[Hiring] Managing Consultant, Early Childhood Programs @Mathematica Inc

Role Description

We are seeking a Managing Consultant to lead and support projects focused on early childhood and human services programs. Managing Consultants oversee teams, manage projects and complex tasks, and develop solutions to clients’ policy, programmatic, and operational challenges. This role requires a combination of early childhood program and policy expertise, project and team management, analytic skills, strategic thinking, and strong client engagement and communication.

The Managing Consultant will support federal early childhood initiatives, including Head Start and Early Head Start, and may lead activities related to:

• Program monitoring
• Technical assistance
• Grants management
• Regulatory compliance
• Program and financial management
• Continuous improvement

Responsibilities

• Builds and maintains collaborative, trusting relationships with federal, state, and other clients and partners.
• Collaborates with clients to develop and implement program improvement strategies and technical assistance plans based on data, evidence, and subject matter expertise.
• Leads and coordinates multidisciplinary teams to implement, monitor, and advise on federal and state policies and programs.
• Supports federal discretionary grants management, program and financial management, regulatory compliance monitoring and oversight, and related technical assistance activities.
• Aggregates, analyzes, and presents information from multiple sources to assess program performance, identify trends and challenges, and develop actionable recommendations.
• Applies change management, continuous improvement, participatory, and human-centered design approaches to develop solutions.
• Plans and facilitates webinars, meetings, trainings, and small-group discussions.
• Authors and reviews high-quality technical assistance and client-facing products.
• Uses web-based and other data management and project management tools to support project implementation, monitoring, analysis, and reporting.
• Supervises and mentors staff, delegates and reviews work, and supports the professional development of team members.
• Performs additional duties as assigned.

Qualifications

• Master’s degree in early childhood education, human services, public administration, or related field.
• At least 6 years of progressive professional experience directly related to early childhood programs, with a preference for Head Start/Early Head Start programs.
• Experience with federal discretionary grants management, non-profit or for-profit program and/or financial management, and regulatory compliance monitoring and oversight.
• Demonstrated ability to lead activities, manage and coordinate work of multidisciplinary teams through the project lifecycle.
• Demonstrated ability to aggregate, analyze, synthesize, and present data and evidence from multiple sources.
• Demonstrated ability to design and facilitate change management and/or continuous improvement processes.
• Demonstrated experience using a variety of web-based and off-the-shelf data management software packages.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills.
• Strong organizational skills and attention to detail.
• At least 2 years of supervisory experience preferred.
• Project Management Professional (PMP) certification encouraged but not required.

Requirements

• Knowledge of federal monitoring of early childhood programs, with a preference for experience in measuring performance, progress, compliance, and accountability of Head Start programs.
• Experience in fiscal management of early childhood programs.
• Knowledge of facilities and/or early childhood learning environments.
• Experience in child health and safety.
• Knowledge of Head Start program options, the Full Enrollment Initiative (FEI), and changes in scope (CiS).

Benefits

• Competitive salaries
• Comprehensive benefits package
• Employee stock ownership plan (ESOP)