Director, Rural Early Childhood Systems

Director, Rural Early Childhood Systems

Partner for Rural Impact's (PRI) work began more than 30 years ago with a place-based partnership in Appalachian Kentucky, where we've shown demographics don't have to determine destiny. Today, we partner with rural leaders and allies across the country to share that work and build local partnerships that put young people on a path to economic mobility.

The Director, Rural Early Childhood Systems, reporting to the Chief of Staff
- Level II, provides operational leadership and day-to-day management for PRI's Rural Early Childhood Initiative. The Director is responsible for translating the initiative's strategic priorities into effective implementation plans and coordinating the people, partnerships, processes, and resources necessary to achieve established goals.

The Director manages the implementation of complex, cross-sector initiatives while supporting the development of the organizational infrastructure, partnerships, staff capacity, learning agenda, and funding strategy necessary for long-term success. Working collaboratively across PRI and with community partners, philanthropic organizations, government agencies, and higher education institutions, this position advances systems-level solutions that elevate family leadership, strengthen trusted caregiver networks, promote continuous learning, and improve outcomes for children and families in rural communities.

This is a grant-funded position with an initial funding period of two years. Continued employment is dependent upon future funding and organizational needs.

Primary Duties and Responsibilities

• Translate established strategic priorities into annual and project-level implementation plans, timelines, milestones and deliverables
• Manage day-to-day implementation across the initiative's core focus areas
• Coordinate activities across projects and work streams to ensure alignment with established portfolio goals
• Monitor project goals, budgets, timelines, contracts, deliverables, compliance requirements, and reporting obligations
• Track implementation progress, identify operational risks and barriers, and develop solutions or escalate issues requiring senior-level decisions
• Coordinate staff, partners, consultants, and other resources necessary for successful project delivery
• Manage implementation-focused relationships with community partners, school districts, higher education institutions, government agencies, philanthropic partners, and other stakeholders
• Coordinate partner engagement activities necessary to achieve project goals and deliverables
• Support the cultivation of new partnerships by providing implementation expertise, project information, and relationship coordination
• Participate in meetings, convenings, and other external engagements related to assigned initiatives
• Support organizational leadership in funding development activities by contributing program information, implementation plans, data, and other materials
• Coordinate implementation of established evaluation, continuous improvement, and learning processes across assigned initiatives
• Ensure implementation experiences, outcomes, challenges, and lessons learned are appropriately documented
• Develop and coordinate practical tools, resources, and learning products based on implementation experiences
• Use program data and stakeholder feedback to identify opportunities to strengthen implementation
• Provide implementation findings and recommendations to senior leadership to support portfolio planning and decision-making
• Track established performance goals, key performance indicators, milestones, and other measures of implementation progress
• Collaborate with Strategic Impact and other internal teams to collect, analyze, and report program and portfolio data
• Maintain implementation dashboards and other project-management tools that provide visibility into progress, risks, and deliverables
• Prepare routine updates, reports, and recommendations for senior leadership, funders, and other stakeholders as appropriate
• Coordinate across PRI departments to support successful implementation and integration of rural early childhood initiatives
• Implement established processes, tools, systems, and operating practices that strengthen program delivery
• Identify opportunities to improve implementation processes and recommend operational improvements
• Facilitate communication, coordination, and shared accountability among teams involved in initiative implementation
• Support documentation and standardization of processes that enable consistent and effective program delivery
• Other roles/duties will be assigned as necessary to assist and support in the attainment of our mission

Position Location & Schedule

This position is designated as a hybrid position and is based at Partners for Rural Impact's (PRI) Berea Office, located in Berea, KY. Employees are expected to work onsite at the Berea office on designated in-office days and at other times as required to meet business or program needs. Location requirements are…