Application Opening: April 16, 2024
Application Deadline: May 7, 2024
Compensation Range: $109,122-$132,600 (Compensation database)
Appointment: Full-Time, TPV- Temporary Provisional

Appointment Type: Temporary Provisional (TPV), is excluded by the Charter from the competitive Civil Service examination process. A provisional appointee must participate and be successful in a Civil Service examination for this classification and be selected through an open competitive process in order to be considered for permanent appointment. This temporary position limited to no more than 3 years in duration. 

About the San Francisco Department of Early Childhood 
The Department of Early Childhood (DEC) is a City and County of San Francisco Department dedicated to our young children's healthy development. As the City’s largest funder of early childhood, DEC is committed to creating a system that ensures every child can thrive and learn. We provide public investment, expertise, and leadership to put resources into the hands of those who care for our City’s youngest children. 

DEC is the result of a merger of two existing city departments, First 5 and the Office of Early Care and Education. Both First 5 and OECE have long histories of supporting young children and families in San Francisco through innovations in early care and education, family support services, and programs to support children’s healthy development. They merged to expand their capacity and funding and to better integrate the City’s early childhood services.

Racial Equity Commitment 
The Department of Early Childhood condemns all forms of racism, sexism, homo/biphobia, transphobia, ableism, xenophobia, and other forms of discrimination; and affirms that all people – including Black, Indigenous, and People of Color – have a right to be in our City and have a right to safe and affordable housing, neighborhoods free from pollution and violence, opportunities for educational advancement and wealth creation, healthy births, early childhoods with abundant opportunities to thrive free from the toxic effects of racism, and access to essential services such as parks, transportation, health care, and child care. The Department of Early Childhood is committed to the principles of racial equity and continues to implement new strategies to ensure that every child can learn and thrive.

Workforce Initiative Description
The DEC Early Educator Workforce Initiatives aims to improve outcomes for San Francisco’s children and families by providing additional compensation to support a well-educated, well-compensated, and stable workforce.

DEC is committed to providing resources to programs and individuals that reward early care and education (ECE) staff for increased educational attainment, experience, and additional qualifications/skills.

Position Description
The Professional Development Pathways Program Officer for the Workforce Development Initiative is part of a diverse team dedicated to the advancement, retention and working conditions of early educators. This position reports to the Workforce Initiatives Manager under the Early Learning Division and oversees the Professional Development Pathways grant portfolio and programming.

The Program Officer will work closely with the Workforce Compensation Program Officer, members of the Quality Early Learning, and the Data & Evaluation, Policy and Communication Teams to implement an array of grant making, capacity building, grants management, technical assistance, evaluation, communication, and funder and stakeholder organizing efforts while supporting and fostering key relationships within the department and with community-based partners.

The Program Officer performs a variety of activities related to the funding of various local early educator workforce projects and programs; may provide direct oversight of program implementation and technical program staff; will participate in significant program planning, development, program implementation, and evaluation; conducts program analyses, makes recommendations on operational corrections to comply with contractual requirements and support departmental goals and mission; prepares reports and records and performs related duties as required.

Examples of important and essential functions of this position include:

Systems and Partnership Level 

• Research and remain active in current policy, activities, and trends within the field of early education professional development pathways and policies; apply this information in the context of the workforce initiative grant portfolio and/or direct implementation of workforce support programming.
• Work with the Policy & Impact Division for internal/external research, analyze and synthesize trends and opportunities in early education professional development support efforts or related fields to translate into potential opportunities for action and investment.
• Develops key emerging strategies and partnerships with higher education institutions and stakeholders in coordination with the Workforce Initiatives Manager.
• Engage in professional development and continuous learning, including participating in conferences and meetings, regional networks, and other field-building/professional development opportunities that will enhance leadership development.
• Provide guidance to the design and implementation of educational pathways (such as college level coursework) grant programming.
• Initiate and sustain collaborative partnerships and activities with staff, City departments, and other early childhood stakeholders at local, regional, state levels to ensure effective implementation of grant portfolio and promote integration with related efforts.  
• Integrate and align other Early Learning Division initiatives and efforts as needed; participate in department-wide planning, resource allocation, and organizational development.  

