Program Officer

Want to support local community-based efforts to improve the lives of young children and families across North Carolina?

Seeking relationship-builder with a passion for early childhood systems who can balance compliance oversight with support of community context. An active thought partner with a broad knowledge base who applies a strengths-based approach while promoting continuous quality improvement.

The Early Childhood Systems Program Officer serves as the primary liaison with our local Smart Start partnerships to support strong early childhood community system building, and county-level coordination to fulfill the mission of Smart Start to advance a high quality, comprehensive, accountable early childhood system that benefits each child in North Carolina.  The Program Officer works closely with a portfolio of 15 Local Partnerships to foster mutual understanding of community and organization strengths, challenges, barriers and goals as well as to provide coaching, training, tools and resources on early childhood systems building, and other best practices in nonprofit management.

Ideal candidate: 

• Master’s degree in early childhood, nonprofit management, social work, public health, public administration or a related social science or human services field.
• Experience in early care and education, preferably with nonprofits that impact community outcomes.
• Training and/or experience with Implementation Science, Systems Change and Systems Thinking frameworks.

The Program Officer will be eligible for our generous benefits package including free employee-only health coverage and a 7% discretionary company contribution to the 401k.

Must be based in North Carolina, though this hybrid role can largely be performed remotely with approximately 10-15% travel in North Carolina.

To apply: Please submit resume and cover letter to careers@smartstart.org.