Office of Child Advocate Data Director

The Office of the Child Advocate (OCA) is an agency within the judicial branch, charged with safeguarding the welfare of Delaware’s children.  It accomplishes this mission through advocacy, collaboration, evaluation, and education with a vision of safe and resilient children with supportive families. It has 30 full-time employees, six casual/seasonal employees, thirteen contractors and over 400 volunteers. OCA operates out of all three counties.  OCA’s Legal Services Division represents approximately 550 children that are experiencing foster care through Child Attorneys and Court Appointed Special Advocates.  OCA’s Office of the Investigation Coordinator (IC) monitors over 900 serious child abuse cases and leads the multidisciplinary team case reviews. OCA’s Policy and Training Division provides intensive reviews of serious child abuse cases, manages youth in transition programs, coordinates child welfare trainings, generates child welfare data and staffs the Child Protection Accountability Commission (CPAC). Administrative support is provided to all divisions through leadership, managers, and support staff. 

OCA’s Policy and Training Division includes the Data Unit, which is responsible for organizing and managing the data administration and management processes for all child welfare data maintained by OCA, the Family Court and CPAC. The Unit’s primary duties are as follows: inputting and maintaining data in OCA’s data management system (Apricot); designing and managing the Apricot data management system on behalf of OCA and the Family Court; monitoring OCA and the Family Court’s data processes to ensure data quality and integrity; preparing and interpreting routine and ad-hoc reports, queries and bulletins for OCA’s three divisions; staffing the CPAC Data Utilization Committee; and maintaining the Child Welfare Dashboard on behalf of CPAC. Additionally, the Data Unit provides support to the Family Court in administering the Apricot data management system, including building reports and dashboards for Court staff, and the Court Improvement Program Steering Committee and its workgroups, collaborating with the data team and meeting quarterly with the Court Improvement Program (CIP) Coordinator. The Data Unit also facilitates an efficient data sharing model with the Division of Family Services for children in DSCYF custody and collaborates with system partners to collect data and identify trends and gaps in services.

1. Experience working with Delaware's child welfare system
2. Experience in using cloud-based database management systems (ex. Apricot, Salesforce, FOCUS, etc.), which includes database design, testing, and implementation.

1. Overseeing OCA’s Data Unit and supervising two casual/seasonal Management Analysts and the Administrative Specialist II.
2. Participating in the development of data definition and structure differences and coordinating data definition and structure between agencies over shared data elements.
3. Developing data models and designs as established through data administration and management guidelines.
4. Serving as the primary administrator for the Apricot data management system for OCA and Family Court, and performing all phases of database development including system definition, implementation and maintenance, as required, to manage data models.
5. Coordinating data selection with user agencies to ensure integrated data models and designs, which enable data to be shared.
6. Planning, assigning, reviewing and evaluating the work of the OCA's Data Unit, and managing the requests for data.
7. Monitoring OCA data processes to ensure accuracy of data collection and entry and assigning quality assurance reports to the OCA's Data Unit.
8. Overseeing the preparation and interpretation of routine and ad-hoc reports, queries, statistics, and analysis for CPAC and CIP by the OCA's Data Unit. 
9. Participating in CPAC and CIP committees, task forces and workgroups that impact data management services, and staffing committees and workgroups as appropriate.
10. Assisting CPAC and CIP committees and workgroups in obtaining additional data, in streamlining data exchanges and creating or managing data definitions and structure.
11. Identifying and analyzing trends or patterns in complex data and interpreting and communicating these findings to OCA and Family Court, and stakeholders.
12. Training OCA, Family Court and stakeholder staff and providing technical guidance on constructing database queries and generating reports.
13. Providing technical assistance to agencies, including OCA and Family Court, in preparation of proposals and the evaluation of plans for database designs and models.
14. Assisting with local and national trainings, meetings and seminars as requested by the Office of the Child Advocate and the Family Court.

1. Possession of a Bachelor’s degree or higher, which includes coursework in conducting studies, descriptive statistics and inferential statistics.
2. Experience in data resource management which includes developing or maintaining data dictionary, data quality and integrity, data storage/warehousing, data mining techniques, database structure generation and design or data modeling.
3. Experience in designing, maintaining, analyzing and implementing database management systems.
4. Experience in narrative report writing.
5. Experience in interpreting laws, rules, regulations, standards, policies, and procedures.
6. Knowledge of making recommendations for continuation or changes to operations, programs, services, policies or procedures based on findings.
7. Knowledge of staff supervision acquired through course work, academic training, training provided through an employer, or performing as a lead worker overseeing the work of others; OR supervising staff which may include planning, assigning, reviewing, and evaluating the work of others; OR supervising through subordinate supervisors a group of professional, technical, and clerical employees.
8. Experience presenting training or education courses using a variety of training methods such as lecture, e-learning, structured exercises, role play or group discussion as well as the use of training materials such as overheads, PowerPoint, handouts or videos.
9. Ability to communicate effectively both orally and in writing.

A teleworking option may be extended to the employee selected for this position if the criteria is met per the Delaware Judicial Branch Telework Policy.

• A satisfactory criminal background check is required as a condition of employment
• A satisfactory Child Protection Registry check is required as a condition of employment
• Direct deposit of paychecks is required as a condition of employment

• Full time employees are eligible for FREE parking!!!
• To learn more about the comprehensive benefit package please visit our website at https://dhr.delaware.gov/benefits/

• Accommodations are available for applicants with disabilities in all phrase of the application and employment process. To request an auxiliary aid or service please call (302)739-5458.  TDD users should call the Delaware Relay Services Number 1-800-232-5460 for assistance.
• The State of Delaware is an Equal Opportunity employer and values a diverse workforce. We strongly encourage and seek out a workforce representative of Delaware including race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression.