Sr. Director, Program & Impact - Program & Impact Department

About Read Ahead

Read Ahead is dedicated to helping New York City youth strengthen the literacy and social-emotional skills they need to thrive in school and beyond. Read Ahead’s vision is that our students have the opportunity to unlock their full potential through mentoring relationships based on a love of reading.

Since 1991, Read Ahead has connected public elementary school students with caring mentors from leading corporate and community partners. During weekly virtual sessions, mentors and mentees read together, discuss books and their lives, and engage in fun and educational games and activities. Read Ahead sessions are designed to help children grow their confidence, love of reading, literacy skills, and other skills essential for success. For more information, please visit readahead.org.

With the recent development of our hybrid program and our anti-racism and anti-oppression commitments, Read Ahead has an opportunity to deepen our impact for students. We are committed to ongoing improvement as an organization, and are eager to take bold new steps to create better outcomes for the students, families, and schools we serve.

About the Sr. Director, Program & Impact

This position will report to the Executive Director, and is a hybrid position, with in-person work required in our downtown Manhattan office as well as across Read Ahead school sites.

The Sr. Director, Program & Impact will serve as a critical member of the Read Ahead senior leadership team, and will collaboratively implement and operationalize the program’s strategic vision and goals. The role will oversee functions of the Program & Impact department by continually monitoring, evaluating and analyzing the efficacy of the programs through data collection.

The Sr. Director, Program & Impact will leverage expertise on the public education landscape, trends and public data available to continuously improve Read Ahead program outcomes, revise the organizational data capabilities and partner across departments to report out on key findings. As Read Ahead launches a new strategic plan, this role will have strategic input and leadership during a growth period for Read Ahead. The Sr. Director will be a key partner in the organization’s program strategy and a leader of impact framework, collection and reporting.

Responsibilities

Lead Program Design & Evaluation

• Serve as an organizational lead on monitoring, understanding and reporting out on the NYC educational landscape and student-success data
• Lead the design and implementation of all program components to ensure optimal impact
  • Ensure program efficacy and be the final approver on all materials for all Read Ahead programming, including weekly mentor program, Raising Readers at Home program and any program expansions
  • Ensure effective expansion of Read Ahead’s family engagement initiatives
  • Reevaluate and evolve Read Ahead's program delivery model as needed across partner schools to improve student outcomes and scalability
  • Directly administer and be lead steward for key school partnerships at the principal and administrative level for the organization
• Lead the design, implementation and analysis of all program evaluation protocols
  • Lead on creating an impact framework and analytics rubric to measure success
  • Design survey and other measurement tools, including utilization of program tools not customized by Read Ahead
  • Create baseline metrics for analyzing success based on NYC norms
  • Oversee the implementation and use of all program data management platforms for the organization
  • Determine and preside over all key partnerships related to program development and program data management for the organization
• Ensure alignment and collaboration among program staff and other departments (corporate donation logistics, mentor recruitment & onboarding systems)

Operations, Governance & Reporting

• Ensure centralized program & impact operations, in partnership with the Chief of Staff, maintaining standard procedures for organization-wide program and impact implementation aligned with Read Ahead’s mission
• Oversee the Program & Impact department annual budget, including approval and analysis of tools, systems and purchases
• Leadership of the Board’s Program Committee, via meeting cadence and scheduling, flow of information, providing feedback loops for the Board Members and leading the department’s reporting process at quarterly board meetings
• Collaborate as a member of the senior leadership team to develop organizational and Program & Impact department goals, including the evaluation program strategies and staff
• Lead in crafting all program outcomes reporting and messaging for key stakeholders

People Management

• Recruit, train, retain and manage a high-performing team of program staff, measured against department and organizational rubrics
  • Train programs & impact management team members to be efficient and collaborative leaders
• Lead staff in long-term program planning, professional learning opportunities and understanding of educational and SEL landscapes, with the ability to provide constructive feedback and drive individual staff development
• Manage the department’s evaluation and lead change management
• Be an active and engaged collaborator in Read Ahead’s organization-wide efforts to cultivate an environment where all team members feel valued, included and empowered to achieve their full potential

Preferred Qualifications

• Passion for Read Ahead’s mission
• Experience working within or alongside public schools, with an academic background in education and elementary-age youth work preferred
• Experience with literacy and/or mentoring programs preferred, but not required
• 8+ years of experience in the nonprofit or education sector
• Experience in managing board committees, writing department reports and analyzing program data
• 5+ years leading and managing a team of at least 5 members, with the ability to grow less seasoned team members
• Highly organized administrator with flexibility, strong attention to detail, the ability to both create and improve processes and systems
• Familiarity, comfort, and ability to thrive within a small, dynamic team
• Experience with data management systems, including Live Impact, preferred but not required
• Commitment to anti-racism and equity in your work and communications
• Practices a growth mindset, along with a deep commitment to genuine learning and self-improvement for self and others

We seek to build a diverse staff representative of the communities we serve. Even successful candidates may not have all of the preferred qualifications indicated above; if you are excited about the role, believe you can successfully fulfill its responsibilities, and don’t have every single preferred qualification, we encourage you to apply anyway.

Salary & Benefits

This role will have a salary between $100,000 - $110,000, commiserate with experience. Competitive benefits package includes:

• 90% health and 100% dental care coverage
• $3,000 annual employer-funded HRA
• Eligibility to contribute to 403(b) with up to a 3% match by Read Ahead for all employees who are employed on the last day of the calendar year
• Eligibility to participate in pre-tax commuter benefits
• Pre-tax FSA and vision plans offered
• 20 days vacation per year, with days pro-rated during first year of hire based on date-to-fiscal yearend
• 10 sick days and 3 personal days per year
• The Read Ahead office is closed between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Day each year, and for federal holidays

Hybrid Work Policy

As an organization that partners with New York City public schools, afterschool service providers, families, corporate partners, and other stakeholders, Read Ahead recognizes that in-person work is required to achieve our mission.

The following requires adjustment based on the expectations and needs of the role:

The Sr. Director will typically work approximately 2-3 days/week in-person to perform essential job responsibilities but may work up to 5 days/week in-person during busy times of the year, with a schedule determined by organizational needs and approved by the Executive Director. Essential in-person responsibilities for this role include, but are not limited to: meetings, regularly scheduled in-office days, and school-based learning.

In addition to the essential in-person job responsibilities described above, this role also includes other essential functions which may be performed remotely.

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Read Ahead provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and

applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, national origin, alienage, citizenship or immigration disability, pregnancy, marital and civil partnership/union status, familial status, military or veteran status, genetic information, genetic predisposition or carrier status, status as a victim of domestic violence, sexual violence or stalking, arrest or conviction record to the extent required by applicable law, sexual and reproductive health decisions, caregiver status, unemployment status, credit history, height, weight or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, and local law.