School Network Staff Director Strategic Initiatives
Job Description
Opportunity Snapshot
The ideal candidate for this role is an experienced education systems manager who believes deeply in reimagining education and eliminating systemic inequities, putting students, families, and communities at the center of change efforts. You understand that driving durable change in schools requires long-term community partnership and collective power-building. You are driven by a passion to create order from ambiguity and find energy in tackling thorny and emergent strategic questions. As a key member of our organization, you will have the opportunity to lead high-impact projects across multiple functions– data, instruction, communication, and facilitation. You’re committed to exceptional work and partnership, artfully navigating across multiple stakeholders to maximize learning and ensure a strong outcome. In this role, you’ll spend 70% of your time diving into work with Bay Ed Fund’s school district partners, leading projects that will enable strong partnerships with community members and transformational change for students. In the remaining 30% of your time, you’ll build the internal knowledge that helps to enable the replication of our approach, learning about cutting-edge solutions and codifying approaches that work. You will be an invaluable resource to the Bay Ed Fund team and our partners as we remove barriers to creating excellent school systems for all students.
About the Bay Ed Fund
The Bay Ed Fund, founded in 2022, is taking a new approach to closing the opportunity gap and ensuring all students are prepared to thrive in the Bay Area. We begin with the voices and aspirations of students, families, and communities to create a local vision for how graduates will be prepared to thrive as adults in the Bay Area. We then commit to supporting the district and community over ten years to realize that vision through collaborative, transformative work at both the district and school levels. The Bay Ed Fund provides community partners with the resources to be powerful partners with the district, and district partners with strategic facilitation support, meaningful philanthropic funding, and capacity building in the areas of talent, change management, instructional improvement, family engagement and resource allocation.
Currently, we are working in South San Francisco, East Palo Alto, exploring a third community. We plan to expand our reach to other Bay Area communities in the near future.
The Bay Ed Fund’s work comes at a critical moment for our communities and country. Schools are being called to question the status quo in the wake of Covid-19, learning loss, and growing mental health challenges that are exacerbating pre-existing inequities. At the same time, AI and shifting job markets are elevating important questions about what it means to be “prepared.” While the need to reinvent is clear, too few districts are setting themselves up to change – to define and realize a future that is relevant for this generation and reimagine how public institutions partner with communities to deliver on a promise of education for all students.
Opportunity & Responsibilities
As a dynamic problem-solver, you’ll have the opportunity to roll up your sleeves with education leaders across the Bay to improve work and execute projects of high value for students. In our work with districts, we have often found opportunities to pilot a new way of working– communicating more effectively with families, bringing data forward in digestible ways, supporting aligning time/resources with priorities and values, and using new mediums that strengthen the change narrative in a district and community. By bringing capacity and resources to these projects, we’re able to support district leaders in reimagining how their vision can come to life. We’re looking for an experienced leader with diverse experiences in schools and school systems to lead these transformational projects.
In this pivotal role, you will have three primary responsibilities that will shape the lives of thousands of students:
1) Partner with school and system leaders to execute high-impact projects that will strengthen their work to engage stakeholders and transform education for students.
You will dive in with districts to help them tackle essential needs. You’ll work with Bay Ed Fund Partners to identify these projects, seeking opportunities to strengthen communications, functions, and experiences that will be critical for the district to implement the community-designed vision for students. These projects will vary, but examples include:
- Research solutions to instructional questions and challenges that emerge for district leaders
- Synthesizing feedback from stakeholders and communicating takeaways
- Crafting a compelling story about student achievement data, emphasizing areas for celebration and areas for growth
- Redesigning internal meetings so that they are effective, efficient, and engaging
- Designing the pilots and implementation of initiatives to improve instructional strategy
- Supporting a communication strategy to accompany the new strategic plan
- Assessing the current hiring process to identify and implement quick wins
2) Deepen Bay Ed Fund’s understanding of best-in-class resources for strengthening district work.
You will be responsible for continuing to develop our knowledge of what works best for districts, schools, and students. As a knowledge builder, you’ll look to stay abreast of the latest research while also codifying learning from our own work, including
- Identifying organizations doing cutting-edge work and building connections to learn from them
- Exploring education and organizational research, including reading, attending conferences, and talking to experts
- Document successful projects and the impact that they’ve had on district partners
- Looking across our communities to identify bright spots and how to amplify those successes
- Develop communication tools to share our work with others who share similar goals
3) Support the building of a high-performing and durable organization
In addition to your individual responsibilities, you will also have the opportunity to shape our organization. Our success depends on building a high-performing team that is passionate, driven, and dedicated to our mission. With your leadership, we will create an organization that is not only effective and impactful but also resilient and enduring. Your strategic leadership and ability to foster a positive and inclusive culture will be critical in building a durable organization that can sustainably drive educational transformation for years to come. This will include:
- Playing a critical role in building a thriving team culture and a strong relationship with our board, as well as the management and support of internal teams
- Proactively identifying and taking on internal roles to strengthen The Bay Ed Fund as an organization.
