Chief People Officer

KIPP NYC Public Schools•New York, NY

5d•Hybrid

About The Position

KIPP NYC Public Schools is seeking an exceptional Chief People Officer (CPO) to serve as the chief architect of the organization's talent strategy, culture, and employee experience. This role is a critical member of the Executive Leadership Team, reporting directly to the CEO. The CPO will own all aspects of the People function, including talent acquisition, workforce planning, talent development, performance management, organizational effectiveness, change leadership, total rewards, employee and labor relations, HR operations, governance, compliance, risk management, and equity and belonging. This is an enterprise-level mandate requiring both strategic leadership and operational excellence across a complex, multi-entity organization of over 1,200 employees serving thousands of students and families across three boroughs. The CPO will be a core strategic partner to the CEO, responsible for ensuring the people strategy scales with the organization's budget, footprint, and ambition. Early priorities include strengthening and integrating a data-driven People function, modernizing HR systems, partnering with Finance on payroll transition, building a leadership pipeline, and enhancing recruitment, onboarding, and retention strategies for educators, while embedding equity and belonging into all practices.

Requirements

A track record of serving as a trusted strategic advisor to CEOs, executive teams, and boards on talent and organizational strategy, bringing executive presence, sound judgment, and the confidence to constructively challenge assumptions.
Demonstrated ability to lead organizational design and enterprise-wide change, including building stakeholder investment, communicating through uncertainty, and helping leaders and teams adopt new structures, systems, and ways of working.
Significant experience building and scaling people functions within large, complex, multi-site organizations (ideally 1,000+ employees and $100M+ operating budgets).
Demonstrated ability to build workforce plans that anticipate organizational needs rather than react to them.
An empowering leadership style that develops high-performing teams through clear expectations, coaching, accountability, and a genuine culture of ownership.
Exceptional communication and relationship-building skills, with the ability to build trust and influence across school leaders, executive leadership, and the Board.
A high degree of emotional attunement – the ability to read what’s said and unsaid in a room or relationship and translate that insight into action.
The ability to pair genuine empathy with high accountability.
Executive presence and warmth in equal measure – possessing gravitas that earns trust.
A sense of humor and levity that builds connection, even amid serious, high-stakes work.
A collaborative, enterprise-wide mindset, with the ability to build strong partnerships across People, Finance, Development, and school-based leadership.
Demonstrated, substantive commitment to equity in hiring, compensation, and advancement with the ability to translate values into concrete policy and practice.
Deep expertise in human resources (HR), compliance, and engagement with complex legal employment matters.
Demonstrated track record of building effective performance management, talent development, and succession-planning strategies within organizations with distinct frontline and central-office talent segments.
A strong command of total rewards strategy, including compensation philosophy, benefits design and administration, and competitive benchmarking.
Demonstrated track record of modernizing HR systems, processes, and technology to build scalable, data-driven People operations across multiple HRIS platforms.
Experience leveraging HR technology and people analytics — including emerging AI tools — to improve organizational decision-making.
Strong operational judgment, including the ability to assess People operations, establish meaningful performance metrics, and drive continuous improvement.
A demonstrated commitment to KIPP NYC's mission of providing high-quality public education and advancing social justice and racial equity, with a deep belief in the power of education to create opportunity.
Authenticity, humility, and sound judgment, with a people-centered approach to organizational stewardship and decision-making.
Intellectual curiosity, resilience, and comfort navigating complexity within a fast-paced, mission-driven organization.
The highest standards of integrity, professionalism, and discretion in managing highly sensitive and confidential information.

Nice To Haves

Education or nonprofit sector experience is helpful but not required.

Responsibilities

Serve as a strategic thought partner to the CEO, Board, and Executive Leadership Team, translating organizational vision into an actionable, multi-year talent strategy.
Own workforce planning across a complex, multi-entity structure — anticipating hiring needs, succession risk, and organizational design questions.
Build and protect a culture of high performance, accountability, and belonging at every level of the organization.
Advise the CEO and executive team on the people implications of major strategic decisions and lead the people and change-management strategies for successful implementation.
Champion a leadership philosophy grounded in clear expectations, coaching, and empowerment.
Serve as a senior advisor on organizational risk, governance, and compliance, ensuring people-related risks are proactively identified and addressed.
Lead a team of approximately 18 people across recruitment, employee experience, talent development, people operations, and transformation.
Design and lead an end-to-end talent lifecycle strategy — recruitment, onboarding, development, performance management, advancement, and retention — tailored to distinct needs of school-based and central-office talent.
Build a rigorous, equitable performance management approach that sets clear expectations, supports continuous development, differentiates performance, and addresses underperformance.
Build a leadership development pipeline for school leaders and rising central-office executives, with defined pathways, competency frameworks, and succession plans.
Own total rewards strategy — compensation philosophy, benefits design, and market benchmarking — ensuring KIPP NYC remains competitive.
Lead equity and belonging strategy across hiring practices, compensation structures, promotion pathways, and performance management.
Build listening infrastructure (engagement surveys, exit interviews, stay interviews) and translate findings into concrete action.
Ensure managers are equipped — through training, tools, and coaching — to lead, develop, and retain their teams effectively.
Modernize HR infrastructure and systems (HRIS, ATS, performance and compensation platforms) to build scalable, data-driven People operations.
Establish and oversee strong governance, compliance, and organizational risk-management processes across the People function.
Ensure consistent, sound employee and labor relations practices across the organization.
Partner with Finance to execute the transition of payroll into the finance function and establish clear ownership and handoff points.
Build people-analytics capability — turnover, time-to-fill, engagement, pay equity — that provides a real-time view of organizational health.
Recruit, develop, and lead a high-performing People team, with clear expectations, professional growth pathways, and a culture of ownership and continuous improvement.
Establish a rigorous operating cadence for the People function — annual workforce planning, compensation review cycles, performance calendars, and executive reporting.