CircEsteem is seeking a highly organized, collaborative, and mission-driven Program Director. Our mission is to unite youth across all backgrounds and identities by fostering self‑esteem and mutual respect through the practice and performance of circus arts. The Program Director is a senior leadership position overseeing the strategic visioning, implementation, and fidelity of our youth and adult programming.

Rooted in the global tradition of social circus, CircEsteem blends circus arts and social intervention to support whole‑person development, social inclusion, artistic expression, and life skills, especially for youth navigating heightened barriers and stressors. CircEsteem is often described as “a place called home” and operates from a dedicated social circus facility that serves as both a training ground and a community anchor.

Position Summary

CircEsteem’s Program Director is responsible for the overall success and quality of all programming through providing strategy, planning, and implementation; cultivating and strengthening community partnerships; fundraising and grant development, compliance, and outcomes evaluation; curriculum development and fidelity; external public relations; and staff professional development and leadership. This position is a cross‑functional position working with our operations director, development, communications, and outreach and partnership managers. This person will also provide leadership to our part‑time teaching artist pool who make up most of our teaching staff. The Program Director also provides updates and advises the board of directors on all programmatic matters and leads the board’s programming committee. The person in this role is a thoughtful team leader who thrives in a dynamic, diverse, distributed, youth‑serving environment.

Ideal Candidate

Knowledge of social circus and the circus arts.
Knowledge of positive youth development (e.g., SEL) frameworks and assessment tools and their application to youth populations (approx. ages 6‑18).
An innovative, visionary, hands‑on, humble, and empathetic leadership style.
Deep experience in program evaluation and data collection and reporting.
Some experience in fundraising and/or grant development, implementation, and reporting.
A professional history that is rooted in diversity and social justice with a passion for uniting youth from diverse backgrounds and making Chicago a better place through youth programming.
Supervisory experience with part‑time staff, contractors, or teaching artists.
Experience utilizing Salesforce as a CRM and data‑collection tool.

Duties and Responsibilities

Program Leadership and Supervision

Lead the strategic visioning, planning, and implementation for all youth programming including ensuring all program curricula are current and relevant; programs are evaluated appropriately and data reported regularly; staff have necessary knowledge and skills to meet program outcomes; relationships with partner organizations are strengthened and new relationships are formed.
Provide the supervision, professional development, and capacity‑building infrastructure for staff reports including part‑time teaching artists through bi‑annual evaluations, in collaboration with the internal teaching artist professional development cohort, and by cultivating a culture of inclusion and belonging.
Manage the program staff hiring and onboarding process in partnership with the operations director ensuring that all pre‑employment requirements, new hire paperwork, training, onboarding documentation, and employment compliance materials are completed accurately and on time.
Create and manage comprehensive onboarding schedules in partnership with relevant team members, including program shadowing, professional development sessions, hands‑on training, and other readiness activities required before teaching artists are assigned to programs.

Monitoring and Evaluating

Develop and systematize data tracking systems to measure and report on program outcomes and efficacy to funders, community supporters and collaborative partners (namely through strengthening our Salesforce platform and providing professional development to our programs staff on how to use the system).
Create new opportunities to evaluate our programs.
Maintain data integrity, cleanliness, and ease of use for all members of the staff.
Prepare monthly, quarterly, and annual reports as requested by the development manager and executive director.

Grants and Fundraising

Support grant development including program development, budgeting, evaluation, reporting, and grant writing.
Ensure that all grant requirements are being met (e.g., enrollment, reporting, budgets) with support from the program operations manager and other relevant staff.
Oversee all documents and program audit materials.
Write and submit all final reports for grants as necessary alongside the development manager.
Work with the executive director and development manager to identify funders and steward relationships that support our programs.

Curriculum Development and Fidelity

Lead the uniform creation, development, revisions, updates, and implementation of all CircEsteem curriculum alongside program managers and coordinators.
Create and implement systems for the regular reporting of curriculum implementation to ensure excellence.
Ensure that curriculum meets positive youth development outcomes and other relevant programmatic and grant outcomes.

Administrative

Provide leadership on site‑specific budgeting and oversee program expenditures alongside program managers and coordinators.
Regularly inform the executive director of program and project status (finance).
Support the executive director and operations director in writing a comprehensive employee handbook, policies and procedures book, and program handbook.
Additional tasks may vary from time to time.

Public Relations

Provide public presentations and demonstrations as needed, including representing the program team to the board of directors and external partners.
Support executive director in presenting at relevant trade shows, events, volunteer fairs and organizations (as necessary).

Qualifications

Master’s degree required ideally in education, arts education, youth development, non‑profit leadership, or similar.
Minimum of seven years of experience in program development, implementation, and management with a knowledge of Chicago’s arts and neighborhood landscape.
Demonstrated experience in developing and operationalizing a data‑driven culture.
Strong written and verbal communication skills.
Strong equity‑driven leadership, interpersonal, supervision, administration and management experience.
Ability to handle and prioritize multiple tasks while maintaining attention to detail.
Sound judgement, professionalism, and a collaborative and developmental leadership philosophy.
Ability and willingness to work in a distributed organization structure, including working 4 days a week on‑site in Uptown most of the year and 5 days a week during the summer on‑site. Comfort working with staff across our Chicago program sites via distance communication tools (e.g., email, text, Google Suite).

Compensation and Benefits

Salary range: $78,000 – $83,000.
Benefit allowance to apply toward health insurance and/or employer contributions toward a 403(b) retirement account, currently $975–$1037/month.
17 days of paid time off, 5 days of sick leave, and 13 paid holidays.
Three months of paid parental leave after 12 months of employment.
4 days of optional remote work per month (except during summer programs).
Quarterly mental health stipend (currently $200).
Tuition‑free access to CircEsteem programming for employees and their families.

Start Date: No later than September 8, 2026.

Equal Employment Opportunity Statement

CircEsteem values a diverse workplace and strongly encourages women, BIPOC, LGBTQ+, individuals with disabilities, members of ethnic minorities, foreign‑born residents, and veterans to apply. CircEsteem is an equal opportunity employer. Applicants will not be discriminated against because of race, color, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, religion, national origin, citizenship status, disability, ancestry, marital status, veteran status, medical condition, or any protected category prohibited by local, state, or federal laws.

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