Director, Child Development Center

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Job Type

Full-time

Description The Child Development Center (CDC) at The J provides high-quality, full-time early childhood education and care for children ages 12 months through five years. With more than 80 years of experience serving families, the CDC is committed to maintaining exceptional standards in early childhood education, providing a safe, nurturing and engaging environment where children of all faiths and backgrounds can learn, grow, and thrive.

Our developmentally appropriate curriculum encourages independence, builds self-esteem, strengthens social-emotional skills, and fosters creativity, curiosity, and problem solving. Through meaningful relationships, intentional teaching practices, and hands-on learning experiences, children develop the skills and confidence needed for success. At The CDC, we celebrate the uniqueness of every child and family while creating a warm, welcoming community where everyone belongs.

The Director provides overall leadership and accountability for the Child Development Center at The J and leads an established, collaborative CDC Leadership Team. The Director leads through functional leaders who hold meaningful ownership of major areas of the program. This position supervises and provides leadership to the following positions: Assistant Director-Operations, Assistant Director-Curriculum, Judaic Director, Receptionist and part-time teaching assistants. The Director ensures that these areas work together effectively and is accountable for program quality, family experience, staff performance, enrollment, financial sustainability, licensing, safety, and mission alignment.

Benefits

• Medical, dental, vision, life insurance and long-term disability insurance
• Paid Time Off and paid holidays
• 403b Retirement plan (non-profit version of a 401k) with employer contribution and match
• Free Family Membership to our facilities (fitness center, pool, etc.)
• Staff discounts on preschool, camp, after-school care and more

Essential Functions

• Provide overall leadership and accountability, ensuring high-quality, safe, inclusive, mission-aligned programming.
• Establish clear priorities for the CDC Leadership team while supporting a collaborative leadership model.
• Supervise, coach, evaluate, and develop the employees assigned to them.
• Ensure that leadership team members effectively supervise, observe, coach, and manage the performance of the employees assigned to them.
• Own overall enrollment, retention, family experience, staffing strategy, and financial performance.
• Develop and manage the CDC budget in collaboration with the Senior Director, Youth Programs & Protection and Finance; monitor enrollment, labor, staffing ratios, revenue, expenses, and variances.
• Maintain accountability for licensing, regulatory compliance, safety, program quality, and operational readiness, delegating functional responsibilities appropriately across the leadership team.
• Supervise the Assistant Directors to ensure strong curriculum implementation, teacher development, assessment practices, and continuous quality improvement.
• Supervise the Assistant Director-Operations to ensure effective staffing systems, scheduling, payroll processes, records, facilities coordination, and day-to-day operational consistency.
• Partner with the Inclusion Specialist to ensure responsive inclusion practices, child support planning, teacher consultation, and family partnership.
• Collaborate with the Senior Director, Youth Programs & Protection in supporting the Inclusion Specialist’s work and development.
• Build and maintain positive relationships with families; respond to significant concerns and serve as the primary escalation point for complex family matters.
• Lead recruitment and retention strategy and participate in hiring for leadership, teaching, administrative, and specialty positions.
• Collaborate with HR, Finance, Facilities, Marketing, and other departments to support effective CDC operations.
• Use program data, family feedback, staffing trends, and financial information to identify opportunities for improvement and growth.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in early childhood education, child development, education administration, nonprofit management, or a related field required; master’s degree preferred.
• Minimum of 5–7 years of progressively responsible experience in early childhood education or a comparable child and family serving program, including significant leadership responsibility.
• Demonstrated experience supervising and developing managers or experienced professional staff.
• Strong knowledge of early childhood education, licensing requirements, program quality, and safe care practices.
• Demonstrated experience with budgeting, enrollment management, staffing, and program operations.
• Ability to lead collaboratively while maintaining clear accountability and decision-making authority.
• Strong organizational, problem-solving, written communication, and interpersonal skills.
• Ability to build strong relationships with employees, families, colleagues, and community partners.
• Alignment with the mission, values, and community-centered approach of The J.

Physical Requirements

• Ability to remain seated at a desk and work on a computer for extended periods of time.
• Ability to communicate clearly in person, over the phone, and in writing.
• Ability to frequently stand, walk, bend, kneel and sit on the floor to engage with children at their level.
• Must be able to lift, carry, and move children or materials weighing up to 40 pounds.
• Ability to move quickly and respond promptly to the needs and safety of children.
• Sufficient vision, hearing, and speech to supervise and communicate effectively with children, parents, and staff.
• Capable of performing indoor and outdoor activities in a variety of weather conditions.