Grantmaking and Support

• Lead and manage the grant portfolio for the Professional Development Pathways Initiatives which includes oversight of budget utilization, activities, and the compliance performance of grantees.
• Lead in coordinating program design and implementation of crucial early educator professional development pathways programs, including managing and coordinating current and emerging partnerships with non-profit organizations, higher education institutions, provider communities, and other key community stakeholder groups.
• Effectively center equity in program solutions and system design approaches, including development of training, coursework and professional development requirements of programming that acknowledges the experiences of the diverse workforce and the need for supports and strategies to increase access to institutions of higher education.
• Read, analyze, and interpret common professional publications, research, legislative or policy documents, financial reports and related agency documents and information
• Monitor expenditures related to approved budgets, ensure reimbursement of authorized expenses, maintain supporting documentation of related contracts and financial/budgetary analyses to ensure grants stay within scope and cost, and work with the Finance and Operations Division on mid-year and year-end budget reconciliation.  
• Oversee and manage the monitoring, compliance, and performance evaluation for each partner agency grant; includes conducting program review visits, supporting evaluation and data collection, tracking Key Performance Indicators/Metrics, and establishing and coordinating other methods and procedures to ensure accountability. 
• Manage, support, and/or participate in funding processes, proposal review process, and proposal selection processes. 
• Works with identified data system to establish and collect training and professional development reporting, to develop integrated data system tracking that will link quality supports, child outcomes, teacher supports, and other evaluation data while helping to design additional strategic investments in professional development pathways.
• Collect data and information and prepare a wide variety of reports, memoranda, and correspondences on initiative progress and status; recommend project or program modifications to assure initiative goal attainment, high quality implementation of services, and contract adherence.  
• Develop annual workplan, with guidance from the Workforce Initiatives Manager, to determine short and long-term goals for establishing professional development pathways data collection, analysis, policy and programmatic approaches to address strategies to improve access to and the development of professional development pathways for the ECE workforce. Plan to include assessment of barriers, strategies for mitigating obstacles, and actions to support increasing access to pathways for professional development and training.
• Develops, in coordination with the Workforce Initiatives Manager, key emerging strategies that support programming that bolsters access to coursework, student support and professional development attainment efforts, such as degree-facing cohort models for the early educator workforce.
• Provide troubleshooting, guidance, and technical support to grantees and participating programs/agencies as needed.
• As needed: oversee the work of external consultants; report to senior level and executive management; supervise staff. 
• Support and facilitate consultation with organizational and provider/educator grantees; as needed provide technical support to organizations and providers/educators and interested in accessing professional development pathways supports.
   
• Other duties as assigned.
• This position will require some evening and weekend meetings, including travel regionally and nationally.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS
1. Possession of a baccalaureate degree from an accredited college or university AND three (3) years of administrative/professional experience in community development, housing development, workforce development, finance, education, social work, children/youth work, or criminal justice; OR

2. Possession of a baccalaureate degree from an accredited college or university with a major in one of the following fields: public or business administration, urban planning, government, social work, education, finance or criminal justice AND two (2) year of administrative/professional experience in community development, housing and/or housing development, workforce development, finance, education, social work, children/youth work, criminal justice; OR

3. Possession of a master’s degree from an accredited college or university in public policy, planning, social work, public administration, finance, education, criminal justice, or business administration; AND one (1) year of administrative/professional experience in community development, housing and /or housing development, workforce development, finance, education, social work, children/youth work, or criminal justice; OR

4. Possession of a Juris Doctor degree from an accredited college or university AND one (1) year of administrative/professional experience in community development, housing and/or housing development, workforce development, finance, education, social work, children/youth work, or criminal justice.

