State Director, California (M2)

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Summary

Save the Children’s U.S. Programs (USP) division is committed to ensuring that all children in rural America have a healthy, strong foundation to thrive as learners and in life. Our goals are to increase kindergarten readiness and grade-level literacy and math proficiency for children in under-resourced rural communities.

Save the Children is seeking a State Director, California. As the senior staff member on the state team, you will lead the development and execution of effective programs, advocacy and fundraising strategies. You will oversee business operations and partnership management and serve as the primary external representative of Save the Children’s work in the state.

What You’ll Be Doing (Essential Duties)

Increase kindergarten readiness and grade-level reading and math proficiency in the state’s high-need rural communities (30%)

• Direct the mobilization of communities, either through collective impact or community-based programs and services, to address other social and systemic barriers to achieving school readiness or proficiency outcomes.
• Monitors all Tier I mini grants, including needs assessments, selection of viable partners, monitoring of project deliverables, and reporting project outcomes back to Save the Children. 
• Monitors all Tier II programs and services (e.g., early childhood and school-age) to guarantee they are implemented with fidelity to our program models, ensuring partner needs are assessed annually, services are customized for the target population, training and technical assistance is effective and responsive, and improvements to program quality as well as data management are made, as needed.
• Oversee inception and completion of Hunger Free Communities model pilot in the state, working in collaboration with Program Design as well as Monitoring & Evaluation teams to inform model design as needed, set deliverables, monitor completion of outputs, and support data safeguarding practices. 
• Accountable for achieving deliverables across multiple projects concurrently as necessary, annual program goals, and long-term strategic objectives for the state as determined by Save the Children and/or required by grants or donors.

Expand Save the Children’s reach, recognition and impact in the state (45%)

• Responsible for developing annual and long-term state strategies; conducting state-level analysis, defining opportunities and risks, facilitating integration of cross-functional supports, setting specific and measurable goals, and facilitating periodic reviews of achievements and performance.
• Manage the state-wide program partner portfolio; identifying target communities and program populations, ensuring excellent relationship and subaward management, reviewing annually to align presence with need, and making investment/divestment decisions as needed.
• Educate and motivate key stakeholders to actively improve children’s education, health and wellbeing in the state; identifying partners, networks and coalitions to align contributions, scale best practices, and increase awareness and support of shared initiatives.
• Inform and execute fundraising activities in partnership with division and agency fundraising teams; co-developing strategies for acquiring funds or gifts-in-kind, prospecting for opportunities, cultivating donor relationships, and supporting the development of proposals and reports.
• Collaborate with the policy and advocacy team to advance the Save the Children’s work in the state; building relationships with key public stakeholders, influencing state and local resource allocations, mobilizing for statewide advocacy, and advising on strategies to influence legislation.

Lead a high-performing team that operates with excellence (25%)

• Plan, monitor and manage overall state operations and projects from initiation through completion; overseeing project planning, state budgeting and spending, subaward management, GIK processing and staff resourcing.
• Responsible for overseeing the execution all business continuity and safety and security protocols for the state staff and programs including, identifying and characterizing potential risks, safeguarding facilities and assets, ensuring 100% completion of staff and partner training