Director, Global Early Childhood Development (GECD) and Refugees

Brief Description

The Director of Global Early Childhood Development (GECD) and Refugees provides visionary yet disciplined leadership across two distinct but complementary strategies: Global Early Childhood Development (GECD) and the Refugees initiatives. Together, these strategies aim to create measurable improvements in the lives of young children, caregivers and families facing systemic barriers or displacement.

The Director will lead a newly formed team across domestic and international geographies to deliver impact through grantmaking, advocacy, research, and partnerships. A key responsibility is to develop and drive clear strategic visions for both initiatives, articulating bold five-year impact statements and defining specific indicators to track progress. These impact statements and indicators will serve as a roadmap clarifying what success looks like, how we measure it, and how we hold ourselves accountable for achieving it.

While Early Childhood and Refugee strategies remain separate, the Director will actively foster cross-initiative learning and alignment, exploring connections such as two-generation approaches, family economic security, and shared measurement frameworks. Working closely with the Strategy, Learning, and Evaluation Division (SLED), the Director will champion a continuous learning and improvement culture, ensuring that evidence and data inform decisions and that strategies evolve to deliver greater impact over time.

The Director will also oversee advocacy efforts across both initiatives, ensuring that policy and system-level work advances the broader goals of each strategy. They will provide strong day-to-day management, set clear expectations for staff and partners, align resources, and build a high-performance, accountable, and inclusive culture that aligns with the department's vision and priorities.

This role is for a proven strategic leader and team builder with expertise in one or both program areas. The Director will inspire the team to bolster ambition, work collaboratively, and take responsibility for results, ensuring that grantmaking, advocacy, and field-building efforts reflect the Foundation’s core values of integrity, humility, stewardship, compassion, and thinking big. This position reports to the Vice President of Strategy and Programs.

The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation is a family foundation working both domestically and internationally to improve the lives of individuals living in poverty and experiencing disadvantage. Guided by the intent of our donors, Conrad and Barron Hilton—who gave virtually all of their personal wealth to the Foundation—we pursue a noble, global philanthropic mission. “As the funds you will expend have come from many places in the world,” Conrad Hilton counseled, “so let there be no territorial, religious, or color restrictions on your benefactions.” In our workplace and in our collaborative efforts to accomplish our mission, we apply our values of integrity, thinking big, humility, stewardship, and compassion. The Program Department, which oversees approximately $300 million in annual grantmaking, is currently developing new five-year strategies, recognizing that at this moment in time, it is especially important to focus our efforts where we can have the deepest impact.

Responsibilities

Portfolio Management and Strategic Leadership

• Provide overall leadership for two distinct strategies: Early Childhood Development in the United States and East/Southern Africa and the Refugees initiatives.
• Set clear priorities, goals, and outcomes in alignment with the Foundation’s mission and Board directives.
• Determine the optimal allocation of resources across strategies and geographies, identifying opportunities for deeper investment, consolidation, co-investment or expansion.
• Leverage data, evidence, and grantee and people served feedback to inform strategy decision-making.
• Oversee a balanced grantmaking portfolio that prioritizes direct services and invests in systems change, advocacy and research.
• Engage public systems (e.g., education, refugees, child welfare) to promote more coordinated, child and parent-centered policies and practices.
• Ensure programmatic and advocacy efforts are strategically integrated to maximize impact.
• Ensure that the developmental needs of refugees and young children and the well-being of caregivers are central to all programming.
  
  

Team Leadership, Management and Talent Development

• Directly manage two Initiative teams of program staff (including Senior Program Officers and the Senior Advocacy Officers), setting clear expectations and providing consistent support, coaching and performance feedback.
• Design and adjust team structures to meet strategic needs and promote collaboration.
• Implement systems to monitor grant progress, surface learning, and identify risks or needed adjustments across the portfolio.
• Build a cohesive, inclusive team culture that encourages learning, shared leadership and innovation.
• Ensure internal alignment and collaboration across other initiatives and departments.
• Provide regular feedback, coaching and professional development opportunities.
  
  

Thought Partnership, Communication, and Field Leadership

• Foster collaboration between the GECD and Refugee teams on shared themes such as two-generation approaches, measurement and evaluation and family livelihoods.
• Support joint learning opportunities and elevate shared insights to inform strategic evolution across initiatives.
• Communicate progress, lessons learned, and adaptations of strategy to key stakeholders, including the Executive Management Team and Board of Directors.
• Represent the Foundation in coalitions, working groups and global and domestic forums.
• Identify emerging trends and elevate innovation and evidence into strategy.
• Communicate complex ideas and strategies clearly to various audiences, including staff, grantees, board members and peer funders.
• Foster conversations that lead to collaborative investments / leveraging additional funding/ sourcing new partners to contribute to strategy goals.
• Partner with organizations to promote refugee and caregiver agency and empowerment, particularly for those with lived experience.
  
