Terry Schoop

Background

About Terry Schoop

While event work or social services come to mind with my tenure at Burning Man, my experience is municipal-scale operational leadership. I led complex, high-stakes systems, multi-team coordination, volunteer ecosystems, master planning, regulatory compliance, and a set of $1M+ payroll-free budgets as a senior operations executive.Professionally, my core identity is an Operational Systems Leader skilled at turning ambiguity into structure, aligning semi-autonomous teams, and holding operational accountability without ego. Now I desire stability, clear reporting, and oversight of managers above front-line casework, sales, or being the top strategic decision-maker. My ideal role would be a deputy-level operations position that focuses on execution and systems rather than ultimate strategy-setting.My target titles include Director of Operations, Deputy/Associate Director (Operations), Director of Volunteer Services, operations-focused Chief of Staff, and senior Operations Manager roles that oversee managers. Best-fit environments are arts & cultural institutions, large museums, universities, civic/municipal-adjacent nonprofits, public-private partnerships, and quasi-public regional agencies.I am an operations executive with 20+ years of experience leading large-scale, multi-team systems in complex, high-accountability environments. As Head of Community Services for the Burning Man Project, I led operational planning and execution for public service functions supporting a temporary city of up to residents. This included oversight of 11 sub-departments, multi-layered volunteer leadership structures, annual (payroll-free) budget stewardship exceeding $1M, and cross-functional coordination impacting public welfare and infrastructure stability. My work focused on translating strategy into operational reality — aligning managers, clarifying systems, drafting master plans, stewarding budgets, and ensuring teams could execute confidently under pressure. I specialize in: • Multi-team operational alignment • Systems design & implementation • Budget oversight & resource stewardship • Governance & cross-department collaboration • Bringing structure without stifling culture. I am now seeking a senior operations or deputy-level role within a mission-driven organization where strategic direction is established at the executive level, and I can focus on execution, coordination, and organizational stability.