Chief Strategy Officer

Durham County

The Chief Strategy Officer provides leadership, strategy and coordination across Durham's Partnership for Children (DPFC) programs and funded activities to achieve the mission and vision of DPFC. Provide effective supervision, management, and coordination to Smart Start, NC Pre-Kindergarten and Early Head Start teams to ensure high quality program implementation and demonstration of impact. This position reports to the Executive Director and promotes collaboration to instill cohesive leadership culture throughout the organization.  

Supervises:  

The Chief Strategy Officer supervises the Early Head Start Director, the Director of Programs, and the NC Pre-K Manager. 

 Essential Duties and Responsibilities  

  • Leadership: Serve as a leader and partner to ensure the DPFC mission is advanced. Working closely with the Executive Director, drive organizational alignment. 
  • Staff Supervision and Development: Support and invigorate a highly performing inclusive team that is deeply knowledgeable and dedicated to collaborative success. 
  • Program Oversight and Accountability: Oversee all funded activities and grants in compliance with budgetary, regulatory and contract requirements. Manage program standards in compliance with contracts and best practices in early childhood education to address goals of the DPFC Strategic Plan. 
  • Stakeholder Engagement: Effective stakeholder engagement to build community capacity to meet the needs of children and families and the systems that support them. 
  • Strategic Planning and Implementation: Participate in strategic planning and then plan and develop programs and other strategies to achieve goals.  

 Leadership: 

  • Collaborate with the Executive Director to handle day-to-day operations of the organization. 
  • Work closely with the Finance Director on budgeting, preparing reports and ensuring grant compliance.  
  • Interface and build trusting relationships within the organization, including staff and volunteers, as well as with external entities such as contractors, vendors, local and state officials, funding agencies, and other key stakeholders. 
  • Participate in committees, coalitions, task forces, etc. that help further DPFC’s mission. 

 

Staff Supervision and Development 

  • Promote cohesiveness and collaboration amongst staff and leadership. 
  • Supervise leadership staff for Smart Start, NC Pre-Kindergarten and Early Head Start. 
  • Oversee the development and management of requests for proposals (RFPs) and requests for application (RFAs) processes to address goals of the strategic plan. 
  • Coordinate the development of internal policies and procedures to support the work of the agency. 

 

Program Oversight and Accountability 

  • Oversee continuous quality improvement for all funded programs, including documentation of both accountability factors and demonstration of impact. 
  • Oversee development and ongoing use of quantitative and qualitative measures of program and evaluation performance. Integrate these measures with fiscal and communication standards, which are used as an indicator of overall performance.  
  • Align evaluation data across departments and with other community indicators. 

 

Stakeholder Engagement 

  • Facilitate collaborations among community Partners to integrate and maximize resources to address the needs of young children and their families. 
  • Facilitate conversation, action, and solutions in the 0-5 space. 
  • Coordinate involvement of program staff across departments in convening, leading, and participating in state and local work groups and committees. 

 

Strategic Planning and Implementation 

  • Provide strategic direction and coordinate strategy in identifying and prioritizing the needs of young children and families. 
  • Facilitate and integrate activities, projects, and efforts across all DPFC programmatic departments and with other departments. 
  • Design and manage grants/proposals for special initiatives and projects. 

 

Knowledge and Abilities:  

  • Strong staff supervision and management skills. 
  • Knowledge of Smart Start, NC-Prekindergarten and Early Head Start model. 
  • Knowledge of relevant program regulations from the North Carolina Division of Child Development. 
  • Ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships with volunteers, private providers, community agency and organization personnel. 
  • Understanding of best practices across settings in early care and education. 
  • Budget planning and administration skills and experience, including North Carolina state practices. 
  • Must be able to develop and present effective presentations to diverse audiences. 
  • Knowledge of culturally responsive practices and a commitment fairness 
  • Experience using data to make organizational, programmatic, and policy decisions. 
  • Understanding early childhood education developmentally appropriate practice, nutrition, health and family support needs and services of young children and their families. 
  • Embrace diversity in people and perspectives and ability to focus on addressing gaps within the early care and education systems.  
  • Ability to develop and implement organizational strategies. 

 

Qualifications:  

  • Bachelor's degree in Early childhood education, Public Administration, Social Work or Related Degree. Master’s Degree preferred. 
  • 8–10 years of progressive leadership in early childhood or human services. Minimum 5 years in a senior leadership role overseeing multiple programs.  
  • Knowledge of DCDEE, Early Headstart, Smart Start, and NC Pre K preferred.  
  • Experience managing early childhood programs. 
  • Experience working and convening diverse stakeholders for community impact. 

 

Safety, Security and Confidentiality: This position requires keeping complete confidentiality of all human resource/financial information and protecting the confidentiality of all DPFC files and records. 

Work Environment: Standard office hours 8am-5pm, Monday through Friday (hybrid/remote). Weekend and evening support required ad hoc for special events.  The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. 

 Physical Demands: The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. The physical requirements of this position are those typical of office staff. 

Employer’s Rights: This job description is general in nature and illustrative of the kind of duties and responsibilities required of this position. It is not exhaustive and does not contain a detailed description of all the duties that may be required of the incumbent occupying this position. 

Salary and Benefits

Medical, Dental, Vision, Retirement, EAP, PTO and Sick Time