Director, People and Systems
Director, People and Systems
Remote
All candidates must live in California.
Posted: 10/27/22
The California College Guidance Initiative
is looking for an innovative and meticulous professional to lead the day-to-day management of the organization’s internal operations team, which includes driving CCGI’s talent development initiatives and overseeing our Salesforce and contracting teams.
CCGI streamlines the college planning and application process for California students and helps colleges access the information they need to inform key decisions about admission, first-year academic placement, financial aid, advising, and supportive services. While the Director, People and Systems will focus their efforts on operational and administrative functions internal to CCGI, they will do so because of a strong awareness of the systematic barriers California students can face as they plan, prepare, and pay for postsecondary education and training. Importantly, the Director will demonstrate a commitment to removing those barriers for students.
In this role, the Director, People and Systems ensures consistent tracking and documentation of organization-wide processes, including the maintenance of existing processes and protocols in Salesforce and Google, and the development of new tracking mechanisms to align with CCGI’s rapid growth and scaling. They play a critical role in the continued development of CCGI’s talent development initiatives, including professional development and coaching of the organization’s people managers by building out and implementing people managers’ activities that align with CCGI’s core values and competencies. Additionally, they are a critical thought-partner to the Chief People and Systems Officer (CPSO) to ensure CCGI’s recruitment efforts meet the organization’s ongoing hiring needs.
The ideal candidate is eager to both maintain and evolve existing work and also flex their creative and strategic muscles to design and implement longer term strategies to support staff retention at a critical juncture in the organization’s growth. In their day-to-day interactions, the Director, People and Systems will demonstrate a sincere commitment to collaboration and learning, feedback, and building authentic relationships. They will be willing to learn and unlearn habits to best serve the organization and they will be a reliable and compassionate people manager.
We work to solve large scale, system-level problems. You must be comfortable working with unknowns and ambiguous solutions, as well as passionate about promoting public education and advancing educational equity.
What Will You Be Doing?
- Support the CPSO and recruiting team to ensure CCGI’s recruitment program is reflective of current industry best practices and intentionally designed to attract and hire highly qualified candidates whose values and skills align with CCGI’s values, needs, and team characteristics.
- Implement CCGI’s onboarding program with an explicit focus on ensuring new employees establish a strong foundation transitioning into CCGI’s culture so they are inspired to make a long-term commitment to the organization.
- Drive the development and iteration of a talent development program model and suite of standard workshops that reflect CCGI’s values and core characteristics and supports staff retention and growth:
- Iterate, grow, and implement use of the Nonviolent Communication feedback model to enhance communication across the organization.
- Iterate goals of the people managers program and develop and facilitate supportive activities.
- Regularly develop supportive training and materials relevant for all team members, and facilitate ongoing activities to meet the evolving needs of the organization.
- Develop systematic ways to address employee skill and knowledge gaps (i.e. task management, synthesis and application of new knowledge, strategic thinking, etc.) via professional development activities.
- Drive organization wide implementation of routines that support the full cycle of performance review, including the first year performance discussion processes, annual performance reviews, and goals reviews.
- Lead the maintenance of organizational-wide communication and collaborative processes.
- Drive and implement cross-team collaboration systems and routines, as well as all general operational and administrative functions of the organization.
- Liaise with the Foundation as needed.
- Provide high quality, consistent, and strategic leadership to two teams:
- Oversee CCGI’s contracting team responsible for managing data-sharing MOU processes and most of CCGI’s vendor contracts.
- Oversee CCGI’s Salesforce team responsible for development and maintenance of Salesforce.
- Model, at the highest level, CCGI’s values and organizational characteristics in both actions and how decisions are made and create ongoing spaces for people across the organization to strengthen their own knowledge, awareness, and skills associated with values and organizational characteristics
- Maintain working knowledge of CaliforniaColleges.edu.
- Active member of CCGI’s Expanded Leadership Team.
What Technical Skills Do You Need?
- Demonstrated success designing and leading implementation of organizational processes.
- Experience with organizational recruitment and talent development design and implementation.
- Minimum of five (5) + years of experience coaching and managing the work of a small team.
- Ability to gather, analyze, synthesize, and present both quantitative and qualitative information effectively.
- Proficiency in Excel.
- Familiarity with California’s college and career readiness landscape, including experience working within or in collaboration with one of the state’s public education segments.
- Experience with Salesforce preferred, or similar Customer Relationship Management tool.
What Intangibles Do You Need?
- Strong decision-making skills and collaborative spirit, with the ability to take abstract brainstorming and generate concrete proposals for action.
- Advance projects without detailed supervision, balancing multiple responsibilities and providing colleagues with actionable proposals for advancing collective efforts.
- Commitment to coaching and mentoring a team by providing and receiving direct feedback, modeling vulnerability, and leading with professionalism and kindness.
- Thrive in a fast-paced environment with changing priorities and deadlines.
- Juggle multiple projects of various scopes with ease and grace.
- Meticulous attention to detail.
- Excellent verbal communication skills and the ability to communicate with various levels of professionals.
More about CCGI
The California College Guidance Initiative (CCGI) works to ensure that all 6th-12th grade students in California have access to a systematic baseline of guidance and support as they plan, prepare, and pay for postsecondary education and training.
This baseline is provided by CaliforniaColleges.edu, which provides California students and educators with a wide range of college and career planning information and tools. The site also houses, audits, and transmits student data to help ensure more accurate and efficient decisions regarding admissions, financial aid, and course placement. CCGI provides technical assistance, support, and training to K-12 school districts in order to support students, counselors, and parents with the systematic use of CaliforniaColleges.edu, including its transcript-informed tools.
CCGI forms the core of the college planning and application tools in California’s newly-launched Cradle-to-Career System. Over the next few years, the Cradle-to-Career System will scale CCGI so that all California 6th-12th grade students can have free access to our transcript-informed tools.
CCGI is a positive, diverse, and supportive culture. At our core, we prioritize the needs of students above all else.
Everyone at CCGI works remotely. We are all located in various parts of California. We rarely meet in person. Instead, we make use of tools, such as ZOOM, Slack, and Salesforce, to communicate and document our work.
CCGI is housed at the Foundation for California Community Colleges but is an autonomous initiative with its own mission, goals, and leadership team.
The application process will be open until the position is filled.
CCGI is housed at the Foundation for California Community Colleges but is an autonomous initiative with its own mission, goals, and leadership team.
The Foundation for California Community Colleges is committed to providing an environment of mutual respect where equal employment opportunities (EEO) are available to all employees and applicants without regard to race, color, ancestry, national origin, genetic characteristics, sex, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, marital/parental status, political affiliation, religion, age, disability, pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding or veteran status. In addition to federal law requirements, the Foundation for California Community Colleges complies with applicable state and local laws governing non-discrimination in employment.
As the official nonprofit auxiliary to the Chancellor’s Office, we aim to ensure our team reflects the diversity of the California Community Colleges and the 1.8 million students, campuses, and communities it serves. Individuals are hired for their deep understanding of each population’s unique needs and will join a collaborative environment where each team member plays an important role in helping Californians across all communities improve their social and economic mobility and build a better future for themselves and their families.
Application Instructions
- Click the apply button below to be taken to the Foundation for California Community Colleges website, where the application is housed.
- Include both a cover letter and resume with your application.