TAEM Director

Martha O'Bryan Center

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Job Summary

Do you believe all Tennessee families should be able to rise economically?  Martha O’Bryan is looking for a leader to direct The Tennessee Alliance for Economic Mobility (TAEM), our 32-partner public-private effort to remake the way that public benefits impact low-income families.  At Martha O’Bryan, our work centers around solving the root causes of poverty.  This position is central to that north star.  

We have designed and are leading the largest benefits cliff mitigation pilot (Our ChanceTN) in the country with over 1000 families.  The Director of TAEM, a position that is critical to the collaborative’s success, will work collaboratively across middle TN with the TN Department of Human Resources, partner organizations and institutions, family representatives, and other stakeholders to support over 1,000 families in moving beyond the benefits cliff. 

This leader directs the entire initiative, including the financial and specialist backbone teams at Martha O’Bryan, building a supportive collaboration with partners across the region. 

The TAEM Team is a dedicated team of professionals committed to fostering economic empowerment and prosperity within Tennessee. With a shared passion for creating positive change, our diverse and skilled team designs innovative programs, advocates for change, and provides essential resources to uplift individuals and communities. The leader we seek will work diligently to build a more inclusive and thriving future for all residents of Tennessee. ABOUT THE MARTHA O’BRYAN CENTER
Martha O’Bryan Center (MOBC) is an anti-poverty non-profit organization with a longstanding history and deep community roots, grounded in tradition and strengthened by innovation. Founded in 1894 when Miss O’Bryan organized the Gleaners Society at First Presbyterian Church to support impoverished North Nashville residents, Martha O’Bryan Center has operated from the heart of Cayce Place – Nashville’s most distressed community – since 1948. This is where we continue in service, partnering with families to open doors of hope and possibility, create a culture of attainment, and positively shape future generations.
Drawing clients from across Davidson County, Martha O’Bryan Center serves more than 12,000 people annually with its programs in early learning, parent empowerment, youth development, adult education, food security, crisis counseling, and public charter schools East End Prep and Explore! Community School. 

POSITION SUMMARY
The Director is responsible for leading the TAEM collaborative and the overall strategy and implementation of the Our ChanceTN pilot, the largest benefits cliff mitigation pilot in the country.

Primary responsibilities include TAEM collaborative leadership, TAEM backbone team leadership and supervision, compliance and accountability, external stakeholder engagement, and payment request and invoice review and approval. This is a full-time, regular position, located at the Martha O’Bryan Center.

This position reports to the Chief Operating Officer.

Job Responsibilities

The critical features of this job are described under the headings below. They may be subject to change due to changes in our business processes or other business-related reasons. 

Essential duties and responsibilities include the following. Other duties may be assigned.

TAEM Leadership

• Lead TAEM, a public-private partnership comprised of 32 partners, as well as the overall strategy and implementation of the Our Chance pilot, which employs full-time staff and part-time staff who are peer leaders
• Drive impact, as outlined by 1) Our impact framework, which includes signs of success that we monitor on a daily basis, outcomes, and long-term impact on the individual, family, and system levels. The impact framework guides our efforts to build evidence for our model; 2) The evaluation plan established by the research partner
• Provide vision for leadership and learning spaces including the steering committee, caregiver advisory committee, partner meetings, county-level working groups, communities of practices, professional development, events, etc.; represent backbone at relevant meetings to support partners’ ownership in the vision, values, impact framework, threats, opportunities, and challenges that need to be solved for
• Liaise with research partner on their evaluation efforts and coordinate the pilot’s participation in the evaluation

TAEM Backbone TEAM Leadership and Supervision

• Lead a 17-member backbone team (with 4 teams), supervising & supporting the leadership of 8 team members
• Foster a culture that centers people before process, equity, asset-based approaches, continuous learning, growth, innovation, celebration, and embracing change
• Embed and utilize collaborative leadership approaches within teams, across teams, and across the partnership
• Ensure that challenges and opportunities are worked to solution/addressed via our continuous improvement process, People & Process, or other approaches as needed and that improvements are documented and shared with partners

Leadership on the TAEM Team

• Actively participate in TAEM meetings and learning/continuous quality improvement spaces (TAEM Team Share, People & Process, Leadership Team meetings, ad hoc meetings, retreats)
• Work to complete People & Process items as soon as possible or on an established timeline
• Serve on the TAEM Leadership Team
• Engages in cross-team projects as relevant
• Actively communicate with partners, team members, and other stakeholders in alignment with TAEM’s communication norms
• Engage in Leads Lab meetings
• Facilitate meetings as needed
• Model TAEM values

Compliance and Accountability

• Ensure TAEM’s compliance with TDHS requirements, the contract, grant reporting requirements, audit, etc.
• Lead (or ensure completion) of annual planning cycles for Memorandum of Understanding agreements, contract amendments, team strategic priorities, threats to success, opportunities, and collaborative health
• Write quarterly and annual grant reports for TDHS and ensure submission of the larger body of data required

External Stakeholder Engagement

• Communicate and collaborate with other pilots who have self-organized to increase our capacity to support the transformation of Tennessee’s social safety net 
• Present the work publicly and provide thought leadership related to the benefits cliff and our work at conferences, webinars, convenings, etc.
• Consult with leaders in city and state government, researchers, and the nonprofit space who are interested in our benefits cliff mitigation pilot and establishing pilots that incorporate lessons learned
• Engage as a member of the Beyond the Cliff coalition, a Martha O’Bryan-led national learning community working to catalyze policy change on the benefits cliff issue, and working group(s)
• Engage in advocacy to support strategic planning and sustainability of the work to transform Tennessee’s safety net based on the lessons learned from TAEM, Our ChanceTN, and the other pilots

Payment Request and Invoice Review and Approval

• Review and approve payment requests and invoices on a daily basis

Qualifications

The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skills, and/or abilities required.

Education and Experience:

• Degree in Community Development, Social Work, Public Service, Education, or another related field.
• Five or more years of experience in people leadership.  The above qualifications express the minimum standards of education and/or experience for this position. Other combinations of education and experience, if evaluated as equivalent, may be taken into consideration.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

• Experience and passion for leading people/teams through collaborative leadership
• Strong people leadership skills, including supervision
• Experience managing large grants
• Experience leading systems change efforts utilizing a collective impact
• Experience leading strategy development, through both traditional and emergent approaches
• Experience fostering a culture of continuous improvement to drive outcomes
• Strong relationship management skills (whether with staff, partners, or other stakeholders)
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Comfort in public speaking and communicating complex ideas simply
• Ability to hold both the big picture in mind and maintain attention to detail
• Comfort in making decisions guided by TAEM values, established policies, procedures, and processes, and/or through thoughtful (and collaborative, if applicable) consideration
• Exercises good and consistently fair judgment, courtesy, and tact
• Strong project management skills
• Strong organizational skills
• Maintains credibility through sincerity, honesty, and discretion
• Comfortable with collaboration tools (e.g. Teams, Planner, Basecamp)

Qualities:

• Person-centered, with a collaborative, responsible, and strategic mindset
• Self-directed and passionate about growth, learning, and positive change

Special Demands:

The special demands described here are representative of those that must be met by a staff member to successfully perform the essential functions of this job.

• Regular regional travel within Middle Tennessee (up to 25%).

THE MARTHA O’BRYAN CENTER IS AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER

Additional Information

Benefits

How to Apply

Apply online HERE

Details

• Date Posted: January 7, 2025
• Type: Full-Time
• Job Function: Programs and Service Delivery
• Service Area: Social / Human Services
• Salary Range: $90,000 - $110,000