Senior Childcare Licensing Specialist

Position Summary: The Senior Childcare Licensing Specialist will work closely with a caring and driven childcare leadership team to ensure growth and impact in child care across the region.

The Licensing Specialist will be responsible for overseeing the state and local licensing requirements for our School Aged Care locations. This includes both before and after school care, and camps in Tennessee & Mississippi. This person will also maintain strong relationships with our partners at the local and state level. Join a cause-driven association with a focus on nurturing the potential of every child and teen, improving the nation’s health and well-being and providing opportunities to give back and support our neighbors. Learn more about the YMCA of Memphis & the Mid-South at www.ymcamemphis.org.

Essential Functions:

Leadership: Lead through influence, training and effective communication across cross-functional teams ensuring that DHS & YMCA program standards are met and safety procedures followed.

• Subject Matter Expert: Know the Tennessee Department of Human Services (TN DHS) and Mississippi Department of Human Services Licensing requirements for childcare agencies. Learn, apply and communicate new standards as released.
• Project Management: Leads projects or initiatives through multiple stakeholders & cross-functional teams by ensuring progress, details and timelines are met for licensing standards.
  • Detail oriented
  • Work with local agencies to obtain required inspections to maintain current licenses
  • Ensures compliance with state and local regulations as they relate to program areas through the program quality team
  • Ensure deadlines are met through cross-functional teams
  • Ability to move work and work independently with follow-through
  • Oversees and maintains all documentation required by the programs, which includes establishing a uniform and systematic way to archive and storage all the required documentation
• Compliance: Responsible for developing and creating processes that ensure that operational and accounting procedures are in compliance with all federal, state, and local program requirements, which includes writing and publishing standard operating procedures.
• Use & manage data systems to ensure accurate reporting & sharing of actionable data
• Monitor compliance and provide documentation for all grants awarded
• Maintains proper records, child registrations/medication forms, and department files and ensures the confidentiality of all items, YMCA issues, incidents and records.
• Maintain records for all sites within the TN DHS Provider Portal
• Submit all required documentation within the TN DHS portal to obtain new licenses
• Complete select site audits to determine compliance across the childcare system
• Approve staff requests in the TN Professional Archive of Learning (TNPAL)
• Track progress data, set goals and ensure goals are met
• Training & Development:
  • Ensure new managers are trained and equipped to ensure licensing standards are met in each location
  • Understand state training standards and ensure a strategy for yearly compliance training and visits take place successfully
  • Evaluate current internal and external monitoring process to identify gaps and provide recommendations for course correction
• Communication & Relationships:
  • Implement multi-faceted communication strategies to ensure relationship building and operational effectiveness with internal and external diverse stakeholders.
  • In this position, this includes a significant emphasis on state childcare licensing agencies & leaders as well as the government entities who manage inspections.
  • Excellent written and verbal communication skills required
• All other duties as assigned.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in a directly related field or an equivalent combination of directly related experience, training, and/or education
• Preferred licensing experience or ability to learn within 45 days of hire
• Preferred experience with multi-unit operations
• Some nights and weekends as required for special events or trainings
• Ability to meet DHS Director standards in Tennessee & Mississippi and ability to travel to all centers in these regions
• Successful track record of supervision and/or leading work across large teams

YMCA Leadership Competencies:

Mission Advancement: Reinforces the Y’s values within the organization and the community. Effectively communicates the benefits and impact of the Y’s efforts for all stakeholders.

Collaboration: Builds and nurtures strategic relationships to enhance support for the Y. Serves as a community leader building collaborations based on trust and credibility to advance the Y’s mission and goals. Communicates for influence to attain buy-in and support of goals. Provides tools and resources for the development of others.

Operational Effectiveness: Integrates multiple thinking processes to make decisions. Involves staff at all levels in the development of programs and activities. Ensures execution of plans. Institutes sound accounting procedures and financial controls. Assigns clear accountability and ensures continuous improvement.

Personal Growth: Fosters a learning environment embracing diverse abilities and approaches. Creates a sense of urgency and positive tension to support change. Has the functional and technical knowledge and skills required to perform well; uses best practices and demonstrates up-to-date knowledge and skills in technology.

Behavioral Characteristics: Welcoming, Nurturing, Determined, Hopeful, and Genuine.