Director of Affordable Operations & Compliance

Seattle, WA | Full-Time | $135,000–$160,000 + Bonus + Profit Sharing

Help us build the next generation of affordable housing management

Arboreal Management is a rapidly growing property management company based in Seattle. Our portfolio grew approximately 3x over the past two years, and we're continuing to expand across Washington and Oregon.

A major part of our strategy is affordable housing.

We see a significant opportunity to become the management partner of choice for nonprofit and affordable housing owners in the Pacific Northwest. To do that, we need an experienced affordable housing operator who knows what excellent property operations look like—and can help us build the systems, processes, and accountability to deliver them consistently at scale.

We're hiring a Director of Affordable Operations & Compliance to do exactly that.

This is not a desk-only compliance role, and it is not a project management role. We are looking for someone who has worked on site, knows compliance cold, led multi-site property operations, and understands affordable housing firsthand.

You'll work across our portfolio to turn ideas into operating reality: building our affordable compliance platform, leading property takeovers, improving company-wide processes, and making sure new systems actually change what happens at our properties.

What you'll own

Affordable Housing Compliance

You'll help build an institutional-quality affordable housing compliance function capable of supporting both Arboreal's portfolio and sophisticated third-party nonprofit owners.

You'll:

• Establish and continuously improve our compliance standards, controls, audits, and operating procedures.

• Provide senior-level expertise across LIHTC, HUD and other affordable housing programs.

• Ensure certifications, recertifications, resident files, regulatory requirements, and compliance calendars are handled accurately and on time.

• Build effective quality-control and escalation systems so problems are identified and resolved before they become owner or agency problems.

• Partner with our centralized compliance and support teams to determine what work should happen centrally versus at the property.

• Help represent Arboreal's affordable housing capabilities with existing and prospective nonprofit and institutional clients.

• Prepare our teams and properties for regulatory, file, and physical inspections.

Operational Execution

At Arboreal, launching a process isn't the same as implementing it.

We invest heavily in technology, centralized support, and automation. Your job is to make sure those investments translate into better operations at our properties.

You'll:

• Translate new company initiatives into simple, executable workflows for Regional Managers and property teams.

• Monitor exceptions and operating KPIs to identify where processes are breaking down.

• Work directly with Regional Managers and Property Managers to get outstanding issues resolved.

• Establish clear ownership, deadlines, escalation paths, and accountability.

• Visit properties and work directly with site teams to understand why processes aren't working.

• Identify recurring operational failures and redesign the underlying process rather than repeatedly treating the symptom.

• Help create an operating culture where problems are surfaced quickly, ownership is clear, and commitments are followed through.

You are accountable for outcomes, not implementation plans.

If a new process has been documented, trained, and rolled out but isn't actually happening at the properties, the rollout isn't finished.

Property Takeovers

Growth creates operational complexity. You'll own the operating playbook for bringing new properties and portfolios onto the Arboreal platform.

You'll coordinate across operations, compliance, accounting, maintenance, leasing, technology, and centralized support to make sure new properties transition successfully.

That includes:

• Pre-takeover due diligence and operating readiness.

• Resident and affordable housing compliance files.

• Regulatory agreements and program requirements.

• Property staffing and operating procedures.

• Vendor and contract transitions.

• Systems, data, and reporting readiness.

• Resident communications and leasing operations.

• Day 1, 30, 60, and 90-day transition plans.

• Post-takeover audits and issue resolution.

Affordable housing takeovers can be complicated. We want someone who knows where the bodies tend to be buried and makes sure we find them early.

How we operate

Arboreal is not a traditional property management company.

We have built our own internal technology platform, Maynard, and continue to invest heavily in software and automation. We also have substantial centralized teams that can take repetitive administrative work away from our properties.

That creates an unusual opportunity for an experienced property operator.

If a compliance or operating process doesn't work, you won't simply be asked to train people harder. You'll be able to work with our technology and centralized operations teams to redesign it.

Your role is to bring deep property-management judgment to that system.

You might tell us:

"This shouldn't require seven steps from a Property Manager. Central operations should handle five of them, the PM should make this decision, the Regional should approve the exception, and our system should flag anything that hasn't happened within three days."

Then we'll work together to build it.

Who we're looking for

First and foremost, you've been on site.

You've personally experienced the realities of running an apartment community and understand the difference between a process that looks good at headquarters and one that actually works at a property.

We're looking for someone who has:

• Significant multifamily property management experience, including direct site-level experience as a Property Manager or equivalent.

• Experience as a Regional Manager or in another multi-site operating leadership role.

• Meaningful experience managing affordable housing communities.

• Strong working knowledge of LIHTC and HUD affordable housing programs; experience with multiple programs is strongly preferred.

• Experience with certifications, recertifications, file audits, inspections, regulatory requirements, and affordable leasing compliance.

• A track record of holding property teams accountable and improving operating performance.

• The ability to move comfortably between a resident file, a property visit, an operating dashboard, and a conversation with an owner.

• Strong judgment and the willingness to make decisions without waiting for perfect information.

• Comfort operating in a fast-changing environment where processes that don't work are expected to change.

Affordable housing certifications such as HCCP, COS, TCS, CPO, or similar credentials are valuable, but experience and operating ability matter more to us than acronyms.

You'll probably love this job if...

You're an excellent affordable housing operator who has spent years learning how properties actually work—and you're ready to have a bigger impact.

You see a broken process and instinctively want to fix it.

You aren't satisfied with sending an email and waiting. If something important isn't getting done, you figure out why, find the person who owns it, and follow through until it's resolved.

You enjoy working with property teams but are equally interested in building the systems that make those teams better.

You're excited by technology but don't believe software by itself solves operational problems.

And you'd rather help build a company than inherit a finished machine.

Growth

This is an important leadership hire for Arboreal.

Our portfolio continues to grow quickly, and we believe affordable and nonprofit housing management can become a major part of our business in Washington and Oregon.

We're looking for someone who can become our senior affordable operations leader today and grow into substantially greater responsibility as that business expands.

There is no predetermined ceiling on the scope of this role.

Compensation & Benefits

Base salary: $135,000–$160,000

In addition to base salary, this role includes:

• Annual performance bonus

• Participation in Arboreal's management profit-sharing program

• Medical, dental, and vision benefits

• Paid time off

• Retirement benefits

• Professional development and industry certification support

We expect our leaders to think and act like owners, and we believe they should participate financially in the value they help create.

Location

This role is based in Seattle and requires regular time with our teams and properties which are between Seattle, Portland and Spokane.

This is not a remote operations position. You'll spend time at our Seattle office, at properties, and with teams throughout our portfolio. Periodic travel within Washington and Oregon should be expected.

About Arboreal

Arboreal Management manages thousands of homes across the Pacific Northwest, with a growing focus on affordable and workforce housing.

We're building a different kind of property management company: combining excellent local property operations with centralized expertise, modern technology, and a culture of unusually high ownership and accountability.

We're growing quickly, which means we're constantly finding things that don't work at our new scale.

We don't expect our leaders to work around those problems.

We expect them to fix them.