Chief of Staff

Chief of Staff

ADMIN FOR CHILDREN'S SVCS

Full-Time

Location: MANHATTAN

Department: Office Of Referral Mgmt (DPS)

Salary Range: $103,026.00 – $133,630.00

Job Description

* YOU MUST BE A CURRENT EMPLOYEE OF THE ADMINISTRATION FOR CHILDREN’S SERVICES TO BE CONSIDERED FOR THIS POSITION. *

*THE SELECTED CANDIDATE WILL BE OFFERED A SALARY BETWEEN $103,026.00 - $118,480.00*

The Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) protects and promotes the safety and well-being of children and families through child welfare and juvenile justice services and community supports. ACS manages community-based supports and foster care services, and provides subsidized childcare vouchers. ACS child protection staff respond to allegations of child maltreatment. In juvenile justice, ACS oversees detention, placement and programs for youth in the community.

The Division of Prevention Services (DPS) and its network of contracted providers deliver community-based services across NYC to improve safety, well-being, and permanency for thousands of families each year. DPS focuses on system improvement, innovation, and strategy initiatives that require collaboration with major stakeholders to address urgent or emerging provider and family needs, city or state mandates, and high priority strategic goals of ACS leadership.

DPS is seeking one outstanding candidate to serve as Chief of Staff for the division who will report directly to the Deputy Commissioner. DPS is committed to strengthening prevention services for children, families, and communities through collaborative program management and strategic initiatives that leverage innovation, data and research, and human-centered design. The team’s work seeks to enhance racial equity, incorporate multi-stakeholder voices, and elevate family choice. DPS is charged with overseeing a coordinated implementation of evidence-based and research-informed prevention service models; designing a robust and consistent system to monitor and support programs’ sustained alignment to service model fidelity, contractual expectations, and ACS standards for service delivery; and partnering with contracted providers to ensure services are high quality and socially just, including the development of meaningful race equity plans at each provider agency.

The Chief of Staff will be a key member of the executive leadership in the Division of Prevention Services. The Chief of Staff will lead on the communication and be a liaison to ensure that the executive team remains responsive to the division’s staff and its network of contracted providers. The Chief of Staff will assume daily duties, interact closely with staff, and identify and address any issues that may arise for the division.

The Chief of Staff will carry out various duties, including but not limited to:

• Serve as the primary liaison with intercity agency partners and provide day-to-day supervision, guidance, and coaching for up to 5 program officers to oversee key initiatives on behalf of the division.
• Oversee the contract management functions for a portfolio of programs that include fiscal and programmatic activities which includes review and approval of program and model-purveyor budgets and invoices, providing program oversight and ongoing measurement of contract requirements. Ideal candidate will have excellent excel skills to support these functions.
• Serve as liaison with staff, executives, senior leaders, and CEO regarding company climate, employee well-being, project updates, proposals, and planning.
• Assist the human resources with new hires, including documentation and onboarding, and collaborate to address and resolve all staff concerns.
• Oversee daily operations in collaboration with senior leaders, and perform administrative tasks such as managing calendars, generating correspondence, maintaining hard copies and electronic files, planning and coordinating events, and scheduling facilities.
• Serve as a subject-matter expert, handling inquiries, developing action plans, and assisting with preparation and dissemination of communications.
• Develop a strategy to implement and follow processes for contracting, budget review, collecting and reviewing data metrics of programs in partnership with various ACS Divisions.
• Build strong understanding of prevention contract expectations, ACS standards for prevention service delivery, and service model fidelity to promote integration and coordination of high-quality services delivered to families and overall system performance in collaboration with external trainers and ACS’ Division of Policy, Planning, and Measurement (DPPM).
• Bring a racial equity and social justice lens to the work and help drive and support program initiatives that promote equity, accessibility, and economic mobility, ensuring families are at the center of all decision making.
• Prepare documents, make presentations, and facilitate goal-oriented meetings with key stakeholders to generate buy-in, improve the quality of families’ experiences and circumstances, and effectively manage projects and workstreams.
• Represent DPS in internal and external working groups.

Preferred Skills:

• Must have excellent written and verbal communication skills and produce high quality documents.
• Professional and responsive in interactions with external stakeholders.
• Ideal candidate is flexible, open to new ideas, and comfortable with iterative processes.
• Willingness to take on new tasks and challenges.
• Deep commitment to social justice and anti-racist practices.
• Familiarity with reviewing and analyzing program budgets and invoices.
• Experience in working with data and research to improve programs.
• Reflective thinker with experience with conducting systems analysis to identify discernible trends.
• Knowledge of child welfare, most especially prevention services.
• Familiarity with one of the three research-informed case practice frameworks (Family Connections, Mobility Mentoring, or Solution-Based Casework).
• Familiarity with human-centered design.
• Successful communicator who is comfortable speaking in large, varied audiences.
• Team player who is flexible, grounded, and mission-driven.

Additional Skills:

• Experience with and comfortable using the following computer programs: Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Outlook, Excel, Teams, Power Point, Publisher, Visio, IE); Adobe Acrobat; Google Workspace (Docs, Sheets, Forms, Chrome); Survey Monkey (or other survey program), Airtable; Tableau.

Minimum Qualifications:

1. For Assignment Level I (only physical, biological and environmental sciences and public health) A master's degree from an accredited college or university with a specialization in an appropriate field of physical, biological or environmental science or in public health.
To be appointed to Assignment Level II and above, candidates must have:
1. A doctorate degree from an accredited college or university with specialization in an appropriate field of physical, biological, environmental or social science and one year of full-time experience in a responsible supervisory, administrative or research capacity in the appropriate field of specialization; or
2. A master's degree from an accredited college or university with specialization in an appropriate field of physical, biological, environmental or social science and three years of responsible full-time research experience in the appropriate field of specialization; or
3. Education and/or experience which is equivalent to "1" or "2" above. However, all candidates must have at least a master's degree in an appropriate field of specialization and at least two years of experience described in "2" above. Two years as a City Research Scientist Level I can be substituted for the experience required in "1" and "2" above.

Public Service Loan Forgiveness: As a prospective employee of the City of New York, you may be eligible for federal loan forgiveness programs and state repayment assistance programs. For more information, please visit the U.S. Department of Education’s website at

Residency Requirement: New York City residency is generally required within 90 days of appointment. However, City Employees in certain titles who have worked for the City for 2 continuous years may also be eligible to reside in Nassau, Suffolk, Putnam, Westchester, Rockland, or Orange County. To determine if the residency requirement applies to you, please discuss with the agency representative at the time of interview.

Additional Information: The City of New York is an inclusive equal opportunity employer committed to recruiting and retaining a diverse workforce and providing a work environment that is free from discrimination and harassment based upon any legally protected status or protected characteristic, including but not limited to an individual's sex, race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, religion, disability, sexual orientation, veteran status, gender identity, or pregnancy.