SUBSTITUTION:

Verifiable administrative/professional experience involving community development, housing and/or housing development, workforce development, finance, education, social work, children/youth work, or criminal justice may substitute for the educational requirement in Minimum Qualification #1 on a year-for-year basis.
 

DESIRABLE QUALIFICATIONS

• Bilingual Chinese, Spanish, or African American Vernacular English (AAVE) preferred, but not required.
• Minimum of 5 years of full-time progressively responsible experience in a public or private organization of which a minimum of 2 years in ECE workforce development.
• Experience managing programs, budgeting processes, and staff in a complex environment.
• Strong understanding of the diverse licensed and informal care ECE workforce, their strengths, needs, and challenges including, but not limited to, pay and compensation.
• Knowledge of the principles of and best practices of early care and education workforce research and teacher qualifications.
• Strong understanding of the Early Care and Education staffing qualification requirements for respective child care subsidy programs such as Title 5 contractors, Early Head Start/Head Start and voucher subsidies in Title 22 and license-exempt settings.
• Understanding of the state landscape of workforce investments by the California Department of Social Services, California Department of Education, First 5 California and other state and local public entities.

Verification: Applicants may be required to submit verification of qualifying education and experience at any point during the recruitment and selection process. If education verification is required, information on how to verify education requirements, including verifying foreign education credits or degree equivalency, can be found at https://sfdhr.org/how-verify-education-requirements (or contact HR Analyst for information).

Note: Falsifying one’s education, training, or work experience or attempted deception on the application may result in disqualification for this and future job opportunities with the City and County of San Francisco.

All work experience, education, training, and other information substantiating how you meet the minimum qualifications must be included on your application by the filing deadline. Information submitted after the filing deadline will not be considered in determining whether you meet the minimum qualifications. 

Resumes will not be accepted in lieu of a completed City and County of San Francisco application. 

Applications completed improperly may be cause for ineligibility or disqualification.

After application submission, candidates deemed qualified must complete all subsequent steps to advance in the selection process.

Selection Procedures

The selection process will include evaluation of applications in relation to minimum requirements. Applicants meeting the minimum qualifications are not guaranteed advancement to the interview. Depending on the number of applicants, the Department may establish and implement additional screening mechanisms to comparatively evaluate the qualifications of candidates. If this becomes necessary, only those applicants whose qualifications most closely meet the needs of the Department will be invited to participate in the oral/performance interview. 

HOW TO APPLY
Applications for City and County of San Francisco jobs are only accepted through an online process. Visit Career Page and begin the application process.
• Select the “I’m Interested” button and follow instructions on the screen

Applicants may be contacted by email about this recruitment and, therefore, it is their responsibility to ensure that their registered email address is accurate and kept up-to-date. Also, applicants must ensure that email from CCSF is not blocked on their computer by a spam filter. To prevent blocking, applicants should set up their email to accept CCSF mail from the following addresses (@sfgov.org, @sfdpw.org, @sfport.com, @flysfo.com, @sfwater.org, @sfdph.org, @asianart.org, @sfmta.com, @sfpl.org, @dcyf.org, @famsf.org, @ccsf.edu, @smartalerts.info, and @smartrecruiters.com).

Applicants will receive a confirmation email that their online application has been received in response to every announcement for which they file. Applicants should retain this confirmation email for their records. Failure to receive this email means that the online application was not submitted or received.

Additional Information Regarding Employment with the City and County of San Francisco:

• Information About the Hiring Process
• Conviction History
• Employee Benefits Overview
• Equal Employment Opportunity
• Disaster Service Worker
• ADA Accommodation
• Veterans Preference
• Right to Work
• Copies of Application Documents
• Diversity Statement

The City and County of San Francisco encourages women, minorities and persons with disabilities to apply. Applicants will be considered regardless of their sex, race, age, religion, color, national origin, ancestry, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition (associated with cancer, a history of cancer, or genetic characteristics), HIV/AIDS status, genetic information, marital status, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, military and veteran status, or other protected category under the law.