Education Director
Position description:
The Education Director is a key leadership role within The Raptor Center, responsible for providing strategic leadership, guidance, and management oversight of The Raptor Center’s education department and core program initiatives. As The Raptor Center celebrates a 50 year anniversary, this position will help shape the future of our education programming as we seek to move from a primarily revenue generating education program model to one that emphasizes the use of partnerships and grant funding to enable increased impact and expansion of access to TRC programs across the state of Minnesota. This will include leading the creation and implementation of new programming for a diverse range of audiences and managing new and ongoing grant initiatives.
Along with setting and implementing department education program strategy, the Director will have ultimate oversight on the administrative operations of the department, ensuring effective leadership of 6-7 full-time staff (including education naturalists and an education program coordinator), a collection of part-time staff, and a cohort of volunteers. Additionally, the Director will oversee the care and management of a collection of 25 education ambassador birds and will sit on the leadership team of The Raptor Center. This position reports directly to the Executive Director of TRC.
Essential Functions:
Department leadership and operations (45%):
-Create and implement a short term and long-term strategic vision for the education department
-Perform supervisory duties of staff to include directing activities, scheduling, mentoring, performance management, hiring
-Oversee the care and management of TRC’s ambassador bird collection
-Work with TRC leadership to manage education department budget and administrative functions
-Modify practices and procedures to improve department efficiency and quality Serve on the TRC leadership team
Partnership and education program development and implementation (40%):
-Lead education partnership development and network expansion with internal and external stakeholders and partners, including working with school systems and K-12 education programs with the support of staff
-Support the department team in the planning and implementation of educational programming, both onsite at TRC and offsite
-Manage the implementation of medium-sized grant funded program initiatives and identification of new opportunities
Professional Trainings (10%):
-Lead a team on developing, maintaining, and implementing instructional programs, professional workshops, and online trainings on the care and management of raptors
Other duties as assigned (5%)
Salary Range $58,000.00 - $63,000.00
Minimum Qualifications:
-BA/BS in relevant field with a minimum of 6 years post-degree experience leading and supervising teams or advanced degree and 4 year’s experience leading and supervising teams
-At least 5 years of experience working with live animals for education programming
-Experience working with volunteers
-Experience in planning, leading, and coordinating projects
-Excellent organizational and interpersonal skills
-Strong oral and written communication skills
-Proficiency in Microsoft Office (Word, excel, Power point); ability to create reports and presentations
Preferred Qualifications:
-5 or more years experience working with ambassador raptors
-Experience in developing sustainable partnerships with internal and external partners
-Experience in grant writing and management
-Experience handling eagles
-Strong customer service skills
-Knowledge of raptor behavior, ecology, or other related field
How to Apply:
All applications for this position are required to be submitted online at: https://humanresources.umn.edu/jobs with the Job ID #363945. Applications mailed to The Raptor Center will not be considered.
Cover letter and résumé required. These documents can be attached to your application by assessing your “My Activities'' page and uploading documents there. To request an accommodation, e-mail employ@umn.edu or call (612) 624-UOHR (8647).