- Supporting our communications and branding efforts for the Bay Ed Fund and across our portfolio of community and district partners;
- Developing, deepening, and sustaining relationships with sector leaders, funders, and key partner organizations in the Bay Area
How We Will Work Together
This is a unique opportunity to lead and make a lasting difference in the lives of students, schools, and communities. If you are ready to inspire change, challenge the status quo, and build a better future through education, we invite you to join us on this remarkable journey.
Our culture and collaborative approach are key pillars of our organization. As a strong candidate, you will thrive in an environment that embraces:
- Transformative education for ALL students: We believe in the transformative power of education and are committed to ensuring that every student receives an exceptional learning experience. We challenge the status quo and strive to create new, innovative approaches to education that break down barriers and uplift all students.
- Learning and unlearning in pursuit of our vision and outcomes: We recognize that growth is a continuous journey in pursuit of our vision and outcomes. We value feedback and actively invest in our personal and professional development. By fostering a culture of learning, we empower ourselves to constantly improve and deliver an even greater impact.
- Relationship building: Trust is the foundation of our success. We understand that authentic connections and strong relationships are vital for effective collaboration, both within our team and with external partners. Taking the time to truly know one another is not a luxury but an essential part of our work.
- Simple solutions: We relish the process of problem-solving and seek elegant solutions that simplify complex challenges. Our focus is on empowering communities and directing our resources toward impactful investments in education. We strive for practical, efficient, and effective solutions that maximize student outcomes, experiences, and community agency.
- Humble leadership: We prioritize the mission above individual egos or politics. No task is too small or beneath anyone on our team. We approach our work with humility, recognizing that the best solutions for students and communities are the ones that prioritize their needs above all else.
Qualifications
We recognize that qualifications extend beyond a checklist, and we encourage candidates who believe they could be a good fit to apply, even if they do not meet every qualification. We value diversity, inclusivity and belonging, and we invite all to join us in driving transformative change in education.
- Diverse Set of Education Leadership Experiences: With seven-plus years of professional experience, you’ve had exposure to educational systems at multiple levels and can bring nuanced perspectives on various challenges, from communication to data to instruction. You can leverage your experiences to create exceptional teams, products, and experiences. You’ve been able to build a variety of skills, including storytelling, analysis, and facilitation.
- Expert Change Management: You understand the barriers to doing things differently and can use a variety of approaches to cultivate stakeholder buy-in, build momentum, and ensure lasting results. You’ve successfully overseen a significant change within a large organization and know how to weave change management throughout a process.
- Compelling Verbal & Written Communication Skills: You can communicate to create a shared understanding. Your verbal and written communication skills effectively convey complex ideas simply and compellingly to diverse audiences. You have a track record of quality communication deliverables for internal and external audiences.
- Efficient Project Management: You have experience managing complex projects with several partners. You manage ownership and expectations, delivering value while also leveraging other’s skills and experiences. You anticipate risks to the effective execution of projects and seek to mitigate those risks.
- Strong Interpersonal Skills: Your interpersonal skills are well-rounded, enabling you to build strong relationships with a wide range of stakeholders, from elected officials and district leaders to students and families. You effortlessly collaborate with stakeholders from diverse backgrounds and skillfully facilitate joint problem-solving with partner organizations, communities, and districts.
- Orientation to Action & Impact: You have a demonstrated ability to translate ideas and recommendations into action. Your well-developed influence skills allow you to facilitate change, build capacity, and achieve desired outcomes through collaboration with others.
- Self-motivated and Entrepreneurial: You possess a highly self-motivated work style and eagerly embrace leadership roles within our organization. Your proactive nature and initiative are catalysts for progress and growth- within our organization and in our partner communities.
- (Preferred but not required) Experience Working and/or Living in San Mateo, Santa Clara, or San Francisco Counties: You have built positive relationships and a reputation that you can bring to bear in our partnership work.
- (Preferred but not required) Adept at communicating in Spanish: You are able to engage a diverse range of community members, including many who are Spanish-speaking.
