Steve & Kate's Traveling Camp Director (Chicago)

We’ve made Camp a real career.                 

Remember when you went to camp as a kid and thought working there as an adult would be the coolest? Well, good news — we’ve figured out a way to make Camp an actual career with grown-up stuff like 401ks, legit salaries, and a full package of benefits. We know that we need phenomenal people if we are going to run phenomenal camps, and phenomenal people need real careers — we’ve got ‘em.  You can do meaningful work using your inherent leadership, organizational, and people skills, and you don’t have to sacrifice making a living.   Right now, we’re looking for a year-round, full-time traveling director to run holiday (camp during the schol year) and summer day camps.

The job, in a nutshell, is to run your own camp, and we’ll actually trust you to do it. 

Steve & Kate’s HQ provides the designs, and you provide the management and implementation.  Unlike most of our directors, you will support multiple locations and HQ functions, and if a location needs some additional TLC, you’ll travel to that region and provide an extra set of hands. You may even spend the rest of the summer as the director on site if our current director is unavailable due to unforeseen circumstances.  While things work a little differently for this role, here are our operations basic:

HQ designs and manages: activities and custom products, onboarding and payroll systems, budgeting tools, proprietary software, marketing resources, procurement and logistics systems, and training modules based on 40 years of expertise.

You MAY manage: recruiting, hiring, training, and leading your local team, executing critical compliance and administrative processes, building relationships with parents and children, site logistics, local marketing events, other stuff that comes with managing a business, and of course, the day to day at camp (including break camps).  Regional Traveling Directors will manage up to 3 locations.

How do you know if you’re the right candidate?

• Are you open to relocating for up to 12 weeks at a time (including shorter amounts of time during break seasons). 

• Are you willing to go anywhere in the country where we operate (of course, accommodations and travel will be on us).  Regional directors are more likely to stay local.

• Are you up for the challenge of managing a team that a colleague assembled for you?

• Do you appreciate and agree with empowering kids (and adults) to take risks and make their own choices?

• Would picking up the phone to strike up a conversation with business managers, school administrators, potential staff, and prospective families you’ve never met fit within your comfort zone? If not, are you willing to stretch?

• Do you have the stamina to keep up (literally) with 4-12 yr. olds bursting with energy and creative potential? And, if needed, can you bench press a kindergartener (or at least lift up to 40lbs.)?

Essential Functions/Responsibilities

• Open to relocating on short notice for up to 12 weeks at a time (travel and accommodations on us)

• Responsible for all stages of the employee life cycle for seasonal teams of up to 30: attraction, recruitment, onboarding, development, retention, and separation.

• Traveling manager responsible for all facets of a day camp that runs 9-10 weeks, with an average of 150 campers per day generating 6-7 figure revenue; also responsible for managing other holiday break programs and pop-up child care events at school and day care facilities in their community.  

• Handles crisis, emergency, behavioral and medical response as needed when issues come up at camp or in other childcare settings.

• Manages all customer contact for their programs, including responding to email and phone inquiries in a timely fashion, providing exceptional customer service, and handling sensitive and escalated matters for hundreds of prospective and attending camp families. Develops relationships with local schools, PTAs, businesses and other organizations to create promotional opportunities for the camp by offering cash, in-kind donations and camp services / programming in exchange for marketing.

• Leads online and in-person promotional events and presentations for prospective families regularly throughout the pre-season.

• Manages compliance processes and ensures implementation of company, city and state required policies for camps and/or childcare facilities as applicable to their locality.

• Manages a six-figure budget for personnel, food and programming.

• Oversees all logistics and inventory management functions for hundreds of items valued in excess of six-figures, which are needed to run camp programs.

• Manages relationship with host school that rents out facility where camp runs; also responsible for overseeing janitorial arrangements, security and site planning to ensure sanitary, safe and smooth operations.

• Negotiates terms and manages relationships with local vendors that provide food and programming for their camp.

What we hope you'll bring to the role:

• At least 24 years of age with a high school diploma or GED required

• Bachelor's Degree preferred

• As required by the American Camp Association (ACA) accreditation standards, Directors must have at least two seasons of camp supervisory experience. An equivalent combination of experience working in a child care or education setting for at least one year coupled with supervisory experience will be considered to satisfy this requirement.

Additional Job Requirements

• Past management or leadership experience is required; experience hiring and managing teams of 5 or more is preferred

• During camp programs, Director is expected to be on-site. When camps are not in session, most planning work can be done remotely, but Directors are expected to be actively marketing, recruiting staff and promoting camp in their community.

• On-site management at camp can be physically demanding, with extended periods of time on your feet, outside and occasional activity requiring physical exertion.

• Candidate who meet the ACA standard of being at least 25 years old are preferred.

• Directors will be expected to run break camps throughout the year. 

The salary range for this position is $67,500- $69,525

Life at Bright Horizons:

Our people are the heart of our company. Because we’re as committed to our own employees as we are to the children, families, and clients we serve, our collaborative workplaces are designed to grow careers and support personal lives. Come build a brighter future with us.

HAVING TECHNICAL ISSUES WITH YOUR APPLICATION?

Contact us at [email protected] or 855-877-6866.

Bright Horizons is dedicated to creating a workforce that promotes and supports diversity and inclusion. We provide equal employment opportunities to all individuals without discrimination. Bright Horizons complies with the laws and regulations set forth in the following EEO is the Law Poster: EEO – English and EEO – Spanish along with information on the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and Employee Polygraph Protection Act (EPPA).

Applicants requiring a reasonable accommodation for any part of the application and hiring process should contact the recruitment helpdesk at 855-877-6866 or [email protected]. Determinations on requests for reasonable accommodation will be made on a case-by-case basis.