Build Better Careers Director, Initiatives (wed)

The following functions may not be comprehensive in scope regarding work performed by an employee assigned to this position classification. Management reserves the right to add, modify, change, or rescind the work assignments of this position. Management also reserves the right to make reasonable accommodations so that a qualified employee(s) can perform the essential functions of the position.

*Please note that this position primarily serves our workforce and economic clients

Overview of the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL):  Strada Collaborative, Inc. d/b/a CAEL (referred to in the document as “CAEL”), is a national, nonprofit membership organization dedicated to partnering with educators, employers, and workforce and economic developers to reimagine and create lifelong pathways that integrate learning and work for adults. CAEL helps organizations succeed by providing expertise, resources, and solutions that effectively support adult learners as they navigate on-and-off ramps between education and employment. We partner with entities across the adult learner ecosystem to help create actionable career pathways along the journey of lifelong learning and meaningful work. CAEL’s work is rooted in and expresses the organization’s values; we are committed to being an inclusive organization; prioritize equity, diversity, and inclusion in our recruitment, hiring, and retention efforts; look for opportunities to communicate the link between our mission and eliminating systemic inequity; acknowledge and appreciate daily the challenges facing all those in support of justice for these communities; do not accept or condone racism in any form; commit individual and corporate resources to the pursuit of justice; require employee training on topics such as racial equality and unconscious bias toward maintaining an inclusive culture; provide a library of media and organizational resources to our staff to increase understanding of racial inequality; and incorporate business agreement language that reinforces our anti-racism stance.

CAEL is a virtual organization; all employees work remotely out of their homes.

Overview of Position: The Build Better Careers Director, Initiatives (WED) is a full-time position that is tied to specific funding and has an estimated end date of Dec 31, 2027.  If organizational needs arise, this position may be extended beyond this date.  

The Build Better Careers initiative seeks to engage industry leaders, workforce development, and postsecondary education institutions that historically have not developed strategies together to collaborate on meeting the needs of 1) people who seek employment or better employment and 2) employers who need to recruit, retain, skill-up, and advance employees, increase diversity, and strengthen equity and inclusion. The initiative will focus on cities where in-demand jobs remain unfilled, workforce organizations, and educational institutions that need to improve collaboration to redefine and strengthen career pathways to employment that lead to economic mobility for all, prioritizing women and BIPOC adult learners.

The Build Better Careers Director, Initiatives (WED) will coordinate with partners representing workforce developers, community-based organizations, industries, and postsecondary education and training providers, in addition to working with employers to identify the in-demand occupations crucial to mapping career pathways that sustain and grow the talent pool in the identified sector(s) in each project region.  The Director is responsible for keeping the project and activities on track and will use information gathered to catalog certificate and degree programs among the education and training partners and map them to the needs for career pathway programming to show the impact of the initiative’s outcomes. The Director will work with the regional partners to ensure the effective delivery of the initiative and contribute to annual impact and revenue goals by nurturing strong client relationships and providing excellent subject matter expertise for CAEL’s project deliverables which involves coordinating with internal teams and external consultants and partners.

Essential Job Functions

• The three central responsibilities of this position are client and project management (50% of the time), the delivery of CAEL’s products and services (40%), and collaborating with other CAEL teams (e.g. membership, marketing, research, etc.) as subject matter experts (10%).

Client Management- Ability to effectively communicate and develop rapport with diverse clients, leaders and stakeholders in workforce and economic development and allied areas to include but not limited to community colleges and universities, state coordinating boards, chambers of commerce, industry associations, and employers.

Project Management- Managing a multi-year project (coordinating with multiple staff members and external partners).

• Ensure CAEL’s solutions and project plan are addressing clients’ needs by developing effective delivery strategies and sequencing.
• Effectively managing external consultants and internal staff to provide the appropriate expertise for the project.
• Timely and organized tracking and execution of project plans and deliverables.
• Work with the Operations Team to update project budgets and assist with invoices, contracting, and internal budget/progress reporting.

Delivery of products and services- Manage work plans, assist with project data collection and project evaluation functions, identify and utilize proprietary and publicly available data sets, create and format summary charts and graphs from datasets, conduct interviews and focus groups, prepare presentations and write reports, policy briefs, and issue summaries as needed.

• Compose reports, action plans, and proposals for workforce boards, economic development organizations, chambers of commerce, local and state governments, higher education systems and institutions, regional multi-sector partnerships, foundations, and other clients.

Subject Matter Expertise- Create and deliver presentations at local, regional, and national conferences and other meetings.

• Work with colleagues across CAEL to contribute to the development of new products and refinement of existing products, contribute to thought leadership in the form of blogs and articles, and support marketing and sales strategies.
• Work with colleagues across CAEL to develop job aids, toolkits, and resources to enhance CAEL’s membership offerings.
• Work with colleagues across CAEL to support research and measurement of the impact of CAEL’s work.
• Perform additional duties, assignments, and projects as required.

Education and Experience

• Bachelor’s Degree required; Master’s Degree preferred; however, applicable years of experience will be taken into consideration.
• Minimum of 5 years of workforce and economic development-related and progressively responsible work experience. Relevant experience would be some combination of workforce development programming or leadership; coalition building and partnership development; federal, state, and regional government relations; consulting; local and regional economic development.

Skills and Knowledge

Required- Demonstrated project management experience, including setting benchmarks, developing project work plans and timelines, determining and organizing team tasks, and tracking and reporting of project progress and milestones.

• Understanding of workforce investment systems, economic development, and public sector investment in education and training.
• Ability to adapt to a variety of project partners and deliverables.

Preferred- Mastery-level experience with collecting, cleaning, and analyzing labor market data for presentation in a wide variety of formats and for diverse audiences.

• Experience extracting data from online government data sources (e.g. US Census, BLS, O*Net, etc.).
• Understanding of and experience with real-time labor market tools such as Emsi, Wanted Analytics, JobsEQ, or BurningGlass, including the ability to run reports, analyze and interpret their data, and convey and apply the results to clients.
• Knowledge of and experience with workforce and economic development policy, especially concerning its impacts and application.
• Innovative understanding and knowledge of economic development trends through a lens of diversity and inclusion and the ability to apply these new trends to client needs.
• Experience utilizing project management software/platforms (e.g. Trello, Smartsheets, Mavenlink, MS Project, Basecamp, etc.).

Performance Requirements

• Superior written and oral presentation skills, including using online web conferencing platforms, such as Zoom, and in-person.
• Superior client relationship and organizational skills.
• Strong listening skills with clients’ needs.
• Superior project management skills, including attention to detail and ability to guide a project from inception to conclusion, including timely submission of client deliverables.
• Proficiency to proactively and creatively meet and exceed expectations.
• Ability to collaborate and work as part of a team including teams composed of various combinations of CAEL staff, consultants, and client representatives.
• Excellent time management skills and ability to balance multiple projects in a fast-paced environment.
• Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Office and/or Google Suite. Data analysis and data management skills with proficiency in EXCEL data tools and formulas a plus.
• Ability to quickly learn new technology platforms.
• Ability and willingness to travel.