Vice President Programs Jobs (NOW HIRING)

The Opportunity The Barr Foundation is one of the largest private foundations in New England and invests in human, natural, and creative potential, serving as a thoughtful steward, catalyst, and partner to nonprofits, foundations, the public sector, and civic and business leaders. The Vice President, Programs (“Vice President”) will serve as a key member of the executive leadership team and a strategic partner to the President, responsible for guiding the foundation’s programmatic vision and ensuring strong execution across all grantmaking portfolios. As it enters its fourth decade, the Barr Foundation is poised and ready to define and implement a set of ambitions that drive the innovation needed in the philanthropic sector during this time of immense challenges. With deep and unflinching resolve, Barr intends to grow its voice and impact as the Foundation looks boldly towards its next chapter, while standing behind those who will be the vanguards of progress for Massachusetts, New England, and beyond.

Barr has a profound legacy of philanthropy, having contributed, since its founding in 1997, more than $1.5 billion in grantmaking, including $130 million in grants in 2025. In deep partnership with Ali Noorani, the new President, and passionate colleagues and trustees, the Vice President will play a critical role in writing Barr’s next chapter as the organization goes through a period of meaningful evolution. As a senior integrative leader, the Vice President builds on Barr’s strength, momentum, resolve and record of success to ensure alignment, coherence, and effectiveness across the organization’s programmatic work. Holding an organization-wide perspective on strategy, learning, and philanthropic practice, the Vice President, as a member of the executive leadership team, translates foundation-wide priorities into clear programmatic implications, surfaces tradeoffs, and strengthens coordinated decision-making.

They lead, mentor, manage and inspire the program and learning and evaluation teams, modeling and promoting an inclusive, accountable culture. Across its core areas of impact – Arts & Creativity, Climate, Education, Racial Wealth Equity, and Sector Effectiveness – Barr’s team embraces a common set of approaches including flexibility and nimbleness, using a broad range of tools and assets, knowledge and learning, openness and transparency, and active collaboration. Crucially, Barr is committed to centering racial equity in all that it does. This is both an important commitment today and one the trustees aspire to build upon in the years ahead. The Vice President role is an outstanding opportunity to shape Barr’s future impact.

The ideal candidate brings deep experience of strategic philanthropy, with a track record of developing, implementing, and refreshing innovative and aligned program strategies. With an organization-wide strategic lens, they will lead and support colleagues through change, both as the philanthropic space reinvents itself and as Barr continues its evolution from a family foundation to a legacy foundation. With exceptional communication, collaboration, entrepreneurial and team leadership skills, they are committed to engaging authentically within Barr, and with our community and partners. The Vice President’s Responsibilities Organization-wide Program Strategy, Integration, and Coherence Partner with the President, executive leadership team, and program leaders to shape and evolve Barr’s programs to meet this intense moment by translating an ambitious vision into a clear, overarching strategic framework complete with cohesive goals and detailed program delivery implications. With an organization-wide view of program strategies, identify shared priorities, interdependencies, risks and opportunities -- for collaboration, alignment and adaptation -- across portfolios and initiatives. Ensure coherence across Barr’s programs; drive clarity, address barriers, and support the sequencing of priorities and intentional management of strategic tradeoffs. Team and People Leadership Lead, mentor, and manage six direct reports who lead Barr’s work in Arts & Creativity, Climate, Education, Racial Wealth Equity, Learning & Evaluation, and Sector Effectiveness. Inspire and support an overall team of 25 program professionals. Support team performance in ways that value each team member’s contributions as an active champion of their field leadership. In partnership with VP, People and Talent, cultivate a high-performing team while modeling, and reinforcing, an inclusive high-care organizational culture. Organizational Alignment and Ways of Working Leverage understanding of program teams’ strengths and needs and partner with the executive leadership team to ensure integration across Programs and Operations of people, process, and technology.

