Westlake Village, CA

Program Officer - Early Childhood Development - US Initiative, Conrad N. Hilton Foundation

The Organization

Conrad N Hilton Foundation

Position Overview

Program Officer serves as a key thought partner and will have responsibility for managing parts of the Early Childhood Development (ECD) U.S. Initiative grant portfolio. The Officer will work closely with the SPO to design, implement, and monitor a portfolio of grants that advance the goals of the ECD-US five-year strategy.

How To Apply

International hotelier Conrad N. Hilton established the grantmaking foundation that bears his name in 1944 to help people living in poverty and experiencing disadvantage worldwide. Today, the work continues, concentrating on efforts to improve early childhood development outcomes, support older youth as they transition from foster care, ensure opportunity youth can access career pathways, prevent homelessness, identify solutions to safe-water access, help integrate refugees into society and lift the work of Catholic sisters. Additionally, following selection by an independent, international jury, the Foundation annually awards the $2.5 million Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize to an organization doing extraordinary work to reduce human suffering. The Foundation is one of the world’s largest, with assets recently growing to approximately $7.5 billion. It has awarded grants to date totaling more than $2 billion, $207 million worldwide in 2020. Please visit www.hiltonfoundation.org for more information.

Job Summary

The Program Officer is a key member of the program team and supports the Foundation’s grantmaking to improve early childhood development outcomes in Los Angeles and a second geography TBD in the United States. Reporting to the Senior Program Officer (SPO), the Program Officer serves as a key thought partner and will have responsibility for managing parts of the Early Childhood Development (ECD) U.S. Initiative grant portfolio. The Officer will work closely with the SPO to design, implement, and monitor a portfolio of grants that advance the goals of the ECD-US five-year strategy. The Officer will help to identify potential grantees, assist with proposal development, and provide grantee technical support, as well as monitor grant progress. The Officer will also drive partnerships and support convening efforts to foster knowledge sharing and field building.

The ideal candidate must be a proactive team player with excellent multi-tasking skills and bring an enthusiastic attitude and value of continuous learning. The individual must have strong critical thinking and problem-solving skills, with the ability to understand, interpret, and translate qualitative and quantitative data. S/he will be expected to resolve time-sensitive issues with a high degree of precision and exhibit strong organizational, written, and verbal communication skills. Attention to detail and the ability to anticipate needs are a must.

Partnership is a key tenet of the ECD-U.S. strategy, and therefore, this person should be adept at interacting with a range of diverse stakeholders in a professional, collaborative and diplomatic way. The candidate must also have relevant experience in issues and best practices in or related to ECD at the program, research, or infrastructure levels in diverse communities.

The successful candidate will also have a demonstrated commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Responsibilities

Portfolio Management:

  • Participates in the identification of potential grantees and projects
  • Reviews proposals and works with the SPO to determine which ones will be further developed and recommended for funding
  • Coordinate with team members from the Advocacy and SLED teams and management workflow process in Giving Data
  • Presents recommended proposals for funding at board meetings, as needed
  • Provides counsel to organizations invited to develop proposals
  • Reviews and refines grant-write-ups and assists in writing, preparing other materials for the quarterly board of directors meetings
  • Monitors portfolio of grants and other projects as assigned
  • Monitors and evaluates grants and grantee performance, including timely completion of all progress reports and provides feedback to SPO
  • Recommends for approval any deviations from approved plans and budgets, and ensures that such changes are documented
  • Conducts site visits within Los Angeles and other locations as well

Strategic Support:

  • Acts as a thought partner and provides support to SPO in strategy planning, development, implementation, and monitoring
  • Supports the design and operationalization of processes and systems to feed data and evidence back into key strategy and portfolio management decisions, facilitating sector-wide learning
  • Partners with the Strategy, Learning, and Evaluation Division team members on designing and managing the Initiative’s monitoring, research, and evaluation approaches
  • Attends strategy convenings and represents the Foundation at external conferences and meetings, as needed

Partnerships, Advocacy and Communications:

  • In partnership with the Partnership, Communications and Advocacy (PAC) develops partnerships with external partners and strategies for advocacy and communications
  • Actively collaborate and engage with grantee partners and peer funders to advance the objectives of the ECD-U.S. strategy
  • Foster a network of NGOs, thought leaders, private sector entities, and funders to align program targets, coordinate efforts, and broker partnerships
  • Participate in coalitions and/or movements to align the Foundation’s communication and advocacy efforts with national and/or global frameworks and targets
  • Support the development of, and participate in, conference sessions and workshops that speak to sector learning and the Strategy’s implementation
  • Writes blogs/articles for the website and supervises website content and updates
  • Support the development of presentations and other communication products including externally-facing documents and briefs

Contract Management:

  • Works with SPO in identifying the need for consultants within the program area
  • Carefully plans scope of work for contracts
  • Develops terms of reference for contracts
  • Effectively monitors progress and deliverables against timelines

Qualifications

Required:

  • Bachelor’s degree in public health, public policy, social sciences, social welfare or a related field, with a minimum of five (5) years experience
  • A minimum of seven (7) years of relevant work experience in program development and/or management experience
  • Substantive knowledge of policy issues and best practices regarding young children and their families in the U.S. as well as an understanding of the funding landscape
  • Ability to assess the leadership, track record, fiscal health and capacity of a nonprofit organization to lead a proposed program or project
  • Demonstrated ability to think critically about program design and implementation
  • Can connect and incorporate program learning and evaluation into strategy and program decisions and technical assistance
  • Enthusiastic, professional and self-motivating, with a ‘can-do’ attitude
  • Understands quantitative and qualitative data; ability to ask the right questions; experience with data analytics and evaluation
  • Creative, flexible, and collaborative with an ability to work in a team-oriented environment; demonstrates a high degree of initiative; results-oriented
  • Ability to continually seek information and look for new approaches to processes and practices
  • Welcomes feedback as a means to personal and professional growth
  • Excellent written and oral communication skills; strong presentation skills and the ability to clearly articulate ideas

Desired:

  • Graduate degree in public health, education, public policy, social sciences, social welfare or a related field
  • An understanding of grantmaking and the non-profit sector

About our Benefits

We value the health and well-being of our employees, some of the benefits we offer include:

  • Comprehensive and generous health and life insurance options
  • Fitness benefits
  • Paid holidays, time off, and parental leave
  • Flexible work schedules and technology benefits
  • Foundation-funded retirement savings plan
  • Professional learning and development and educational assistance
  • Employee matching gifts to qualified non-profit organizations

The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation is an equal opportunity employer with values grounded in promoting equality and inclusion and embracing diversity. We welcome qualified applicants of all races, colors, gender identities, sexual orientations, economic classes, ages, religions, national origins, and ability/disability statuses. Veterans and individuals with lived expertise are encouraged to apply. We respect and seek to empower every member of our Foundation community. We support and celebrate our collective array of cultures, backgrounds, perspectives, skills and experiences; fully realizing that such diversity is what makes our organization flourish and better enables us to fulfill our mission in the world.

Apply Here

PI140359083

Sign up