TITLE: Vice President, Matriculation

TEAM: Admissions

REPORTS TO: Senior Vice President, Admissions
LOCATION: Remote - Flexible

PRIORITY DEADLINE: Friday, November 4 at 11:59 PM PT

WHAT YOU’LL DO

Our mission hinges on enlisting the next generation of exceptional, equity-oriented leaders to work to ensure every student receives an excellent and equitable education. This requires ensuring the leaders we admit choose the corps as an exceptional place to launch a career of impact. It requires supporting them as they study for and take required certification tests, enroll in certification programs, apply for and secure teaching positions, enroll in AmeriCorps, prepare to financially and logistically transition to the corps, and engage with summer training.

As the Vice President, Matriculation, you’ll lead the annual matriculation campaign and the multi-year strategy and investments to rapidly improve matriculation. You’ll be responsible for most effectively and efficiently supporting thousands of incredible leaders as they commit to joining us and as they navigate multiple arduous, time-sensitive processes. You’ll need to figure out how to keep them motivated and excited about the unique and incredible opportunity in Teach For America, even as competitors often continue to recruit them to opportunities that require much less of them. In recent years, we’ve made a number of important investments to move toward stronger matriculation at a lower cost per corps member. While there’s a growing number of regions with very strong matriculation, we’ve yet to improve the overall matriculation rate. We’re looking for a visionary, people-centered leader who’s energized by solving consequential challenges that require navigating multiple complex systems.

THE TEAM

Currently, the unit you lead includes 21 staff members who are primarily responsible for matriculation across 45 regions and 7 recruitment hubs. This includes 15 MD, Matriculation Generalists who each hold a portfolio of 2-7 regions where they manage the matriculation campaign. The other 6 roles are at a variety of seniority levels that oversee assignment to regions, transitional financial support, centralized communication and infrastructure, learning and development, etc. You’ll directly manage 8-10 of these roles, including 2-3 managers who will manage the other roles in this unit.

The true matriculation team is much larger with hundreds of staff members contributing to matriculation, including recruiters, CM coaches, regional leaders, and others. You’ll bring these constituents together to deliver a powerful experience for each incoming corps member. To do this, you’ll bring a front-line obsession to how we work together and how we make decisions. You’ll bring an orientation toward systems thinking to shape how we work and how we learn. You’ll lead and manage in ways that build inclusion, foster engagement, and deepen trust. You’ll bring a racial equity lens to why, how, and with whom we grow. Most importantly, you’ll display a high level of accountability to marginalized communities as reflected in the talent we’re seeking to attract to each community.

As a senior leader at Teach For America and within the Growth Team, you’ll be responsible not only for our impact in matriculation, but also for furthering the aims of the Growth Team and of Teach For America at large. You’ll work to ensure the way we approach matriculation is aligned to priorities of the broader team and organization.

WHAT YOU’LL BE RESPONSIBLE FOR

Matriculation Leadership (40%)

• Leads the annual matriculation campaign to meet meaningful goals grounded in accountability toward the communities where we work.

• Sets goals and steering metrics to ground annual matriculation campaign

• Ensures there’s strong clarity about the incoming CM program and broader strategy

• Builds strong partnership across the matriculation capability with values-creation managers in regions by ensuring clear responsibilities/accountabilities as well as systems to ensure strong partnership between matriculation capability and regional values-creation managers

• Designs and facilitates systems to bring those involved in matriculation together to build community, stay in communication, increase clarity, surface and resolve tensions, and ultimately to steer toward goals

• Pivots campaign as necessary to steer toward goals and supports team to ensure they have the necessary resources as priorities/needs evolve

• Leads engagements with important stakeholders throughout the matriculation campaign

• Fosters strong partnership with regions and teams. Addresses challenges quickly and productively

Strategic Planning and Continuous Improvement (25%)

• Builds and refines the strategy to support rapid improvement to reach healthy matriculation results in every community where we work.

• Creates annual and multi-year strategic plan and budget for matriculation in partnership with leaders across the Growth Team and Teach For America

• Partners with the matriculation capability, regional leaders, program leaders, and recruitment leaders to determine how matriculation roles and resources will be allocated across regions, recruitment hubs, etc.

• Determines how insights from participants and bright spots will be collected and compiled throughout the season. Uses these insights to inform future strategy and incoming CM program.

• Builds strong understanding of each element of our program strategy to work to ensure our approach to matriculation is aligned with our full set of programmatic aims.

Team Leadership and Development (20%)

• Directly manages 6+ MD Matriculation Generalists, fostering strong partnership with the regions and recruitment hubs supported by those MD Matriculation Generalists (20%)

• Deeply understands goals and strategic focuses in each region the MD Matriculation Generalist supports. Supports MD Matriculation Generalist to develop strategic focuses, steer toward goals, and refine focuses.

• Fosters open communication and feedback between MD Matriculation Generalists and regional Co-Captains, both within and beyond Elevate process for performance management

• Promotes strong communication and partnership between MD Matriculation Generalists, program, regions, and recruitment hubs

• Advises regional leadership and program leadership where there are barriers to matriculation

Senior Leadership (15%)

• Serves as a senior leader within Teach For America and the Growth Team by contributing to our shared objectives

• Deeply understands team and organizational priorities, such that you can steward these in leading matriculation

• Actively contributes to broader initiatives of the Growth Team, Admissions Team, CM Leadership Development Team, etc.

• Interviews applicants to Teach For America

• Contributes to a variety of cross-cutting initiatives

A WEEK IN THE LIFE

The VP, Matriculation might start the week leading a session with members of the unit to review the latest data about the matriculation campaign and to align on the priorities for the week ahead. The VP may then spend the rest of Monday in deep, focused work moving a strategic objective forward and determining how to engage the right stakeholders to do so. The middle of the week might be spent in cross-functional meetings to align work across teams and checking in with each of their direct reports. Between meetings, the VP is working with a variety of colleagues to advance work and problem solve tensions in the system. A key part of the week will be leading a session, alongside the full matriculation unit, to engage with leaders from 45 regions on preparing for the next part of the matriculation campaign. The week might close by getting input on a decision you’re considering from staff across the organization in a workshop (the Growth Team hosts one every Friday to get input on all important decisions), as well as speaking with several incoming participants to learn more about their experiences and reviewing data on the progress from the week.

YOUR EXPERIENCE

• At least 10 years of progressive, professional work experience

• Previous experience managing a team at Teach For America is required, including evidence of:

  • Leading in an inclusive way and effectively managing across lines of difference

  • Setting and refining strategy based on what we’re learning from the front-line

  • Building investment in solutions that meet the interests of different constituents

  • Accomplishing ambitious and meaningful results across complex systems

• Ability to set and reach ambitious goals grounded in community need, building clarity about the strategy, systems and approach needed

• Systems leadership expert who guides learning and multi-year, iterative improvement

• Demonstrated commitment to Teach For America’s core values and commitment to equity and belonging in how they lead, managing effectively across lines of difference

• Highly effective team leader and manager who holds high expectations for how others work and supports others to live up to these expectations

• Experience leading cross-functional teaming

• Communicates effectively and transparently and creates spaces and systems to identify and resolve needs and tensions

• Experience leveraging technology in ways that enable people to do what they do best

• Strong recruitment skill to guide participant-level strategy

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 ranges for this role are set forth below. These ranges may be modified in the future.

• Tier A: $130,000 - $167,500

• Tier B: $141,700 - $182,600

• Tier C: $153,400 - $197,700

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.