Merrimack Valley Career Center Director
Job Summary:
The Merrimack Valley Career Center Director is responsible for establishing the annual goals and managing the
organization to achieve those goals, supervising direct reports, developing and managing the organizational budget, and overseeing the general operations of the career center. The Career Center Director will create an organizational culture that values its staff and helps them achieve their personal and professional goals. The Career Center Director promotes collaboration among core partners to help achieve shared goals and is the primary contact with city, state, college, and community partners. Focusing on customer service, the incumbent will work to modernize the center, reach goals, and routinely assess offerings and strategy through data-driven processes.
Essential Functions/Key Responsibilities:
- Works with senior staff and core partners to establish annual goals for the One-Stop Career Center.
- Creates an annual operational plan to achieve the goals established in collaboration with staff and core partners.
- Develops the annual budget, with consultation from key staff leaders, which aligns with the annual plan of operations and with the goals to be achieved.
- Regularly reviews revenue and expenses to ensure the budget is adhered to and adjusts where needed to reflect financial realities.
- Delegates responsibility for major operational activities to key staff leaders and related staff.
- Establishes lines of communication among staff, with core partners and the Workforce Investment Board, with local employers, and with state agencies.
- Creates and implements a continuous quality improvement protocol.
- Serves as the primary point of contact and public presence for the one-stop career center with city, state, Workforce Board, college, Chambers, employers, and community organizations.
- Establishes a customer feedback protocol that captures essential information from job seekers, employers, and core partners and uses that information to improve the quality of services.
- Ensures that all required and, where appropriate, optional reporting requirements are met accurately and promptly.
- Regularly convenes all staff, core partners, community organizations, employers, and state entities to share information about the significant activities of the one-stop career center and to review the operations of the One-Stop Career Center.
- Attends statewide Partners Meetings and other appropriate events, meetings, conferences, and workshops that add value to the operations of the One-Stop Career Center.
Other Duties and Responsibilities:
- Maintain current knowledge of trends and practices in the field through peer association, attendance at seminars and conferences, and literature review.
- Perform other related duties as required.
Skills & Qualifications:
- Bachelor’s degree in Business, Social Services, or a related field; Master’s degree preferred.
- A minimum of 5 years of senior management experience, including developing operational plans, setting goals, and managing a team.
- Experience working in nonprofit management, including developing budgets, managing resources, and overseeing daily operations.
- Knowledge and understanding of state and federal regulations, including those that affect nonprofit operations and workforce development.
- Strong leadership, communication, and interpersonal skills.
- Ability to manage multiple projects, prioritize tasks, and meet deadlines effectively.
- Ability to work effectively with and meet the needs of people from a diverse range of backgrounds, cultures, and identities, including underserved communities and people from the different racial groups, socioeconomic statuses, nationalities, and languages that makeup clientele, to support the agency’s mission of building a more diverse, equitable and inclusive organization for employees and clients alike.
Preferred Qualifications
- Bilingual in English and Spanish is strongly preferred.
- Experience with Workforce Development programs and services.
- Knowledge of federal and state workforce development systems and policies.
- Familiarity with performance metrics and data reporting tools used in nonprofit management.
Supervisory Responsibility: None
Travel: This job regularly requires the employee to sit, walk and stand as well as use hands repetitively to handle or operate standard office equipment. The employee is occasionally required to kneel, crouch, or crawl. The employee must frequently lift and/or move up to 10 pounds and occasionally lift and/or move up to 25
pounds.
Work Environment: This job operates in a professional office environment and uses standard office
equipment, such as computers, phones, photocopiers, filing cabinets, fax machines.