Job Description

• Job ID: 65282
• Job Category: Community & Social Services
• Division: Children's Services
• Work Location: Metro Hall, 55 John Street
• Job Type & Duration: Full-Time, Permanent

• Salary Range: $227,138.00 - $306,774.00, EXE1

• Shift Information: Monday - Friday, 35 Hours per Week
• Affiliation: Non-Union
• Number of Positions Open: 1
• Posting Period: September 1 2026 - October 4 2026

The General Manager, Children's Services is a role of extraordinary scope and impact, requiring a leader who can strengthen one of Canada's largest childcare systems while delivering tangible improvements for children, families, educators, service providers, and communities across Toronto.

Reporting to the Deputy City Manager, Community & Social Services, the General Manager provides strategic leadership to a large and highly visible division. As Toronto's legislated Child Care Service System Manager, the role is both a system leadership mandate and an operational leadership responsibility: setting direction for policy, planning, capital expansion, workforce development, partnerships, and service innovation, while ensuring strong accountability, service quality, and day-to-day organizational performance.

The opportunity ahead is both exciting and demanding. The Division is operating in a period of growth, investment, and heightened public expectation, with pressures related to affordability, access to spaces, workforce recruitment and retention, service quality, capital delivery, and evolving provincial and federal policy and funding requirements. Success will require a leader who can set clear priorities, manage risk, and translate system ambition into practical, measurable outcomes.

At its core, this is a people leadership role. The General Manager will champion a culture of trust, accountability, inclusion, and continuous improvement across a diverse workforce committed to public service and community impact. You bring a demonstrated ability to lead organizational transformation, strengthen leadership capacity, and support workforce development while fostering an engaged, high-performing and inclusive workplace. Guided by a deep commitment to equity, anti-racism, accessibility, reconciliation, and inclusion, you embed these principles in organizational culture, decision-making, workforce practices, and service delivery, leading with authenticity, humility, and respect for the diverse lived experiences of employees, families, and communities.

Children's Services operates in an environment where success is built through partnership. The General Manager will work closely with community organizations, childcare operators, Indigenous communities, labour partners, and government stakeholders to advance shared priorities and strengthen Toronto's childcare system. The role will require careful navigation of interests that may not always align, including expectations related to access, affordability, quality, workforce conditions, accountability, and the pace of system expansion. The ability to build trust, engage authentically, navigate complexity, and foster meaningful relationships across diverse interests will be essential.

For the right leader, this is an opportunity to shape the future of one of Canada's largest childcare systems, lead a talented and dedicated workforce, and strengthen a sector that supports children, families, and communities across Toronto. The measure of success will be a more accessible, equitable, high-quality, and resilient childcare system that inspires confidence among families, partners, employees, and the public.

Key Qualifications

1. Extensive executive leadership experience within a large, complex public, broader public sector, community, education, health, human services, or similarly complex organization.
2. Significant experience leading large and diverse workforces, strengthening leadership capacity, supporting workforce development, and fostering inclusive, high-performing organizational cultures.
3. Experience within, or a strong understanding of, childcare, early years services, community-based systems, and intergovernmental policy and funding environments, including the ability to translate policy direction into practical system outcomes.
4. A deep commitment to equity, anti-racism, accessibility, inclusion, and reconciliation, supported by experience advancing equitable outcomes for employees and communities.
5. Demonstrated success leading transformational change, organizational modernization, culture renewal, service improvement, and risk-informed implementation in complex operating environments.
6. Considerable experience overseeing complex operations, substantial operating and capital budgets, strategic planning initiatives, performance measures, and accountability frameworks.
7. Exceptional relationship-building skills, with the ability to establish trust and credibility across communities, governments, advocacy organizations, sector partners, labour partners, and stakeholder groups.
8. Strong political acuity and experience operating within highly visible and publicly accountable environments.

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion

The City is an equal opportunity employer, dedicated to creating a workplace culture of inclusiveness that reflects the diverse residents that we serve. Learn more about the City’s commitment to employment equity

Accommodation

The City of Toronto is committed to creating an accessible and inclusive organization. We are committed to providing barrier-free and accessible employment practices in compliance with the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA). Should you require Code-protected accommodation through any stage of the recruitment process, please make them known when contacted and we will work with you to meet your needs. Disability-related accommodation during the application process is available upon request Learn more about the City’s Hiring Policies and Accommodation Process