Associate Executive Director, Swim Operations

POSITION SUMMARY:

Under the direction of the Executive Director of Swim, the Associate Executive Director of Swim Operations serves as a strategic and functional partner to Y Family Centers, strengthening swim operations, leadership capacity, program quality, and financial sustainability across the Association. In partnership with Center Executive Directors and Swim Directors, this position develops consistent systems, standards, tools, training, and best practices across Swim Operations & Safety, Swim Associates & Certifications, and Programming .

The role assesses center needs and provides targeted support, coaching, and resources to strengthen sustainable swim operations and center-level leadership.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

• Serve as a strategic and functional partner to Center Executive Directors and Swim Directors, providing expertise, coaching, tools, and resources to strengthen center-level swim leadership and operations.

• Assess center needs, leadership capacity, staffing, program performance, and growth opportunities to provide targeted support based on center needs and operational stability.

• Develop training, onboarding, continuing education, and leadership development resources that strengthen Swim Director effectiveness, leadership pipelines, succession planning, and associate retention.

• Build the capacity of center swim leaders to independently lead strong, sustainable departments.

• Establish and support consistent Association-wide standards for safe, reliable, and high-quality pool operations, including water quality, chemical management, documentation, emergency readiness, cleanliness, and regulatory compliance.

• Partner with center leadership and Property teams to identify operational risks, recurring facility concerns, and barriers to maintaining safe and consistent pool operations.

• Analyze safety, quality, and operational data to identify trends and implement training, corrective action, and system improvements.

• Develop Association-wide strategies and best practices for lifeguard recruitment, onboarding, certification, scheduling, retention, development, and deployment.

• Support Swim Directors in developing fully staffed, well-led teams with clear expectations for safety, engagement, cleanliness, and accountability.

• Strengthen Head Guard and other swim leadership pipelines and identify systemic staffing barriers related to scheduling, certification, training, compensation, career pathways, and retention.

• Establish and continuously improve Association standards for swim lessons, private lessons, swim teams, water safety initiatives, and other swim programming.

• Partner with Swim Directors to evaluate enrollment, schedules, capacity, utilization, instructor availability, participant progression, retention, and opportunities for program growth.

• Develop and scale effective practices for participant recruitment, conversion, and engagement while ensuring consistent implementation of Association swim curriculum and quality standards.

• Use program data and participant/member feedback to identify opportunities to improve program quality and the overall swim experience.

• Partner with Center Executive Directors and Swim Directors to strengthen the financial sustainability and performance of swim operations.

• Analyze revenue, participation, capacity, utilization, pricing, payroll, staffing efficiency, and other key performance indicators to identify opportunities and barriers.

• Support centers in developing measurable action plans for revenue growth, expense management, participation, staffing, and program optimization.

• Develop consistent performance measures and identify Association-wide trends to inform strategies related to pricing, staffing models, program structure, and resource allocation.

• Identify, document, and scale best practices, operating procedures, tools, templates, and resources that create consistent and sustainable swim operations across Y Family Centers.

• Conduct program and operational assessments to identify strengths, gaps, and opportunities for improvement.

• Facilitate cross-center collaboration and use operational, financial, quality, safety, staffing, and participant experience data to identify trends and prioritize improvement efforts.

• Partner with the Executive Director of Swim to pilot, evaluate, refine, and scale new strategies and…