Head Start Project Director

Description

Join a team dedicated to improving Federal grant programs. We seek a Project Director with extensive experience managing large, preferably nationwide, early childhood programs and managing client relationships. The ideal candidate will have a deep background in developing nationwide monitoring reviews and protocols, ensuring program integrity and excellence. This pivotal role is contingent upon a successful contract award. Travel is required.

At the Vander Weele Group, we are passionate about improving Federal and state grant programs and the agencies that manage them. Our goal is to make grants oversight and monitoring more effective, thereby empowering organizations to better serve grantees and the public.

Key Responsibilities

• Create and monitor a project workplan, ensuring effective allocation of resources resulting in deliverables that are completed on time and within budget.
• Manage the client relationship, including leading client meetings, providing timely status and report updates, and skillfully advising and guiding the client through project completion, ensuring their needs are met in a way that reflects well on the organization.
• Oversee staff responsible for creating reviews, protocols, reports, and data analysis content, ensuring alignment with program objectives and federal performance standards.
• Ensure workloads are assigned, managed, and corrected to provide high-level quality in all client deliverables.
• Implement a quality control system for monitoring and reviewing client work and reviews developed and used within the nationwide program.
• Create and ensure timely reporting to the client.
• Manage staff, ensuring expectations are clear, one-on-one meetings and team meetings are scheduled frequently, and performance issues are handled effectively.
  
  

Requirements

• A master’s degree in early childhood, Early Childhood Education, or social service administration-related fields, such as Developmental Psychology, Education, Pediatric Science, Social Work, or other relevant degrees, is required to serve vulnerable populations.
• Minimum of three years of experience managing client relationships in client-facing federal projects with a track record of meeting client deliverable deadlines on time and on budget.
• Five to seven years of experience managing the Office of Head Start or similar early childhood education programs or initiatives nationwide.
• Must have experience with monitoring tools such as Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS), Focus Area One (FA1), Focus Area Two (FA2), and Risk Assessment Notification (RAN), and knowledge of federal performance standards.
• Five years of experience managing staff with a passion for building successful teams.
• Strong verbal communication and presentation skills with the ability to provide technical assistance professionally.
• Strong writing skills and the ability to communicate clearly without clerical, spelling, grammar, or punctuation errors.
• Meticulous attention to detail and ability to match field conditions with relevant federal statutes, regulations, grant requirements, and best practices.
• Excellent time-management and critical thinking skills to analyze the data and form a judgment based on technical knowledge of grant programs.
• Travel is required.