Program Specialist - Systems Innovation Squad

Program specialists cultivate and maintain relationships with program staff, grant seekers, grantees, and other internal and external partners by using foundation best practices and providing appropriate technical and systems support in the development and implementation associated with all aspects of foundation programming efforts.

• Coordinate and manage all administrative aspects of the position, to include calendaring of calls and meetings, coordination of travel requests and expense reports, meetings, presentations, administrative planning and management.
• Perform other related administrative duties as assigned, including serving as backup and providing other workload assistance on the team upon request.

• Build and maintain strong, authentic relationships with grant leads, foundation grant seekers and grantees for effective communication and partnership to provide quality customer service and ensure understanding of the foundation’s strategic direction, processes and expectations.
• Partner with program staff to facilitate the flow and to monitor timing of multidimensional funding processes to meet critical deadlines and ongoing payout targets.
• In partnership with other program staff, conduct, analyze, summarize and share research, including data collection, areas of strategic interest, and create and manage key programming reports.
• Operate as a liaison through interactions, verbal and written correspondence with grant seekers, grantees, and staff to obtain and provide information as well as receive and process required documentation.
• Make recommendations for improvements based on internal and external feedback for Fluxx and other data systems to include participating in internal working groups.
• Manage the grantmaking process according to organizational policies, including budget/commitment revisions and payments/delivery dates and ensure reports are submitted and grants are closed within the foundation’s acceptable timeline.

• Assist the contract leads with the processing and management of program and operations contracts; partnering with the lead to process any amendments as appropriate. Ensure all deliverables have been received and payments have been made prior to closing the contract.

• Minimum of associate degree plus three years of administrative or management support experience; or high school diploma or equivalent with at least five years of previously mentioned experience.
• Strong skills in interpersonal and relationship building, written and oral communication and judgment.
• Understanding of WKKF issues and priorities.
• Adaptable to working with broad and diverse audiences.
• Knowledge of project management and workflow approaches and technologies; research skills including data collection, analysis, interpretation and communication.
• Ability to collaborate with colleagues, teams, grantees, partners, and communities.
• Ability to problem solve using an analytical approach, understanding processes and workflows.
• Agility in day-to-day work.
• Demonstrated commitment to ongoing professional and personal development.
• Highly developed customer service skills: proactive, detail-oriented, responsive, results-oriented, helpful and resourceful.