Executive Director of Child Care Operations

Role overview

The Executive Director of the Child Care Operations Bureau provides statewide leadership and operational direction for Maryland’s child care licensing and child care scholarship programs. This position is responsible for ensuring consistency across the state, equitable service delivery, strong responsiveness, and excellent customer support for families, providers, and community partners. The role also oversees the bureau’s regulatory, policy, fiscal, workforce, and operational functions while advancing modernization and continuous improvement in line with the Office of Early Childhood’s strategic goals.

Key priorities

A major part of the role is guiding a statewide redesign of the child care licensing system. The objective is to improve response times, shorten the time required to license new programs, strengthen support for provider growth, and modernize how the bureau operates. This includes reviewing national approaches, shaping a dual-director structure focused on inspections/compliance and capacity-building/technical assistance, and applying a data-informed, evidence-based, user-centered process with regional offices, licensing staff, unions, providers, Child Care Resource Centers, and other stakeholders.

The position also ensures alignment with HB 477 (2025), which requires MSDE to evaluate and recommend updates to child care licensing rules, including staffing, ratios, physical standards, profitability, and interstate benchmarks, with interim and final reports due in 2026.

Although this executive role does not directly manage IT systems, it works closely with the Executive Director of Finance and IT Systems so that business requirements, workflows, data needs, and user experience goals are built into system design, procurement, enhancements, and implementation for licensing and scholarship operations.

The Executive Director also supports CCDF compliance expectations for the child care scholarship program and partners with the CCS Director and the Executive Director of Finance and IT Systems to improve processes, strengthen data use, improve payment accuracy, and reduce improper payments. The role serves as MSDE’s lead for monthly statewide child care provider meetings and helps maintain transparent communication and collaboration across the field.

Responsibilities

• Provide executive leadership across the Child Care Operations Bureau to ensure consistent statewide delivery of licensing and scholarship operations.
• Guide participation in statewide efforts such as the CCDF State Plan, Preschool Development Grant, Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, COMAR modernization, and HB 477 implementation.
• Develop annual bureau and branch plans with performance indicators tied to inspection timeliness, licensing throughput, provider support, scholarship processing speed, payment accuracy, and customer service.
• Promote evidence-based operating methods, including risk-based monitoring, streamlined licensing pathways, and stronger business support for providers.
• Coordinate with Child Care Resource Centers and Local Early Childhood Advisory Councils to assess local needs, support provider start-up and expansion, and strengthen early childhood infrastructure.
• Oversee contracts, grants, procurements, vendor relationships, and fiscal controls for the bureau.
• Lead continuous improvement work using Lean methods, human-centered design, and regular feedback from staff and providers.
• Ensure compliance with state law, federal requirements, fiscal policy, audit standards, and risk controls.
• Lead the statewide redesign of the child care licensing system, including development of a modern dual-director model for inspections, compliance, technical assistance, provider capacity-building, and non-compliance root-cause resolution.
• Direct statewide communications related to licensing, scholarship programs, regulatory updates, and operational changes.
• Build customer-centered service delivery through structured feedback from families, providers, and staff.
• Serve as the main liaison with Child Care Resource Centers to align technical assistance, training, business support, and recruitment and retention efforts with statewide priorities.
• Ensure licensing and scholarship policies are interpreted and applied consistently across Maryland.
• Lead updates to child care regulations and COMAR, including HB 477 implementation, stakeholder engagement, and change management.
• Oversee data-driven monitoring and evaluation systems for inspection timeliness, compliance trends, licensing throughput, scholarship processing, fiscal integrity, and provider capacity.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university in Public Administration, Business Administration, Education, Early Childhood Education, Human Services, Community Engagement, Social Work, Public Policy, Organizational Leadership, or a related discipline.
• Five years of progressively responsible management experience in early childhood education, child care administration, human services, regulatory operations, public administration, or a related area.
• At least five years of senior leadership experience managing multiple programs, divisions, or operational units with responsibility for strategy, policy execution, fiscal management, and workforce supervision.
• Strong knowledge of child care licensing rules, subsidy administration, early childhood systems, and recognized best practices in regulatory modernization.
• Understanding of state and federal early childhood funding sources, fiscal accountability, and program integrity standards.
• Ability to lead complex statewide change efforts involving multiple stakeholder groups and competing priorities.
• Ability to build agreement among varied stakeholders while still holding teams accountable for results.
• Ability to drive innovation, operational excellence, and customer-focused service delivery across a statewide organization.
• Applicants must agree to a State and FBI (CJIS) background check as part of routine employment screening.
• Applicants must submit enough information in the application to clearly show they meet the required qualifications by the closing date.
• Applicants must complete the Maryland State Government online application and provide a professional resume; all relevant job duties must be included in the application, even if also listed on the resume.
• If applying by paper, the application and any supplemental questionnaire must be completed and submitted by fax or mail; postmarks are not accepted.
• Proof of work authorization is required in accordance with the Immigration Reform and Control Act.
• Any misrepresentation of education or experience may result in non-selection or termination.
• Accommodations are available for individuals with disabilities upon request.

Preferred experience

• Leading statewide child care licensing, child care subsidy or scholarship, early childhood education, or regulatory compliance programs.
• Driving major organizational restructuring, business process redesign, or operational modernization efforts.
• Implementing customer-centered service models, human-centered design, or Lean process improvement.
• Managing licensing systems, inspections, compliance monitoring, technical assistance, provider capacity-building, or quality improvement work.
• Creating or revising regulations, policies, or administrative rules with stakeholder engagement and change management.
• Administering federally funded programs such as CCDF, PDG, or similar initiatives.
• Managing readiness for regulatory reviews, licensing inspections, and funding-related monitoring.
• Preparing policy recommendations, legislative analyses, or operational reports for executive leaders, boards, or legislative bodies.
• Overseeing large, interconnected programs involving compliance, service delivery, grants, contracts, or public benefits.
• Managing budgets, contracts, procurements, and fiscal accountability processes.
• Working with government agencies, community organizations, service providers, advocacy groups, and the public.

Additional information

The State of Maryland provides employee benefits for this position. Candidates must follow the official application process and submit all required materials by the closing date. Incomplete applications may not be considered. If an applicant cannot use the online system, paper applications may be faxed to 410-333-8950 or mailed to MSDE Office of Human Resources, 200 W. Baltimore Street, Baltimore, MD 21201. If a supplemental questionnaire is required, it must be included with the paper application. For assistance, inquiries may be directed to 410-767-0019, TDD 410-333-3045, or the Maryland Department of Budget and Management Recruitment and Examination Division at 410-767-4850. TTY users may call through Maryland Relay.

Maryland is an equal opportunity employer and seeks to hire, retain, and advance a workforce reflective of the state’s diversity. Individuals with disabilities and bilingual candidates are encouraged to apply. Veterans are acknowledged for their service and are encouraged to consider the opportunity.

Successful candidates will be ranked as Best Qualified, Better Qualified, or Qualified, and the resulting eligible list will remain active for at least one year.

Applicants must complete the online application and submit a resume. Additional materials may be uploaded, faxed, or mailed as directed. All materials must be received by the closing date.

Appropriate accommodations for individuals with disabilities are available upon request.