ROLE TITLE: Managing Director, Partnerships

POSITION REPORTS TO: VP, Chief of Staff

APPLICATION DEADLINE: Applications are due on Wednesday, May 20, 2026, at 11:59 PM ET.

LOCATION: Chicago, Illinois

WHAT YOU’LL DO

We are looking for a Managing Director, Partnerships to set and lead our strategy for partnerships with our local schools, networks, districts, and graduate school partners, ensuring we deliver on our organization’s value add as strategic talent partners and network activators.

The ideal candidate has a proven record of setting vision and driving results through strong, healthy partnerships. You excel at defining a clear partnership strategy rooted in shared goals, trust, and measurable impact, and you ensure that strategy is consistently understood and executed across the many staff members of Teach For America who collaborate with our partners. Critically, you are not only an external partner‑facing leader, but also a skilled internal influencer. You effectively align and motivate a broad range of staff to live out the vision you set, ensuring that the partnership strategy is operationalized with fidelity, coherence, and accountability across the organization. You take responsibility for results, using data to track progress, diagnose challenges, and clearly communicate impact—internally and externally.

As a result of your work, our school partners say Teach For America is a valued part of their school community and that our talent and support have a meaningful and measurable impact on accelerating student progress at their school.

WHAT YOU’LL BE RESPONSIBLE FOR

• 80%: School, District, and University Partnerships: Set direction and manage execution for partnerships with vision-aligned schools, community coalitions, and districts to cluster and develop high-quality talent that drives student outcome improvement.

  • Build partnerships with school administrators to understand and align our talent offerings (Ignite Fellows, corps members, alumni, and our broader partner network) to their needs

  • Influence prospects, Ignite, corps members, and alumni facing staff to align their work to our partner-centered strategy, such that our talent is a value add to local schools. Serve as a portfolio manager for individual school partners and the lead relationship holder for district and charter network talent offices.

  • Grow geographic talent stack in schools/networks where there is partnership strength, there is a real need, and our talent investments will have an outsized impact on student outcomes, with a special focus on North Lawndale and Back of the Yards

  • Prepare corps members for and match them with high-impact teaching roles in our region before the first day of school

  • Track and analyze members and school satisfaction, effectiveness, retention, and footprint data so we can stay accountable to and improve our partnerships and outcomes. Ensure we have compliant Data Sharing Agreements with each school partner and district.

  • Manage relationships with our graduate school partners such that our corps members are on track to licensure in the state and are learning from their coursework

• 10%: Recruitment Partnerships: Support our local recruitment strategy alongside the organization-wide Recruitment Team to strengthen our overall incoming corps size, diversity, and number of “homegrown” Illinois leaders.

  • Spark and facilitate opportunities for our organization-wide recruitment strategy to take root in local corps placement and alumni-led schools

  • Serve as an extension of our org-wide recruitment team, stepping into opportunities to influence prospects to apply

• 10%: Collective Responsibilities: Will operate flexibly to lend skills and capacity to meet the needs of emerging projects or priorities as they arise

A WEEK IN THE LIFE

Over the course of any week, the Managing Director, Partnerships might spend time:

• Meeting with district and charter network talent office leaders to understand their vision and goals, check in on the health of our partnerships, and align on our talent to their needs

• Collaborating closely with members and school-facing staff to execute our school partnership strategy, including co-planning meetings with school administrators and training and supporting fellow staff to strengthen partner relationships.

• Analyzing internal data, external landscape happenings, and input from schools to shift our partnership and corps member placement strategies

• Managing school and district partners to submit and uphold Data Sharing Agreements

• Meeting with administrators from our graduate school partners to maintain strong relationships and ensure our corps members have a path toward licensure

• Pitching in on projects outside Partnerships to help fellow regional and national team members achieve our shared goals

YOUR EXPERIENCE

Your areas of knowledge and expertise that matter most for this role (minimum qualifications):

• 7+ years of professional experience in external partnerships, community engagement, or stakeholder management, including experience working with schools or school-based partners

• Demonstrated experience building and advancing external partnerships, including understanding partner motivations, identifying shared goals, and coordinating resources to achieve outcomes

• Experience setting strategy for a defined body of work and influencing colleagues or stakeholders—without direct authority—to execute against shared priorities

• Experience using productivity and CRM tools, such as Microsoft Office, Google Workspace, Salesforce, and/or design tools like Canva

• Demonstrated decision‑making and prioritization skills in complex or time‑sensitive environments, including considering multiple perspectives and communicating decisions clearly

• Experience using quantitative and/or qualitative data to inform strategy, outreach efforts, or partnership decisions

Bonus (preferred qualifications):

• Knowledge of the Chicago, North Chicago, and/or broader Illinois education community

• Prior experience in education, nonprofit, or mission‑driven organizations

YOUR FUTURE TEAM

Here in Greater Chicago-Northwest Indiana, our local vision for educational equity is that the students of today will be the leaders of tomorrow at every level in our community. Our unique value add as Teach For America is to be the premier talent recruiters, matchers, and developers to our local community of fellow education leaders as we collaborate toward this vision. We do this by forming deep partnerships with our local schools, understanding their goals, and rallying our network of prospects, corps members, alumni, and supporters to work in lock step toward those goals. You will be a part of our regional team of ten staff members working alongside partners inside and outside our organization to One Day.

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 minimum and the salary range, 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 B Salary: $101,700-$131,100

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.