Support a culture of collaboration, trust, and accountability. Strengthen organizational effectiveness by establishing shared context, structures, norms, and ways of working across program teams. Partner with other senior leaders, especially the COO, in leading change management efforts that scale and evolve Barr’s philanthropic practice and collaborative decision-making (clarifying when input is needed, how perspectives are weighed, where authority sits, and how decisions are communicated back to stakeholders). Model transparent and timely decision-making, especially in moments of ambiguity or competing priorities. Effective Grantmaking   Lead, develop, and inspire a team of experienced program leaders, providing strategic guidance to foster their teams’ alignment with organizational priorities. Develop and enable systems and structures for effective grantmaking that result in impact aligned to Barr’s organizational values and ambitions and effective stewardship of resources. Serve as a strategic sounding board to program leaders as they navigate a dynamic landscape as well as the lived realities of implementation and operating rhythms. Aligned with the COO and the Director of Grants Management, ensure effective hand-offs, follow-ups and an end-to-end experience for grantees and partners. Oversee the development and implementation of strategies for grantmaking and “beyond the grant” support. With an overarching view of annual activities and associated budgets, track and align organization-wide and program-related workflows, cycles, and reviews. Identify and address fragmentation or duplication to reduce silos and strengthen collaboration, ensuring a move from shared understanding to coordinated action. Learning, Evaluation, and Impact Orientation   Champion disciplined reflection, inquiry, and adaptation at the organization-wide level. Ensure learning, evaluation, and field insight systematically inform strategic decisions and strengthen partners’ and Barr’s ability to achieve meaningful impact. In partnership with the Director, Learning & Evaluation, ensure that resources, processes, and tools are available to embed learning into programs to support strategy development, priority setting, adaptation, and program evolution. Collaborate with the President, program leaders, and Director of Learning & Evaluation to design and prepare materials for measuring progress against goals; meaningfully engage the President and Board in regular strategic program reviews that balance learning, continuous improvement, and accountability. External Engagement and Sector Leadership Represent Barr externally (locally, regionally, nationally) with peer funders and field leaders with a goal of strengthening the philanthropic sector and improving its effectiveness. Cultivate relationships that strengthen insight and influence, while actively contributing to the philanthropic field to advance philanthropic field practices, infrastructure and funder collaborations. In partnership with the VP, Communications, ensure alignment of Barr’s external voice and partnerships with internal philanthropic practices, learning, strategy, and values. Alongside program and communications colleagues, lift up and share the impact of Barr’s work with the broader sector. Leader Profile The ideal Vice President candidate will bring significant experience within strategic philanthropy, with a track record of senior program leadership and day-to-day team management. Additionally, they will bring a compelling blend of as many as possible of the following experiences and demonstrated skills: Developing and refreshing program strategies, and supporting others to stretch, innovate, and change Empowering and mentoring senior, accomplished colleagues and managers Listening deeply, building trusted relationships, collaborating and inspiring colleagues at all levels (team and governance) as well as external partners and grantees Ensuring excellence in program implementation and delivery, through: Tracking/reporting programmatic results and impact Guiding effective resource allocation by clearly laying out options, recommendations, and structured discussions that surface and resolve challenging tradeoffs Advising content experts, offering sound advice and disciplined analyses across a variety of program models and impact tools Persuasively communicating (orally and in writing) to multiple internal and external audiences Collaborating with colleagues across disciplines (operations, grants management, legal, technology, people/talent, and communications), with an eye toward nimble and effective process innovations, policies, technology and tools that simultaneously drive results and build culture and cohesion As a leader, the Vice President: Brings a deep commitment to engaging with communities to address complex challenges, with a genuine passion for Barr’s mission Embodies Barr’s values to strive for impact, invest in leaders, center racial equity, act with humility, take the long view, embrace risk, and demonstrate curiosity Is action-oriented, with emotional intelligence and low ego while being equally comfortable leading from behind or out front; seeks and shares productive feedback Has comfort with ambiguity, with a problem-solving and solutions orientation that supports teams navigating change Is innovative, adaptive, approachable, transparent and engaged Familiarity with Boston or New England and the philanthropic landscape in the region is a plus. Compensation and Benefits The starting salary range for this role is $420,000-$440,000 and will be determined by factors including experience, readiness for the role, and organizational equity.

The Barr Foundation offers an attractive benefits package including generous health, dental, vision, and life insurance; strong retirement savings program; and generous vacation, parental and health leave policies. Barr is a Compact Signer for the 100% Talent Compact, which is administered by the Boston Women’s Workforce Council, a unique public-private partnership between the Boston Mayor’s Office and Greater Boston employers dedicated to eliminating the gender and racial wage gap. We are proud to be part of this first-in-the-nation approach to reaching pay equity for women and people of color across our region. Flexible Work Environment The Barr Foundation embraces a hybrid workplace that seeks to balance time in the office with colleagues, time in the community, and remote work. Roles that require more frequent in-office engagement may have different in-person expectations due to the nature of their job responsibilities. Located along the waterfront in Boston’s North End, Barr’s offices are in the historic Pilot House and adjacent Two Atlantic Avenue building.

Our walls and halls feature the work of contemporary artists, and the office space is designed to provide bright, open, flexible spaces for collaboration and independent work, and to host meetings and events. With expansive views of Boston Harbor, Barr is steps away from Boston’s “Freedom Trail” and bike share and near to restaurants, shops, museums, and parks. Equal Opportunity Employer The Barr Foundation is an equal opportunity employer committed to building and fostering an inclusive workplace where all employees feel their experiences, perspectives, and ideas are valued. The Foundation does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion (creed), sex, gender expression, age, national origin (ancestry), disability, pregnancy, marital status, sexual orientation, military status, or other protected characteristics in its hiring, compensation, promotion, or other employment activities.

The Foundation will endeavor to make a reasonable accommodation for applicants and employees with a disability unless the accommodation would impose an undue hardship on our organization.