Chief Strategy Officer

Chief Strategy Officer

Covenant House California (CHC) is a nonprofit organization that provides sanctuary and support for youth overcoming homelessness, ages 18-24. CHC believes that no young person deserves to be homeless; that every young person in California deserves housing, food, clothing, education, and most importantly, to be loved. CHC provides a full continuum of services to meet the physical, emotional, educational, vocational, and spiritual well-being of young people. CHC's doors are open to youth and staff regardless of their race, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression. We believe that youth and team members deserve to be in an environment that is inclusive and affirming; where everyone is treated with dignity and respect and valued and appreciated for who they are. Maintaining a diverse community of youth and staff is key to our ability to achieve our mission most effectively. We are also committed to being a leader in advancing anti-racism, and to promoting opportunities for the free expression of the lived experiences of our youth and staff.

We are looking for people who, like us, believe that every young person deserves a place to belong. We think it takes all kinds of people to create diverse solutions to end youth homelessness, and we are on a committed journey to build an inclusive and equitable work culture that brings out the best in everyone. In our Los Angeles location, which is our flagship site, we offer a full continuum of housing and support services to young people. For over 35 years, our services have grown and expanded, and we serve more than 900 young people every year.

Covenant House California offers an excellent benefits package, (most benefits effective date of hire), including medical, vision, dental, an EAP program, 403b retirement account, and a generous vacation package.

Position Summary

The Chief Strategy Officer (CSO) provides executive leadership in developing, implementing, monitoring, and evaluating the organization's strategic direction and operational performance. The CSO works closely with the Chief Executive Officer, Covenant House California (CHC) executive leadership, management, staff, board of directors, Covenant House International (CHI) and community partners to ensure that organizational strategies, programs, services, and resources are aligned with the mission, vision, values, and long-term goals of the organization.

The CSO provides leadership and hands-on support of work efforts across strategic planning, performance management, performance and quality improvement, quality assurance, risk management, human resources management, data management, advocacy, and organizational effectiveness. The position establishes systems of accountability, continuous improvement, and data-informed decision-making while identifying opportunities to strengthen organizational capacity, service quality, sustainability, and community impact.

Essential Duties

Strategic Planning and Organizational Strategy

• Lead the development, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of the organization's strategic plan.
• Translate the organization's mission, vision, and strategic priorities into measurable goals, objectives, initiatives, and performance indicators.
• In partnership with the Executive Leadership Team, establish annual operating priorities and ensure alignment between strategic objectives, departmental work plans, budgets, and organizational resources.
• Ensure alignment between CHC's strategic plan and the priorities outlined in CHI's Journey Home.
• Monitor progress toward strategic goals and provide regular reports and recommendations to the CEO and Board of Directors.
• Conduct environmental scans, organizational assessments, and trend analyses to identify opportunities, emerging needs, threats, and areas for growth.
• Develop strategies to strengthen organizational sustainability, effectiveness, innovation, and competitive positioning.
• Facilitate cross-functional collaboration to ensure consistent execution of strategic initiatives.
• Lead organizational change initiatives and support leadership and staff through periods of growth, restructuring, or transformation.

Performance Management

• Develop and oversee an organization-wide performance management framework.
• Establish key performance indicators (KPIs), benchmarks, targets, and accountability measures.
• Partner with department leaders to ensure performance expectations are clearly defined, measurable, and aligned with strategic priorities.
• Work closely with the institutional giving team to ensure KPI alignment with funder objectives, and that accurate data is available for funder reporting.
• Oversee the quality assurance teams monitoring of individual, departmental, programmatic, and organizational performance, and partner with the executive leadership team to ensure accountability.
• Establish regular performance review processes and dashboards for leadership and management.
• Identify performance gaps and develop corrective action and improvement plans.
• Promote a culture of accountability, transparency, continuous learning, and results.
• Provide executive leadership with analysis and recommendations regarding organizational performance.

Performance and Quality Improvement

• Implement and lead the organization's Performance and Quality Improvement (PQI) program.
• Establish systems for continuous quality improvement across programs, services, and administrative functions.
• Analyze performance trends, outcomes, complaints, incidents, audits, surveys, and other indicators to identify improvement opportunities.
• Develop and monitor quality improvement plans and corrective action plans.
• Promote the use of root-cause analysis and other problem-solving methodologies.
• Ensure improvement activities result in measurable and sustainable outcomes.
• Report quality and performance findings to executive leadership and the Board as appropriate.

Quality Assurance and Compliance

• Oversee organizational quality assurance systems and processes.
• Establish policies, procedures, standards, and monitoring mechanisms to ensure consistent service quality.
• Ensure that CHC is meeting wellness metrics and compliance benchmarks established by CHI.
• Serve as the site lead for CHI's wellness review, and ensure CHC's review readiness.
• Oversee quality assurance team's internal reviews, funder audits, compliance monitoring, and program evaluations.
• Ensure compliance with applicable laws, regulations, contractual requirements, accreditation standards, and organizational policies.
• Monitor findings from audits, inspections, investigations, and external reviews and ensure timely corrective action.
• Identify systemic issues and recommend policy, process, or operational changes.
• Promote a culture in which quality, safety, compliance, and continuous improvement are organizational priorities.

Risk Management

• Develop and oversee an enterprise-wide risk management framework.
• Implement a Risk Management team approach to, assess, prioritize, and monitor organizational, operational, financial, regulatory, workforce, technology, data, and reputational risks.
• Oversee maintenance of organizational risk registers and mitigation plans.
• Oversee processes for incident reporting, investigation, and resolution and work closely with site Child Protection Officer to ensure proper notification to CHI where appropriate.
• Work with executive leadership and department heads to develop appropriate risk mitigation and contingency strategies.
• Monitor emerging risks and recommend proactive measures to protect the organization and its stakeholders.
• Ensure significant risks are communicated to the CEO.
• Support business continuity, emergency preparedness, and organizational resilience initiatives.
• Oversee the implementation of an organization-wide Safety Committee that is actively engaged in risk mitigation.

Talent Management Strategy and Workforce Development

• Collaborate with SVP People and Culture and the executive leadership to provide strategic leadership and oversight of all stages of the talent management lifecycle.
• Collaborate with senior leadership and human resources functions to ensure alignment of workforce planning, talent management strategies and workforce planning efforts with the organization's mission, strategic priorities, and operational goals.
• Partner with the HR, finance and institutional funding teams to ensure accurate capture of personnel and allocation to funding sources for grant maximization.
• Develop and manage succession plans for critical leadership and organizational functions
• Alongside the SVP People and Culture, ensure HR policies, practices, and training requirements are consistent with applicable employment laws, compliance regulations, and organizational policies, and that CHC maintains a current Employee Handbook.
• Ensure collaboration between HR and internal partners to address workforce challenges, strengthen organizational culture, and to engage in continuous process improvement efforts involving people operations workstreams.
• Monitor, analyze, and make data-informed recommendations based on workforce performance measures and staffing trends including (but not limited to) turnover, vacancies, and organizational capacity.
• Collaborate with HR and Development team to support talent-related grant applications, reporting, and outcomes

Data Management, Analytics, and Reporting

• Provide strategic oversight of organizational data management.
• Ensure data is being captured in alignment with CHC and CHI requirements.
• Establish standards for data integrity, accuracy, security, accessibility, and