About WestEd

As a community of over 1,300 researchers, practitioners, consultants, and administrative professionals from all backgrounds and life experiences, we are committed to making a qualitative difference in the lives of youth, children, and adults. We conduct and apply research, develop evidence-based solutions, and provide consulting services across the country in both rural and urban communities to improve equitable outcomes for individuals from infancy through adulthood. Serving as trusted partners in the areas of education, health, and justice, our teams enhance capacity within communities and school districts to prioritize impact - asking the right questions, customizing methodologies, developing relevant tools, and implementing best practices specific to a diverse range of stakeholder needs.

Furthering diversity, equity, and inclusion is core to who we are and how we work. We are committed to working with our clients to illuminate and address disparities, value and elevate diverse voices, and ensure equitable access to our resources and services. Read more about . Come and join us!

SPECIAL NOTICE REGARDING THE WORK LOCATION OF THIS POSITION-Although WestEd provides the option of working at one of its facilities for employees, many roles allow employees to choose to work remotely for their own convenience. The decision to allow remote work at the employee's convenience is based on the requirements of the position or project in question.

Position Overview

The Project Director will oversee business development and implementation of initiatives and projects that strengthen the coherence, outcomes and impact of workforce and economic development programs and strategies to improve economic mobility and pathways to living wage employment for low income, vulnerable, and marginalized communities. The Director will be responsible for building a body of work and a team to support state and regional technical assistance, professional development, strategic planning, and new lines of research that advance the field and support WestEd's growth and eminence related to workforce development. The Project Director will be part the content area leadership team, supporting our expanding portfolio of work related to increasing economic mobility for communities of need, intersegmental systems development, and use of data to inform equity and student outcomes.

Core Focus Areas

Strategy and Business Development:

• Grow business development efforts to increase federal, state, local, and philanthropic funding for our workforce and economic mobility lines of work.
• Establish a state-by-state strategy for business development and expansion of the lines of work related to workforce and economic development.
• Co-create and co-manage, with the content area director and other project directors in the content area, strategic direction, business planning, and growth of the content area and our related lines of work.
• Collaborate with other content areas and divisions at WestEd to leverage expertise across the agency to strengthen WestEd's work in adult and noncredit education, improve agency-wide collaboration, and build eminence for WestEd in Adult education, noncredit education, and workforce development.

Project Management

• Manage complex projects with multiple partners and internal team members, in a context of rapidly evolving priorities, and ensuring deliverables are on time and on budget.
• Manage budgeting, coverage, and administrative duties related to the adult and noncredit education projects and overall body of work.

Practitioner Engagement, Professional Development, and Technical Assistance

• Design and implementation of regional and statewide practitioner engagement strategies that involve stakeholders from different educational segments and public systems.
• Development and implementation of statewide and regional training, professional development, and technical assistance models for the field that improve workforce outcomes and equity for populations with barriers to employment.
• Ensure that field engagement, training, and TA models are appropriate and accessible by a diverse range of practitioner types from different educational and public systems.
• Develop and support practitioner and participant feedback processes including development of metrics that ensure continual improvement in practitioner engagement and support.
• Develop and oversee systems that respond to practitioner requests and identified needs for technical assistance or PD on demand as supported under existing contracts.

Research and Data Tools

• Support the internal data systems and tools team to create of data tools and metrics that advance practitioner understanding of the outcomes of education and training programs and strategies specifically as these relate to student success, economic mobility, and pathways to living wage jobs.
• Support the content area research and evaluation team to identify new research needs and directions that can improve our understanding of effective practice that drives improved outcomes and impact for adult and noncredit educational programs.

Communications

• Working with project teams, support facilitation of client and stakeholder meetings that advance project goals.
• Present information in a concise fashion in high-stakes settings such as meeting with advisory committees, legislative staff, and the press.
• Support dissemination of our work through conferences, white papers, and other presentation venues including engagement with federal and state policy heads.
• Manage relationships across agencies and within WestEd departments.

What We're Looking For

The ideal candidate should have the following qualifications:

• Expertise in all Titles of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act and related workforce development systems including the role and operations of state and local workforce development boards, vocational rehabilitation, apprenticeship, services to out-of-school youth, and related systems.
• Understanding of related systems that also support workforce and educational training such as TANF, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and other specialized programs that support incumbent worker training such as the California Employment Training Panel (ETP) program.
• Experience and background working with organized labor related to strengthening and expanding regional apprenticeship and youth apprenticeship opportunities, especially in nontraditional industries.
• Experience with employer and industry engagement including a sound understanding of industry driven approaches to education and training, work-based learning, and regional and state sector strategies.
• A history working across agencies and educational segments working with not only practitioners in workforce and economic development, but also with practitioners from adult education, postsecondary education, K12 systems, TANF, foster youth, health, and other systems.
• Experience in the use of economic and labor market data to support regional and statewide demand-driven strategies to design education and training pathways and regional career pathway systems.
• Experience in the design of educational and training strategies for populations with significant barriers to employment including previously incarcerated adults, homeless, immigrant, and refugee populations among others.

