Director of Data, Strategy & Performance

Harlem Childrens Zone•New York, NY

About The Position

Harlem Children’s Zone (HCZ), a New York-based education and poverty-fighting organization, seeks a Director of Data Strategy & Performance for its After-School, Community, and Early Childhood programs. The Director provides strategic leadership for data governance, performance management, analytics, reporting, and data-informed decision-making across the Deputy Program Officer’s portfolio. Reporting directly to the Deputy Program Officer, 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 partners with organizational teams including IT, Evaluation, and HR 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 routines. The role leads cross-portfolio strategy and governance, executive analytics and decision support, reporting infrastructure and innovation, team development and data capacity building, and complex cross-functional initiatives. The successful candidate will be a strategic, systems-oriented data leader who can build organizational capacity, lead complex initiatives, develop staff, and translate complex information into clear insights and recommendations for senior leadership. The position is based in New York; the posting does not specify a workplace type.

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.
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.
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 the mission and programs of Harlem Children’s Zone and familiarity with issues affecting the children, families, and communities it serves.

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree in data analytics, information systems, statistics, business, education, social sciences, public administration, or a related field.
Salesforce experience.
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.
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 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 data audits, reconciliation, root-cause analysis, and corrective-action planning, and hold leaders and data teams accountable for sustained improvement.
Identify systemic gaps, duplication, workflow inefficiencies, and reporting limitations, and sponsor scalable solutions that 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 OKRs, core metrics, milestones, and trends.
Analyze performance across programs and sites to identify patterns, gaps, outliers, emerging risks, and opportunities for improvement.
Translate quantitative and qualitative information into executive 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 and ensure 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.
Monitor relevant data, analytics, visualization, and performance-management practices and identify opportunities to strengthen portfolio capabilities.
Directly supervise Assistant Directors of Data, including goal setting, 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 meet program goals while maintaining cross-portfolio standards.
Provide strategic and technical leadership to Assistant Directors of Data in data management, analysis, reporting, 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 the data literacy of Managing Directors, Directors, and other program leaders so they can interpret data, ask informed questions, and use findings to manage performance.
Develop training, tools, protocols, and guidance to 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 leadership 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 cross-organizational data and performance-management forums.
Perform other leadership responsibilities and special projects as assigned.