Director of Data, Strategy & Performance

Harlem Children's Zone•New York, NY

7d•$90,000 - $110,000

About The Position

Harlem Children’s Zone seeks a mission-aligned Director of Data Strategy & Performance for its After-School, Community, and Early Childhood programs. Reporting directly to the Deputy Program Officer, the Director provides strategic leadership for data governance, performance management, analytics, reporting, and data-informed decision-making across the Deputy Program Officer’s portfolio. The Director establishes the vision, standards, systems, and management routines that help program leaders use reliable data to assess performance, identify risks and opportunities, strengthen execution, and improve outcomes for scholars and families. The Director is the senior program-side leader for cross-portfolio data strategy and directly supervises the Assistant Directors of Data, providing formal supervision, performance management, coaching, role expectations, and technical leadership. Managing Directors maintain a dotted-line relationship to support portfolio alignment, responsiveness, and day-to-day partnership. The Director also partners with organizational teams, including IT and Evaluation, HR, and other functions, to strengthen Salesforce (Zora) usage, data quality and governance, dashboards and scorecards, OKR and core-metric monitoring, and the integration of data into performance management and strategic planning. The position calls for a strategic, systems-oriented leader who can set direction, build organizational capacity, lead complex cross-functional initiatives, develop staff, and translate complex information into clear insights and recommendations for senior leadership. The schedule is Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., with flexibility aligned to organizational and program needs, including occasional evening or event-based responsibilities. The salary range is $90,000–$110,000 per year.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university in data analytics, information systems, statistics, business, education, social sciences, public administration, or a related field; a master’s degree is preferred.
At least 7 years of progressively responsible experience in data management, analytics, performance management, program strategy, program operations, or a related field, including significant leadership responsibility.
Demonstrated experience leading data or performance strategy across multiple programs, departments, sites, or stakeholder groups in a complex organization.
Demonstrated experience directly supervising, coaching, and developing managers or senior data professionals, including performance management, goal setting, and accountability for results.
Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Excel and/or Google Sheets and strong experience with data visualization, dashboarding, and business-intelligence tools.
Experience with Salesforce or another enterprise CRM/data-management system.
Strong analytical and strategic-thinking skills, including synthesizing complex information, identifying root causes, assessing risk, and translating findings into actionable recommendations.
Demonstrated ability to lead complex cross-functional initiatives, manage competing priorities, and influence senior stakeholders without direct authority.
Excellent communication, presentation, facilitation, and relationship-management skills.
Strong judgment, discretion, attention to detail, and commitment to accountability and follow-through.
Commitment to Harlem Children’s Zone’s mission and programs and familiarity with issues affecting children, families, and communities served by HCZ.

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree in a relevant field.
Salesforce experience is strongly preferred.
Advanced experience with Power BI, Tableau, or comparable business-intelligence and visualization platforms.
Experience supporting senior leaders with portfolio-level performance reporting, strategic analysis, and decision support.
Experience in youth development, education, nonprofit, social services, community-based programming, or another complex multi-program environment.
Experience with public-sector, funder, or contract reporting requirements and translating compliance requirements into sustainable operating practices.
Experience leading change management related to data systems, reporting practices, or performance-management processes.
Experience leading teams in a matrixed environment with direct and dotted-line reporting relationships is strongly preferred.
Demonstrated ability to establish data-governance standards, strengthen data quality, and design reporting and performance-management systems.

Responsibilities

Set and execute cross-portfolio data and performance strategy in partnership with the Deputy Program Officer, aligning it with organizational priorities, program goals, OKRs, and core metrics.
Establish portfolio-wide standards for data governance, metric definitions, data quality, reporting cadence, documentation, and accountability while accounting for program-specific requirements.
Provide strategic oversight of data integrity, completeness, timeliness, and consistency across Salesforce (Zora) and other approved systems.
Lead cross-portfolio data audits, reconciliation, root-cause analysis, and corrective-action planning; hold leaders and data teams accountable for sustained improvement.
Identify systemic gaps, duplication, workflow inefficiencies, and reporting limitations, and sponsor scalable solutions to strengthen data infrastructure and practice.
Advise the Deputy Program Officer and senior program leaders on data strategy, performance trends, emerging risks, and opportunities requiring leadership action.
Design and continuously improve cross-portfolio dashboards, scorecards, and executive reporting for visibility into OKRs, core metrics, milestones, and trends.
Analyze performance across programs and sites to identify patterns, gaps, outliers, risks, and opportunities for improvement.
Translate quantitative and qualitative information into executive-level analyses, data stories, recommendations, and decision points.
Lead data strategy and preparation for monthly data walks, performance reviews, quarterly business reviews, strategic planning, and other leadership routines.
Partner with Managing Directors and Directors to establish targets, monitor performance, assess variance, identify root causes, and develop action plans.
Commission and lead deeper analyses on priority questions identified by the Deputy Program Officer, ensuring findings inform program strategy and resource decisions.
Partner with IT, Evaluation, and program teams to define business requirements and prioritize reporting enhancements, system improvements, integrations, and data solutions.
Support scalable dashboards, automated reporting, templates, and tools that reduce manual work and improve consistency, accessibility, and decision-making.
Oversee testing, implementation, documentation, adoption, and change management for new data processes and reporting solutions within the portfolio.
Stay current on relevant data, analytics, visualization, and performance-management practices and identify opportunities to strengthen portfolio capabilities.
Directly supervise Assistant Directors of Data through goal setting, regular supervision, coaching, performance management, professional development, workload management, and accountability for results.
Partner with Managing Directors to align data priorities, assess Assistant Director support, identify portfolio needs, and ensure services respond to program goals while maintaining consistent standards.
Provide strategic and technical leadership to Assistant Directors of Data in portfolio-level data management, analysis, reporting, data quality, performance monitoring, and decision support.
Establish supervision, team meetings, portfolio reviews, and performance routines for Assistant Directors of Data to strengthen coordination, shared learning, accountability, and execution.
Build data literacy among Managing Directors, Directors, and other program leaders so they can interpret data, ask stronger questions, and use findings to manage performance.
Develop training, tools, protocols, and guidance that strengthen data ownership and accountability among program teams and data staff.
Lead high-priority data, performance-management, and continuous-improvement initiatives sponsored by the Deputy Program Officer from strategy through implementation and evaluation.
Establish governance structures, project plans, milestones, decision points, risk-management approaches, and accountability mechanisms for major initiatives.
Convene and lead cross-functional workgroups involving program leaders and organizational partners to resolve issues and advance shared priorities.
Use data to support organizational learning, program design, implementation monitoring, resource planning, and continuous improvement.
Represent the Office of the Deputy Program Officer in relevant cross-organizational data and performance-management forums.
Perform other leadership responsibilities and special projects as assigned.