Research and Policy Development Manager
Job Description
Colorado Education Initiative (CEI) is seeking a Development Manager to support grant and project proposal development, grant reporting, and business development operations. The ideal candidate for this role is skilled at creating and maintaining processes and systems, impeccably organized, experienced at database management, comfortable “managing up” to and across a team of senior leaders, and is excited about advancing work on behalf of schools and school districts across Colorado. This person has nonprofit and/or education experience, is a strong writer and communicator, and has a high standard for customer service.
The candidate is excited to join a team grounded in the CEI mindsets: dream big, act small, and pivot quickly; constant learning and adaptation; flexible, nimble, and purposeful; and partnership and service orientation. In addition to the qualifications included throughout this description, the candidate will exhibit belief in and comfort with the
CEI Design Commitments, including diversity, equity, and inclusion; youth activation; relevant learning; social emotional development; family and community partnership; and leadership and change management. This position will report to the Chief of Research and Development.
About Colorado Education Initiative
CEI is at the forefront of improvement, innovation, and change in Colorado’s public education system. CEI is a statewide nonprofit organization that invests time, expertise, and dollars in K-12 public education. For 15 years, CEI has worked with educators as an inspired and supportive partner on the ground in over 150 urban, suburban, and rural school districts. CEI works as an implementation expert, innovation thought leader, and statewide convener in public education. Our mission is to accelerate improvement and innovation in Colorado schools. Our vision is a future in which every student in Colorado is prepared and unafraid to succeed in school, work, and life, and ready to take on the challenges of today, tomorrow, and beyond. We currently partner deeply in over 98 Colorado school districts and have limited work in other states in the region. In addition to our field implementation work, we engage in important policy and innovation agendas in Colorado. Our success is driven by a passionate team of diverse individuals who truly enjoy working together.
We are committed to prioritizing diversity, equity, and inclusion in the work that we support across Colorado. We seek to identify and embed equity-seeking practices in our culture and talent systems and have made a focused set of investments in the related professional development of our team. We believe our work demands this because of the historic and current experiences in the school systems in which we operate and because we believe the outcomes that we seek for students require the prioritization of equity. In all roles, we welcome candidates who are eager to participate in and contribute to this work and whose lived experiences deepen our perspectives on the education system.
Responsibilities
Development Process and Systems Management:
- Support the execution of a seamless and comprehensive process for all systems through the entire development life cycle (research, prospect, evaluate, draft, review, submit, track, acknowledge, report).
- Partner with the Chief of Research and Development to manage high-volume development periods and lend capacity as needed to ensure high-quality, on-time execution of deliverables.
- Project manage development meetings, communications, deliverables, knowledge management, action items, and other operational tasks.
- Work closely with the Development Team to ensure all development activities are successfully completed, including the oversight of all development timelines.
- Partner with the Implementation Team on project launch meetings to ensure a seamless transition from development to project implementation.
- Collaborate with the Finance Team on the preparation and execution of quarterly budget reporting and meetings.
- Support a culture of positivity and customer service, both internally and externally.
Content Management, Proposal Development, and Reporting:
- Develop, communicate, manage, and execute proposal and reporting processes.
- Collaborate with team to support proposal and report design, independently curating and/or drafting technical proposal content and leveraging project teams to identify content needs.
- Lead proposal development on all recurring work (e.g., strategic planning, school improvement)
- Organize and archive all proposal attachments and materials.
- Provide technical content review and final copy edit of all report and proposal submissions.
Business Development:
- Monitor development opportunities (grants, RFPs) and support the Development Team with evaluation of opportunities.
- Collaborate with the Communications Team to leverage CEI marketing and communications practices for business development.
- Conduct and document prospect research aligned to CEI’s strategy and learning agenda.
Qualifications
A successful candidate will have at least three years of experience with managing development systems and processes, database administration and maintenance (preferably a donor database/CRM), proposal and reporting processes and deadlines, and conducting prospect research.
Competencies
The ideal candidate for this role demonstrates strong skills in technical writing, project management, interpersonal communication, collaboration, relationship building, and managing competing priorities with high attention to detail. This position also requires anticipating and taking initiative to predict and solve problems with an orientation toward continuous improvement.
Compensation
- Full-time position
- Annual salary commensurate with experience in a range of $65,000-$80,000
- Competitive benefits package
- Hybrid work environment that includes some flexible scheduling and work-from-home options (with regular need to attend in-person meetings in Denver and across the state).
- CEI’s headquarters are in Denver, but if you live elsewhere in Colorado, we would love to talk to you.
CEI is an equal opportunity employer that values diversity in the workplace. CEI strives to be an inclusive organization, and as such takes affirmative action to ensure that discrimination does not occur against an employee or applicant on the basis of race, creed, color, age, sex, national origin, marital status, sexual identity, sexual orientation, religious or political affiliation, disability or any other classification considered discriminatory under applicable law.
