Program Manager

Program Manager

Strong Families cultivates people power by deeply caring for our communities, growing our collective leadership, and centering the lived experiences of people most impacted to shape meaningful change. We lead organizing, movement building, narrative, leadership development, and civic engagement strategies so that people can thrive. Founded as a state-wide program of a national organization in 2012, we are now an organization of our own with a fiscal sponsor, Tides Center. All Strong Families staff are employees of Tides Center. Strong Families is a fully-remote organization and is growing our team from five to seven people in 2026. Alongside community members and strong organizational partners, we have built and expanded rural organizing, year-round civic engagement, and statewide healthcare access and affordability policy wins. Our healthcare work includes programming focused on healthcare access for all community members and comprehensive reproductive healthcare, including abortion care.

The Program Manager will focus on these essential duties and responsibilities with opportunities to grow your skills over time:

• Coordinates the planning, implementation, and evaluation of program projects including the legislative program, campaigns, events, community outreach, and leadership development projects.
• Engages community leaders, organizational partners, and community members to meet program goals and objectives.
• Maintains and builds strong working relationships with community leaders and organizational partners with the vision of building long-term collaborations between the organization and others.
• Leads or co-leads community meetings and trainings, local events, and other outreach efforts such as door-to-door canvassing, site canvassing, phone banks, or text banks to meet program goals.
• Creates community resources and training materials to meet program goals.
• Creates and maintains the annual communications calendar for regular sharing of Strong Families programmatic work via website, social media, email, and earned media.
• Attends campaign and coalition meetings as needed to learn, share updates, strategize, and collaborate with partner organizations.
• Uses project management tools and systems to plan, track, and communicate work progress.
• Uses systems to document qualitative and quantitative metrics on Strong Families' program work.
• Analyzes and synthesizes data findings, outcomes, and impact indicators and writes program reports to share findings on our work for internal and external use as needed.
• Writes content for emails, letters, social media posts, and other communication as needed.
• Collaborates with vendors and consultants as needed.
• May supervise volunteers and interns as assigned.
• Travels for events and meetings within New Mexico up to 20 times per year for 1-4 days at a stretch (Travel is 1-2 times per month average with higher travel frequency during legislative sessions in Santa Fe and higher travel frequency across the state during peak campaign times which shift from year to year).
• Travels out of state 1-3 times per year for conferences or training.

The Ideal Candidate for this Position

• Strategic Thinking and Community Organizing Implementation: The Program Manager understands the foundations of community organizing and has a minimum of 5 years experience in nonprofit campaign, organizing, and/or civic engagement work working with diverse and underserved populations. This position knows New Mexico communities well. The Program Manager knows how to envision ways to get toward larger goals and at the same time how to center community members in this work. This position understands how to collaborate and work alongside community members most impacted by systemic oppression and build strong relationships for impact and change. This person has a willingness to learn through trial and error and likes the process of program experimentation. The Program Manager has the ability to control and handle confidential and time-sensitive information, possess good judgment, and has an awareness of other people's needs. The person in this position has the ability to prioritize tasks, manage time, and work well with others, while exercising respect for all the communities we work with.
• Team Member and Problem Solver: The work requires a high-performing problem-solver, who is detail-oriented yet has an eye on the whole vision for our collective work. The Program Manager is a strong project manager who ensures that multiple projects and tasks involving community members, staff, and organizational partners are running smoothly with people invested in the work and updating one another along the way. The Program Manager must be reliable and accountable regarding their work and actions and helps others do the same. This person has a helpful attitude and is willing to take on small or large tasks within their scope of responsibility to move toward our collective goals.
• Strong Communicator: The person in this position has strong verbal and written communication skills and has the ability to effectively communicate with people at all levels and from various backgrounds. This person uses direct communication, gives ongoing, respectful feedback, and engages in proactive problem solving to address internal organizational challenges and disagreements and to support those around them. This position has careful attention to detail, including wording used in communications and an understanding of clear visual presentation of information such as the skills to put together trainings and resources that community members understand and value. The Program Manager must be able to speak, read, write, and understand the primary language(s) used in the workplace. Being bilingual in English and other languages is a plus.
• Data and Systems Skills: The Program Manager has a strong ability to use online systems, manage databases, and organize data for internal record keeping and external reporting. You have proficiency with Microsoft Office or Google Suite (word processing, spreadsheets, email, calendaring, and cloud storage applications), web browsers, and the basics of database and conferencing software.

More about Strong Families and this Role

Work Schedule and Location

Strong Families is a Monday-Thursday, 32-hour/week organization. Some organizational needs require work on occasional Fridays, other weekend days, and evenings. We are a fully-remote organization.

Due to the programmatic nature of this role and our geographical base of community members and organizational partners, this position must be based in New Mexico or in the surrounding border areas of Arizona or Texas.

Ability to travel is required for this position. This position travels for events and meetings within New Mexico up to 20 times per year for 1-4 days at a stretch (1-2 times per month/average with higher travel frequency during legislative sessions and peak campaign times). This position might involve travel out of state 1-3 times per year for conferences or training. This position must have the ability to drive with a valid state driver's license and, if driving one's own car, proof of insurance coverage meeting Strong Families' organizational insurance levels.

Compensation and Benefits

The salary range for this role is $75,000-$85,000. Exact salary is dependent on the individual's skills, experience, qualifications, and our practice of maintaining salary equity. Our offer process does not include negotiation on salaries and benefits which can create inequities in pay across the organization.

Strong Families offers excellent benefits including but not limited to:

• 100% employer-paid health, dental, and vision premiums for both employee and their spouse, domestic partner, and dependents
• Voluntary life and short and long term disability insurance with supplemental coverage
• Option to enroll in pre-tax healthcare and dependent care flexible spending accounts
• 3.5% employer match contribution to your retirement fund
• ID monitoring and protection benefits
• Paid family medical leave when needed
• Employee Assistance Program free to employees
• $50/month stipend for cell phone and home internet
• Generous accrued paid time off (PTO includes 10 holidays, 2 additional floating holidays, 1-week summer break closure, 2-week winter break closure, and about 10 vacation days for first year of employment)
• 4-day work week schedule

Timeline and How to Apply

Equal Opportunity Employer

Strong Families, a Project of Tides Center, is an equal opportunity employer. Strong Families centers equity in our hiring process, organizational culture, and programmatic work. We are committed to racial and gender equity and encourage candidates who identify as Black, Indigenous, people of color, and LGBTQ to apply for positions. No applicant will be discriminated against because of their race, religion, sex, national origin, ethnicity, age, disability, political affiliation, sexual orientation, gender identity, color, marital status, or medical condition including acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) and AIDS-related conditions. Where required by state law, our fiscal sponsor utilizes E-Verify as a part of our employment authorization process. Reasonable accommodations will be provided to ensure all interested candidates can participate in our interview process. We encourage you to contact Melanie Damm at Equitable Hiring Group (melanie@equitablehiringgroup.com) to discuss any accessibility needs you may have.