ROLE TITLE: Senior Managing Director, Strategy & Impact (Full Time)

POSITION REPORTS TO: Dr. Dolores Garcia-Blocker, Executive Director, Connecticut

APPLICATION DEADLINE: July 26, 2024 at 11:59pm ET

LOCATION: Connecticut

WHAT YOU’LL DO

The Senior Managing Director, Strategy & Impact is a senior leader, playing an essential role in the vision of the region and sustaining a healthy and productive regional team. This person will oversee the entire participant journey and key regional functions - including strategy, recruitment, corps member programming, Ignite, alumni, talent, finance, operations, and communications to ensure we are able to realize our 2030 goal. Reporting to the Executive Director, the SMD, Strategy & Impact is a key driver of these work streams and responsible for their impact. They will set the tone and systems for staff collaboration, progress and accountability toward our shared goals. In addition, the SMD, Strategy & Impact serves as a critical partner to the Executive Director. They will take personal responsibility for the evolution of our local strategic plan, and ultimately, provide effective leadership to ensure the region is on a path to achieving long-term impact for our students and communities in our region.

The ideal candidate is a values-driven and impact-oriented leader. They are people and results focused and are fulfilled by facilitating collaboration within and across teams. They have a strong sense of duty around holding their colleagues accountable and providing them with the clear expectations, conditions, and culture needed to grow and realize their goals. They are a true partner to the Executive Director as an advisor, project manager, and people manager. They are a jack of all trades and are ready to flow to projects as needed.

As a result of the SMD, Strategy & Impact’s work, our local staff will have the systems, accountability and support needed to realize regional goals, and we will have a strategy that reflects the needs of our schools, communities and members.

WHAT YOU’LL BE RESPONSIBLE FOR

Responsibilities will include, but are not limited to:

Set Vision and Strategic Direction for CT Participant Experience

• Shape vision for how the full participant experience from recruitment, to 2-year corps experience, to Ignite Fellows, through alumni and beyond deliver impact and help us to achieve our 2030 goal

• Develop strong district, school, university, and other external partnerships to ensure all our participants experience impact and success

Assess and Communicate Impact & Drive Learning

• Work in conjunction with others on the regional and national teams to understand and establish the infrastructure to collect, monitor, assess and interpret quantitative and qualitative data on the impact of our strategies and goals related to recruitment, CMs, Ignite Fellows, and alumni and utilize these data to paint an accurate picture of the progress to our vision & goals

• Craft “the story” of our impact, to build awareness and investment amongst internal and external constituents

  • Internal constituents include regional teams, CT region, national partners

  • External constituents include board/donors, institutional partners (some CMOs, universities)

• Build relationships with others doing related work internally and externally to identify opportunities for meaningful and mutually beneficial learning and collaboration and to gain perspective, inspiration, and deeper understanding, and build capacity for teammates to do the same

Build a High-Impact Team (People/Talent Management)

• Development & Retention

  • Ensure that structures are in place across the team for effective feedback loops ○ Ensure inclusive/equitable processes for decision-making and communications ○ Steward a strong team culture based on our core values and reflective of our commitment to diversity and inclusiveness

• Coach and Manage Staff

  • Hire, manage, coach and develop direct reports toward performance and professional development goals

  • Serve as the regional point of contact for our organization’s corps facing program team, including co-managing Managing Directors, Leadership Development, who will lead cohorts of incoming and current corps members and manage them toward student,

    • classroom, and experience level goals. Ensure MD, LD execution is aligned to our regional and national vision for corps work.

• Succession Planning

  • Ensure that direct reports are constantly growing to maximize their potential in current roles and building skill for future leadership, while at the same time building the skills and capacity in the next “generation” of leaders in the region

Serve as a Regional Leader

• Serve as the Regional Point of Contact for the national program team

• Represent the CT regional team outside of the region (TFA national; external)

A WEEK IN THE LIFE

Over the course of any week the SMD, Strategy & Impact will spend time:

• Connecting with colleagues on regional teams, hub and national program teams, capability centers, and other internal people and teams to ensure alignment and progress across all regional strategies and goals.

• Planning and facilitating internal and external meetings

• Supporting with preparation for an upcoming board meetings

• Monitoring our progress toward our 2030 goals

• Establishing and maintaining key relationships and partnerships to support our work to achieve our 2030 goal

• Executing discreet projects, relationships and communications on behalf of the Executive Director to support their priorities, time and energy

• Engaging in 1:1 check ins with direct reports to provide feedback, accountability, support and connection

• Liaising with the Development Hub and national CM facing Program team to ensure strong collaboration across teams toward shared goals

• Tracking and analyzing region-wide progress toward our 2030 and annual goals

• Reporting out on progress and setting up staff to be clear on, motivated by, and accountable to shared goals.

YOUR EXPERIENCE

Prior experience:

• Minimum of 10 years of experience in education; including significant experience managing adults, and significant experience working in low-income communities

• Experience as a principal of a high-performing urban K-12 school highly preferred, but not required

• At least 5 years of experience managing teams layered and/or highly collaborative complex teams

• Demonstrated success leading school and/or other programmatic improvement initiatives in ways that account for equity among racial, ethnic and economic groups

Skills:

• Visionary leadership: articulates a clear, compelling and ambitious vision for what needs to be true for our kids, along with the strategies to realize that vision

• Outcomes-orientation and a track record of extraordinary results; leads with a focus on measurable results and long-term vision; has a strong record of achieving transformational results with kids from low-income communities, at the classroom, school, or network/multiple-school levels

• Excellent team management: builds and develops an exceptional team, including attracting, motivating, coaching, and developing a pipeline of talented and diverse staff, and can achieve extraordinary results through layers

• Displays an exceptional level of perseverance and drive towards achieving results no matter the obstacles, displaying a "whatever it takes" attitude

• Exceptional judgment

• Ability to build deep and meaningful relationships with others

• Ability to provide others with effective professional development, coaching and mentoring

• Skill in designing and facilitating learning experiences, preferably focused on Diversity, Equity and Inclusiveness

• Outstanding skill in influencing others toward outcomes through sophisticated internal and external relationship management

• Ability to collaborate successfully across team and institutional lines, and to set vision for and model strong inclusive collaborative practices

• Strength and confidence in engaging in difficult conversations

Education

• Bachelor’s degree required, Master’s or higher degree preferred

YOUR FUTURE TEAM

The SMD, Strategy & Impact will work on a small team of people committed to educational equity and making a difference in the lives of children and communities in Connecticut.

YOUR COMPENSATION

The applicable salary range for each U.S.-based role is based on where the employee works and is aligned to one of 3 tiers according to a cost of labor index in that geographic area. Starting pay for the successful applicant will depend on a variety of job-related factors, which may include education, training, experience, location, business needs, or market demands. New hires are typically brought into the organization at a salary between the range minimum and the salary range midpoint depending on qualifications, internal equity, and the budgeted amount for the role. The expected salary range for this role are set forth below. These ranges may be modified in the future.

Tier B: $118,700-178,000

You can view which tier applies to where you plan to work here. If your location is not listed, please click here for additional total rewards information.