Senior Director, Grant Implementation at Big Brothers Big Sisters of America

Position Purpose

The Senior Director, Grant Implementation is a key member of the grant implementation group within the Program and Impact department of Big Brothers Big Sisters of America (BBBSA). The primary role of the Grants Implementation group is driving results through focused execution. In this role, the group helps the organization and network show impact through implementation of a variety of grant-funded initiatives.

As a leader in the Program and Impact department, the Senior Director, Grant Implementation partners with others in Program and Impact to ensure successful grant management and reporting by providing strategic leadership and operational oversight for a team responsible for the effective implementation of grant-funded programs. This role has ultimate accountability for program scalability and long-term grant impact. In doing so, the Senior Director ensures alignment with organizational priorities and collaborates with other key departments, particularly the Grants Administration team, to deliver seamless, impactful outcomes. This position is a blend of operational and strategic leadership, requiring someone who is action-oriented, decisive, and highly skilled at critical thinking.

The Senior Director is pivotal to ensuring that programs funded by corporate and private foundation partners deliver on promised outcomes, scale effectively. This position also showcases impact through both data and stories to foster stronger partnerships and secure additional investments. This position emphasizes team leadership, project management excellence, programmatic coaching, and data-driven decision-making, while fostering collaborative relationships.

Location: Continental United States (100% Remote), East Coast Time Zone Preferred

Travel: 20-25% travel required

Career Opportunity Closing Date: Until Filled

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

Strategic Decision-Making and Action Planning

• Leads strategy, oversees the team, and has ultimate accountability for outcomes.
• Evaluates diverse inputs and ideas in real-time, summarizing key takeaways and translating them into clear, prioritized action steps for the team.
• Assesses complex scenarios, identify critical elements, set clear priorities and guide decision-making to align with organizational priorities.
• Develops clear, concise action plans that align with organizational goals and effectively delegate tasks to the team.
• Uses advanced analytical and critical thinking skills to evaluate the feasibility, potential challenges, and impact of proposed initiatives.
• Serves as a bridge between high-level strategic discussions and team-level execution, ensuring clarity and focus.

Team Leadership

• Provides strategic oversight and guidance to the Grant Implementation team to ensure grant deliverables align with both funder expectations and BBBSA’s strategic priorities.
• Fosters a high-performing team culture through regular feedback, professional development opportunities, and goal setting.
• Sets strategic priorities for the team, establish and refine processes that respond to organizational needs, funder requirements, and lessons learned from implementation.

Project Implementation Leadership

• Oversees the implementation of multiple grant-funded programs, ensuring alignment with funder expectations and organizational goals.
• Designs and manages project management processes that facilitate timely and impactful delivery of grant initiatives.
• Provides strategic oversight to address challenges and identify opportunities for innovation and improvement in program delivery.
• Collaborates with cross-functional teams (e.g., Resource Development, Finance, and other Program & Impact staff) to ensure seamless execution of grant deliverables.

Collaboration and Partnership

• Works closely with the Senior Director, Grants Administration to ensure seamless collaboration between the implementation and administration teams.
• Partners with internal teams, including Resource Development, Communications and Agency Growth to support cross-functional alignment and support efforts to increase investments to the network.
• Fosters strong relationships with Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS) agencies, funders, and other stakeholders to ensure clarity and alignment on expectations.
• Represents BBBSA’s grant implementation efforts at conferences, workshops, and other forums to share best practices and advocate for the organization’s strategic priorities.

Reporting and Communication

• Ensures that all grants maintain accurate and relevant documentation that supports collaborative grants management and excellent customer relationship management.
• Oversees the development of reports and other deliverables to communicate successes, challenges, lessons learned and overall impact to funders and other key stakeholders.
• Collaborates with evaluation staff to incorporate data into grant reports and assessments.

People Management

• Recruits, trains, retains, and cultivates professional development of direct reports.
• Creates a dynamic, supportive, and effective team that is impactful across the BBBSA and the Big Brothers Big Sisters Network.
• Leads and manages resources (people and capital) that retains and cultivates positive, measurable success.
• Monitors progress against performance targets; implements countermeasures as needed.

Culture 

• Demonstrates a commitment to BBBSA’s shared leadership competencies and organizational values.
• Provides consistent follow-up regarding assigned projects and after meetings.  
• Cultivates an environment where all team members feel valued, included, and empowered to achieve their potential.
• Manages related and other duties as assigned in support of department and business needs.

Education & Related Work Experience

Education Level: Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience in nonprofit management, youth development, or related fields. A graduate degree in nonprofit management, public administration, youth development, a plus.

Years of Related Work Experience: Minimum of 7 years of experience in managing grant-funded initiatives, including implementation, project management, and reporting. Demonstrated experience leading teams, direct supervision, and working collaboratively across diverse stakeholders.

Required Skills and Knowledge: Expertise in designing and implementing grant-funded programs, including scaling initiatives across multiple sites.; Advanced project management skills, with proficiency in tools such as MS Project, Asana, or similar platforms; Excellent interpersonal communication, customer service and relationship-building skills to build and sustain relationships with a wide range of clients and stakeholders; Proficiency in data reporting, visualization, and analysis to inform decision-making; Advanced leadership and coaching skills to support team development and performance; Ability to mentor and guide staff to achieve program and professional growth goals; Advanced proficiency in MS Office Suite (Excel, Word, PowerPoint); Advanced organizational and problem-solving skills; Excellent written and verbal communication skills; Must be results-oriented, displaying accountability and achievement orientation in meeting goals; Advanced analytical skills including the ability to comprehend and make inferences from technical, statistical, and written materials; excellent problem-solving; Advanced technical skills; maintaining state-of-the-art knowledge of advances in the field; Knowledge of youth development programs and their implementation at the local level, desired, but not required.

Our Commitment

At Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, we recognize, affirm, and celebrate the backgrounds, lives, and experiences of all of our stakeholders, including youth, families, donors, volunteers, and staff. We ensure the opportunity for all voices and perspectives to be heard and honored. In the workplace, we foster an environment where all people can be their best selves. We affirm that every person has the opportunity to reach their full potential. We strive to realize the full potential that is within all of us by ensuring that all voices and perspectives are heard and honored.

Equal Employment Opportunity

BBBSA provides equal employment opportunities to all qualified individuals without regard to race, creed, color, citizenship, religion, national origin, age, sex, familial or marital status, pregnancy, military or veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, genetic information, disability, or any other legally-protected status in accordance with applicable local, state, and federal laws, regulations, and ordinances.

Americans with Disabilities Act

Employee must be able to perform all essential job functions, with or without reasonable accommodation.

Job Responsibilities

The above statements reflect the general duties, responsibilities and competencies considered necessary to perform the essential duties and responsibilities of the job and should not be considered as a detailed description of all the work requirements of the position. BBBSA may change the specific job duties with or without prior notice based on the needs of the organization.

Big Brothers Big Sisters of America is directly recruiting and hiring for this position. We are not engaging any staffing/recruitment firms or agencies for this position. If any candidate profile/resume/identifying information is sent to Big Brothers Big Sisters of America and/or Big Brothers Big Sisters agencies we will not pay any referral or firm fees in relation to this information.

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