Cornerstone Program Director

Position: Cornerstone Program Director

Location: Williamsburg Brooklyn

Salary: $60-65k Annually

About El Puente

Founded in 1982, El Puente is a youth-centered organization that uses the arts and education to advance social and environmental justice. Its mission is to inspire and nurture leadership for peace and justice, working as a human rights institution in NYC and Puerto Rico with national and international impact. El Puente creates community-led movements of self-determination through a holistic leadership and membership program model, as a high-impact youth and community development organization.

The El Puente Leadership Center is a dynamic enrichment space serving elementary, middle school, high school youth, and adults. The Center integrates community consciousness, artistic development, academic enrichment, health and wellness, and social justice education. As a staff member of El Puente, the Program Director is expected to uphold and work within the mission, philosophy, and principles of the organization.

Position Overview:

El Puente seeks a visionary, organized, and community-centered Program Director to lead the El Puente Leadership Center. This role is both strategic and hands-on — blending program design, staff leadership, operations management, and community relationship-building.

The Program Director works closely with the Assistant Director and site staff to design and manage a holistic arts and academic enrichment program that reflects El Puente’s Mission and 12 Principles. This leader ensures program quality, contractual compliance, and the integrity of El Puente’s Membership Process, while fostering a culture rooted in accountability, collaboration, creativity, and joy.

The ideal candidate is a strong leader who believes in youth voice, understands community-building as movement work, and can balance structure with inspiration.

What You’ll Do:

• Lead the visioning, design, and implementation of dynamic year-round programming, including afterschool, summer, teen/adult initiatives, co-locator partnerships, and community-based events aligned with El Puente’s Mission and 12 Principles.
• Cultivate a structured, safe, and joyful site culture where youth experience academic support, artistic expression, social justice education, and health & wellness programming in meaningful ways.
• Supervise and mentor the Assistant Director and site staff, fostering professional growth, accountability, collaboration, and strong team morale through consistent feedback and coaching.
• Ensure curricula and daily programming reflect El Puente’s youth leadership and community development model while meeting contractual and funder expectations.
• Maintain strong administrative systems, including oversight of attendance tracking, data entry, participant files, reporting, and compliance documentation in accordance with organizational and DYCD standards.
• Oversee daily operations and Administrator-On-Duty (AOD) functions, ensuring health, safety, communication systems, building procedures, and end-of-day protocols are consistently implemented.
• Manage staff scheduling and operational planning to ensure program quality, coverage, and efficiency.
• Maintain fiscal oversight of the program, including budgets, invoices, check requests, timesheets, fundraising tracking, and funder deliverables with accuracy and integrity.
• Proactively identify opportunities to strengthen funding streams and expand program impact.
• Serve as a key member of El Puente’s leadership collective, collaborating across sites to advance organization-wide social justice initiatives and shared goals.
• Build and nurture relationships with families, tenants, local schools, civic partners, and cultural organizations to strengthen recruitment, community engagement, and resource development.
• Support strong family involvement systems and ensure consistent communication with caregivers and community stakeholders.
• Maintain an organized, professional workspace and support light operational needs such as program space setup and materials management.
• Demonstrate flexibility in site-based responsibilities and utilize personal technology (phone, computer, tablet, internet) to ensure effective communication and program management.

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree (4-year degree) required in Education, Youth Development, Social Work, Human Services, Public Administration, or a related field, in accordance with DOH guidelines.
• Experience in youth development, education, community organizing, or enrichment programming
• Strong leadership, supervision, and team-building skills
• Experience managing budgets, contracts, and administrative systems

Preferred Qualifications:

• Ability to balance strategic thinking with daily operational execution
• Strong communication, writing, and relationship-building skills
• Commitment to social justice, community empowerment, and youth leadership
• Bilingual in English/Spanish preferred

Schedule:

This is a full-time position based in Brooklyn, NY. Generally Monday through Friday, 10:00AM – 6:00 PM, with occasional adjustments based on program needs.

Salary & Benefits

• $60-65K + generous benefits

_____________________________________________________________________________

El Puente is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to building a staff that reflects the communities we serve. We strongly encourage and seek applications from women, people of color, DREAMers, and members of the LGBTQIA+ communities.

If you are looking to contribute to meaningful youth work in a supportive, justice-centered environment, we encourage you to apply.

• $60-65K + generous benefits including medical, vision, dental, 401k 2% match, FSA/TRN, Unlimited PTO, Paid Family Leave

• Bilingual in English/Spanish preferred