Qualifications

Experience:

• A minimum of a master's degree in education, human services, or other discipline relevant to the focus of the work.
• At least 10 years of direct experience in leadership and administration of workforce and economic development programs and initiatives as either a practitioner, technical assistance provider, or related capacity.
• At least 5 years of direct experience working with organized labor and industry to design and implement industry and demand driven workforce and economic development programs, including regional career pathway systems.
• At least 5 overall years of professional experience supporting systems change and improvement in workforce and economic development through intersections with adult and noncredit education, postsecondary education, K12, social services, or other systems.
• At least 5 years of professional experience related to economic mobility programs including career technical education, integration education and training, workforce development focused on improved outcomes and access to training that supports pathways towards living wage jobs.

Project Management:

• Demonstrated history managing complex projects involving project teams, multiple stakeholders, and project budgets in excess of 1 million dollars with numerous deliverables over multiple years.
• Familiarity with the use of project management tools such as Microsoft project, Smartsheet, Monday, or other project management platforms.

Communication Skills & Accuracy:

• Demonstrated ability to communicate in a collaborative manner with colleagues and partners at all levels, from frontline employees to executives and external representatives.
• Ability to communicate complex information to diverse audiences.
• Proven marketing skills including experience with writing for a diverse audience with clarity and brevity and understanding, strategies to improve usage of resources, and curating online content.
• Demonstrated ability to ensure that one's own and others' work and information are complete and accurate, especially under tight timelines.

Alignment: An abiding commitment to excellence and equity, and helping people attain living wages.

Travel: Ability to travel - requires 25% travel time. For staff working remotely or from a home office travel time may be as much as 50% depending on the demands of the project

*Note: Visa sponsorship is not available for this position. Successful candidates must be authorized to work in the United States.

Other Skills

This person's content knowledge and experience should be matched by exceptional communication skills including ways to focus educators and practitioners from different educational segments or public systems on key issues leading to change in policy and practice related to student success and equity. Economic Mobility, Postsecondary, and Workforce Content Area is a high-performance and fast-moving team working continuously across public systems and in the field. Applicants should enjoy working in a rapid-paced, challenging environment that pushes the boundaries of policy and practice. Curiosity, an open mind, steady problem-solving skills, and a passion for student equity are mandatory requirements for this position.

WestEd conducts a criminal background check and education verification for all new hires. Any offers of employment will be contingent on receiving a clear background check in accordance with applicable law.

SALARY AND BENEFITS:

The full salary range for this position, WestEd level 14, is $160,000 to $240,000 but WestEd does not typically hire at or near the top of the salary range. The typical hiring range for this role is $160,000 to $200,000. The actual offer takes into account multiple factors including but not limited to education; experience; internal equity, and other organizational needs.

In addition to the base salary, benefits include:

* 15% contribution toward retirement effective day 1 of employment

* Pre-tax Flexible Spending Accounts

* All health/welfare benefits are effective first of the month following hire date

* PTO: 3 weeks' vacation (increases to 4 weeks beginning the 4th year of employment), paid holidays, and 12 days paid sick leave per year

* Life Insurance: value of 3x gross salary

* Opportunities for annual merit-based performance increases + annual incentives

* Professional development opportunities & mentorship program

For more detail about our benefits, go to:

Committed to the diversity of race, ethnicities, perspectives, and opportunities, WestEd offers a variety of social and professional learning communities, such as Employee Resource groups, the Data Intelligence, Insights, and Innovation PLC, and the WestEd Parent Community, just to name a few. We hope you'll consider joining us to build better schools, communities, learning pathways, and more! #LI-Remote #LI-Hybrid

Equal Opportunity Employer/Protected Veterans/Individuals with Disabilities

The contractor will not discharge or in any other manner discriminate against employees or applicants because they have inquired about, discussed, or disclosed their own pay or the pay of another employee or applicant. However, employees who have access to the compensation information of other employees or applicants as a part of their essential job functions cannot disclose the pay of other employees or applicants to individuals who do not otherwise have access to compensation information, unless the disclosure is (a) in response to a formal complaint or charge, (b) in furtherance of an investigation, proceeding, hearing, or action, including an investigation conducted by the employer, or (c) consistent with the contractor's legal duty to furnish information. 41 CFR 60-1.35(c)