Executive Director

Working Environment/Location: Remote/Hybrid (must be visible at programming events and attend some NC General Assembly sessions in person as well as donor and partner meetings).

Key Responsibilities of the Executive Director

The Executive Director must possess the talent to listen lead and communicate effectively to build strong relationships with multiple constituencies including the board staff donors partners public school systems government officials public land partners and other community leaders.

Strategic Leadership & Governance

• Vision Mission and Strategy Development: Working with the board staff clients and key stakeholders create and implement a strategic plan that includes measurable goals and outcomes.
• Board Engagement: Continue to cultivate a healthy board-staff connection and support the recruitment and diversification of the board.
• Program quality evaluation and student safety: Working with the Program Director ensure programs are safe educationally rigorous aligned with North Carolina science standards responsive to school partners and evaluated using meaningful student teacher operational and financial measures.

External Relations & Fundraising

• Resource Development: In partnership with the board and development staff drive fundraising initiatives. Maintain an active portfolio of major donors institutional funders corporate partners and public-sector relationships; participate directly in cultivation solicitation stewardship and grant strategy.
• Government funding and public accountability: Continue to build relationships with elected officials and advocate at the state legislative level and the Department of Public Instruction for funding. Maintain productive nonpartisan relationships with state agencies legislators local governments and public education partners; overseeing compliance reporting and stewardship associated with government appropriations and public grants in tandem with the Director of Development and Finance Director.
• School and land-partner relationships: Ensure the organization maintains durable partnerships with school districts principals teachers outdoor sites colleges municipalities and land-management agencies.

Financial Management & Operations

• Fiscal Management: Oversee finance systems to ensure that income is managed wisely to serve the organizations goals and that systems and staff are in place to accurately monitor assess and manage financial health.
• Technology and organizational systems: Ensure that technology data systems internal controls documentation and workflows support a distributed organization. This is especially important with regional staff hybrid work seasonal employees school data and field operations.
• Strengthen risk management and compliance: Oversee organizational risk management including legal compliance insurance youth safety financial controls cybersecurity and emergency preparedness.

Human Resources & Culture

• Human Resources Management: Maintain strong internal leadership built on teamwork and collaborative decision-making with an emphasis on staff leadership development activities that upgrade employee skills motivate performance and promote staff retention and morale.
• Equity and Values Alignment: Apply best practices in equitable leadership and management: translating equity and inclusion into plans for staff recruitment development retention and strategy. Lead efforts to operationalize organizational values and navigate complexities in todays environment.
• Staff Culture: Practice an inclusive leadership style to empower develop recruit and retain an expanding staff and instructor base and systematize effective internal communications and workflows.

The Ideal Candidate Profile

Qualifications & Strengths

The ideal candidate will have demonstrated knowledge of and passion for environmental education and youth programs alongside a successful record of nonprofit senior leadership working with a board of directors managing staff fundraising and interacting with the NC General Assembly. The ideal candidate will possess the following qualifications:

• Five years plus experience as a nonprofit Executive Director or senior nonprofit leader.
• Dynamic visionary high-level strategic thinker with the ability to collaborate with board and staff to envision and convey the organizations strategic future to partners donors and communities across the state.
• Excellence in organizational management and time management with the ability to recruit coach motivate and inspire staff to continue to develop a high-performing team.
• Strong fiscal management expertise and experience creating and monitoring budgets in partnership with board committees.
• Experience identifying and soliciting funding from individuals corporations foundations and government entities at the federal state and local levels in tandem with board members and the Development Director.
• Environmental or experiential education: Outdoor youth-serving or field-based programming preferred.
• Strong written and oral communication skills; a persuasive and passionate communicator with excellent interpersonal skills and ability to speak confidently in public forums.
• Confident patient and compassionate resilience creating a sense of inclusion and connection for all people.
• Ability to travel throughout North Carolina working remotely and attending in-person meetings with staff donors partners programming and events.
• Must live in NC; Triangle/Triad area preferred.
• Bachelors Degree or comparable work experience; masters degree and/or doctorate preferred.
• Strong alignment to the mission vision and core values.

About Muddy Sneakers

Muddy Sneakers is an outdoor science education program that serves second- through fifth-grade students attending public schools across the state of North Carolina. Through their innovative programming students explore the essential science standards set by the NC Department of Public Instruction using hands-on experiential outdoor learning.

With a vision for continued regional growth and additional field offices Muddy Sneakers is primed to serve more students across North Carolina while prioritizing organizational sustainability as it enters its 19th year. The organization has 9-person full-time and 5-person part-time staff and a $1.1M annual budget.

Want to know more Visit .

How To Apply

Join the Muddy Sneakers team and play a critical role in shaping its future while driving impactful learning for students.

To apply scroll to the bottom of this page. You will see instructions for uploading your compelling cover letter resume and salary requirements.

Please provide all requested information to be case of any technical problems contact . No phone calls please and no applications will be accepted by email or directly from third-party posting sites.

Muddy Sneakers Inc. is an equal-opportunity employer. We prohibit discrimination and harassment of any kind based on race color sex religion sexual orientation national origin disability genetic information pregnancy or any other protected characteristic as outlined by federal state or local laws. This policy applies to all employment practices within our organization including hiring recruiting promotion termination layoff recall leave of absence compensation benefits training and apprenticeship. Muddy Sneakers Inc. makes hiring decisions based solely on qualifications merit and business needs at the time.

Required Experience:

Director