Senior Manager - Direct Services

About Think of Us

Think of Us (TOU) is transforming the child welfare system into one where young people and families can heal, develop, and thrive. We drive purpose-driven work aligned with meaningful systems change, powered by data and the insights of lived experience. Our focus is on prevention, keeping families strong before crisis, and on building kinship-first systems so children grow up with people they know and trust. Through bold collaborations with leaders and innovators across the public and private sectors — from Presidential Administrations to local providers — we identify leverage points and co-create solutions that re-architect child welfare for the future.

Here’s what this looks like:

• Built the Lived Experience Engine into the largest dataset of its kind (51,000+ voices), powering AI tools and shaping reforms
• Partnered with California to launch the Kinship Accelerator in 8 counties, backed by $150M and a budget increase from $317M → $896M
• Drove a national kin-first shift: 39 states (plus 5 tribes) adopting kinship standards, unlocking $3B for families
• Operate one of the largest direct resource networks, connecting 1,827 families to $28M+ in support 

Our team members share a commitment to driving systems change through creative problem-solving, obsessive curiosity, and a love of quickly driving innovative, measurable, and impactful results. 

Position Overview

Department: Programs & Services - Direct Services

Reports to: Senior Director, Care Navigation

Direct Reports: Care Navigators 

Location: Hybrid; Washington, DC (min. 3 days in the office) 

Category: Full Time; Exempt 

Relocation assistance is available for eligible candidates and will be provided based on organizational guidelines and approved eligibility criteria. 

Category: Full Time; Exempt 

Think of Us (TOU) is seeking a mission-driven, relationship-centered leader to serve as Senior Manager of Direct Services — providing frontline program leadership and day-to-day operational oversight of TOU's Care Navigation model. This role leads a team of Care Navigators delivering whole-person, relationship-centered support to kinship families, foster youth, and transition-age youth (TAY), with lived experience centered as a core design and accountability mechanism throughout. 

This role also holds management responsibility for the team's chat bot feature — a function newly introduced to Care Navigation to help extend timely, always-available support to help seekers alongside the team's human navigators. The Senior Manager will ensure this tool is deployed thoughtfully, monitored for quality and safety, and continuously refined based on frontline and help-seeker feedback. 

This role sits at the intersection of frontline team leadership, service quality oversight, and human-centered innovation. The Senior Manager will ensure Care Navigators deliver consistent, high-quality support; will integrate learning from real-world practice into the evolving service model; and will help refine the tools, workflows, and methods that combine human connection with AI-powered navigation. 

At Think of Us, direct service is not separate from systems change — it is systems change in action. The Senior Manager of Direct Services holds the vision that every family and young person served is both supported in the moment and contributing, through their team's practice and insight, to the evidence base that transforms child welfare at scale. This role reflects Think of Us's belief that the future of support combines the best of human compassion and technology — where Care Navigators, AI-assisted tools, and human connection co-execute to meet the needs of kinship families and transition-age youth efficiently, equitably, and with deep empathy. 

Candidates must be based in Washington, DC and able to meet the hybrid requirements (minimum 3 days per week in office) of this role in order to be fully considered. 

Key Responsibilities

Team Leadership & Management

• Supervise and coach a team of Care Navigators, setting clear performance expectations and fostering a culture of accountability, growth, and unconditional positive regard. 
• Provide weekly supervision, daily support, and ongoing coaching to ensure alignment with Think of Us's values, service ethos, and data quality standards. 
• Develop and maintain team workflows that promote collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement across the Care Navigation team. 
• Support Care Navigators in adapting to evolving tools, practice frameworks, and case management systems while maintaining help-seeker trust and program integrity. 
• Establish and model trauma-informed, lived-experience-centered supervision practices that reflect the same care and dignity extended to the families the team serves. 
• Manage resource allocation, scheduling, and workflow planning to ensure balanced coverage and team well-being. 