  

Internal Collaboration and Organizational Learning

• Work across teams to identify synergies and coordinate multi-initiative strategies, particularly where early childhood issues intersect with youth or legacy efforts.
• Contribute to cross-initiative learning, portfolio reviews and strategic planning.
• Work closely with Communications and Grants Management departments to leverage support resources and smooth cross-departmental integration.
• Ensure knowledge-sharing and data transparency within the organization.
• Support an internal culture of curiosity, humility, and reflection and encourage team contributions to organization-wide strategy conversations.
  
  

Organizational Leadership and Culture Setting

• Serve as a senior leader within the Strategy and Program department, working closely with the Vice President, Strategy and Program and fellow Directors to shape the vision, tone and direction of the Program team.
• Model the Foundation’s values and foster a culture of trust, collaboration and accountability across initiatives across the department and the organization.
• Contribute to organizational planning, decision-making and leadership forums.
  
  

Requirements

Other responsibilities as assigned - additional time as needed

Required Education And Experience

• Graduate degree in early childhood development, public health, social work, international development, public policy or a related field — or equivalent combination of education and experience.
• 15+ years of progressive leadership experience in philanthropy, public systems, or nonprofits, with significant experience in early childhood development, refugee programming, humanitarian response or related sectors.
• Demonstrated success managing high-performing teams and holding staff accountable to clear goals and standards.
• Proven experience developing and implementing program or portfolio strategies, including leading inclusive processes that engage internal team members and external stakeholders in shaping direction and priorities.
• Experience with philanthropic grantmaking and/or strategy consulting.
• Experience managing or leading advocacy efforts, including supervising staff or partners engaged in policy influence or systems change.
• Skilled communicator able to distill complex strategies into clear, compelling messages for internal and external audiences.
• Excellent relationship-building, critical thinking, and strategic planning skills.
• Deep commitment to fostering an inclusive culture and to the Foundation’s values of compassion, humility and integrity.
  
  

Desired

• Experience working in both domestic and international contexts.
• Familiarity with early childhood systems, humanitarian contexts, and two-generation or whole-family approaches.
• Track record of engaging stakeholders (e.g., caregivers, refugees, community voices) in program design.
• Cross-cultural fluency and experience working with diverse populations.
  
  

Reporting Relationships

• Immediate Supervisor: Vice President, Strategy and Program
• Direct Reports: Senior Program Officers, Senior Advocacy Officers and Administrative Assistant
  
  

Competencies

• Drives Results
• Builds Effective Teams
• Communicates Effectively
• Ensures Accountability
• Instills Trust
• Strategic Mindset
  
  

Physical Requirements

• Ability to work on-site at least three days each week according to the hybrid schedule policy.
• Occasional domestic and international travel expected.
• Prolonged periods of sitting at a desk and working on a computer.
• Must be able to lift up to 15 pounds at a time.
  
  

Summary

About the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation

International hotelier Conrad N. Hilton established the grantmaking foundation that bears his name in 1944 to help people living in poverty and experiencing disadvantage worldwide. More than eighty years later, the work continues, concentrating on efforts to ensure healthy early childhood development and sustainable livelihoods for youth and refugee populations, support young people transitioning out of foster care, improve access to housing and support services for people experiencing homelessness, identify solutions to safe water access, and lift the work of Catholic sisters. Additionally, following selection by an independent, international jury, the Foundation annually awards the $3 million Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize to an organization doing extraordinary work to reduce human suffering. The Foundation is one of the world’s largest, with approximately $7.3 billion in assets. It has awarded grants to date totaling more than $3.6 billion worldwide, and nearly $300 million in 2024. Please visit www.hiltonfoundation.org for more information.

• In addition to your resume, please include a cover letter as the first page for consideration. Please send both documents to resumes@hiltonfoundation.org.***
  
  

About Our Benefits

We value the health and well-being of our employees. Some of the benefits we offer include:

• Comprehensive and generous health and life insurance options;
• Fitness benefits;
• Paid holidays, time off and parental leave;
• Flexible work schedules and technology benefits;
• Foundation-funded retirement savings plan;
• Professional learning and development and educational assistance;
• Employee matching gifts to qualified non-profit organizations.
  
  

The hiring range for this position is $242,000 to $303,000. The final base salary will be determined based on individual qualifications and experience.