Senior Manager, Mentoring

Chinese Development Assistance Council (CDAC); Singapore; On-site; SGD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Chinese Development Assistance Council (CDAC) seeks a Senior Manager / Assistant Director for its Mentoring Department. You will support the Director in leadership, management and development as the department scales across more schools while preserving the relational quality at the core of the mentoring model.

You will oversee major portfolios, supervise staff, codify practices, and collaborate across departments to drive sustained impact and broader partnerships.

Qualifications

• Good understanding of youth development, mentoring, education or community development practice.
• Familiarity with partnership development, organisational learning and governance approaches.
• At least 8–10 years in youth development or related fields, with 3–5 years in leadership.

Responsibilities

• Lead designated departmental portfolios and strategic initiatives with effective delivery.
• Contribute to department-wide leadership, decision-making and continuous improvement.
• Share oversight of junior staff and deputise for the Director as required.
• Codify practices into documented frameworks and training materials for replication.
• Foster partnerships, stakeholder engagement and programme expansion opportunities.

Skills

Leadership

Staff development

Programme management

Cross-department collaboration

Education

Relevant degree or equivalent

Job description

The Senior Manager / Assistant Director supports the Director in the leadership, management and development of the Mentoring Department, at a point when the department is extending its model to more schools and CDAC is deepening cross-department integration under the One CDAC agenda.

The role leads major departmental portfolios and strategic initiatives, supervises and develops staff, and strengthens the department's ability to scale its mentoring model without diluting the relational quality on which that model depends. It carries particular responsibility for converting the department's accumulated practice knowledge into documented, transferable form, so that the model can be extended to new sites and new staff without loss of quality.

Depending on organisational needs and individual strengths, the appointed candidate may take primary responsibility for areas such as practice codification and quality assurance, programme expansion and partnerships, operations and systems, organisational learning, or people and practice capability. The role is expected to contribute beyond its primary portfolio and to support broader departmental leadership.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead designated departmental portfolios, strategic initiatives and workstreams, ensuring effective implementation and delivery of departmental priorities.
• Contribute to department-wide leadership, decision-making and continuous improvement efforts.
• At Assistant Director level: share oversight of the department's Senior Managers, Managers and frontline staff with the Director, and deputise for the Director as required.

Practice Codification & Quality at Scale

• Codify the mentoring model's core practices into documented frameworks, training materials and quality standards that can be transferred to new staff and new sites.
• Establish mechanisms to preserve programme identity and relational quality as the department expands, monitoring actively for drift.
• Ensure that what currently resides as tacit knowledge held by experienced staff becomes departmental knowledge that survives staff movement.
• Support the review and refinement of programme practices, service delivery models and quality standards.
• Foster a culture of reflective practice, innovation and continuous improvement across the department.
• Represent Mentoring in One CDAC discussions, including scope, sequencing and resourcing implications arising from cross-department integration.
• Build genuine, productive working relationships with other department leads to support coordinated casework, referrals and shared outcomes.
• Lead efforts to strengthen strategic partnerships, stakeholder engagement and programme expansion opportunities, and represent the department in relevant external engagements.
• Supervise, coach and develop staff, providing guidance on programme delivery, professional practice and performance.
• Identify and grow different types of emerging leaders, building leadership depth beyond a small group of high performers.
• Monitor team workload and wellbeing indicators; act early on signs of uneven load or burnout.
• Promote a collaborative, accountable and learning-oriented team culture.

Youth Engagement & Programme Innovation

• Support the development of approaches to reach older and harder-to-reach mentees, including interest-based engagement models.
• Contribute to programme design refinements in partnership with the Director and relevant Senior Managers.
• Monitor risks, governance requirements and improvement opportunities within assigned portfolios.

Requirements

Knowledge

• Good understanding of youth development, mentoring, education, social service or community development practice.
• Familiarity with partnership development, organisational learning, capability development, operational systems or governance approaches.
• Relevant degree or equivalent experience in social work, education, youth development, organisational development, public service or a related field.

Experience

• At least 8–10 years of relevant experience in youth development, mentoring, education, social service programme management or community development, with at least 3–5 years in a leadership or supervisory capacity.
• Track record of leading teams, programmes or organisational initiatives while maintaining quality and achieving intended outcomes.
• Demonstrable experience of building or scaling a programme or team without loss of quality, and of documenting practice so that others can deliver it, is strongly advantageous.
• Experience operating in a matrixed or cross-department environment is an advantage.
• For appointment at Assistant Director level: evidence of having held departmental or organisation-level leadership scope, including accountability for outcomes achieved through other leaders rather than through direct delivery.
• Builds structure — SOPs, training pathways, quality frameworks — without hollowing out the relational core of the model.
• Fosters multi-disciplinary collaboration; treats building productive relationships with other departments as a core professional skill rather than an occasional add‑on.
• Strong people leadership, including supervision, coaching and capability development.
• Translates strategic priorities into actionable plans and drives implementation across stakeholders and functions.
• Workforce and capacity management — reads early signs of uneven load or burnout and acts on them.
• Sufficient data and programme literacy to engage substantively with programme review and continuous improvement.

Disposition & Values Fit

• Leads through structure and empowerment rather than constant oversight — while remaining present and accessible to the team.
• Grounded and resilient under pressure; comfortable holding ambiguity without forcing premature resolution.
• Field‑credible, but able to step back and translate frontline reality into strategic language for senior management.
• Genuinely curious about people, not only about programme delivery.
• Holds a values line under pressure, without becoming rigid or closed to challenge.
• Committed to developing people in a healthy, empowering way — not solely focused on reach, placement or output metrics.
• Demonstrates a learning mindset and openness to feedback, personally and organisationally.
• Values collaboration across departments a unit of how CDAC delivers its mission, and brings that spirit to One CDAC rather than treating it as a compliance exercise.
• Committed to CDAC's mission of enabling upward social mobility for lower‑income Chinese Singaporean families.

Candidates who demonstrate the capacity to operate at departmental leadership scope — in particular the ability to codify practice for replication, to represent the department in organisation‑wide integration work, and to share leadership of the department with the Director — may be appointed at Assistant Director level. The responsibilities apply in full at both levels; the difference lies in the degree of delegated authority, the breadth of portfolio held, and the level at which the role represents the department.