Program Director, Small Business Ecosystem & Financial Wellness Collaborative

About This Role

Lead and launch the Small Business Growth & Entrepreneurs’ Financial Wellness Collaborative to address ecosystem fragmentation and improve financial wellness for underinvested entrepreneurs in Washington, DC. The role oversees a three-year initiative, coordinating direct services, systems change, and internal capacity building.

Responsibilities

• Lead a comprehensive landscape analysis of the Washington DC business ecosystem
• Build and manage the Ecosystem Coordination Group (ECG) with five core partners
• Coordinate capacity-building for ecosystem partners on financial distrust-informed practices
• Stand up an interoperable intake and warm-handoff process among eight ecosystem stakeholders
• Plan and deliver cross-sector convenings and networking events
• Lead strategy and alignment for common financial wellness metrics and data taxonomy
• Collaborate to aggregate partner data, analyze outcomes, and report progress
• Define outcomes beyond financial metrics and integrate into program design and reporting
• Set annual work plans, timelines, risk mitigation strategies, and QA processes
• Support administration of partner stipends/subgrants and track spending
• Provide monthly updates to CPO and executive team members; quarterly dashboards to leadership/board
• Maintain high-trust relationships with ESOs, Funding Partners, and advocacy organizations
• Design and refine technical assistance delivery in partnership with ESOs/BSOs
• Contribute insights to WACIF’s entrepreneurship support regarding collaborative findings

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent in public policy, community development, economics, business, social impact, nonprofit management, or a related field
• 8-10+ years in program leadership for entrepreneurship, small business support, CDFI/ESO, or community development
• 3-5+ years managing multi-organization collaboratives
• Demonstrated expertise in financial wellness and inclusive technical assistance
• Fluency in trust-building with communities experiencing financial distrust
• Proven experience in ecosystem mapping, data alignment, and establishing common measurements across partners
• Strong stakeholder management (government, banks, universities, chambers, nonprofits) and facilitation skills
• Data competence: exposure to leveraging CRMs (e.g., HubSpot), dashboarding (Power BI/Tableau), and privacy-compliant data sharing
• Excellent project management; able to deliver complex, multi-quarter roadmaps on time and on budget
• Experience managing restricted funding and grants

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution or equivalent years of relevant professional experience, in public policy, community development, economics, business, social impact, nonprofit management, or a related field
• 8-10+ years in program leadership for entrepreneurship, small business support, CDFI/ESO, or community development; 3-5+ years managing multi-organization collaboratives

Nice to Have

• Background with referral networks, intake standardization, and API/interoperability concepts
• Evaluation or impact measurement credentials; familiarity with social impact frameworks
• Lived experience in Washington DC and DC-Maryland-Virginia communities; Preferred experience with Wards 5, 7, and 8
• Multilingual capabilities

Skills

* Required skills

Benefits