Program Director, Reimagining Child Care

Please apply by December 22, 2023. We will be accepting and reviewing applications on a rolling basis through this date.

The Terms

IDEO.org is looking for a Program Director to join us for a 15-month contract, working 50% part-time, to lead the next phase of our Reimagining Child Care program. This role will be eligible for IDEO.org’s offered benefits, and commence in February, 2024. This role can be remotely based anywhere in the US, but would be expected to travel 6-8 times a year to work collaboratively with the team if not based in the San Francisco Bay Area or New York City Metropolitan Area. IDEO.org can provide a relocation stipend for anyone relocating to SF or NYC metro areas for the role.

Who is IDEO.org?

IDEO.org is a nonprofit design studio on a mission to design a more just and inclusive world. From our offices in the U.S. and Kenya, we partner with organizations working to advance health equity, economic opportunity, and wellbeing in communities around the world, co-creating products, services, campaigns, and programs that improve people’s lives.

From campaigns that helped millions access public health information, to services that catalyzed deep change in communities, these interventions have reached over 69 million people. From our studios in New York, San Francisco, and Nairobi, we’ve worked with organizations in 45 countries. 

The Program

Reimagine Childcare is a collaboration between IDEO.org and a growing group of ‘Beacons,’ funded by Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, to paint a picture of a joyful and abundant future child care system, in which children, families, and care providers are whole and thriving. 

Across 2022 – 2023, IDEO.org worked deeply with ‘Beacons’ to collaboratively design a Vision for an abundant childcare system, that ensures every child, their parents and guardians, and childcare providers, are whole and able to become the people they are meant to be. It identifies the mindsets and values that underpin that system and reality, and names the priorities, practices, and policies that must supplant structurally racist, sexist pillars of the child care system of today. Through storytelling and concept visualizations, the Vision offers ideas around how that world could work, so that more people within the field can believe in and fight for that future. 

In 2024, we now have an opportunity to design for deeper internalization and integration of this same Vision into the plans and actions of actors poised to drive structural and systemic change for the child care ecosystem;

• We will focus initially on state coalitions - supporting them to advance their boldest, most liberatory narratives and proposals through the design of adaptable campaign kits. 
• We will also conduct a landscape analysis to assess and prioritize other types of actors in the ecosystem who are poised to drive structural and systemic change for the child care ecosystem AND are values-aligned to the Vision. 
• We will collaboratively design ways for one additional high priority actor type (for example, journalists, storytellers, etc) to advance the Vision through their work. 
• Along the way we will socialize this work with Funders, continue to update the Vision, and make tools and resources for its integration publicly available.

The Role

The Program Director will lead the overall program strategy, provide creative leadership for the program, and ensure that the conditions are right to deliver excellent work. The role will work closely with the Program Manager, Program Coordinator, Program Guides, and design teams. 

The Program Director will bring a strong design perspective to the program. They will drive program strategies and deliverables towards tangible, designed experiences that embody the joyful and abundant future of childcare we hope to see. The role will be responsible for leading the Program Team, overseeing multiple design streams, leaning in as a design guide and rolling up their sleeves to design alongside teams in key moments. The role will ensure that the Program Team is working collectively towards each output, helping the program balance priorities and needs. 

In This Role, You Will:

Operate as a team leader, program strategist, and individual contributor, leading the following bodies of work:

(40%) Guide & Nurture Design:

• Refine design briefs to best leverage IDEO.org’s design capabilities in service of our partners and of the program goals
• Inspire teams and nurture the creative culture of their work through a combination of collaborative and directive leadership
• Manage multiple streams of multi-disciplinary design teams 
• Guide design work across all phases to ensure teams do their best work, and that we are pushing the edges of storytelling and narrative change
• Identify opportunities to bring more tangibility to the program and its deliverables

(30%) Strategy & Theory of Change:

• Steward and refine the program strategy and impact goals, and ensure projects and key activities ladder up to those goals
• Maintain a birdseye view of the program, the sector, and relationships across the sector— foreseeing challenges, shifts, or opportunities for the program
• Navigate and manage a multi-stakeholder landscape – engaging multiple levels and layers (local implementation partners, CBOs, Beacons, Field Catalysts), synthesizing across, and facilitating collaborative decision-making
• Lead program storytelling
• Support broader stakeholder engagement – this includes co-facilitating workshops based on the program content, conference and webinar presentations, more casual meet-and-greets, and more formal meetings with prospective funders

