Early Childhood Data Steward

Description

NEBRASKA CHILDREN AND FAMILIES FOUNDATION: 

Nebraska Children and Families Foundation (NCFF) is a nonprofit created to support children, young adults, and families with the overall goal of giving our state’s children what they need to thrive. We do this by building strong communities that support families. Our mission is to create positive change for Nebraska’s children through community engagement, and we believe in a Nebraska where all children will have the resources and support to thrive. 

SUMMARY 

Nebraska Children and Families Foundation seeks a detail-oriented Data Steward to join our Early Childhood team as a Lead Data Steward. If you enjoy bringing order to data, helping colleagues get what they need from their systems, and translating everyday operational questions into the right query, this role will give you meaningful work at the intersection of technology and early childhood services. 

For over 25 years, NCFF has been using evidence-based and evidence-informed practices to help children, young adults, and families thrive. Technology plays a growing role in how we coordinate with partners statewide, manage complex awards and contracts, and demonstrate the impact of our work. 

As the Lead Early Childhood Data Steward, you will serve as the day-to-day steward of the operational data systems that power our early childhood programs — including CI Atlas, our in-house Collective Impact platform, Casebook, our case management system, PIDS, our data collection system for Pyramid Model, Findhelp a referral database, SharePoint and other necessary systems. You will keep user access and contact records accurate, maintain the knowledge base our early childhood staff and partner organizations rely on, and partner with the data operations and the Senior Evaluator to fulfill ad-hoc reporting requests that support grant applications, board materials, evaluation needs and leadership decisions. You will be the bridge between the early childhood staff who need answers from their systems, the IT team that designs and builds those systems and the research and evaluation staff who use that information for reporting and evaluation. 

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES 

• Data Stewardship: Analyze, configure, and modify the database systems for NCFF's early childhood programs, including user provisioning/deprovisioning, quarterly access audits, and routine configuration tasks in coordination with the Senior Evaluator and the IT team. Contribute to the maintenance and organization of SharePoint sites to ensure downstream users can easily navigate and access relevant program resources. 
• System Issue Analysis: Serve as the first point of contact for requests from early childhood staff. Analyze system issues raised by early childhood staff to identify root causes and gather documentation as needed to collaboratively triage, resolve, or escalate issues following established escalation paths. 
• Contact Record Stewardship: Design and maintain data quality rules, validation logic, and deduplication queries for CRM contact records. Partner with early childhood staff to ensure accurate and up to date partner data. 
• Knowledge Base Maintenance: Build and maintain knowledge base articles that answer operational and evaluation questions from early childhood staff and downstream partner organizations. Author, edit, and retire articles as systems and processes evolve. 
• Ad-hoc Reporting & Data Requests: Fulfill ad-hoc data requests from early childhood staff and leadership in support of grant applications, board materials, evaluation reports and strategic decisions. Write SQL against the data warehouse or run parameterized queries prepared by the IT team, and deliver results in formats that conform to funder or stakeholder templates. 
• Report Production: Lead the design and development of dashboards and reusable reports: gather user requirements, define specifications, and build, test, and refine the solution with input from IT and the Senior Evaluator. 
• Ensure Data Quality: Proactively monitor data and coordinate with relevant parties to ensure data discrepancies are resolved. 
• Training & Enablement: Collaborate with early childhood staff and the Research & Evaluation and the IT teams to deliver training on early childhood data systems and the knowledge base for both early childhood staff and downstream partner organizations. 
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Translate operational needs surfaced by early childhood staff into clear, actionable work plans.  
• Compliance & Security Awareness: Support the organization’s efforts to document and maintain compliance with data security, privacy, and contractual obligations across the systems you administer for the early childhood programs. 

Requirements

QUALIFICATIONS 

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform essential functions. 

REQUIRED SKILLS/ABILITIES: 

• Experience administering users, permissions, and records in a CRM, case management system, or similar operational database. 
• Strong written communication skills, with the ability to write clear how-to guides, knowledge base articles, and process documentation for users of varying technical ability. 
• User-facing patience and a service orientation; comfortable being the first point of contact for “how do I…” and “why isn’t this working…” questions. 
• Ability to gather requirements from non-technical users and translate them into system, query, or report specifications. 
• Comfort with Excel at a power-user level (formulas, pivot tables, structured data formatting) to produce deliverables that conform to external templates. 
• Proficiency in SQL, including designing, testing, and optimizing queries against a relational database. 
• Ability to work independently, prioritize across concurrent requests, and ask good questions when you need clarity. 
• Demonstrated curiosity and a track record of picking up new domains and tools through self-directed learning. 
• Basic understanding of data security, privacy, and access-management concepts. 

PREFERRED SKILLS/ABILITIES 

• Prior database administrator or CRM administrator experience on an operational platform. 
• Python scripting experience, particularly for data transformation or Excel generation (pandas, openpyxl, or similar). 
• Exposure to a data warehouse or a medallion-style data architecture (bronze / silver / gold layering). 
• Experience creating user-facing documentation, training materials, or knowledge base content. 
• Experience in early childhood services, human services, or a related nonprofit domain. 
• Familiarity with Collective Impact backbone organizations or coalition-based service delivery. 
• Experience supporting end users in a help desk, IT support, or technology enablement capacity. 
• Experience coordinating between internal staff and external partner organizations. 
• Experience auditing user access and permissions for compliance or security purposes. 

EDUCATION and EXPERIENCE: 

• Associate’s degree in Information Technology, Data Management, Information Systems, or a related field. 
• In lieu of a degree, equivalent combination of education and hands-on experience in data stewardship, CRM or case management system support, IT help desk, or a comparable technical role. Self-taught candidates with a demonstrable track record are encouraged to apply. 
• Demonstrable experience writing SQL queries against a relational database. 
• Experience supporting end users on operational software systems. 

PHYSICAL DEMANDS: 

• While performing duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to sit and talk or hear. 
• The employee is frequently required to use hands. 
• The employee is occasionally required to stand, walk, and reach with hands and arms. 

WORKING CONDITIONS: 

• Remote / Work From Home option available (must reside in Nebraska). 
• Hybrid option available in Lincoln or Omaha. 
• Flexible scheduling, including possible evenings and weekends. 
• Willingness to travel, including overnight stays.