Senior Director, Formal Learning

Company Description

KIPP Public Schools is a national network of public charter schools that prepares students with the skills and confidence to create the future they want for themselves, their communities, and us all. We are a network of 275 schools, nearly 16,500 educators, and more than 175,000 students and alumni.  

Our mission: Together with families and communities, we create joyful, academically excellent schools that prepare students with the skills and confidence to pursue the paths they choose—college, career, and beyond—so they can lead fulfilling lives and build a more just world. 

Our vision: Every child grows up free to create the future they want for themselves and their communities. 

The KIPP Foundation is a nonprofit organization that supports KIPP schools across the country. The KIPP Foundation trains and develops outstanding educators to lead KIPP public schools; provides tools, resources and training for excellent teaching and learning; promotes innovation; and facilitates the exchange of insights and ideas across KIPP and other public schools and organization.

 

About Our Values: 

Focus on Excellent Results: Winning for Children and Families – Denying people of color and people experiencing economic hardship excellent outcomes from public organizations is longstanding and only perpetuates inter-generational racism and poverty.  We pursue excellence at a world-class level because our children and families deserve nothing less.  We focus on excellent results, generated by excellent daily action, because intentions alone will not enable our children to lead fulfilling lives. 

Courageous Action: We do Hard Things All day, Every Day – Our work is centered on reversing the impact of generational racism and poverty on children of color from low-income families.  This work is inherently challenging and will never be easy.  Our mission requires that, through concerted action, we embrace, confront, and overcome adversity. 

Resilient Solutions Focus – Find a Way or Make One – We doggedly pursue solutions to every problem we confront.  For every problem, we find or invent a solution.  We are smart, optimistic, and thoughtful in crafting solutions, but also timely, recognizing that our children only have one life to live.  We embrace a growth mindset, believing that simply because we have not achieved our ultimate aims today does not mean that we cannot tomorrow.  We chase the continuous improvement of ourselves, our interpersonal relationships, our teams, and our organization. 

Job Description

About The Position 

As the Senior Director of Formal Learning, you will lead the KIPP Foundation's efforts in defining and executing a vision of excellence for training and development. Through close collaboration with other Foundation teams and KIPP regions, you will ensure that KIPP school leaders, regional leaders, and Foundation employees have access to aligned, cohesive, and exceptional learning experiences: experiences that will not only enhance their leadership skills but also empower them to effectively and passionately lead KIPP to achieve its ambitious academic and culture goals for KIPPsters. The ideal candidate will be committed to racial and educational equity and can effectively translate our organization-wide priorities into key competencies needed by diverse leaders. As the Senior Director of Formal Learning, you will lead a team and report to the Vice President of Leadership Development. This role offers a unique opportunity to make a lasting impact on the lives of KIPPsters while fostering a culture of excellence and growth within the organization. 

Responsibilities 

Strategy & Program Design 

• Lead the development process for defining the network-wide training & development model for school leaders, regional leaders, and Foundation employees. 

• Provide strategic input, expertise, thought partnership, and leadership across Foundation teams to ensure all training and development offerings hit the bar of excellence and are coherent across programs 

• Design the systems for continual improvement of content, approaches and support to successfully met the needs of our leaders at the Foundation and in our regions 

• Design systems to monitor alignment of professional development offerings across KIPP Foundation programs and to annual strategic goals   

• Align Foundation-led regional chief-level communities of practice to annual strategic training and development priorities 

 

Program Execution and Evaluation 

• Stay abreast of emerging practices in the training and development field that may have relevance for our work 

• Train all KF staff who design and facilitate region-facing training, development, and communities of practice on best practices to making these activities effective 

• Lead professional development strand leads through the learning cycle - supporting development of logic models, measurement strategies, learning questions and regular reflection on the impact of program offerings 

• Ensure data is collected accurately and in a timely manner to answer learning questions 

• Analyze, synthesize, and share data with relevant internal and external stakeholders 

• Lead observation and feedback sessions with Foundation Schools Team members who coach School Leaders and School Leader Managers to build proficiency in coaching using KIPP’s Refreshed Leadership Competency Model and Development and Management cycle tools 

• Partner with KIPP regions to build their leadership development systems so that they create robust and equitable talent pipelines 

 

Team Management 

• With the Senior Director, Regional Talent Systems, support in leading the Leadership Development Team to ensure cohesive execution of the team vision and collaboration across the team and the overall KIPP Foundation, including support of team meetings, progress monitoring, and overall strategy 