Programmatic Oversight — Care Navigation

• Oversee day-to-day operations of the Care Navigation model, ensuring high-quality, relationship-based support for kinship families, foster youth, and TAY across service regions. 
• Ensure the Care Navigation model is implemented with fidelity to TOU's values — centering lived experience as a core design and accountability mechanism throughout service delivery. 
• Ensure Care Navigators deliver proactive, whole-person navigation — assessing needs holistically, anticipating barriers, and coordinating across systems rather than making one-time referrals. 
• Establish and monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) for responsiveness, engagement, resolution rates, and lived experience integration. 
• Conduct case reviews, data reviews, and reflective feedback sessions to identify practice trends, training needs, and continuous improvement opportunities. 
• Translate frontline practice insights and help-seeker feedback into operational recommendations that inform service model evolution. 
• Partner with UX designers, engineers, and practice experts to contribute to design processes, structured learning cycles, and feature development that strengthen the navigation model. 

Chat Bot & AI-Assisted Support Management

• Manage the team's chat bot feature — a function newly introduced to Care Navigation — ensuring it is configured, staffed, and monitored to provide help seekers with accurate, timely, and empathetic support. 
• Establish protocols for how Care Navigators triage, escalate, and hand off conversations between the chat bot and human navigators, ensuring help seekers are routed to the right level of support at the right time. 
• Monitor chat bot performance, accuracy, and help-seeker satisfaction, using conversation data and feedback to identify gaps, risks, and opportunities for improvement. 
• Coach Care Navigators on integrating the chat bot into their daily workflow, ensuring the tool enhances rather than replaces relationship-centered practice. 
• Partner with engineers and design teams to refine chat bot content, flows, and safeguards, bringing frontline and help-seeker insight into the tool's ongoing development. 
• Ensure the chat bot's use aligns with TOU's data privacy, ethical, and lived-experience-centered standards. 

Operations & Service Quality

• Build and maintain the day-to-day workflows, protocols, and quality standards needed for the Care Navigation team to function with consistency, efficiency, and integrity. 
• Ensure adherence to quality standards, service protocols, and ethical guidelines across all help-seeker interactions and data handling. 
• Identify and address operational risks, practice gaps, and capacity constraints proactively, escalating to the Senior Director of Direct Services as appropriate. 

Partnerships & Resource Ecosystem

• Oversee regional resource mapping and vetting to expand and maintain the digital resource directory of local and virtual supports across service regions. 
• Establish, strengthen, and maintain relationships with community-based organizations, agencies, and partners that contribute to the resource network. 
• Surface insights about access barriers, resource gaps, and unmet needs to inform both direct service strategy and broader policy innovation. 
• Support the communication and outreach of Care Navigation efforts across providers, community partners, and key stakeholders. 
• Ensure the resource network reflects the full range of traditional and non-traditional supports relevant to kinship families and transition-age youth. 

Data, Learning & Strategy

• Play a contributing role in facilitating, coordinating, and reporting on Care Navigation outcomes, ensuring consistency, privacy, and accuracy across the model. 
• Partner with the data and design teams to analyze trends, evaluate service patterns, and identify insights that inform program design and broader system change. 
• Generate learning memos and strategy briefs summarizing what is working, what needs adaptation, and what's next in the evolution of Care Navigation practice. 
• Develop and maintain data collection protocols aligned with program goals, including data quality checks, privacy considerations, and ethical standards. 
• Monitor KPIs related to outreach, engagement, lived experience integration, and outcomes; generate regular analytics reports for the Senior Director of Direct Services. 
• Contribute to Think of Us's national learning agenda on human-AI collaboration in direct service delivery, surfacing frontline practice insights that inform the organization's broader strategy. 
• Support the formal evaluation of the Care Navigation program, including contributing frontline data, practice insight, and help-seeker feedback that inform evaluation design and findings. 
• Partner with evaluators, funders, and TOU leadership to translate evaluation findings into concrete program improvements that strengthen quality, outcomes, and long-term program sustainability. 

Lived Experience Integration & Equity

• Champion the centering of lived experience as a core design and accountability mechanism in all aspects of Care Navigation practice — from how help-seekers are engaged to how data is collected, analyzed, and communicated. 
• Ensure compensation structures, engagement protocols, and participation supports for people with lived expertise are equitable, accessible, and consistently implemented. 
• Model and reinforce trauma-informed, anti-racist, and healing-centered practices across the Care Navigation team. 
• Understand systemic inequities affecting the communities TOU serves and actively work to build fair, relationship-centered systems within the team's direct sphere of influence. 

About You

We recognize that candidates may not meet every listed qualification. Research shows that individuals from underrepresented groups are more likely to opt out of applying if they don’t meet 100% of the criteria. If you believe you meet many of the criteria and can succeed in this role, we encourage you to apply — we want to learn about your unique strengths and experiences.

