The application deadline is 11:59 pm March 14, 2026 Pacific.
Best Starts for Kids is hiring three Strategy Leads to lead Best Starts’ Transitions to Adulthood, Stopping the School to Prison Pipeline and Liberation and Healing from Systemic Racism strategies respectively. These positions require a strategic, collaborative, and visionary individual with demonstrated ability to partner with community stakeholders to improve outcomes for youth and young adults ages 5-24; a demonstrated leader who can build coalitions by aligning partners, working across systems to foster co-creation, using an anti-racist, equity, and social-justice-centered approach, the position advances strategies that promote opportunity, belonging, and promotive factors.
Salary range: $110,087.54 to $139,542.21
[Editor’s note: This post was updated to reflect that three Strategy Leads are being hired for three unique strategies.]
Job Duties
- Work with key stakeholders to develop a shared vision, outcomes, measures, and principles of practice to create pathways of success for young people. This includes implementing strategies and youth-centered programming based on this vision.
- Lead the Best Starts for Kids strategy team, which includes the Evaluation Lead, Business and Finance Officer, Contract Monitor, and other key County staff related to the 5-24 investment areas; This includes supervision of the Contract Monitor position.
- Closely monitor strategy budget and allocation for strategies.
- Work with key community partners to promote pathways of success.
- Work with community partners to provide access to services/programming that allow young people to create relationships and gain the skills needed for successful decision-making.
- Establish ongoing partnerships with community-based agencies providing services to young people involved or at-risk of involvement in the criminal justice system, ages 5-24 years.
- Ensure that agencies receiving County funding provide high-quality, outcome-based services to young people and have the support needed to meet County contracting requirements.
- Establish an ongoing partnership with key stakeholders, including but not limited to: young people, parents/families, King County Superior Court staff, King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office staff, community leaders, the Children and Youth Advisory Board, school district staff, etc.
- Support new program development and capacity building across programs, including but not limited to: executing requests for proposals, community outreach, youth voice, and using data to continuously improve services.
- Maintain up-to-date information on program service.
- Execute service contracts, including award, contract negotiation with service level, collect and review reports and client-level data when applicable, approve invoices, and impose sanctions as needed.
- Partner with key stakeholders on professional development/quality standards, help providers implement those standards, and provide technical assistance as needed. This may include the development of tools for professional development.
- Work closely with fiscal and performance measurement and evaluation teams.
- Work with partners to identify system barriers and strategies to drive continuous quality improvement that leads to better outcomes for youth/young adults (decreased involvement in the criminal legal system; completion of secondary credentials, enrollment into post-secondary, persistence in post-secondary, employment).
- Identify and share promising practices across programs.
- Other duties as assigned.
Experience, Qualifications, Knowledge, Skills
- Bachelor’s Degree in Social Work, Education, Public Administration, or related field. Relevant experience may be substituted for formal education.
- Five years of recent experience in program management for youth/young adults aged 5-24 years, including managing contracts; with increasingly responsible experience in program management, planning, program development, and program implementation. Recent is defined as five years within the last eight.
- Strong racial, equity, and social justice lens with an emphasis on identifying institutional and structural racism and disrupting the systems that cause young people harm.
- Strong formal written skills, including the ability to write a variety of documents for various audiences.
- Experience convening diverse community partners to build coalitions, solidarity, and operationalize collective commitments and strategies, including implementing services, meeting outcomes, and organizing efforts.
- Recent experience and proven ability to work with non-profit partners and community leaders reflective of populations most harmed by structural racism, build trustworthiness, and establish agreements/outcomes while also providing/receiving support to effectively serve young people and their families.
- Demonstrated experience in strategy development and implementation, including releasing requests for proposals, negotiating contracts, and managing contracts.
- Experience balancing the tension between government and community expectations.
- Ability to multitask and work in stressful situations involving changing deadlines and expectations.
- Demonstrated critical analysis and ability to speak to power structures, oppression, equity, justice, and systemic racism.
- Strong leadership and management skills, and the ability to engage in conflict and recognize power dynamics.
- Demonstrated ability to build solidarity, trust, and effective team-building skills to work with internal and external teams and leadership.
- Demonstrated knowledge of and work experience with budget management, fiscal reviews, and program monitoring and development, specifically in the youth service environment.
- Demonstrated experience in ensuring program compliance with contract policies, procedures, program requirements, and regulations.
- Demonstrated experience in gathering, maintaining, and analyzing data for reporting and continuous quality improvement, and helping decolonize data accordingly.
- Demonstrated ability to develop and maintain collaborative partnerships with stakeholders.
- Working knowledge of Microsoft Word for Windows, Excel, Access, Email, and the Internet.
- Valid Washington State Driver’s License or the ability to travel throughout the county in a timely manner.
- Willingness to submit to a Washington State Patrol background check.
Desired Experience, Qualifications, Knowledge, Skills
- Proven track record of strategic vision, planning, and leadership in designing and managing innovative programs for youth and young adults furthest from opportunity, including those impacted by the criminal legal system or facing significant barriers. Strong preference given to candidates who have successfully driven measurable impact and positive outcomes within these communities.
- Proven ability to identify gaps in systems and processes, and to develop effective strategies for ongoing quality improvement.
Best Starts for Kids
Building on the deep knowledge, connections, and skills within King County communities, and backed by what science and research tells us about human development, the Best Starts for Kids King County initiative meets children and families with the right services at the right time. The first Best Starts for Kids levy, approved by King County voters in 2015, reached 490,000 of King County’s youngest children and their families and 40,000 youth and young adults, catalyzing strong starts in a child’s earliest years, and sustaining those gains through to adulthood. In August 2021, King County voters chose to renew the levy with over 62% approval for another six years. The plan for the second Best Starts for Kids levy will maintain current Best Starts for Kids investments in promotion, prevention, and early intervention, while deepening our investments to address critical needs in our community. View the Best Starts for Kids Implementation Plan: 2022 – 2027.