• Manage a team of 3-4 direct reports who are implementing KIPP’s leadership development strategy to ensure each member of the team is flourishing and unleashing their full potential for the benefit of KIPPsters 

• Manage the workload, resourcing and supports to team members to enable them to propel regional impact 

• Connect teammates to resources and look across the KIPP Foundation to ensure collaboration and cohesion of strategy 

Qualifications

Skills

• Mission & Student Focus: Demonstrated commitment to education equity; a passion for KIPP’s mission; desire and ability to uphold KIPP’s values (Focus on Excellent Results, Courageous Action, and Resilient Solutions Focus) 

• Subject Matter Expert in Adult Learning: Well versed in adult learning frameworks and tactics; able to design, develop, and implement professional development for diverse adult learners 

• Achievement Orientation: Can set vision and strategy, ensuring clarity in goals and accountabilities while working with agility and creativity to drive toward deadlines and outcomes-focused metrics; can adapt to achieve goals while upholding integrity and organization principles and values   

• Strategic Critical Thinking and Reasoning: Systems-level thinker who can craft a vision for how an organization achieves equity, inclusion, and strong student outcomes through talent strategy; can diagnose root causes of pain points, solve complex problems and implement solutions; able to manage both the big picture and the details; Oriented towards iterating on and testing solutions 

• Team Leadership & Talent Development: Set a tone and culture that enables team leadership to maximize individual strengths and address areas for development. Foster a talent culture that plans for succession and retention of key players and communicates an employee value proposition to promote performance, sustainability, and engagement. 

• Stakeholder Management & Relationship Building: Excellent relationship builder with demonstrated experience managing diverse stakeholders, leading change, and promoting strong collaboration in service of the relentless pursuit of improvement and collective achievement; quickly establishes credibility with and influences senior leadership on major strategic questions 

• Planning & Execution: Creates systems to manage projects effectively and balance competing priorities; able to anticipate and address risks; thrives in an entrepreneurial environment and comfortable operating in ambiguity 

• Cultural Competence & Commitment to Equity: A proactive cultural leader and team player who thrives on collaboration and learning; examines the impact of his/her identities, biases, assumptions, and behaviors on his/her power and privilege, interactions with others, work and leadership in the organization; able to recognize, immediately respond, and consistently remedy interpersonal and systemic bias and inequities. 

Experience and Qualifications 

• 10+ years of work experience with creating and delivering Formal Learning systems in organizations with national reach. 

• 3+ years of School Leadership Experience 

• 5+ years of experience managing people or small teams  

• Record of results effectively designing and delivering both Formal Learning programs and performance management systems   

• Experience working in virtual environments with teammates across multiple time zones;  

• Familiarity with virtual learning platforms highly preferred

Additional Information

Work Conditions 

• Travel requirements: 30% travel (estimated travel is two work trips of 1-3 days in length, twice a month). 

• Full Time, Exempt Position

Location

It is preferred, but not mandatory for this role to be based out of a KIPP Foundation office.  This role also offers the option of working from a remote office full-time. KIPP Foundation office is in NYC and Chicago.    

 

Compensation and Benefits.

In compliance with local law, we are disclosing the compensation, or a range thereof, for roles in locations where legally required. Actual salaries will vary based on several factors, including but not limited to external market data, internal equity, and relevant experience.  The salary range for this position is $150,000-$181,000. In addition, KIPP Foundation provides a variety of benefits to employees, including:  

• 25 holidays for + 18 days additional flexible PTO days (flexible PTO increases to 23 days for years 3 and 4 and to 28 days for years 5+). 

• 100% paid parental leave 

• 100% coverage of the premium for employee and 75% for employee + family’s medical/dental/vision plans. 

• Wellness benefits such as fitness reimbursements, discounted tickets to theme parks/attractions, backup care support for children and adults/elders, and our employee assistance program 

• Finance Security benefits include such as a 401K retirement plan with 4% match, employer-sponsored legal plans, life/disability insurance, and flexible spending accounts 

KIPP Foundation embraces the opportunity to build a workforce that reflects the diversity of the students and communities with whom we work and the world that around them. Being an equal opportunity employer means that we take seriously our responsibility to consider qualified candidates on the basis of merit, without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, mental or physical disability, and genetic information, marital status, citizenship status, military status, protected veteran status or any other category protected by law.