Program Director Jobs in Durango, CO (NOW HIRING)

Title: Stewards Individual Placements-VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) Program Director

Starting Salary Range: The starting salary range for this position will be in the $76,100-$78,383 range, depending on experience, education, and skills relevant to the position. Please note that the indicated starting salary range describes the range for an incumbent in this position. Most new staff generally start at the beginning of the range percentile to ensure internal salary equity.

Location: Hybrid Remote in Beckley, WV (preferred) or fully remote eligible within the contiguous United States only.

Status: Full-Time, Exempt

Benefit Eligible: Health, Vision, Dental, Short/Long-Term Disability, Basic Life Retirement, Paid Time Offper Personnel Policies, Supplemental benefits including critical care, pet insurance, supplemental life, and others.

Reports to: Executive Director

Posting Period: Please apply before August 31, 2026; applications will be reviewed until the position is filled.

Organizational Summary:

Conservation Legacy is a nationwide non-profit. The Corps programs within the organization engage participants in diverse conservation and community projects that serve public and private lands. These projects provide opportunities for personal and professional development and strive toward a high priority of needs for public land managers and community partners. Through the mission of engaging future leaders who protect, restore and enhance our nation's lands through community-based service; Conservation Legacy works toward a world with healthy lands, air and water; thriving people and resilient communities.

Program Summary:
Stewards Individual Placements, East (STE), a program of Conservation Legacy, places individuals across the nation in projects that build capacity, improve access to natural resources, develop and support innovative solutions, create opportunities for service and economic development, and empower leaders. The Stewards program is supported by two main National Service programs: AmeriCorps VISTA and AmeriCorps State and National. Stewards Members work with multiple partners to create highly impactful national service projects that fulfill our mission.

Position Summary:

The VISTA Program Director oversees operational excellence and functions, supports established partner relationships, and helps identify and establish new partnerships as assigned by the Executive Director. This position interfaces significantly with other Conservation Legacy programs and staff on all program aspects. This position works collaboratively as a leadership member of the Stewards team to ensure programmatic operational effectiveness, evaluate processes, and provide staff training and oversight.

The Program Director will supervise and mentor program staff and provide leadership to staff who carry out day-to-day programmatic and administrative operations. The Program Director will also serve as a representative of Stewards on Conservation Legacy Committees, as assigned, and will be expected to work collaboratively across Conservation Legacy with staff of sibling programs. The Program Director must develop and maintain good working relationships with staff, agency partners, members, and site supervisors. This position will oversee the programming associated with our AmeriCorps VISTA portfolio. Stewards VISTA program supports up to 63 members annually. This position is expected to travel up to 40% of the time during the year.

Outcomes & Functions of Position:

Leadership and Program Management

• Recruits, hires, trains and mentors new program staff.
• Leads staff professional development.
• Supervises, supports, guides, and evaluates staff in managing their responsibilities and expectations.
• Approves time sheets, PTO requests, and credit card expenditures of staff.
• Establish weekly check-ins with each supervised staff member to address questions, ensure procedures are being followed, and foster a collaborative work environment.
• Works with program staff to coordinate distribution of responsibilities and step in as necessary to cover staff responsibilities when a staff member is unavailable.
• Maintains VISTA budget updates as assigned by Executive Director including site fee and invoicing processes, assisting in the development of the annual budget and managing updates for assigned components of the budget.

Program Operations

• Reviews, updates, and documents all Stewards policies and procedures to ensure ethical, safe, and well-documented processes for field placements.
• Collects feedback from partners, members, sites, and staff and develops and implements programmatic changes to create a culture of continuous improvement.
• Manages compliance and ensures integrity with systems used by the program.
• Guarantees member activities follow project agreement requirements.
• Manages and coordinates incident response, processing, documentation, and includes those that lead to workers' comp claims.

• Ensures compliance with all AmeriCorps provisions. Facilitates process for gathering necessary data; ensures deadlines are met and information is accurate for AmeriCorps reporting.

• Guarantees that all partner program summaries and related marketing/highlight materials are accurate, appropriate, and disseminated in line with Stewards and Conservation Legacy policy; assigns writing and contributes to summaries as needed.

