Vice President, Empowerment (54162)

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES 
The Vice President of Empowerment provides executive leadership and strategic oversight for the Empowerment Division, advancing RiseBoro's mission to empower individuals and families to remain stable in their communities. The division encompasses a comprehensive portfolio of homelessness prevention, rehousing, tenant case management, Right to Counsel tenant support, benefits access and enrollment, financial empowerment workforce development, economic mobility, and community-based programs, delivered primarily under contract with the City of New York. The Vice President drives organizational impact through strategic leadership, operational excellence, financial stewardship, talent development, innovation, and cross-sector partnerships. 

This is the role for an operator. The division meets its contractual obligations today; RiseBoro is seeking a transformational leader who will raise the bar beyond compliance. The Vice President will treat contractual requirements as a baseline, not an endpoint—using data to identify what is working and what is not, testing improvements, measuring results, and scaling proven approaches. The Vice President will lead a team of experienced directors, own the division’s data and technology infrastructure, and build more efficient systems that maximize frontline capacity and reduce unnecessary administrative burden.
 
Key Responsibilities and Duties: 
•      Provide oversight of the division's portfolio of programs, ensuring operational excellence, financial sustainability, regulatory compliance, measurable outcomes, and adherence to industry best practices, contractual requirements, and organizational policies. 
•    Set annual performance targets for each program that exceed contracted minimums and keep every program at or above contracted enrollment, service levels, and deliverables. Review progress with directors on a fixed monthly cadence, and report performance risk early to the CPO with a corrective plan attached.
•    Keep programs audit-ready at all times and lead preparation for funder site visits, program audits, and contract renewals.
•    Manage the division's budget, financial performance, and resource allocation in partnership with the finance team and Chief Financial Officer. 
•    Establish and monitor key performance indicators, outcome measures, and risk management strategies to strengthen program effectiveness, drive outcomes that align with the mission of the organization and deliver high-quality service to participants. 
•    Maintain a division-level performance dashboard covering enrollment, utilization, milestone attainment, outcomes, timeliness, and contract spend-down against plan. Make it the basis of every program review and the source for communicating impact to funders, the executive team, and the Board.
•    Drive innovation and collaboration across programs and departments to maximize impact, operational efficiency, and integrated service delivery. 
•    Identify manual and duplicative work and eliminate it through system configuration, automation, or integration, partnering internally on system selection so data moves between systems instead of being re-keyed. Measure success in staff hours returned to direct service.
•    Evaluate emerging tools, including AI-assisted documentation, translation, and reporting, and pilot them with explicit guardrails on participant confidentiality, data privacy, and funder requirements.
•    Use data to identify and diagnose areas of underperformance, determine root causes, test targeted improvements, measure their impact, and scale or modify approaches based on results. Develop and execute divisional strategies that align with organizational priorities and respond to evolving community needs. 
•    Champion innovative, community-centered approaches that leverage local assets and create pathways to long-term stability and opportunity for New Yorkers. 
•    Build structured referral pathways with RiseBoro Property Management so households showing early signs of instability — arrears, repeated late payment, an initiated legal proceeding — reach prevention, benefits, and legal support services before a crisis.
•    Lead recruitment, selection, performance management, and talent development for divisional leadership and staff, building organizational capacity through succession planning and professional growth at all levels. 
•    Evaluate staff performance, recommend staff for promotion, and address performance issues directly and promptly. 
•    Cultivate strategic partnerships with government agencies, funders, community organizations, and other stakeholders to expand organizational impact and service reach. 
•    Develop and maintain relationships with public and private funding partners to strengthen and diversify revenue streams, supporting fundraising, grant development, and resource cultivation alongside the Advancement team. 
•    Represent RiseBoro as a spokesperson, ambassador, and thought leader with government officials, community partners, funders, and external stakeholders. 
•    Serve as a member of the Senior Leadership Team, contributing to organizational strategy, growth, and mission advancement. 
•      Inspire and empower staff to achieve ambitious goals while fostering a culture rooted in integrity, transparency, respect, inclusion, and service excellence. 
•     Other duties as assigned by CPO and/or executive team.  

COMPETENCIES 
•    Excellent oral and written communication skills.  
•    Financial/Resource management experience.  
•    Experience fundraising and grant development preferred.  
•    Experienced supervisor of multi-site programs and initiatives and leading multi-disciplinary teams.  
•    Ability to work flexibly, innovatively, independently, and effectively with diverse staff, consultants, community leaders, funders, and government officials. 
•    Data and technology fluency. Builds and interrogates a report personally rather than waiting for someone else to produce it, and uses systems and automation to reduce administrative burden on frontline staff.
•    Results orientation. Sets targets above the contracted floor and manage them.
•    Bias toward iteration. Tests a change on a small scale, measures it, and scales or modifies it on evidence.
•    Operational discipline. Runs a consistent management cadence and keeps commitments visible and tracked.

