Senior Director, Direct Services
$150,000–$180,000 year
HybridWashington, United States
Job Summary
Provide direct supervisory oversight of the Senior Manager of Care Navigation in California and the Senior Manager of the Beta Team in Texas, ensuring alignment across both programs while honoring their distinct contexts. Deliver strategic and programmatic leadership for whole-person, relationship-centered support to kinship families, foster youth, and transition-age youth, implementing fidelity to lived-experience-centered design and accountability mechanisms. Build operational infrastructure, including workflows, quality standards, and performance frameworks, while monitoring KPIs, managing resource allocation, and synthesizing frontline learning to inform organizational strategy and systems change.
Required Qualifications
- 8–12 years of progressive experience in child welfare, social services, human-centered direct service programs, or related fields
- at least 3–4 years of senior program leadership experience overseeing multiple teams, programs, or geographies
- personal or professional experience with the child welfare system or other social impact work
- deep commitment to Think of Us' mission to build a Child and Family Well-Being System centered on healing, development, and thriving
- approach this work with humility, curiosity, and a willingness to grow alongside the communities we serve
- creates trust, accountability, and shared purpose across diverse teams and geographies
- equally comfortable setting strategic direction and rolling up your sleeves to solve operational challenges
- experienced people leader who develops other managers, not just individual contributors
- knows how to coach leaders, not just staff
- build the conditions for strong management practice throughout the teams you oversee
- strong communicator who models Unconditional Positive Regard and trauma-informed care in all interactions and expectations
- understands systemic inequities and is committed to building fair, healing-centered systems
- strategic thinker who connects frontline practice to data insights, organizational learning, and system transformation
- can translate operational realities into senior leadership recommendations
- thrive in complex, multi-program environments
- bring clarity, composure, and a solutions-oriented mindset to ambiguity and rapid change
- working familiarity with AI-assisted tools and human-technology collaboration in service delivery
- bring an active learning orientation to how emerging tools can strengthen the work
- bilingual in Spanish
- understand language access as a core equity commitment across both programs
- willing and able to meet the hybrid working requirements of this role
- experience working with or alongside systems that impact youth and families
- deeply committed to learning about these systems and approaching the work with humility, curiosity, and care
- motivated by impact and systems change
- thrive in a fast-growing, evolving environment
- Candidates must be based in Washington, DC
- able to meet the hybrid requirements (minimum 3 days per week in office)
Desired Qualifications
- bilingual in Spanish (preferred)
Hiring someone like this?
Get your role in front of qualified candidates on Sorce.