The Director of Education and Youth Opportunity (the Director) provides strategic and operational leadership for United Way of Tarrant County's education and youth opportunity portfolio. The Director leads the implementation of strategies and initiatives designed to improve educational outcomes, expand opportunities for children and youth, and strengthen pathways to long-term economic mobility across Tarrant County.
This role advances a cradle-to-career approach encompassing K-12 education, college and career pathways, out-of-school-time initiatives, and other strategies that promote student success and youth opportunity. The Director translates organizational priorities into action by managing initiatives and investments, building cross-sector partnerships, aligning resources, and supporting measurable community impact.
Job Duties and Responsibilities: Strategic and Initiative Leadership
- Lead the implementation of UWTC's Education and Youth Opportunity strategy, ensuring alignment with organizational priorities, community needs, and intended outcomes.
- Oversee a portfolio of initiatives focused on K-12 education innovation and impact, college and career pathways, youth opportunity, and out-of-school-time programming.
- Translate strategic priorities into actionable work plans, timelines, deliverables, partnerships, and annual performance goals.
- Monitor initiative progress, milestones, risks, and opportunities, making adjustments to strengthen implementation and achieve intended results.
- Identify emerging needs and opportunities and provide recommendations to leadership regarding education investments, partnerships, innovation, and systems-level strategies.
Community Engagement, Partnerships and Collective Impact - Serve as UWTC's representative and subject matter expert for education and youth opportunity initiatives in local, regional, and statewide partnerships and community forums.
- Develop, convene, and sustain cross-sector partnerships with school districts, higher education institutions, employers, workforce organizations, nonprofit organizations, government agencies, philanthropic partners, and other community stakeholders.
- Facilitate collaborative efforts that align partners, resources, and strategies around shared education and economic mobility outcomes.
- Partner with Development and Marketing teams to support fundraising, grant development, donor and partner engagement, impact storytelling, presentations, community briefings, and board communications.
Data, Measurement and Evaluation Support - Manage program data collection, reporting, and evaluation deliverables for the Education and Youth Opportunity portfolio.
- Partner with the Vice President of Research and Learning to support performance measurement, evaluation, and analysis of initiative outcomes.
- Maintain accurate and timely program data and provide information needed for organizational, funder, partner, and leadership reporting.
- Use evaluation findings, program data, and stakeholder feedback to support implementation and continuous improvement.
Budget and Operational Oversight - Manage assigned budgets, contracts, grants, and education-related investments.
- Monitor expenditures and ensure responsible stewardship of organizational resources.
- Coordinate reporting and compliance requirements associated with grants, contracts, and partnerships.
- Maintain operational accountability across education and youth opportunity initiatives.
- Collaborate with internal departments to support effective implementation and organizational alignment.
Leadership and Organizational Collaboration - Provide leadership across UWTC's Community Impact team and broader organization.
- Work collaboratively with leadership, development, communications, research, finance, and operations teams.
- Support organizational strategic planning efforts related to education, workforce development, and youth opportunity.
- Perform other duties as assigned.
Professional/Educational Qualifications: - Bachelor's degree required in Education, Public Administration, Public Policy, Social Work, Community Development, Nonprofit Management, or a related field. Master's degree preferred.
- Minimum 5 years of progressively responsible experience in education, workforce development, youth development, collective impact, community initiatives, or nonprofit leadership.
- Demonstrated experience leading multi-stakeholder initiatives and cross-sector partnerships.
- Experience managing complex projects, programs, or community-wide initiatives with measurable outcomes.
- Experience in strategic planning, implementation management, and continuous improvement.
- Experience working with education systems, workforce systems, government agencies, and community-based organizations.
- Experience managing budgets, grants, and performance reporting.
- Supervisory or team leadership experience preferred.
- Strong project management, organizational, and operational coordination skills.
- Experience facilitating meetings, managing stakeholder relationships, and supporting collaborative initiatives.
- Ability to manage multiple priorities, timelines, and partnerships simultaneously.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills, including presentation and facilitation abilities.
- Experience with data tracking, reporting, and continuous improvement practices preferred.
- Knowledge of education systems, early childhood initiatives, youth opportunity strategies, workforce pathways, or community-based learning preferred.
- Commitment to equity-centered, community-informed, and collaborative approaches to educational opportunity and systems change.
- Dedication to UWTC's mission
- Microsoft Office proficiency required
- Fluency in English required; Fluency in Spanish preferred
- Ability to prioritize and coordinate multiple tasks and assignments simultaneously
- Ability to perform with minimal supervision
- Excellent collaborative and communication skills
- Experience working with other community-based organizations
- Must be able to lift and carry up to 20 lbs.
Knowledge, Skills and Abilities - Strong understanding of education, youth development, workforce pathways, and systems-change strategies.
- Knowledge of collective impact frameworks and community collaboration models.
- Exceptional relationship-building and stakeholder engagement skills.
- Strong project management and organizational abilities.
- Excellent written, verbal, presentation, and facilitation skills.
- Ability to analyze data and translate findings into actionable strategies.
- Ability to manage multiple priorities while maintaining attention to detail.
- Demonstrated experience influencing without direct authority across diverse stakeholder groups.
- Strong strategic thinking and problem-solving capabilities.
- Commitment to continuous improvement, equity, collaboration, and community impact.
Work Environment: The work environment is representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job including traditional office environments and performance of work with community organizations. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. Although remote work is occasionally permitted for this position, the individual must reside primarily in North Texas with the ability to work from the office, corporate location or other necessary location on a daily basis.
Work Hours: - Monday-Friday (flexible hours)
- May require some evenings, weekends for special events
