The Organization
The Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation is a private, charitable foundation established as an independent entity by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina in 2000. Over the past two decades, the organization has worked with – and supported – nonprofit organizations, government entities, and community partnerships across the state, investing $190 million into North Carolina through nearly 1,300 grants, collaborations, and special initiatives. Within its focus areas of early childhood, healthy communities, healthy food, and oral health, the Foundation strives to address the key drivers of health, taking a flexible approach designed to meet identified needs in partnership with the community.
Position Overview
Our grantees work toward making North Carolina one of the healthiest states in the nation by identifying and addressing root-cause inequities and transforming systems that impact health. We are seeking a colleague who will identify, engage, and support our grantees and other partners to cultivate systems and policy change with a specific focus on developing a more robust and diverse health care workforce to meet the primary and behavioral health needs of everyone in North Carolina. We want a leader who will thrive in, and contribute to, a collaborative environment and work cross-functionally with a diverse network of grantees, institutions, professional organizations, internal teammates, and other partners to develop, implement, learn from, and refine our strategies to improve access to care in North Carolina.
Program Officers are integral to carrying out the Foundation’s approach to:
- Advance system changes to address inequities at the root-cause level
- Amplify community voice; elevate the experience and wisdom of, and accountability to, those who experience inequities
- Advance health equity, with an explicit focus on racial equity, as a shared priority in our organization, grantee communities, and state
What You’ll Do
Develop, Implement, and Refine Strategy for Impact
- Build relationships with potential grant applicants, advocates, organizational and institutional leaders, state government, funders, and other stakeholders to support the Foundation’s goals while leveraging emerging trends and opportunities for partnership.
- Design and implement program strategies consistent with the Foundation’s vision and goals to scale what works and contribute to population-level health changes and reduced inequities.
- Develop learning and feedback loops to generate insights and recommend changes to strategy.
- Participate in meetings and site visits around the state and nationally to represent the Foundation, stay current on new developments in the field, and bring back takeaways to the team to refine process, programming, and strategy.
- Develop and implement meaningful and reflective touchpoints (convenings, meetings, etc.) with internal and external stakeholders to support peer-to-peer connections, learning, and alignment building, and contribute to ongoing emergent strategy.
Support Grantees as a Thought Partner and Advocate
- Engage directly with grantees – at the individual level, and in cohorts – to support their work through capacity building, connections to resources, and facilitating introductions to support their goals.
- Support and develop a dynamic portfolio of investments including grants, contracts, and consultant relationships. Provide end-to-end management including needs assessment, scoping, developing RFPs, contracting, and monitoring.
- Work with potential grant applicants to support the development of strong and strategically aligned grant proposals. Represent those funding proposals in staff and board review processes.
- Create feedback loops to ensure learning and grantee perspective inform emergent strategy.
Contribute to the Team, Organization, and Field of Philanthropy
- Work collaboratively on a team; contribute to the development of practices and processes to maximize learning and disseminate knowledge to create impact more broadly or at scale.
- Lead with influence externally and internally, including mentoring other staff; creating space for all to participate in learning and relationship building; and providing oversight to contractors, interns, or others as assigned.
- Document and share (through presentations and publications) grantee activities for the purposes of learning, influence, and field building.
- Contribute to a culture of continuous improvement with respect to both strategy and operations to enhance grantee experience and increase impact.
- Fully bilingual program officers will be resourced to act as full partners with other staff across the organization in the development and implementation of practices to improve applicant and grantee experience for organizations that prefer to work in Spanish.
Qualities We Love
Alignment with Our Values and Approach
- Personal commitment to equity and alignment with our organizational values.
- Desire to work as part of a team, with the ability to thrive independently.
- Approach the work with a focus on building and strengthening relationships.
- Sense of humor.
- Effective communicator, customer service oriented, and ability to think and act simultaneously at a macro and tactical level.
- Passionate about advancing the health of the people of North Carolina.
Growth Mindset
- Passion for continuous improvement, learning, and growth.
- Comfort with ambiguity.
- Open to new ideas, with an ability to innovate and take risks in pursuit of high-impact solutions.
- Willingness to embrace and work through challenges.
- Adaptable and flexible; able to shift and prioritize.
- Possess an “all-hands-on-deck” spirit.
Inclusive and Team Oriented
- Committed to supporting success of the team, grantees, and other external partners and willing to provide mentorship in areas of expertise.
- Highly collaborative with deep listening skills and an asset-based approach; a champion for inclusion and collaboration.
- Excellent interpersonal skills with a proven ability to influence, engage, coach, and mentor direct and indirect reports and peers.
- Ability to establish and maintain trust with a diverse set of partners – staff, board, community.
- Ability to delegate, influence outcomes, and provide feedback in a positive and constructive manner without a direct supervisory relationship.
Prior Experience or Demonstrated Skills
- Existing knowledge of, and/or experience working within, systems related to health care workforce training or retention, diversity and equity in a health or education setting, or workforce policy – with an interest in developing new areas of expertise to support the mission as needed.
- Experience in advocacy, communications, coalition building, and/or leadership development.
- Experience working across sectors and with individuals with a variety of types of leadership experience.
- Experience working in the nonprofit sector.
- Ability to both prioritize and manage multiple bodies of work, stakeholders, and deadlines.
- Commitment to systems change grounded by connection to community.
- Fully bilingual applicants (Spanish) are encouraged to apply.
Hiring Requirements
- Bachelor’s Degree.
- 5 years’ experience in program management or demonstrated impact in a specialized area of focus for the Foundation, with a strong preference for experience with systems that shape the health care workforce.
- Strong analytical, writing, and oral presentation skills.
- Strong project management skills, and a proven ability to manage multiple priorities.
- Oriented to supporting the success of the team including grantees and other external partners.
- Ability to travel inside and outside of North Carolina; as much as 20% in-state (primarily day trips/site visits) and quarterly outside North Carolina for conferences and events.
- The Foundation operates under Blue Cross NC’s “Hybrid Flex” policy with a balance of time in work from home, work-related travel (meetings, site visits, conferences), and time at the Foundation’s Durham location.
How To Apply
Applications must be submitted via the Blue Cross NC Careers page. A link to this listing will be provided on this site on Friday, September 30. The posting will close on Sunday, October 9 at 11:59 pm.
**Please include at the end of your resume a one paragraph explanation of why you are a strong candidate for the position. Please do not submit a cover letter; the required paragraph is in lieu of a letter.
We will not begin to contact candidates for further information until after the posting closes.