Partner Relations and Member Engagement

• Develops and maintains a positive relationship with existing partners to ensure support is provided and needs are met by staff through regular check-ins and formal evaluations.
• Assists Executive Director in reviewing and approving new projects and partnerships; identifies new project/host sites and project partners; processes site applications for new sites including the collection and compliance of all MOUs for host sites partners; maintains an annual 90% retention of sites, ensuring that all projects are completed by AmeriCorps VISTA and partner goals.
• Leads partner communication and check-ins with all project partners.
• Oversees Salesforce CRM record creation, maintenance, and use.
• Verifies that agreements and projects are properly entered in Salesforce and that agreements are fully executed (or approved) prior to allowing members to begin service.
• Leads the identification, selection, implementation, and evaluation of training and professional development trends to support members through agreement budgets

Development and Community Engagement

• Develop and implement a program model that includes training, wrap-around services for members, and resume building workshops and support for participants.
• Develop member engagement strategies for the VISTA member.
• Operate as a consistent spokesperson and promoter for corps programming, both internally and externally.
• Create and deliver executive-level presentations for small groups and large conferences, potential partners, and funders.
• Cultivate and manage project partners and supporters.
  Develop partner communication objectives, including marketing, press, branding, and social media.
• Ensures all materials meet branding and communication standards required by AmeriCorps, Conservation Legacy, and Stewards, as well as any community partners' requirements contained in agreements.
• Organize and/or attend community events in support of corps programming.
• Foster innovative program models and partnerships to further the mission of our organization and align with our strategic goals.

Grants Support

• Research public and private grant funding opportunities to promote and support workforce development.
• Assist local and regional leadership in grant reporting and writing activities
  Maintain agreement budget and reporting as outlined in agreements.

Other Duties

• Successfully engages, leads, and supports an inclusive work environment for those of underrepresented populations within the organization and the communities we serve.
• Serves as a member of the Stewards Leadership Team, which guides and directs the strategic plan for Stewards, participates in the planning and execution of the staff retreat(s), hiring staff, and supporting the Executive Director's goals.
• Leads and/or participates in organizational-wide teams, projects, and initiatives that support the work of the Strategic Plans goals.

Organizational Advocacy

• Successfully engages, leads and supports a positive work environment for all within the organization and the communities we serve.
• Leads and/or participates in organizational-wide teams, projects and initiatives that support the work of the Strategic Plans goals.
• Reports any potential complaints within the organization as identified in the Personnel Policy Manual.
• Assists or leads other responsibilities, as assigned.

Our Commitment:

Conservation Legacy is committed to the full consideration of all qualified individuals and will ensure that persons with disabilities areprovidedreasonable accommodations to perform essential job functions. Physical requirements may include periodic overnight travel, non-traditional work hours, ability to move across varied terrain, use program-specifictoolsand a range of technology on an infrequent or frequent basis. Exerting up to 25 pounds of force occasionally to lift, carry, push, pull, or otherwise move objects. The ability to safely drive an organizational vehicle may also berequiredfor some positions. If you needassistanceand/or reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application or recruiting process, please send a request to the hiring manager.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree preferred: Business Administration, Marketing, nonprofit management; four (4) years of experience in managing a national service program in lieu of education.
• Strong understanding of the complexities of managing a VISTA program.
• Demonstrated Project management desired.
• Six (6) years of experience in nonprofit management or administrative management or partner development work required.
• Experience in developing and delivering training programming focused on community engagement, nonprofit leadership and development, volunteer engagement and grant writing a plus.
• Community development/ nonprofit leadership understanding desired for this position to support the goals of our grant and host sites.
• Highly organized, self-directed, and capable of creating organizational systems that others easily utilize.
• Comfortable multitasking and handling multiple requests from different individuals and teams.
• The ability to communicate professionally both internally and externally with stakeholders a variety of virtual and job site settings.
• Ability to operate Microsoft Office programs and applications, or similar platforms.
• Ability to keep others and oneself accountable to expectations in remote locations.
• Valid Driver's License and Insurable Driving Record per Personnel Policies.
• Must be able to pass the organization's criminal history check requirements.
• Ability to successfully work in a fluid, changing work environment.

Other Competencies Desired for this Position's Success: Manage Complexity, Resourceful, Effectively Communicate, Cultivate Innovation, Drive and/or Influence Results, Plans & Aligns.

Conservation Legacy is an equal opportunity employer, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, pregnancy, age, national origin, disability status, genetic information, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.

We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements. If you need assistance and/or reasonable accommodations due to a disability during the application or recruiting process, please send a request to the hiring manager.