Director, Post Secondary Programs

Director Of Postsecondary Programs

Within a holistic, strength-focused, youth development, and family-supported framework, the Director of Postsecondary Programs provides strategic and operational leadership for a multi-site portfolio serving high school students, college-bound participants, and college students. The Director ensures that participants receive coordinated support from college exploration and application through matriculation and persistence, with particular attention to first-generation students and college freshmen and sophomores navigating academic, financial, social-emotional, and institutional barriers.

The Director supervises program leaders and frontline staff, conducts regular site visits, manages program budgets and contracts, uses data to strengthen outcomes, develops school and college partnerships, and maintains a limited direct-service role for participants with complex or time-sensitive needs. The Director will report directly to the Senior Director of High School and College Success.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

• Lead a cohesive college access and persistence strategy across multiple school- and community-based sites, with annual goals and measurable outcomes for application, financial aid, matriculation, retention, credit accumulation, academic standing, and year-to-year persistence.
• Supervise, coach, and evaluate managers, advisors, persistence staff, and other assigned team members through clear expectations, reflective supervision, professional development, and performance support.
• Conduct regular site visits to observe services, meet with staff and partners, review participant engagement and documentation, troubleshoot barriers, and ensure consistent program quality.
• Review participant- and site-level data, identify service gaps and equity concerns, lead documented improvements, and ensure timely case records, contract deliverables, and stakeholder reports.

• Oversee college and career exploration, applications and essays, FAFSA/TAP and scholarship support, opportunity-program referrals, college selection, enrollment steps, and culturally responsive family engagement.
• Ensure first- and second-year college students receive proactive persistence support related to summer transition, academic advising, degree mapping, credit completion, satisfactory academic progress, aid renewal, registration, campus belonging, career development, and re-enrollment.
• Maintain a limited strategic caseload and provide individual or group support for participants facing complex or urgent barriers, including academic probation, financial holds, housing or food insecurity, mental health needs, stop-out risk, and institutional navigation.
• Lead case conferences and model motivational interviewing, goal setting, accountability, solution-focused coaching, warm handoffs, and culturally responsive advising for staff.
• Oversee workshops, peer cohorts, summer bridge activities, alumni outreach, campus visits, and family programming that strengthen readiness, transition, belonging, and persistence.

• Build partnerships with school leaders and with college admissions, financial aid, academic advising, student support, career services, and opportunity-program personnel to improve referrals and resolve participant barriers.
• Develop and manage program budgets; review spending and variances monthly; forecast needs; ensure allowable, documented expenditures; and align resources with contracts and participant outcomes.
• Oversee contract compliance, audits, procurement, staffing plans, vendors and consultants, and resource allocation across sites.
• Contribute to proposals, renewals, work copes, and funder reports that support program sustainability and growth.

• Master's degree in counseling, social work, education, higher education, psychology, public administration, or a related field strongly preferred; equivalent relevant experience will be considered.
• Three to five years of progressively responsible experience in college access, college success, youth development, higher education, or a related field, including three years of staff supervision or program leadership.
• Demonstrated experience managing…