrid or in-office work location for candidates in proximity to our Orlando office.  

You will need to:

• Currently reside in the United States and be authorized to work in the United States
• Work collaboratively with a team in various time zones
• Be close to a major airport with the ability to travel approximately 10%-15% of the time
• Attend required quarterly onsite planning meetings at least 2 times a year in various locations
• Attend 1 all staff learning trip and our annual convening each year

The Clean Slate Initiative is a 501(c)(3) public entity that passes and implements laws that automatically clear eligible records for people who have completed their sentence and remained crime-free and expand who is eligible for clearance.  CSI is committed to attracting, developing and retaining exceptional people, and to creating a work environment that is dynamic, rewarding and enables each of us to realize our potential. CSI’s work environment is safe and open to all employees and partners, respecting the full spectrum of race, color, religious creed, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, political affiliation, ancestry, age, disability, genetic information, veteran status, and all other classifications protected by law in the locality and/or state in which you are working.

TO APPLY

To learn more about The Clean Slate Initiative, please visit: https://www.cleanslateinitiative.org/  This search is led by Emily Wexler and Andres Marcuse-Gonzalez of NPAG. Candidates may submit an application via NPAG’s website, including a resume and cover letter that speaks to what draws you to CSI.

Requirements

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Executive Leadership & Financial Strategy 

• Serve as a core member of CSI’s executive team, partnering closely with the President and fellow senior leaders to shape organizational strategy and translate CSI's growth into sound financial planning.
• Advise the executive team on the financial implications of programmatic and organizational decisions, bringing forecasting and risk analysis to bear on choices such as multi-state campaign investments.
• Lead the organization’s annual budgeting process and give leadership ongoing visibility into organizational financial health.

Operations & Infrastructure

• Ensure CSI's operating infrastructure, from finance systems to collaboration tools, is financially sustainable, asking whether the organization's overall cost model for technology and systems is one it can grow into rather than outgrow.
• Set direction on core platform standardization, including which tools CSI adopts so that teams are working from a shared toolkit.
• Oversee the organization’s headquarters, a 2,800-square-foot office space in Orlando, FL, ensuring the space is welcoming and serves the organization’s in-person training and team meetings.
• Stay up to date on trends, such as the use of AI, particularly in nonprofit and advocacy spaces, and use a combination of training and resource sharing to ensure CSI is ahead of the curve as the field progresses.
• Negotiate and manage the organization’s insurance policies, lease agreement and outside counsel.

Grantmaking & Compliance Systems

• Provide leadership and direction for the team executing day-to-day grantmaking operations.
• Set the vision for how CSI’s grantmaking balances programmatic ambition and organizational values with the infrastructure and compliance needed to support it.
• Champion the compliance infrastructure needed for C3/C4 and lobbying work.

Talent, Culture, and Employee Experience

• Provide a strategic roadmap for how to implement culture best practices to steward and preserve CSI’s culture of collaboration and connectedness, particularly as we continue to grow while remaining a remote-first organization.
• Work closely with the Director of Talent and Culture to embed talent & culture as a connective function across the organization and ensure our values are lived out day-to-day.
• Ensure staff are engaged and motivated through consistent professional development opportunities, mission touchpoints, and staff engagement initiatives.
• Serve as the escalation path for employee relations issues and manage workforce compliance.

Board Stewardship

• Staff the finance and audit committees of the board.
• Provide ongoing financial reporting and strategic insights to the board, and present the organization's annual budget for approval.

KEY QUALIFICATIONS, SKILLS, and EXPERIENCES

While no one candidate will possess all the qualifications listed below, the ideal candidate will be passionate about CSI's mission and bring many of the following skills and experiences. This is a delivery-oriented leadership role suited for candidates who have led multiple functions in tandem:

• Integrated organizational leadership — Track record of leading multiple functions (e.g., finance, operations, people) as one integrated system rather than as separate silos, with a focus on execution and delivery, not just strategy-setting.
• Nonprofit financial understanding – Experienced leader with a working understanding of the unique aspects of nonprofit financial systems and rules; knowledge of GAAP and Financial Accounting Standards as they apply to the nonprofit industry; Experience working in a C3/C4 environment is a bonus. 
• Risk management – Able to quantify and communicate risk (financial, operational, reputational) tied to major investment and financial decisions.
• Financial storytelling and systems-building – Track record of setting the vision for building financial systems and dashboards that tell the real-time story of an organization's financial health and trajectory to a diverse set of audiences. 
• Change management – Ability to effectively guide individuals and teams through transitions, optimizing authentic engagement in and adoption of new processes, systems, and structures. Track record of successfully leading teams through periods of organizational change, transition, or transformation while maintaining morale, productivity, and mission alignment.
• Grant management exposure – Exposure to grant agreements, disbursement structures, and reporting requirements, either as a funder or as a grantee-facing finance/programs partner, sufficient to set a vision for grantmaking that is both compliant and flexible. 
• Remote culture-building – Direct experience building, sustaining, and scaling a collaborative culture and strong employee experience in a remote-first environment, with a clear point of view on how to help staff feel seen, heard, and connected to mission. 
• People and culture fluency – Experience partnering with or serving as senior HR/Talent/People leaders, with enough fluency to weigh in credibly on people and culture priorities; Familiarity with the talent dynamics of mission-driven work, particularly the challenges faced in high-stakes environments.
• AI fluency – Genuine working knowledge of how AI is being used in nonprofit organizations and the implications it can have on an organization's workflow if properly applied. 
• Board engagement and stewardship – Track record of translating complex financial information into clear, actionable insights for a non-finance audience.
• Commitment to CSI’s mission – Must be passionate and dedicated to the bipartisan work of CSI and providing relief to millions of justice system impacted individuals.