Senior Coordinator, US Programs

Title: US Project Manager

Location: USA, Preferred Pierce County/Seattle, WA (up to 20% travel domestically)

Reports to: US Senior Expansion Coordinator

Start Date: December 1, 2025

Overall Description: The Sr. Coordinator, US Programs will provide targeted support to funded projects across Grassroot Soccer US geographies to ensure GRS is able to execute deliverables and meet the grant requirements. The Sr. Coordinator, US Programs will also provide support and build, adapt, and/or refine tools and templates that will streamline, strengthen, and institutionalize technical assistance over the long term, specifically for youth mental-health programming in Pierce County, WA. The Sr. Coordinator will advise on best practices, execute deliverables, and lead cross-functional processes. The position is both externally and internally facing and requires excellent communication skills (oral and written) across the entire range of GRS stakeholders –adolescent participants, coaches, team members, partners, donors, youth soccer organizations (clubs, MLS teams, etc) and after-school community programs.

Grassroot Soccer (GRS) is an adolescent health organization that leverages the power of soccer to educate, inspire, and mobilize at-risk youth to overcome their greatest health challenges, live healthier, more productive lives, and be agents for change in their communities. Since 2002, GRS programs have reached 13 million young people in more than 60 countries with life-saving HIV prevention, sexual and reproductive health, and mental health information and services. Grassroot Soccer is looking to continue scaling its impact in the United States in anticipation of the 2026 World Cup via domestic and international partnerships focused on youth mental health.

Responsibilities:

Provide Technical Assistance to Partners (40%)

• Support deliverables as needed for funded projects on the GRS US expansion team, including but not limited to:
  • Program and product design (curriculum, coach development, M&E, research)
  • Coach development planning, implementation, and monitoring
  • Monitoring and evaluation (M&E) to ensure learnings are integrated across the program cycle and integrated into program design and coach development initiatives
  • Other workshops, trainings, or technical assistance as needed

Strengthen and Sustain Technical Assistance (30%)

• General support of implementation and implementing partners in Pierce County and greater Puget Sound:
  • Ensure that GRS is meeting program goals and deliverables under current grant agreements
  • Support US expansion team to troubleshoot project-based needs and identify feasible solutions
  • Develop and/or refine templates for internal and external reports on technical assistance
  • Develop and/or refine tools to strengthen technical assistance package
• Program Design
  • Support internal Program Design initiatives to ensure the GRS Technical Assistance package is current and addressing the most in demand area for adolescent health (specifically mental health) as well as delivery models
• Coach Development
  • Create and/or refine tools to scale up trainers and/or deliver some components of coach development
  • Working closely with GRS Master Coaches and US Expansion Coordinator to scale up trainers who can be deployed to support coach development
  • Work closely with the US expansion team to identify coaches and trainers to support various programs in Washington State.
  • Prepare trainers and coaches for upcoming technical assistance
• M&E
  • Work closely with Global M&E team to adapt and operationalize tools as needed
  • Brainstorm ways to operationalize learnings from data reviews and other analyses
• Research
  • Work closely with the Global Research team to design, improve, and/or operationalize GRS’s approach to youth-led research in the US

Other (30%)

• Manage key relationships where appropriate
• Support GRS Coach Development process (including improving the Coach Development Toolkit and resources specific to US mental health programming)
• Stay informed on best practices in adolescent health program implementation (attend external trainings, workshops, webinars) to generate new ideas and ways to strengthen SKILLZ approaches specific to mental health in the US
• Identify opportunities to share information, exchange best practices amongst partners and/or within Grassroot Soccer
• Contribute to new Business Development opportunities through support for program design, partner mapping, stakeholder engagement, proposal writing, and networking
• Support the development and leadership teams in business development meetings, proposals and solicitations to drive GRS core programs.
• Support the curriculum team to assist in improving GRS’s core programs and geographies
• Where appropriate, provide training and ongoing support of key local partnerships.
• Implement GRS training and support for implementing partners in the US Market.
• Manage, evaluate and summarize each program and partner.

Qualifications:

• 3+ years of demonstrated experience implementing and/or providing technical assistance to partners in donor funded projects
• Bachelor’s degree in relevant fields (sport for development, youth mental health, education and/or development).
• Demonstrated experience working with a diverse range of internal and external stakeholders (e.g., from young people to global headquarters to boards to partners to field teams)
• Willingness and ability to travel domestically (very infrequent international travel may be required) up to 10% of time.
• Preferred:
  • High proficiency in Spanish language (fluency preferred)
  • Master’s degree in relevant field
  • Knowledge and experience working in adolescent health and mental health
  • Experience in a cross-cultural work environment
  • Experience with a range of donor organizations and relevant donor rules and regulations
  • Experience in or with the US soccer community

Ideal candidate should have exceptional skills in the following:

• Attention to detail
• Effective communication, both oral and written, in English, Spanish and other languages, with wide range of external and internal stakeholders (e.g., young people, board members, senior leadership, staff)
• Time management and prioritization
• Ability to proactively identify issues, propose and implement solutions
• Building relationships with wide range of staff and partners, and operating within diverse social and cultural contexts, often virtually over multiple continents, and time zones
• Thinking strategically yet knowing how and when to dive into the details
• Managing budgets
• Ability to see and tell stories from both quantitative and qualitative perspectives.

Successful leaders at Grassroot Soccer are bold, yet humble. They are passionate about the mission of Grassroot Soccer and understand their role on the Grassroot Soccer team to achieve its mission.

Day to day, they are…

• Proactive: can anticipate both opportunities and obstacles and take action
• Professional: level-headed; ability to de-escalate difficult situations, behave exceptionally, and manage/minimize distractions
• Problem Solvers: comfortable with ambiguity, can creatively unlock bottlenecks and turn problems into opportunities

…they demonstrate lots of…

• Common Sense: prioritizing the right things at the right time; making good, quick, informed decisions balancing multiple issues and points of view
• Self-awareness: know where one’s blind spots are, recognize differences, and build a team to complement one’s skills and weaknesses

…and a strong bias for…

• Follow-through and Outcomes: deliver results, not just create lots of activity
• Treating People Well: empathetic, kind, great listener, yet can make tough decisions and hold oneself/others accountable

Includes a generous compensation package including paid time off, health, dental, 401K and other benefits to be detailed.

High proficiency in Spanish language (fluency preferred)