Position: Director, Child Care Innovation Fund

Reports To: Vice President of Innovation and Evaluation

Location: Remote work based in Michigan with occasional travel

Schedule: Monday – Friday

Salary Range: $89,865 - $109,835

Class: Exempt

Position Summary

The Director of the Child Care Innovation Fund will lead and oversee ECIC’s Child Care Innovation Fund, a public-private partnership that collaborates with national, state, regional and community partners to design, pilot, scale, and evaluate child care innovations that expand access to high-quality, child-care in Michigan. The Director oversees a dynamic team who work in close partnership with funded organizations to realize the successful implementation of child care innovations through the provision of high-value consultation, professional learning opportunities, training and strategic communication. The Director provides strategic direction for the Fund, leading the growth and execution of new cross-sector programs and services, while assuring the effective execution of all currently funded initiatives and projects. The Director provides expert consultation and knowledge building resources for internal and external partners, across sectors, representing the Fund and directly advancing ECIC’s mission, values and priority focus. As a leader at ECIC, the successful candidate will bring a transformational leadership style that inspires teams to achieve the ECIC vision.

Duties and Responsibilities

This list is not all-inclusive. Incumbent(s) may be expected to perform job-related duties other than those contained in this document and may be required to have specific job-related knowledge and skills.

Program Leadership:

• Oversee the ongoing development, continuous improvement, evaluation, and successful implementation of the Child Care Innovation Fund.
• Collaborate to develop and implement strategic and operational plans internally and externally with funded partners.
• Responsible for ensuring the successful design and delivery of transformative facilitation, coaching, consultation, and training for and with internal and external partners.
• Develop and retain high-performance team members through supervision, coaching, and leadership development.
• Collaborate to design, provide, and continuously improve technical assistance for statewide partners in the form of written documents, videos, website information, training, webinars, professional learning communities, and events.
• Serve as collaborative thought leader on child care innovations, staying current on literature, practices and networks in relevant fields including systems change, human-centered design, technical assistance and training, and leadership development.

Program Design, Implementation and Management:

• Collaborate with the team to offer grant-making opportunities for partners to design, pilot, scale, and implement programs and initiatives utilizing the latest information from research and best practice.
• Oversee and lead execution of all programs and services, assuring standards for program design, implementation, continuous improvement, monitoring, and evaluation are realized.
• Work with staff to develop necessary systems, processes, and tools to ensure consistent, high-quality implementation and compliance with funder expectations across all projects and initiatives.
• Ensure that outcomes are evaluated and leveraged for maximum organizational and participant impact.
• Oversee the development of CRM systems and other databases in support of goals and objectives.

Relationship Management:

• Serve as lead for communicating about the body of work this position is responsible for, including MILEAP and other state, regional, and/or local partners, representing ECIC and our vision and values.
• Contribute to effective partner communications, including developing, writing and/or contributing to client and partnership proposals, program/grant reports, and conference presentations.

Financial Stewardship:

• Monitor program budgets, including both forecasting and tracking of expenditures, and work plans, in collaboration with executive leadership team and operations staff, ensuring regular reporting and evaluation goals are well-established and met.
• Collaborate, write, and contribute to grant proposals and other revenue generating opportunities.

Organizational Leadership:

• Provide collaborative leadership across ECIC teams to ensure alignment with public policy, systems priorities and technical assistance strategies.
• Actively participate in ECIC staff meetings and other strategic and administrative projects across the organization.
• Provide expertise on diversity and inclusion in support of ECIC’s priorities.
• Contribute as a people leader to the development of inter-team cohesiveness, positive workplace culture, and management of culture change.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Qualifications and Required Skills:

• Bachelor’s degree with seven (7) years of overall professional experience, with at least three (3) years leading large-scale programs or projects, and at least three (3) years supervisory experience. Master’s degree preferred. Applicable degrees would include: Macro-Social Work, Public Policy, Program Evaluation, and Human-Centered Design.
• At least 7 years of experience leading successful child care or early childhood initiatives at the national, state, regional, or community level. Extensive leadership experience in overseeing public-private partnerships, with significant expertise in designing, scaling, and evaluating child care innovations, providing strategic direction, and delivering high-impact consultation.

Core Competencies:

• Ability to effectively supervise, build, and coach teams.
• Excellent communication and relationship building skills with an ability to prioritize, negotiate, and work with a variety of internal and external partners.
• Strong understanding of Michigan’s child care regulations, rules, policies, funding, and infrastructure with knowledge and experience working with partners outside of early care and education.
• Ability to communicate clearly, concisely, persuasively, and professionally both verbally and in writing.
• Ability to present complex information in a concise, understandable format.
• Ability to develop positive relationships with individuals and partners in both public and private sectors.
• Effective group consultation and meeting facilitation skills.
• Ability to maintain accuracy and attention to detail while managing multiple tasks, projects, and timelines.
• Ability to use data and analytical skills to proactively identify opportunities, set priorities and solve problems.
• Ability to partner with diverse colleagues and community members on inclusive joint initiatives.
• Proficient in Microsoft Office, Adobe and web-based applications.

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 in sound. (4-5 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. (4-5 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. Requires set up of home office in alignment with ECIC expectations for safe, secure, quiet space for work.

Work Location

Remote work based in Lansing, Michigan with occasional travel within the state or to other geographical areas for projects, ECIC meetings and to meet the needs of the organization. Private transportation and functioning home internet are required to fulfill the duties of this position.