Director, Grant Implementation

This position is approved for remote work within the Continental United States only. Any permanent change to the geographic geographic location of an employee’s remote work arrangement must be reviewed and approved in advance by both the employee’s direct manager and Human Resources. Full-time exempt role.

About the Role

The Director, Grant Implementation is a key member of the grant implementation group within the Program and Impact department of Big Brothers Big Sisters of America (BBBSA). The primary role of the Grants Implementation group is driving results through focused execution. As a leader in the Program and Impact department, the Director works as a collaborative partner to ensure successful grant management and reporting, providing strategic leadership and operational oversight for a team responsible for the effective implementation of grant-funded programs. This role has ultimate accountability for operational excellence in grant implementation, program scalability, and long-term grant impact, ensuring alignment with organizational priorities and collaborating with other key departments to deliver seamless, impactful outcomes.

The position is primarily operational in nature, requiring someone who is action-oriented, decisive, and highly skilled at critical thinking. The Director is pivotal to ensuring that programs funded by corporate and private foundation partners deliver on promised outcomes and scale effectively. This position also showcases impact through both data and stories to foster stronger partnerships and secure additional investments. This role emphasizes team leadership, project management excellence, programmatic coaching, and data-driven decision-making, while fostering collaborative relationships.

20-25% travel may be required.

Responsibilities

• Strategic Decision-Making and Action Planning:
  • Leads grant implementation operations, oversees the team, and is accountable for team execution and deliverables.
  • Evaluates diverse inputs and ideas in real-time, summarizing key takeaways and translating them into clear, prioritized action steps for the team.
  • Assesses complex scenarios, identifies critical elements, and operates against priorities set by organizational leadership.
  • Guides team-level execution and decision-making, ensuring clarity and focus.
  • Develops clear, concise action plans that align with organizational goals and effectively delegates tasks to the team.
  • Uses advanced analytical and critical thinking skills to evaluate the feasibility, potential challenges, and impact of proposed initiatives.
  • Leverages technology to monitor grant portfolio at a high level, recognizing critical actions, gaps, and overall impact.
• Team Leadership:
  • Provides strategic oversight and guidance to the Grant Implementation team to ensure grant deliverables align with both funder expectations and BBBSA’s strategic priorities.
  • Fosters a high-performing team culture through regular feedback, professional development opportunities, and goal setting.
  • Implements and makes recommendations for strategic team priorities, establishing and refining processes that respond to organizational needs, funder requirements, and lessons learned from implementation.
• Project Implementation Leadership:
  • Oversees the implementation of multiple grant-funded programs, ensuring alignment with funder expectations and organizational goals.
  • Designs and manages project management processes that facilitate timely and impactful delivery of grant initiatives.
  • Provides hands-on oversight to address challenges, identify opportunities for innovation, and improve program delivery.
  • Collaborates with cross-functional teams (e.g., Resource Development, Finance, and other Program & Impact staff) to ensure seamless execution of grant deliverables.
• Collaboration and Partnership:
  • Works closely with the Senior Director, Grants Administration to ensure seamless collaboration between the implementation and administration teams.
  • Partners with internal teams, including Resource Development, Communications, and Agency Growth to support cross-functional alignment and efforts to increase investments to the network.
  • Fosters strong relationships with Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS) agencies, funders, and other stakeholders to ensure clarity and alignment on expectations.
  • Represents BBBSA’s grant implementation efforts at conferences, workshops, and other forums to share best practices.
• Reporting and Communication:
  • Ensures that all grants maintain accurate and relevant documentation that supports collaborative grants management and excellent customer relationship management.
  • Oversees the development of reports and other deliverables to communicate successes, challenges, lessons learned, and overall impact to funders and other key stakeholders.
  • Collaborates with evaluation staff to incorporate data into grant reports and assessments.
• People Management:
  • Recruits, trains, retains, and cultivates professional development of direct reports.
  • Develops job aids, tools, and processes to create consistency across multiple roles with similar function to build overall team capacity.
  • Creates a dynamic, supportive, and effective team that is impactful across the BBBSA and the Big Brothers Big Sisters Network.
  • Leads and manages resources (people and capital) that retains and cultivates positive, measurable success.
  • Monitors progress against performance targets; implements countermeasures as needed.
• Culture:
  • Demonstrates a commitment to BBBSA’s shared leadership competencies and organizational values.
  • Provides consistent follow-up regarding assigned projects and after meetings.
  • Cultivates an environment where all team members feel valued, included, and empowered to achieve their potential.
  • Manages related and other duties as assigned in support of department and business needs.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience in nonprofit management, youth development, grant or foundation management, account management, or related fields. An MBA or graduate degree in nonprofit management, public administration, or youth development is a plus.
• Minimum of 5+ years of experience as a manager in grant-funded initiatives or a related field, including implementation, project management, account management, and reporting.
• Demonstrated experience leading teams, with at least 3 years of direct people management responsibility, and working collaboratively across diverse stakeholders.

Skills

• Expertise in designing and implementing grant-funded programs, including scaling initiatives across multiple sites.
• Advanced project management skills, with proficiency in tools such as MS Project, Asana, or similar platforms.
• Excellent interpersonal communication, customer service, and relationship-building skills to build and sustain relationships with a wide range of clients and stakeholders.
• Proficiency in data reporting, visualization, and analysis to inform decision-making.
• Ability to mentor and guide experienced staff to achieve program and professional growth goals in a remote team environment.
• Advanced proficiency in MS Office Suite (Excel, Word, PowerPoint).
• Advanced organizational and problem-solving skills.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Results-oriented, displaying accountability and achievement orientation in meeting goals.
• Advanced analytical skills including the ability to comprehend and make inferences from technical, statistical, and written materials; excellent problem-solving.
• Advanced technical skills; maintaining state-of-the-art knowledge of advances in the field.
• Knowledge of youth development programs and their implementation at the local level is desired but not required.