Executive Director

Executive Director

The Executive Director serves as the senior leader responsible for leading the mission of the Corning Children's Center, upholding its excellence of care and sustaining its ongoing positive educational impact for children and families in the community. The successful Center Director builds high-performing culture where children thrive, educators grow professionally, families feel connected, and operational excellence supports long-term success.

The Executive Director is responsible for the overall management, performance, and sustainability of Corning Children's Center across two sites. Reporting to the Board of Directors / Executive Committee, this role provides strategic and operational leadership to ensure organizational excellence in program quality, staff leadership, financial stewardship, community relationships, and organizational culture.

The Executive Director leads the organization's staff team through a multi-site leadership structure and is responsible for ensuring that both Centers operate safely, effectively, and in alignment with the Center's mission, values, and standards for high-quality early childhood education. This role oversees key functional leaders, including site Center Directors, Human Resources, Operations, and other shared leadership functions, while partnering with the Board, third-party support entities, donors, licensing entities, and community stakeholders.

The Executive Director is expected to build a high-performing, mission-driven culture; strengthen systems and accountability; support financial health and long-term sustainability of this nonprofit organization; and position the organization as a trusted leader in early childhood education in the Corning community.

Education and Professional Experience

Required:

• Bachelor's degree in business administration, nonprofit management, education, early childhood education, public administration, human services, or a related field.
• Minimum of 7-10 years of progressive leadership experience, including oversight of staff, operations, and budgets.
• Minimum of 5 years of supervisory experience leading managers or multi-level teams.
• Experience managing organizational operations, financial performance, and cross-functional teams.
• Experience building partnerships with external stakeholders.

Desired:

• Master's degree in business, nonprofit management, education, public administration, or related field.
• Experience in a nonprofit organization.
• Experience in early childhood education, childcare, human services, or another mission-driven, community-based setting.
• Experience leading a multi-site organization or department.
• Familiarity with New York State childcare licensing and accreditation
• Familiarity with quality improvement systems.

Skills and Competencies

• Strong executive leadership and team management skills.
• Ability to foster a culture of accountability, collaboration, trust, and continuous improvement.

· Demonstrated business management skills and strong financial acumen in the nonprofit setting including budgeting, forecasting, and performance analysis.

• Strategic thinker with the ability to translate vision into effective execution.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills across staff, board members, families, donors, and community stakeholders.
• Strong relationship-building and stakeholder engagement skills.
• Sound judgment, discretion, and decision-making abilities.
• Strong organizational, project management, and prioritization skills.
• Ability to navigate complexity, solve problems, and lead through change.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite and general business systems.
• Commitment to high-quality early childhood education and strong outcomes for children and families.

Physical Requirements

• Continuously requires vision, hearing, and speaking.
• Frequently requires sitting, standing, computer use, and movement between workspaces and Center locations.
• Occasionally requires walking, lifting, carrying, reaching, bending, and crouching.
• Required to travel regularly between both Center locations and attend community, board-related or sector-related meetings as needed.