Qualifications:

• You bring 5–7 years of professional experience in child welfare, social services, human-centered navigation, or related direct service fields, including at least 2 years of supervisory or program leadership experience managing frontline teams. Background in data-informed practice or program implementation is a plus. 
• You bring personal or professional experience with the child welfare system or other social impact work, and carry a deep commitment to Think of Us's mission. You approach this work with humility, curiosity, and a willingness to grow alongside the communities we serve. 
• You are a collaborative leader who creates trust and accountability within diverse teams and supports others' growth through strengths-based coaching and feedback. 
• You are a strong communicator who models Unconditional Positive Regard and trauma-informed care in all interactions. You understand systemic inequities and are committed to building fair, healing-centered systems. 
• You are a strategic integrator who balances day-to-day operational leadership with longer-term program evolution — connecting frontline practice insights to data, design, and system transformation. 
• You are passionate about driving systems change and bring a solutions-oriented mindset to your work. You thrive in fast-growing, evolving organizations and use change as an opportunity to learn and make a greater impact. 
• You have an active learning mindset when it comes to AI — you proactively explore, apply, and adapt AI-assisted tools to improve efficiency, solve problems, and support better decision-making, while balancing technology with critical thinking and deep human connection. 
• You are bilingual in Spanish (preferred) and understand language access as a core equity commitment, not a bonus. 
• You are willing and able to meet the hybrid working requirements of this role. 
• You bring experience working with or alongside systems that impact youth and families — or you’re deeply committed to learning about these systems and approaching the work with humility, curiosity, and care.
• You’re motivated by impact and systems change. You thrive in a fast-growing, evolving organization and see change as an opportunity to innovate, learn, and make things better.
• You actively explore and apply AI tools to make your work more effective — using them thoughtfully to increase efficiency, improve insight, and support sound, human-centered decision-making.

Education & Training:

• Bachelor’s degree in social work, counseling, human services, or related field required.
• Master’s degree in Social Work (MSW) or related field preferred.
• 3+ years of experience navigating complex systems on behalf of families or youth may substitute for formal degree requirements.

Compensation & Benefits

At TOU, we believe that taking care of our people is foundational to the impact we aim to make. Our compensation philosophy is rooted in transparency and a holistic understanding of people’s needs. We believe fair, market-competitive pay is essential to attracting and retaining the exceptional talent needed to achieve our ambitious goals. As a not-for-profit organization, we design our compensation packages—including both salary and benefits—with care and in alignment with our financial sustainability. 

The annual salary for this role is $100,000–$125,000. Starting salaries for new hires will be determined based on a combination of the new hire’s relevant experience and market demands.

TOU’S benefits go beyond the basics. They’re designed to support your well-being, growth, and sense of purpose at work and beyond. From comprehensive health coverage to professional development support and meaningful time off, our benefits reflect our commitment to nurturing a workplace where people can thrive, both personally and professionally.

Health & Insurance

• 100% employer-paid medical, dental, and vision coverage for employees; 50% for dependents.
• Access to Talkspace for confidential therapy and mental health support.
• Short-Term Disability, Life, and AD&D Insurance included.
• Optional Long-Term Disability and Supplemental Life Insurance.
• Health Care and Dependent Care FSAs available.

Financial Benefits

• 401(k) Plan for pre-tax retirement contributions.
• Work-from-home setup stipend to optimize your workspace.

Paid Time Off

• Flexible PTO policy, plus sick leave and paid leaves of absence.
• 8 company holidays, plus two organization-wide seasonal breaks.

Learning & Development

• TOU values continuous learning and invests in the professional development of its employees in alignment with organizational needs based on role, performance, business needs, and Company policies.
• Regular organization-wide learning sessions on relevant and reflective topics.

Application Instructions 

As part of your application,  please submit a resume outlining your skills and experiences relevant to this role.

Please note: We do not accept phone inquiries about this position in order to ensure a fair and consistent hiring process for all applicants. 

Equal Opportunity Statement

Think of Us is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We welcome and value applicants of all backgrounds, knowing that diverse perspectives strengthen our work with children, youth, and families. All qualified candidates will receive consideration without regard to race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, or gender identity), national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other status protected by law. We provide reasonable accommodations for individuals with disabilities and for applicants’ religious practices as required by law.