Practice Improvement Manager

Practice Improvement Manager

Position: Practice Improvement Manager

Reports to: Director of Practice, Learning & Quality

Lane: Investment Lane

Job Summary

The Manager of Practice, Learning & Quality supports the design, implementation, and continuous improvement of Thread's relational practice, learning, and quality-reflection systems across Relational Resource Hubs. This role helps translate Thread's core relationship model bonding, bridging, and linking into clear tools, learning experiences, coaching supports, and feedback loops that strengthen how Thread does life together with young people, volunteers, and collaborators and how Thread partners across institutions and communities.

Reporting to the Director of Practice, Learning & Quality, the Manager helps maintain and improve playbooks, practice tools, training materials, coaching resources, and quality-reflection processes that support high-fidelity relational and partnership practice. This role works closely with site-based teams, Directors of Communities, functional leaders, Human Resources, Involvement leaders, and the Director of Strategic Implementation & Operations to ensure practice standards are understandable, usable, taught, reflected on, and improved over time.

The Manager is a hands-on builder and facilitator who helps turn practice standards into daily learning, coaching, and improvement routines. This role supports staff and leaders in understanding what strong practice looks like, identifying where support is needed, and using feedback and data to grow toward Thread's expectations.

Key Responsibilities

Practice Support & Tool Development

• Support the Director of Practice, Learning & Quality in translating Thread's relational practice model into clear, practical tools, guides, templates, and learning materials.
• Help maintain and improve playbook content, practice guidance, coaching tools, reflection prompts, onboarding resources, and quality-support materials.
• Draft, revise, and organize practice resources that help staff and leaders understand how to apply Thread's standards in daily work.
• Support the development of tools that clarify what must be consistent across Relational Resource Hubs and where sites or functions can adapt based on context.
• Partner with staff and leaders to gather feedback on whether practice tools are clear, useful, accessible, and aligned with the realities of site-based work.

Learning, Training & Capacity Building

• Coordinate and facilitate learning experiences, onboarding sessions, refresher trainings, and practice-development opportunities for Investment Lane staff and other relevant stakeholders.
• Support the development of role-specific training materials that help staff understand their responsibilities, practice expectations, and connection to Thread's relational model.
• Track training participation, completion, feedback, and learning needs to inform improvements to onboarding and ongoing professional development.
• Support Directors of Communities and functional leaders in reinforcing practice expectations with their teams.
• Help build train-the-trainer tools and supports so leaders are equipped to model, teach, and coach Thread's practices consistently.

Practice Coaching & Quality Reflection

• Support regular cycles of practice observation, documentation review, reflection, feedback, and follow-up across sites and functions.
• Help identify where practice is strong, where expectations need to be clarified, and where additional coaching, tools, or training may be needed.
• Compile themes from observations, feedback, documentation patterns, and staff experience to support root-cause analysis and improvement planning.
• Support staff and leaders in using feedback as a tool for growth, learning, accountability, and continuous improvement.
• Help strengthen the quality and completeness of records, notes, agreements, and other documentation that support strong relational and partnership practice.

Partnership Practice & "1+1=47" Support

• Support the development of tools and learning materials that clarify Thread's approach to partnership with volunteers, collaborators, employers, funders, institutions, civic partners, and neighborhoods.
• Help codify effective partnership practices into playbooks, work guides, reflection tools, and training resources.
• Partner with Investment and Involvement leaders to gather examples of strong resource recruitment, engagement, stewardship, and retention practices.
• Support the alignment of resource recruitment practices with Thread's relationship-centered model and values.

Continuous Learning & Improvement

• Gather and synthesize feedback from staff, leaders, young people, volunteers, collaborators, and partners to inform practice improvement.
• Support analysis of qualitative and quantitative data related to learning, practice quality, documentation, training effectiveness, and implementation gaps.
• Identify patterns that may point to needed updates in playbooks, training materials, coaching supports, or practice expectations.
• Partner with the Director of Practice, Learning & Quality to prepare recommendations, learning priorities, and improvement opportunities for senior leaders.
• Coordinate with the Director of Strategic Implementation & Operations to ensure updates to practice materials are incorporated into knowledge-management systems and operating routines.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Work closely with Directors of Communities, functional leaders, site-based staff, Human Resources, Involvement leaders, and citywide teams to support consistent, values-aligned practice.
• Partner with Human Resources to ensure learning materials and practice expectations complement Thread's staff onboarding, development, and performance systems.
• Partner with the Director of Strategic Implementation & Operations and related teams to ensure practice resources are accessible, current, and integrated into the systems staff use.
• Support communication and follow-up related to practice updates, training opportunities, coaching cycles, and quality-reflection findings.

Qualifications

Bachelor's degree or equivalent professional experience.

• Three or more years of experience in youth development, education, nonprofit programming, community-based work, training, coaching, learning and development, quality improvement, or related fields.
• Experience developing or supporting training materials, playbooks, work guides, facilitation tools, coaching resources, or onboarding supports.
• Strong facilitation and communication skills, including the ability to make complex expectations clear, practical, and accessible.
• Strong relationship-building skills and ability to work across teams, functions, sites, and lines of difference.
• Comfort gathering feedback, identifying patterns, documenting themes, and translating learning into practical improvements.
• Strong organizational skills and ability to manage multiple projects, timelines, and stakeholders.
• Ability to approach feedback, quality, and accountability through a lens of learning, humility, restoration, and growth.
• Familiarity with Salesforce, Tableau, project management tools, learning systems, or knowledge-management platforms is a plus.
• Prior nonprofit, youth development, education, human services, or community-based experience is preferred.
• Ability to clearly communicate and live out Thread's core values and core competencies.

Thread Employment Benefits (Full-time)

• 12 weeks of Paid parental leave
• Competitive salaries, meaningful equity; 403(b) plan
• 100% employee coverage of Medical, dental, vision, and life insurance
• 10 Paid holidays
• 4 weeks of PTO in year 1, increase to 5 weeks in year 2
• 5 days of sick and safe leave
• 3 floater holidays
• Annual Health and Wellness reimbursement
• Access to counseling/therapy at no cost
• Paid Sabbatical after 6 years of employment