Position Title: Innovation Associate
Location: Remote work based in Michigan with occasional travel within the state or to other geographical areas for projects, ECIC meetings and to meet the needs of the organization.
Schedule: Monday through Friday

Salary Range: $60,670 - $67,411
Class: Non-Exempt

Position Summary:

Are you passionate about creating positive change for the early care and education workforce? As an Innovation Associate working with Michigan’s Family Child Care Networks (FCCN) and Early Care and Education Registered Apprenticeship Program (ECE RAP) initiatives, you will play a vital role in supporting innovative projects designed to support early educators and home-based child care business owners. In this position, you’ll work with ECE RAP intermediaries and FCCN Hubs to provide consultation and resources that help them support early educators to become credentialed and home-based child care business owners to thrive. You will serve as a first point of contact for grantees, assuring they have the information, resources and capacity needed to effectively implement their programs. Whether it’s designing and facilitating training and technical assistance opportunities, coordinating resources, or collaborating with diverse stakeholders, you’ll be at the heart of meaningful change in Michigan’s childcare infrastructure. 

Key Responsibilities include:

• Supporting MiWorks! Agencies and early childhood organizations to implement and scale-up their Early Care and Education Registered Apprenticeship Programs.
• Supporting early childhood organizations to run their Family Child Care Networks.
• Designing and facilitating individual and group capacity-building opportunities for the Family Child Care Networks and Early Care and Education Registered Apprenticeship grantees.
• Preparing reports that document impact and support increased investment in child care innovation. 
• Coordinating with internal and external capacity-building partners to advance the goals of grantees.

Duties and Responsibilities:

· Relationship management: Cultivate and manage new and existing relationships with innovation partners at the national, state, regional and local levels of the early childhood system.

· Support data collection, research activities, and development of high-quality reports, policy analysis, issue briefs, explanations, and presentations.

· Plan, coordinate, and provide all forms of capacity building for innovation grantees.

· Develop and implement work plans for projects, track and review grantee deliverables, and create written materials necessary to support effective implementation of innovations by grantees.

· Provide ongoing communications and coordination with capacity building partners and contractors.

· Assist with the coordination and implementation of internal and external continuous improvement and evaluation activities.

Requirements, Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

· Bachelor’s degree in related field or equivalent experience 

· Three (3) years of related experience

· Proficiency in assessing capacity needs, engaging stakeholders for capacity development, and identifying strengths.

· Skilled in formulating, implementing, and evaluating capacity development strategies and responses.

· Expertise in designing and executing data collection methods, including surveys, interviews, and observations, to gather qualitative and quantitative information.

· Exceptional Service: Consistently provide outstanding service to internal and external stakeholders by understanding their needs and solving problems effectively. 

· Clear Communicator: Ability to communicate clearly, concisely, and professionally both verbally and in writing.

· Attention to Detail: Ability to maintain accuracy and attention to detail while managing multiple tasks, projects, and timelines.

· Creative and Resourceful Problem Solver: Ability to use data and analytical skills to proactively identify opportunities, set priorities, and solve problems.

· Relationship Building: Strong interpersonal and relationship building skills.

· Cultural Competency & Inclusive Collaboration: Ability to partner with racially and ethnically diverse colleagues and community members.

· Remote Work Proficient: Proficient in remote technologies including conference calls, online meetings, and webinars. This includes supporting dispersed teams and maintaining a remote workspace to ensure productivity and collaboration.

· Proficient in communication and data collection tools such as Constant Contact and Survey Monkey.

· Software Proficiency: Proficient in Microsoft Office, Adobe and web-based applications.

· Decision Making: Ability to work independently and make decisions aligned with general program goals, objectives, and policies. 

Physical Requirements:

· Talking - Expressing or exchanging ideas by means of the spoken word to impart oral information to others accurately. (4-5 hours daily)

· Hearing - Perceiving the nature of sounds at normal speaking levels with or without correction. Ability to receive detailed information through oral communication, and to make the discriminations sound. (4-5 hours daily)

· Walking - Moving about on foot to accomplish tasks, particularly for long distances or moving from one work site to another. (1-2 hours daily)

· Standing – In one position, particularly for sustained periods of time. (1-2 hours daily)

· Visual Acuity – Viewing objects with close visual acuity to perform an activity such as: preparing and analyzing data and figures; transcribing; viewing a computer terminal; and/or extensive reading. (5-6 hours daily)

· Office Setting - Sedentary work in which exerting up to 10 pounds of force is occasional and a negligible amount of force is frequently or constantly used to lift, carry, push, pull or otherwise move objects, including the human body. Sedentary work involves sitting most of the time.

Remote work based in Michigan with occasional travel within the state or to other geographical areas for projects, ECIC meetings and to meet the needs of the organization.

Research shows that women and people from underrepresented groups often only apply to jobs if they meet all the qualifications. However, no one ever meets 100% of the qualifications. ECIC encourages you to break that statistic and to consider roles that are interesting to you.

Early Childhood Investment Corporation does not discriminate based on race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, marital status, or an individual’s status in any group or class protected by applicable law. We encourage applications from minorities, women, persons with disabilities, protected veterans, and all other qualified candidates to consider roles at ECIC.

Early Childhood Investment Corporation provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment