Program Director

Brilliant Cities; Detroit (MI); On-site; USD 64,000 - 86,000; Full time

Job summary

Brilliant Detroit seeks a Program Director to lead the Programs Department within a fast-paced, relationship-centered team. You will oversee all neighborhood programming, ensuring high-quality delivery and measurable outcomes for families and children.

In this distributed leadership role, you will hire and coach staff, collaborate across teams, manage grants, budgeting, and evaluation, and advance alignment with our mission to support education, health, and family stability in Detroit

Qualifications

• Masters degree in a related field preferred.
• 5+ years in nonprofit or community settings, esp. program development.
• Experience with two-generation, holistic program delivery.
• Experience managing people across multiple locations and departments.
• Strong grant writing, management and reporting skills.
• Excellent written and oral communication; externally represent the org.
• Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, entrepreneurial environment.

Responsibilities

• Oversee all programming initiatives across Brilliant Detroit neighborhood hubs.
• Direct the Programming Department to ensure breadth and scale of offerings.
• Determine staffing needs and develop staff plans; participate in hiring.
• Collaborate with Community Engagement and partners to align programs.
• Update the Program Offering Menu and communicate information clearly.
• Work with Learning, Research, and Evaluation to ensure fidelity.
• Coordinate volunteer/service member programming and onboarding.
• Coach facilitators and design staff trainings; facilitate workshops.

Skills

Leadership & management

Program development

Budgeting & evaluation

Grant writing

Communication skills

Fast-paced environment

Education

Masters Degree in related field

Job description

Job Title: Program Director

Employee Status: Full Time Salary Exempt

Salary: $75,000/year

Benefits Eligible: Yes

Brilliant Detroit Overview

In 2015 Brilliant Detroit was created to provide a radically new approach to kindergarten readiness in neighborhoods. The idea was to create a unique delivery model in our approach to early childhood development by using underutilized housing stock to create early child and family centers in neighborhoods. Brilliant Detroit homes provide holistic services for kids 0-8 predicated on evidence-based programs around health, family support, and education. Brilliant Detroit was born to create kid success neighborhoods. Today, in each location, neighbors come together for fellowship, activities and learning to assure school readiness, and provide needed support for families.

This work will be done in accordance with the core principles of our Detroit-based non-profit team:

• With, For, and By: This work is guided by the leadership and ongoing input of our participants.
• Coordinated and Continuous: Evidence-based programs are coordinated to meet the goals and needs of participants continuously throughout early childhood.
• Whole Family and Holistic: Evidence-based programs operate holistically, meeting an array of needs to improve literacy, health, and family stability. These programs focus not just on children but on caregivers as well.
• Love, Safety, and Growth: It takes creating an atmosphere of love and safety, where people feel truly seen and cared for, before we can grow.
• Asset-Based: Everybody has a gift or talent that they can share and a purpose they can play in building kid success neighborhoods.
• Neighbor-to-Neighbor Across Zip Codes: Brilliant Detroit offers opportunities for people to connect and build community as neighbors regardless of the zip code in which they live.

Summary

The Program Director will be part of the distributed leadership structure of a fast-paced, relationship-centered work environment that is rapidly growing. The Program Director is responsible for the overall management and direction of the Programs Department.

Activities and Responsibilities

Programming Oversight

• Oversee all programming initiatives taking place at or through Brilliant Detroit neighborhood hubs, including ensuring the continuity, quality, delivery of each program within the neighborhoods.
• Direct the Programming Department, ensuring the breadth and scale of program offerings sufficiently support the desired outcomes across the areas of Education, Family Support and Health, and that all programs are developed, implemented, and monitored so that they result in a high-quality programming experience for families and produce measurable outcomes for Brilliant Detroit families
• Determine staffing needs and develop individual staff plans to achieve program goals and objectives, participating in hiring decisions for new program staff
• Collaborate with Community Engagement Department staff and organizational partners to build program offerings grounded in the Brilliant Detroit mission and model that are responsive to mission, ensure program department team members are present in the field alongside Community Engagement staff in ways that help to strengthen cross-departmental relationships and enhance program quality
• Ensure that the Program Offering Menu is regularly updated and that program information is clearly and consistently communicated to the Community Engagement Department, whether through other Programming Department staff or through interns
• Work alongside Learning, Research, and Evaluation Director to ensure that all programs are implemented with fidelity and reviewed regularly to assure our families of high-quality offerings
• Collaborate with Stewardship staff to identify and scope volunteer and other service member programming needs, provide support as needed in the selection and onboarding process, and ensure capacity is in place to properly oversee volunteer and service members
• Collaborate and coach program facilitators as needed, overseeing the system of support that onboards facilitators and provides consistent feedback and coaching
• With a lens of continuous improvement, document system process and flow, designing and facilitating workshops for staff and participants as needed to ensure high-quality and holistic program delivery

Leadership

• Serve as a member of a Brilliant Detroit leadership team helping to establish organizational priorities and actions
• Lead on goal-setting for the Programming Department and support goal-setting across the organization, ensuring that all department goals lead directly to organizational goals
• Assure program-related grants are on track by assisting with preparing applications, managing outcomes, and supporting with reports as needed
• Collaborate with Partnerships and Learning Teams to ensure a strong and reflective flow of partnerships and programs throughout the organization
• Identify opportunities to improve project and system effectiveness through planning and execution
• Diligently follow and pursue developments related to early childhood education, literacy (with an eye towards children being on-track by the end of third grade), family support, and health
• This position may require evening and weekend work
• Travel required

Qualifications

• Masters Degree in a related field preferred
• At least 5 years in non-profit or community settings preferred, particularly related to program development and implementation
• Proficient in two-generation, holistic approaches to program delivery
• Demonstrated experience managing people across multiple locations, teams, and departments with many stakeholders
• Demonstrated experience creating efficient and effective internal organizational systems
• Comprehensive program planning, budgeting, implementation, management, and evaluation abilities, ideally in community-based settings and with multiple partners and programs at once
• Experience with grant writing, management, and reporting
• Excellent written and oral communication skills and an ability to represent the organization externally
• Thrives in a fast-paced, reflective, and entrepreneurial work environment

Work Conditions

• Ability to work cooperatively with individuals of diverse racial/economic/cultural backgrounds
• Must be able to lift and move at least 25 pounds
• This position may require evening and/or weekend work
• Local travel required, reliable transportation needed. COVID Vaccinated individuals preferred
• Mobility is essential; able to navigate stairs and actively participate in physical activities with children

Brilliant Detroit provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability or genetics. In addition to federal law requirements, Brilliant Detroit complies with applicable state and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment in every location in which the company has facilities. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation and training.