Status: Full Time, exempt

Location: Wichita, Kansas

Reports to: Chief Executive Officer, Hunger Free Kansas

Salary Range: $70,000 – $90,000, aligned with experience and qualifications, plus a competitive benefits package

The Opportunity

Hunger Free Kansas is entering an exciting stage of growth. After operating for the past year as a program of the Kansas Health Foundation, Hunger Free Kansas is now launching as an independent statewide organization with the ambition, partnerships, and momentum to take its work to scale.

Grounded in the Blueprint for a Hunger-Free Kansas, the organization is working to make Kansas a place where every person has abundant access to the nutritious food they need to live a healthy and full life. The organization is focused on turning statewide vision into coordinated action by strengthening the partnerships, programs, policies, and systems needed to end hunger in Kansas.

The Director of Partnerships & Programs will contribute to this growth by helping build and manage trusted relationships and advancing systems change and programmatic solutions so that Kansas is a state where no one is hungry and every community is healthy.

This is an exciting opportunity for a strategic, relationship-centered leader who is energized by organizations in growth mode, complex community challenges, and the chance to help shape work that improves food and nutrition security across Kansas for years to come.

About the Role

The Director of Partnerships & Programs will serve as a key leader in advancing Hunger Free Kansas’ programmatic work and external partnerships. This individual will help strengthen the organization’s ability to design, manage, and grow initiatives aligned with the Blueprint for a Hunger-Free Kansas.

A significant early focus will be Tapestry, a collaborative initiative in Northeast Wichita designed to coordinate whole-family supports for 300 youth and their families. The initiative brings partners together around interconnected needs such as safe and enriching out-of-school opportunities, healthy housing, and consistent access to nutritious food.

While Tapestry will be an important early body of work, it is also intended to serve as a learning platform for Hunger Free Kansas’ broader statewide strategy to scale partnerships and solutions. The Director will help translate insights from Tapestry and other strategic efforts into stronger collaborations, more effective program design, deeper community engagement, aligned policy strategies, and long-term sustainability for the organization’s work.

The Director must be able to represent Hunger Free Kansas with credibility, humility, and professionalism in a wide range of community, philanthropic, nonprofit, public policy, and government settings.

Key Responsibilities

• Build and sustain trusted relationships with nonprofit, civic, philanthropic, business, public-sector, and community partners across Kansas.
• Advance partnerships and programs aligned with the Blueprint for a Hunger-Free Kansas and the organization’s mission to end hunger in Kansas.
• Lead and support strategic initiatives, including Tapestry and other programs that emerge as Hunger Free Kansas grows its statewide work.
• Translate organizational priorities into clear work plans, timelines, partnership structures, budgets, and measurable outcomes.
• Convene partners, facilitate collaboration, and help move complex work from idea to implementation.
• Use data, partner feedback, and community insight to strengthen program design, support reporting, and inform organizational strategy.
• Identify opportunities for expansion, adaptation, policy alignment, revenue generation, and deeper impact in new communities or contexts.
• Represent Hunger Free Kansas in community conversations, coalitions, public policy discussions, government relations settings, and other external forums.
• Operate effectively in a young, growing organization where systems are still being built and adaptability, ownership, and sound judgment are essential.

What Success Looks Like

Success in this role will be measured by the strength of partnerships built, the effectiveness of programs implemented, and the degree to which Hunger Free Kansas is able to translate learning into statewide strategy, deeper impact, and long-term sustainability.

• Stronger statewide partnerships that advance the Blueprint for a Hunger-Free Kansas.
• Trusted alignment among organizations, funders, policymakers, and community leaders.
• Well-coordinated strategic initiatives that produce learning, momentum, and measurable impact.
• New opportunities for innovation, sustainability, partnership, and expansion.
• A growing Hunger Free Kansas presence as a trusted statewide leader in ending hunger and supporting healthier communities.

Qualifications and Experience

Hunger Free Kansas is seeking a candidate who brings a strong mix of relationship-building, program leadership, strategic thinking, and practical follow-through. Competitive candidates will bring:

• Five to seven years or more of experience in program management, partnerships, community initiatives, public policy, government relations, nonprofit leadership, or a related field.
• Demonstrated ability to manage complex, multi-partner work from planning through implementation.
• A track record of building trusted relationships across sectors and representing an organization with credibility in public, community, and policy settings.
• Strong facilitation, communication, project management, and organizational skills.
• Comfort using data, evaluation, or partner feedback to improve programs and inform decisions.
• The ability to thrive in an entrepreneurial environment where clarity, structure, and systems must be built over time.
• A commitment to ending hunger and strengthening opportunity for Kansans.

Helpful, but not required: experience with food security, family well-being, public benefits, community health, economic mobility, statewide nonprofit networks, Kansas policy environments, and/or sustainable program and funding models.

Personal Qualities

• Builds trust naturally and leads with humility, curiosity, and relational intelligence.
• Balances big-picture strategy with practical follow-through and attention to detail.
• Communicates with clarity, warmth, and credibility across audiences.
• Exercises sound judgment, ownership, and accountability in complex or ambiguous settings.
• Respects the strengths, leadership, and lived experience of Kansas communities.
• Believes hunger is solvable and is motivated by the opportunity to help build a stronger, more food-secure Kansas.

Location

The Director of Partnerships & Programs will be based in Wichita, Kansas, with regular engagement across the state. Some travel will be expected to support partnership development, program implementation, community engagement, public policy work, and meetings with partners and funders.

Application Process

To apply, interested candidates should submit a cover letter and resume through the form below. Applications will be reviewed immediately and considered on a rolling basis until the position is filled.

Hunger Free Kansas is proud to be an equal opportunity employer.