Vice President of Programs (abuse prevention and response)

Job Description

The Vice President of Programs (VPP) is a senior leader and subject matter expert (abuse prevention and response) responsible for the quality, effectiveness, and impact of Sacred Spaces’ programs and services. The VPP provides leadership and oversight for the Education and Consulting Departments, ensuring that all offerings are mission-aligned, responsive to community needs, grounded in best practices, and delivered with excellence. The VPP also ensures that programs and services are positioned to expand Sacred Spaces’ reach and impact nationally through thoughtful growth, effective resource utilization, and scalable program models.

Reporting to the CEO, the VPP supervises the Director of Education, Director of Scholarship, and Consulting Services Directors. This role is responsible for building and leading a high-performing team, maintaining strong standards of program quality and content integrity, and ensuring programs achieve meaningful outcomes for clients and communities.

The VPP is a key member of the executive leadership team. The first 3–6 months of this position will include close partnership and mentorship with the CEO, including regular opportunities for feedback, reflection, and dialogue, as the VPP deepens their understanding of the culture, programmatic approach, partnerships, systems, and content areas at Sacred Spaces. Working collaboratively with the CEO, the VPP will play a significant leadership role in shaping programmatic content and, over time, will assume increasing responsibility in this area. The VPP partners closely with the VP of Strategy & Operations to ensure that Sacred Spaces’ programs are both strategically aligned and effectively executed.

This is an exciting opportunity for an experienced subject matter expert and program leader to help guide and strengthen Sacred Spaces’ impact across the Jewish community.

Key Responsibilities

Program Leadership

• Provide oversight for all educational offerings, consulting services, and content development. This includes overseeing the development, maintenance, and enhancement of our online resources and safeguarding toolkits.
• Ensure programs, services, and content are mission-aligned, responsive to evolving community needs, and reflect current research.
• Partner with the CEO to maintain the quality and integrity of Sacred Spaces’ educational and consulting content.
• Oversee program evaluation, using performance indicators and feedback to assess impact and drive continuous improvement.
• Identify opportunities to strengthen, expand, or refine programs and services to maximize organizational impact.
• Partner with the Vice President of Strategy & Operations to develop and manage program budgets.
• Support high-level client engagements and complex case consultations as needed.
• Develop written content for grant proposals, funder reports, and other external communications as requested.

Team Leadership

• Within the Education and Consulting Departments, cultivate a collaborative, high-performing culture grounded in learning, excellence, accountability, and shared ownership of outcomes.
• Supervise directors across the Education and Consulting Departments. Partner with directors to establish clear goals and performance expectations, while providing the guidance and accountability needed to achieve strong results.
• Promote effective coordination and knowledge-sharing across departments to strengthen alignment and impact.
• Invest in staff development and leadership growth.

Business Development & Growth

• Represent Sacred Spaces externally through conferences, convenings, networking opportunities, and relationship-building efforts that increase organizational visibility, credibility, and reach.
• Partner with Consulting Services Directors to cultivate and maintain robust portfolios of clients, supporting the growth and sustainability of Sacred Spaces’ services.
• Monitor program demand, staffing capacity, and resource allocation across the Education and Consulting Departments to ensure effective deployment of the team.
• Collaborate with the CEO and VPSO to identify and pursue mission-aligned opportunities for expanded impact, new services, strategic partnerships, and diversified revenue.
• Steward and cultivate a limited number of donors, as a natural outgrowth of relationships that develop through the programmatic aspects of the role.

Qualifications

The ideal candidate will be a seasoned subject matter expert, program leader, and people manager with a demonstrated ability to lead complex initiatives, develop high-performing teams, and drive meaningful systems-level change.

• Minimum of 15 years of professional experience in abuse prevention and response, including demonstrated experience in areas such as policy development, organizational assessments, thought leadership and research, program design and implementation, training, investigation or case consultation, and/or the development of best practices and resources.
• Deep expertise in at least one of our core content areas (institutional abuse, youth safeguarding, workplace safety, clergy abuse, communal/older adult safety, sexual violence prevention), with the ability to apply knowledge across contexts and influence organizational practice.
• Demonstrated success leading complex programs, consulting services, technical assistance initiatives, or other mission-driven service delivery models, with responsibility for outcomes, quality, and impact.
• Significant experience supervising and developing senior staff and building collaborative, high-performing teams.
• Recognized expertise in one or more areas relevant to Sacred Spaces’ work, with the ability to apply knowledge across settings.
• Strong program leadership skills, including program design, implementation, evaluation, continuous improvement, and impact measurement.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to synthesize complex information, produce high-quality written materials, and communicate effectively with diverse audiences.
• Strong interpersonal and relationship-building skills, with the ability to cultivate trust, collaborate across teams, and build productive partnerships with clients, funders, and other stakeholders.
• Experience with Jewish communal organizations and/or familiarity with the diversity of Jewish communities, denominations, cultures, and practices across North America is.
• Commitment to Sacred Spaces’ mission, values, and the boundaries to our scope, along with a demonstrated ability to foster a culture of learning, accountability, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
• Proven ability to approach challenges with creativity, adaptability, and is a problem-solver rather than problem-identifier. Brings humility, emotional intelligence, curiosity, positivity, and a willingness to both teach and learn from others.
• Willingness to travel approximately 6–8 times per year.

Sacred Spaces believes strongly that all applicants should be considered fairly for employment opportunities, regardless of identity. We are interested in finding the best candidate for the job, and we recognize that the best candidate may have different qualifications from those listed above. If you believe you are poised to excel at this important work, we encourage you to apply!

Accommodations

Sacred Spaces aims to create an accessible application process. Please let us know of any accommodations you require in order to fully participate in the application process. Accommodations requests can be made to Jobs@JewishSacredSpaces.org or by calling (412) 219-3155.

This job description is intended to convey information essential to understand the scope of the position. It is not intended to be an exhaustive list of skills, efforts, duties, or responsibilities associated with the position.

Thank you for considering employment at Sacred Spaces.

We look forward to receiving your application!

100% employer-paid health, dental, and vision; 401K retirement plan with employer match, paid parental leave, sabbatical available to employees at all levels of the organization, unlimited paid time off, organization-wide closure for Jewish and major national holidays; and a professional development and home office stipend. Sacred Spaces operates on a Core Hours system with flexibility outside of these core hours for a total of 40 hours per work week.