Career Opportunity

9774 (TPV)- Universal Pre-K (UPK) Program Officer, Dept. of Early Childhood

Recruitment: RTF0146288-01112286

Published: March 28, 2024

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About:

Application Opening: March 28, 2024
Application Deadline: April 12, 2024
Compensation Range: $109,122-$132,600 (Compensation database)
Appointment: Full-Time, TPV- Temporary Provisional

Appointment Type: Temporary Provisional (TPV), temporary position 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. Provisional appointments may not exceed three (3) years.

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.

Role description

The UPK Program Officer is part of our diverse team dedicated to supporting the conceptualization, coordination, and implementation of San Francisco’s universal pre-k (UPK) system. Under the direction of the Quality Early Learning Programs Manager in the Early Learning Division, this position will oversee the alignment of quality resources across early learning settings serving preschoolers.

The Program Officer will work closely with the Childcare Planning and Advisory Council (CPAC), the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD), DEC Early Learning Division, and Data and Evaluation teams to map needs across the system, implement an array of capacity building, technical assistance, evaluation, communication, and funder and partner organizing efforts while supporting and fostering key relationships within the department and with community-based partners. Finally, the Universal Pre-K Program Officer works collaboratively with the full program team and staff to advance an intersectional approach across our work and deliver on the goals and objectives of the department.

Examples of important and essential functions of this position include:

Systems and Partnership Level 

• Research and remain active in current policy, activities, and trends in state and local UPK planning. Maintain understanding of how policy and programming impacts San Francisco and develop strategies in response.
• Work closely with SFUSD and DEC T&TA Content Program Officer to ensure alignment across coaching and professional development systems.  Ensure data sharing to measure impact of coaching and professional development activities on child outcomes. 
• Align with Child and Family Well-being Division and R&Rs to develop UPK resources for families and ensure families are aware of their UPK choices.
• Engage in professional development and continuous learning, including participating in conferences and meetings, funder networks, and other field-building/professional development opportunities that will enhance leadership development.
• 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 with Child and Family Well-Being and Department of Early Childhood initiatives and efforts as needed; participate in department-wide planning, resource allocation, and organizational development.  

Grantmaking and Support

• Lead and manage the programmatic portion of SFUSD grant(s).
• Negotiate terms and conditions of grant(s), including operating budgets, scopes of work, and performance metrics; support execution of final contracts in conjunction with Finance and Operations Division, ensuring that all required documents and procedures are complete.
• 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 grant(s); includes conducting on-site 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. 
• 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.  
• Provide troubleshooting, guidance, and technical support to grantee as needed.
• As needed: oversee the work of external consultants; report to senior level and executive management; supervise staff.
   
• May work evening and weekends, and travel regionally and nationally.
• Other duties as assigned.

How to qualify

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

• 3–5 years of experience in a leadership role providing supervision and guidance to early care and education.
• Experience managing programs, budgeting processes, and staff in a complex environment.
• Strong familiarity with early care and education, child development systems, public-school systems, and/or other UPK systems.
• Strong understanding of P3-Alignment and UPK initiatives in California.
• Graduate degree in child development, education, public health, and/or public administration preferred.
• Bilingual in Spanish, Chinese, or African American Vernacular English (AAVE) preferred but not required.

What else should I know?

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.

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

HOW TO APPLY
Applications for City and County of San Francisco jobs are only accepted through an online process. Visit careers.sf.gov 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.

HR Analyst Information: If you have any questions regarding this recruitment or application process, please contact the HR Analyst Lynn Tran at lynn.tran@sfgov.org.

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.