(30%) Team & Program Management:

• Accountable for the overall program budget 
• Accountable for collaborating with the IDEO.org Teambuilding contacts to ensure appropriate teaming for all program needs
• Create structures and work plans that ensure the program and design teams can do their best work
• Build a strong relationship with Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, building upon the existing relationship the program team has
• Ensure compliance with RWJF Grant reporting requirements, in collaboration with the Program Manager and IDEO.org Finance team

We’re Looking For:

Skills, experiences, behaviors, orientations and appetites that would make someone successful in this role:

Required:

• Design project- and people- leader with a minimum of 10 years of experience 
• Highly proactive, self-directed leader who thrives working in a distributed, collaborative culture
• Seasoned project lead with experience managing complex, multi-stream projects
• Proven design leader with experience guiding design projects and ensuring design excellence across a body of work
• Design professional with deep experience in human centered design, ability to identify opportunities for design to add value to partners’ work, and advance systemic change
• Proven leadership and experience with co-design and equity centered design practices. This includes an ability to hold space that centers the dignity and wellbeing of the people in it, and to identify and navigate choice-points around equity with stakeholders. This also includes the ability to identify White-supremacy, anti-Blackness, sexism, and other harmful ‘isms’ within design work, and design for equity at the center of the work and the process
• Some lived experience in care — whether moms, dads, gender-expansive parents, tías y tíos, foster moms, or caregivers

Preferred:

• Strong preference for a background in communication design or storytelling as your core design craft
• Experience working in the care ecosystem or strong grasp of the challenges of the current care ecosystem

The Pay

IDEO.org values pay transparency to enable jobseekers to make informed and empowered choices with their time and effort. The annualized salary range associated with this temporary, 15-month, 50% part-time role is $70,000 – $72,500, with participation in our benefits, including medical, dental, vision, 4% 401k match, technology stipend, caregiver stipend, professional development stipend, 6 weeks a year of paid vacation, and 15 paid holidays a year.

Wondering where you might land within this range? The exact salary for a role will ultimately depend on many factors, including; peer data within our organization, level of specialization required in the role, a candidate’s level of direct and relevant experience, among others. During your interview process, your Recruiter will discuss level and salary with you, to help you better understand how we make equitable pay and level decisions at IDEO.org.

The Application Requirements

If you see yourself and your skillset in the majority of the above, please apply. Studies tell us that the confidence gap and imposter syndrome can prevent women and people of color from applying unless they meet every single qualification. Your experience doesn’t perfectly match the job description? Apply anyway. You just might be a great candidate for this role or others. 

Curious about sponsorship for US roles? 

• IDEO.org is generally able to sponsor non-immigrant Visa types, including new Visa petitions, Visa extensions, and Visa transfers. However, IDEO.org does not financially sponsor PERM-based Green Cards for those seeking US permanent residence.

In order to be considered for the role, please submit a resume and complete the required application questions. We look forward to learning more about you!

What You Can Expect from Us

• A diverse and multidisciplinary team that is passionate about advancing our mission to design a more just and inclusive world. Over 85% of IDEO.org’s global staff identify as people of color and over 80% identify as women
• A community of creative thought partners across San Francisco, New York, and Nairobi
• A hybrid remote work environment, with 70% of employees working in studios located in San Francisco, New York City, and Nairobi
• A team of collaborators focused on advancing the practices of co-design and designing for equity
• A talent team committed to supporting the development of our community
• A culture of regular learning and inspiration to collectively develop ourselves and our work

Commitment to Diversity

At IDEO.org, our mission is to design a more just and inclusive world, and that means centering equity, justice, and belonging in everything we do. We strive to bring together diverse perspectives and lived experiences to create a culture where joy, care, and full self-expression can thrive. This means creating conditions for people of every race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, socio-economic status, physical ability or attribute, religion, national origin, or political belief can thrive. This includes our employees, candidates, and the partners and communities we work with. We hold ourselves accountable to providing equitable access to resources and disrupting systems of oppression both within our organization and among the communities we serve. 

This includes the following commitments:

• Fostering unconditional belonging for all staff
• Evolving processes and practices to shift power 
• Translating our values around equity and justice into structural and operational change
• Engaging in continuous and collective collective reckoning on an ongoing basis