EDUCATION EXPERIENCE 
•    Master's degree in business administration, Law, Social Services, Healthcare or Community Services, Behavioral Science, and/or Public Administration preferred.  
•    Bachelor’s Degree is required.  
•    At least ten years of progressive experience in nonprofit, human services, or public sector management, including at least five years leading other leaders. 
•    Direct experience managing government-funded human services contracts, including performance-based contracts, in New York City or a comparable jurisdiction.
•    A demonstrated record of exceeding contracted performance targets, with specific examples the candidate can speak in detail.
•    Experience managing budgets of $15 million or more across multiple funding streams.
•    Substantive experience in at least two of the following: case management, homelessness prevention or housing stability, public benefits of access, workforce development, financial empowerment.
•    Working fluency with case management and participant data systems and the reporting built on them.
•    Preferred: experience selecting, implementing, or migrating a case management or participant data platform; familiarity with New York City program models such as Right to Counsel / Universal Access, HomeBase, Financial Empowerment Centers, and Workforce1; training in a continuous improvement or results-based accountability methodology; and professional working proficiency in Spanish.

 FIRST-YEAR PRIORITIES

•    Establish a high-performance management system for the Empowerment Division. Within the first 6 months, establish clear annual performance targets for every program, with targets that exceed contracted minimums where appropriate. Implement a consistent monthly performance review cadence, with 100% of programs reviewed monthly against enrollment, service, outcome, and financial targets and corrective action plans developed promptly for identified performance risks.
•    Develop and implement a division-level performance dashboard. Within the first six months, establish a dashboard that provides reliable, timely visibility into enrollment, utilization, milestone attainment, outcomes, timeliness, contract deliverables, and spend-downs. Make the dashboard the primary tool for monthly program reviews and quarterly reporting to the CPO, executive team, funders, and Board.
•    Strengthen operational efficiency and technology infrastructure. Within the first year, complete an assessment of the division's major workflows, systems, and administrative processes; identify and prioritize opportunities to eliminate duplicative or manual work through system configuration, automation, or integration; and establish a baseline for measuring staff time returned to direct participant service.
•    Establish a culture of continuous improvement and measurable innovation. Implement a structured improvement methodology across the division, completing at least two documented improvement cycles during the first year. Each cycle should identify a defined problem or performance gap, test a specific intervention, measure results, and determine whether the approach should be adopted, modified, or discontinued.
•    Strengthen integrated prevention and service pathways. Within the first year, establish and operationalize structured referral pathways with Property Management and other relevant RiseBoro divisions so households demonstrating early indicators of instability are connected to prevention, benefits, legal, and other supportive services before their circumstances escalate.
•    Strengthen leadership capacity, accountability, and succession planning. Establish clear performance expectations for divisional directors, implement regular leadership coaching and accountability practices, and complete a leadership and succession assessment within the first year, identifying critical roles, development priorities, and emerging leaders.
•    Develop a three-year strategy for the Empowerment Division. By the end of the first year, develop a forward-looking divisional strategy aligned with RiseBoro's strategic priorities that addresses program performance, community needs, financial sustainability, technology, talent, partnerships, and opportunities for innovation and revenue diversification.

WORK ENVIRONMENT
This position is based in New York City and requires regular presence across program sites and residential buildings in [boroughs/neighborhoods]. Occasional evening and weekend hours are required for community meetings, participant events, and emergency response.
 

It is the policy of RiseBoro to provide equal employment opportunity to all employees and applicants for employment. No individual will be discriminated against on the basis of race, color, age, creed, religion, national origin, citizenship status, political or union affiliation, marital or partnership status, sex, sexual orientation or affectional preference, gender identity, familial status, genetic information or predisposition or characteristic, disability, status as a victim of domestic violence, status as a veteran or member of the U.S. military and related obligations, or any other characteristic protected by law. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including but not limited to, recruitment, hiring, job placement, compensation, benefits, training and apprenticeship, employee development, promotion, demotion, discipline, transfer, lay-off and recall, and termination. RiseBoro makes reasonable accommodations based on religion and/or disability as required by law, and requests for accommodation are to be directed to the Human Resources Department.