Chief Program Officer

Neighborhood House•Saint Paul, MN

19h•Onsite

About The Position

The Chief Program Officer is a member of the executive team and is responsible for leading Neighborhood House’s program strategy, program quality, participant impact, service integration, evaluation, government contract performance, and community-centered service delivery. This position provides executive leadership for Food and Family Services, Housing Stability, Education and Enrichment, Social Work and Trauma-Informed Initiatives, Volunteer Engagement, and Community-Based Evaluation. The Chief Program Officer ensures that Neighborhood House’s programs are integrated, effective, participant-informed, culturally responsive, trauma-informed, and aligned with the organization’s mission, values, strategic priorities, and available resources. This role works closely with the President and CEO, executive team, program leaders, staff, volunteers, participants, community partners, funders, and public agencies to strengthen program impact and advance Neighborhood House’s role as a trusted community-based organization. This is a strategic and hands-on executive leadership role. The Chief Program Officer is responsible for building a strong, aligned program portfolio; supporting program directors and leaders; using data and community voices to improve services; managing program-related risks; and ensuring that programs are designed and delivered with quality, accountability, and care.

Requirements

Eight or more years of progressively responsible leadership experience in nonprofit, public-sector, or community-based human services, including at least five years supervising managers or senior program leaders.
Experience leading a complex program portfolio, department, or multi-service function with responsibility for program quality, staffing, budgets, outcomes, compliance, and service delivery.
Demonstrated ability to develop and implement program strategies that are mission-aligned, participant-centered, culturally responsive, trauma-informed, and grounded in community needs.
Demonstrated success as a people leader, including coaching, developing, evaluating, and supporting managers to lead their teams effectively.
Experience using data, evaluation, participant feedback, staff input, and community voice to assess program effectiveness, improve services, and strengthen outcomes.
Experience managing or overseeing government contracts, grants, restricted funding, reporting requirements, compliance obligations, or publicly funded programs.
Demonstrated ability to lead through change, strengthen systems, solve problems, manage risk, and support sustainable operations.
Experience with program data systems, evaluation tools, outcome reporting, dashboards, or continuous improvement processes.
Experience building effective relationships with community partners, public agencies, funders, participants, staff, volunteers, and other stakeholders.

Nice To Haves

Ten or more years of senior leadership experience in nonprofit, public-sector, or community-based human services.
Bachelor’s or master’s degree in social work, public administration, nonprofit management, education, public health, evaluation, human services, or a related field; equivalent experience may be considered.
Experience leading programs related to food access, housing stability, education, family support, social work, trauma-informed services, volunteer engagement, intake/navigation, or community-based evaluation.
Familiarity with St. Paul, Ramsey County, Minnesota’s human services sector, and/or the communities served by Neighborhood House.
Experience serving on an executive team or working closely with executive leadership and board members.
Multilingual ability or significant cross-cultural communication experience.

Responsibilities

Lead the development and implementation of program strategies that advance Neighborhood House's mission, values, strategic priorities, and community impact.
Ensure that programs are participant-centered, community-informed, culturally responsive, trauma-informed, integrated, and aligned with best practices.
Ensure that participant and community voices inform program strategy, design, implementation, and evaluation.
Represent Neighborhood House in community partnerships, public-sector conversations, coalitions, and collaborative initiatives related to programs and community needs.
Build and sustain strong relationships with participants, families, volunteers, community members, public agencies, schools, partner organizations, coalitions, and other stakeholders.
Ensure that community engagement practices are respectful, culturally responsive, reciprocal, and aligned with Neighborhood House's mission and values.
Partner with Advancement and the President and CEO to communicate program impact, community needs, and partnership opportunities to donors, funders, public officials, and the broader community.
Identify opportunities to improve, expand, redesign, integrate, or sunset programs based on community need, participant voice, data, funding, capacity, and mission alignment.
Provide executive leadership for Neighborhood House's program portfolio, including Food and Family Services, Housing Stability, Education and Enrichment, Social Work and Trauma-Informed Initiatives, Volunteer Engagement, and Community-Based Evaluation.
Ensure that programs have clear goals, work plans, service models, performance expectations, and measures of success.
Strengthen integration across program areas so that participants and families can access services in ways that are welcoming, effective, and easy to navigate.
Use data, evaluation, participant feedback, community voice, staff input, and best practices to assess program quality and improve outcomes.
Support program leaders in identifying barriers, solving problems, sharing learning, and improving service delivery.
Ensure that program practices reflect Neighborhood House's values, including equity and inclusion, learning and reflection, diversity and culture, community and engagement, integrity and accountability, and radical hospitality.
Lead programmatic strategy, implementation, and performance for government contracts and public funding agreements.
Monitor program performance, service delivery requirements, outcomes, and risks associated with public-funding and grant-funded programs.
Ensure that programs operate with clear policies, procedures, documentation, supervision, quality standards, and accountability systems.
Identify, assess, manage, and elevate risks related to participant safety, mandated reporting, confidentiality, program compliance, staffing, service delivery, public funding, partnerships, and reputation.
Ensure that program leaders understand and follow legal, contractual, grant, licensing, safety, data, and organizational requirements.
Elevate concerns related to program capacity, compliance, staffing, participant impact, or financial sustainability as needed.
Partner with Administration, Finance, HR, IT, and Facilities to address program-related staffing, budget, technology, space, safety, compliance, and operational needs.
Ensure that program budgets and staffing plans are aligned with service goals, funding requirements, and available resources.
Partner with the Chief Advancement Officer to identify, assess, and pursue public and private funding opportunities that align with program strategy, participant needs, and organizational capacity.
Partner with the Chief Administrative Officer and Finance team to ensure that program budgets, staffing models, compliance requirements, reporting obligations, and fiscal implications are understood before funding commitments are made.
Ensure that government contracts, grants, and restricted funding commitments are implemented in ways that are compliant, effective, and aligned with participant needs and program capacity.
Provide executive oversight of volunteer engagement as a mission-aligned strategy that strengthens service delivery, community connection, and participant experience.
Ensure that volunteer roles, supervision, training, safety practices, and systems are aligned with program needs and organizational values.
Provide executive oversight of Program Access functions, including intake, navigation, front-facing service coordination, or related access points as assigned.
Ensure that access points are welcoming, clear, consistent, culturally responsive, and grounded in radical hospitality.
Partner with Program, Advancement, Facilities, Administration, and IT to ensure that participant-facing systems, spaces, and processes support effective service delivery.
Provide executive leadership for program evaluation, impact measurement, data-informed decision-making, and organizational learning related to programs.
Ensure that evaluation practices help Neighborhood House understand participant outcomes, program effectiveness, service quality, community needs, and opportunities for improvement.
Partner with program leaders to define meaningful outcomes, collect useful data, review results, and use findings to strengthen programs.
Ensure that evaluation and reporting practices balance accountability to funders with learning, improvement, and respect for participants and communities.
Partner with Advancement and Finance to support grant reporting, funder outcomes, government contract performance, and public communication about impact.
Partner with Administration and IT to ensure program data systems are effective, secure, accessible, and consistently used.
Supervise and support program directors.
Establish clear roles, goals, workflows, expectations, and accountability across the program portfolio.
Develop, coach, and evaluate direct reports, ensuring they have the clarity, resources, and support needed to lead effectively.
Foster a culture of collaboration, continuous improvement, equity, learning, accountability, and participant-centered service.
Support program leaders in managing staff performance, workload, morale, communication, and change.
Assess the program's structure, staffing, workload, capacity, and performance, and recommend changes as needed to support sustainable operations.
Support succession planning, leadership development, and professional growth across the program portfolio.