Director - Workforce Development

The Director of Workforce Development designs and implements a comprehensive workforce funding and partnership strategy to secure student tuition assistance and advance the mission for Ancora institutions, brands, and students. The position successfully blends leadership, relationship building, product knowledge, marketing, and compliance to help shape Ancora’s public image. The Director will align education with labor market needs and serve as a key advocate to ensure Ancora brands remain institutions of choice satisfying agency and stakeholder interests.  This role serves as the key leader who identifies and responds to natural fit grants and partnership opportunities from a broad array of funding sources including federal, state, corporate investors, and industry organizations.    

• Workforce Development: Develop and execute a workforce board and partner development strategy (research methods, target sources, timelines, collaborating parties, resources needed, and outcome expectation). 

• Institutional & Industry Advocacy: Serve as a primary community contact, masterfully articulating the mutual needs of Ancora schools, its students, and the local industries and communities served to align educational output with workforce needs

• Research: Access labor market data, subscribe to and scan a mix of news feeds, social media, industry sites, and more to remain abreast of leads to explore and pursue opportunities (i.e. grants and related requests for proposals)..

• Community Networking: Cultivate, steward, and maintain a robust pipeline of relationships with government agencies, funding agencies, corporations, and industry partners to provide them with regular update reports on the impact of their investments.

• Collaboration: Collaborate with Ancora Academic and Admissions Teams to track and communicate workforce agency or partner needs and work to shape program development to respond to needs. Work closely with internal admissions and finance teams to understand and address the tuition assistance needs of the student body. Work with academics, campus, and compliance personnel to develop a strong working knowledge of the program offerings and the student body served.

• Compliance: The Director protects Ancora’s integrity by ensuring all activities, applications, and documentation maintained adheres to ethical and legal standards

Qualifications & Competencies

• Networking: Resourcefully identifies agencies and personnel to form trusting professional relationships and advance the mission of expanding financial support for students

• Communications: Accurately and enthusiastically advocates for the Ancora brands through written communications and presentations 

• Relationship Building: Outstanding interpersonal and networking abilities; comfortable engaging with a diverse range of stakeholders, from corporate executives and community leaders to private donors.

• Core Values Alignment: Deeply embodies the core values of the organization, acting as a passionate, ethical, and highly visible ambassador for the school's mission in all public and private interactions.

• Bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution in Marketing, Communications, Non-Profit Management, Business Administration, Public Relations, or a related field.

• 3–5 years of progressive workforce agency, workforce funding or grant writing experience 

• Grant & RFP Success: A proven portfolio of identifying, writing, and securing competitive Requests for Proposals (RFPs) and institutional grants, ideally within the education and/or non-profit sector.

• Education Experience Preferred: Direct experience working within a non-profit school organization, private school, or higher education system; pre-existing understanding of tuition assistance structures, financial aid, and student-body demographics.

• Master’s degree in Non-Profit Management, Public Administration (MPA), or Business Administration (MBA)

• Professional Certifications: Certified Grant Professional (GPC) credential.

• Community Engagement & Advocacy: Demonstrated experience serving as a public-facing representative, with a track record of building strategic partnerships between an organization and local industries or community leaders.

• Database Proficiency: Hands-on experience working with grant finding and management databases (Instrumentl, Grants.gov., Candid’s Foundation Directory, or similar). 

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job.  Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.  While performing the duties of this job, the employee is occasionally required to stand; walk; sit; use hands to finger, handle, or feel objects, tools or controls; reach with hands and arms; climb stairs; balance; stoop, kneel, crouch or crawl; talk or hear; taste or smell. The employee must occasionally lift and/or move up to 25 pounds.  Specific vision abilities required by the job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception, and the ability to adjust focus.  Prolonged periods sitting at a desk and working on a computer.

Work environment characteristics described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job.  Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.  While performing the duties of this job, the employee is usually not exposed to weather conditions.  The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate. 

This is not necessarily an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, skills, duties, or requirements associated with the job. While this is intended to be an accurate reflection of the current job, management reserves the right to revise the job or require that other or different tasks be performed when circumstances change. 

I have read and understand the above job description.  I further understand that this is not an all-inclusive list and does not constitute a contract.  My employment remains at will as with all employees of Ancora.