Summary 

The Workforce Development Director is responsible for the program development, management, and maintenance of the workforce development department, which seeks to help break the cycle of unemployment and insufficient income for women experiencing homelessness. The Workforce Development Director oversees the administration of the LA: RISE and LARCA contract, the Career Series Program, employer cultivation and recognition program, job and hiring fairs, administration of the Learning Center, as well as ensuring that the program is meeting other funder requirements. This role focuses on creating a trauma informed environment to support the workforce development team, to match women to employment opportunities and resources to meet their professional development, educational, and employment goals. The Workforce Development Director works in close collaboration with DWC staff to coordinate internal and external job-readiness and placement programs. The Workforce Development Director is responsible for establishing a network of hiring managers who can connect women to employment, and for developing relationships with universities and community partners. This position will also work closely with various DWC staff, participants, volunteers, and community stakeholders. The Workforce Development Director will report directly to the Chief Program Officer.

Essential Functions

1. Oversee the day to day operations of the workforce development department
2. Manage departmental budget
3. Provide wrap-around support, job placement and job retention services to women in transitional jobs through the LA:RISE program, and ensure contract compliance for both LA: RISE and LARCA contracts
4. Oversee the coordination, facilitation, and expansion of the Career Series
5. Develop and implement the Employer Recognition Program
6. Serve as a representative for DWC on the Hired and Hopeful Campaign
7. Oversee the coordination of job fairs and hiring events
8. Cultivate relationships with employers and key stakeholders
9. Supervise workforce development staff including hiring, on-boarding, training, mentoring, evaluations, and providing professional development
10. Oversee the operations of DWC’s learning center
11. Oversee field-based employment coordination
12. Expand the Workforce Development Department to increase the number of women served
13. Oversee quarterly workforce demographics survey
14. Serve as a member of the Performance and Quality Improvement Team
15. Develop programing that includes professional opportunities, workshops/classes, job-readiness training, vocational education programming, employment counseling, job placement and retention systems
16. Develop policies and procedure to further structure the workforce development department
17. Conduct outreach and capacity building to maximize service utilization
18. Connect work ready job seekers to employer(s)/employment opportunities and to approved vocational skills training providers/training opportunities.
19. Develop, manage and maintain partnerships with businesses, governmental agencies (i.e., City, County and State), educational institutions, WorkSource Centers, vocational training organizations, and other community-based organizations to meet the needs of women seeking employment
20. Ensure staff, interns, volunteers are trained on implementing effective strategies to prepare clients for employment opportunities
21. Facilitate team meetings and provide the training and guidance to ensure that all program goals and objectives are met
22. Assist in establishing tools to measure goals and outcomes, and in the implementation of on-going data collection and program evaluation
23. Review all data and reports to ensure compliance and evaluate the success of the program. Provide regular written reports to Chief Program Officer and additional reports as assigned
24. Collaborate with development staff to support workforce development funding reports and ensure grant requirements are met
25. Work closely with Directors and Managers on shared initiatives and outcomes
26. Collaborate with all DWC program staff to ensure service continuum for participants
27. Promote the mission, vision, and values of the DWC and MADE by DWC and serve as an ambassador of DWC in the community
28. Other duties as assigned to support the mission of the organization

Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Competencies (I.e. Flexibility, Communication Proficiency, Budget Management, Relationship Management)

1. Ability to manage and motivate a team and provide necessary training and professional development.
2. Competent in budget management, program development, outcome tracking, and program evaluation.
3. Possess skills to exercise and model good judgment, poise, flexibility, and solution-oriented problem-solving.
4. Possess superior communication and relationship building skills with a variety of stakeholders, both internal and external.
5. Detail-oriented, highly organized, able to manage multiple tasks and priorities, and meet deadlines. 
6. Ambitious self-starter and ability to prioritize with little direction.

Supervisory Responsibility 

This position has supervisory responsibilities of the workforce development staff.

Work Environment

This job operates in a professional office environment, with occasional offsite meetings and trainings. This role routinely uses standard office equipment such as computers, phones, photocopiers, filing cabinets and fax machines.

Physical Demands

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job.

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to talk and hear. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision and ability to adjust focus. This would require the ability to lift files, open filing cabinets, bend or stand on a stool as necessary.

Position Type and Expected Hours of Work 

This is a full-time position. Days and hours of work are weekly Monday-Friday (with occasional Saturdays) 8:00 am-4:30 pm

Travel 

1. Travel between the two sites and travel to local partnership meetings is expected for this position.

Required Education and Experience 

1. Bachelor’s degree in Business, Education, or relevant Social Science preferred. Master’s degree in relevant studies is a plus.
2. 2 years of workforce development/ vocational education program development experience preferred
3. 1 year of experience supervising staff preferred
4. Experience with contract and budget management preferred
5. Experience with workforce program development including; program research, knowledge of data, implementation, and evaluation, and community based vocational and employment programs, etc.

Required Knowledge/Skills/Position Qualifications

1. Possess knowledge of workforce development programs
2. Ability to effectively engage and cultivate partnerships with employers and other key stakeholders; strong networking skills
3. Background in working with diverse communities a plus
4. Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, etc.) is required.
5. Knowledge of issues related to women’s poverty, homelessness, and mental illness is a plus.
6. Lived experience of homelessness a plus

Downtown Women’s Center provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability or genetics. In addition to federal law requirements, Downtown Women’s Center complies with applicable state and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment in every location in which the company has facilities. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation and training.

Other Duties 

Please note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities and activities may change at any time with or without notice.