Executive Director GWGL Mission Support

Goodwill Greater Milwaukee & Chicago•Great Lakes, IL

1d•Onsite

About The Position

The Executive Director, Great Lakes Mission, Engagement and Compliance plays a key leadership role in advancing Goodwill Great Lakes' mission through community partnerships, workforce development, contract compliance, and AbilityOne program oversight. This position combines strategy, operations, and relationship-building, partnering with leaders across the organization to drive performance, ensure compliance, strengthen recruitment efforts, and expand community engagement. The role is ideal for a collaborative leader who enjoys using data to solve problems, improve processes, build strong partnerships, and create opportunities for people served through Goodwill's mission. Success in this position requires balancing business objectives and compliance requirements while fostering meaningful community impact and supporting the long-term growth of Goodwill Great Lakes. The Executive Director Great Lakes Mission, Engagement and Compliance oversees all AbilityOne, community outreach, Goodwill program engagement and contract compliance reporting at Goodwill Great Lakes and report out on key performance indicators (KPIs) to Senior Vice President (SVP) Goodwill Great Lakes.

Requirements

Bachelor’s Degree or experience equivalency, and a minimum of 8 years’ experience.
A REAL ID-compliant driver’s license is required for access to the naval base and for employment. Candidates must provide proof of this identification.

Nice To Haves

Demonstrates thorough business/industry knowledge and can synthesize business information and respond to changing market dynamics effectively.
Proactively monitors external factors and policies that may affect the organization.
Uses knowledge to plan work and guide decision making.
Fosters a culture that supports people taking well-reasoned risks, regardless of outcome and appropriately advocates for decisions that are for the good of the organization.
Confronts actions that are inconsistent with the Guiding Principles and demonstrates the ability to provide leadership through high-stakes situations, crises, or conditions of uncertainty.
Fosters a customer service-focused environment with a sense of urgency and importance of meeting the customer’s needs.
Establishes organizational partnerships with key customers and ensures resources and support are focused on meeting customer needs.
Cultivates an environment that makes all people feel valued and that encourages and supports diversity and inclusion.
Sponsors and mentors people from a variety of backgrounds and perspectives.
Applies understanding of cultural differences to create value and help meet business goals.
Promotes a free flow of information throughout the organization and demonstrates candor and openness when discussing major organizational initiatives.
Creates venues for constructive dialogue and ensures organizational information is cascaded to a wide variety of audiences at all levels.
Demonstrates flexibility in a changing, competitive environment and initiates change in response to the cues in the external environment.
Adapts leadership style in response to a broad range of situations and challenges that ingrains flexibility within the organizations structures, systems and culture.
Drives organization to achieve results that have a direct impact on business performance.
Pushes the organization to move forward in difficult circumstances and eliminates obstacles that affect organizational performance.
Ensures the organization meets commitments and holds leaders accountable for team performance.
Sets and monitors goals that align with organizational strategy creating an environment of accountability for meeting agreed upon expectations and performance expectations.

Responsibilities

Develops long- and short-term business strategies (3-5 years), and oversees implementation for AbilityOne requirements, administrative activities, subcontract hiring and contract, as well as Great Lakes community outreach.
Is heavily involved in developing department standard operating procedures.
Forecasts and plans annual operating and capital budget, implements cost-savings measures.
Maintains and adjusts operating budget, manages expenses based on changes in internal or external factors, and communicates budgetary performance.
Typically works on projects and initiatives that span 2-5 years.
Responsible for integration of systems, systems metrics and analysis.
Oversee all AbilityOne, community outreach, Goodwill program engagement and contract compliance reporting at Goodwill Great Lakes and report out on key performance indicators (KPIs) to Senior Vice President (SVP) Goodwill Great Lakes.
Continuously monitor relevant reports to track KPI progress and identify potential performance and compliance risks.
Leverage high quantities of complex and occasionally contradictory data to effectively drive plans, mitigate risks and improve operational performance.
Achieve strong people-first results that are aligned with the strategies of both Goodwill Great Lakes and Goodwill Industries of SEW.
Partner with the Finance team to receive data and insight into financial KPIs and holds direct reports accountable for spending decisions.
Leverage Director team to understand initiatives and financial performance, and provide guidance as needed.
Identify financial risks and underperformance, and partner with team to develop and execute solutions that will position Goodwill Great Lakes for success, both current state and into the future.
Responsible for AbilityOne contract compliance at Goodwill Great Lakes.
Monitors AbilityOne movement trends and legal landscape to position Goodwill for future success.
Oversee and co-create strategies to maintain and improve Goodwill’s AbilityOne talent pipeline, worked hours ratio, and connection to the local AB1 movement.
Partner with Director team to ensure that strong recruitment practices.
Oversee recruitment plans and strategy for job fairs and community engagement.
Review recruitment strategy results with Director team and collaborate with team to drive changes that will bring recruitment to its required levels.
AbilityOne recruitment is of tantamount important to Goodwill Great Lakes compliance and must be treated as such in all plans and KPIs.
Partner with Executive Director Great Lakes Operations regarding strategies to maintain and improve Goodwill’s AbilityOne worked hours ratio and connection to the local AB1 movement.
Responsible for all contract compliance reporting, including AbilityOne, Great Lakes Resources (GLR) and BECC.
Review contract compliance reporting results with Director team and key stakeholders and partner with team to generate plans to improve compliance results where needed.
Ensure strong working relationships with all Goodwill Great Lakes stakeholders. This includes but is not limited to state and local government representatives, subcontractors and vendors and community organizations.
Partner with Director team to ensure that stakeholder expectations are met or exceeded and that strong stakeholder communications are in place.
Develop and execute plans to ensure that Goodwill Great Lakes is engaged with the community, with the aim of bolstering the reputation of Goodwill Great Lakes and establishing it as an employer of choice.
Develop Director-level team to ensure that team is performing at level, growing in role, and function strongly as a collaborative and goal-oriented leadership team.
Set individual and team goals for Directors that ensure that current and long-term success of the Goodwill Great Lakes operation.
Ensure that Director team is working with their direct reports to ensure that all management personnel are performing at the appropriate level; where this is not the case, partner with Human Resources to craft development plans and hold incumbents accountable.
Interface with Goodwill leaders across the enterprise to understand and leverage organizational projects, particularly but not limited to Mission-based programming.
Evaluate how Goodwill enterprise-wide initiatives can be implemented at Goodwill Great Lakes and leverage team to draw connections between enterprise projects and Goodwill Great Lakes and ensure that Goodwill Great Lakes is part of the planning and execution process.
Manages organizational design for area of responsibility and directs talent planning, hiring, development and training of staff.
Will participate in succession planning discussions.
Networks and sources for positions throughout the organization.
Serves as project owner for high complexity department, cross-functional or multi-location projects and improvement initiatives.
Set project direction including project scope, timeline and resources.
Accountable for making decisions and project success.
Manages change through effective planning, communication and coaching.
Builds and participates in leadership coalition supporting and implementing organizational change.
Actively engages with community partners and links activities to business performance.
Responsible for completing other duties/responsibilities as assigned.