Senior Director of Local Partnership Operations

Job Responsibilities

Are you an experienced professional looking for new opportunities to further your career? South Carolina First Steps is seeking a hardworking and dependable candidate just like you to apply! This position will offer great benefits with the state, including 15 days of annual and sick leave per year or more depending on applicable state service.

The Senior Director of Local Partnership Operations provides strategic leadership and operational oversight for the Local Partnership team, ensuring statewide alignment with agency goals, statutory mandates, and compliance standards. This role drives organizational effectiveness across governance, administrative, fiscal, and programmatic domains by leading the annual grant application and monitoring processes, guiding policy implementation, and designing tailored technical assistance for local First Steps partnerships.

This position oversees staff supervision, continuous capacity building through targeted training initiatives and LMS integration and collaborates cross‑functionally to support local leadership through strategic planning, data reporting, and operational transitions.

Under general supervision of the Chief Partnership Officer and must display the ability to work independently. Must have excellent oral, written, and interpersonal communication skills; attention to detail; reliable and prompt and able to work in a team environment. Knowledge of program administration, contract management, quality assurance, compliance monitoring, fiscal oversight, and continuous improvement practices. Demonstrated ability to develop and implement operational systems and manage multiple priorities in a fast‑paced environment.

Advance, very strong writing skills. Ability to interpret laws, regulations, policies, and contractual requirements and translate them into effective operational procedures. Strong leadership, supervisory, and team development skills, with the ability to build collaborative relationships across agencies, providers, community organizations, and stakeholders. Ability to manage organizational change, resolve complex issues, and make sound decisions that support program integrity and strategic goals.

• Manages local partnership team operational activities to include supervision of program and compliance team to ensure consistency in approach and ensure that services implemented by local First Steps Partnerships are aligned with agency goals, statutory, and other requirements. Works collaboratively with the Local Partnership team to provide thought leadership in the development and implementation of policies and practices related to operational domains including governance, administration, fiscal, and programmatic areas.
  
  Provides technical assistance to state-level staff and local First Steps Partnerships.
• Leads the development, execution, and review of the annual local partnership comprehensive grant application process including grant application development, monitoring, award determination review, annual reviews, corrective actions, and contract monitoring.
• Collaborates with Research and Evaluation, Local Partnership, and Strategic Implementation Teams to ensure strong design for First Steps Program Guidelines, including but not limited to the impact of revisions. Designs and co‑implements tailored transition support for local First Steps partnerships navigating operational, strategic, and policy updates. Assists local leadership with strategic planning, community needs assessments, data reporting, and system management.
• Supports the development and delivery of targeted training content and drives organizational capacity to build core…