Deputy Director, Flourishing and Future of Education

Teach For All

41d•Remote

About The Position

The Deputy Director serves as the senior strategic and operational partner to the Chief Learning Officer (CLO) for the Flourishing and Future of Education portfolio within the Global Institute for Shaping a Better Future. This role has a dual mandate: to lead the team’s operating model and cross-cutting execution, and to partner on its most important programmatic work. The Deputy Director will translate priorities into action, build systems for strong execution, and ensure progress on key initiatives. This includes advancing major inquiries and initiatives, providing structured support, connecting work across the portfolio, and turning learning into impact at scale. The ideal candidate is a proactive leader with strong programmatic knowledge, senior-level judgment, and exceptional operational skill, capable of structuring complex work, driving progress, and mobilizing others. The Global Institute for Shaping a Better Future, launched in 2025, is a center for global learning, leadership development, and evidence generation focused on transforming classrooms, schools, and systems for holistic student development. The Flourishing and Future of Education team specifically explores how education must evolve to foster young people's holistic development and their ability to shape a better future, focusing on capacities like purpose, agency, awareness, connectedness, and wellbeing. Key initiatives include the BOLD Fellowship, collaborative learning inquiries on topics like human flourishing, educating for peace, and the future of education in an age of AI, and leadership development experiences. This is a fast-moving, global portfolio requiring executive judgment and operational excellence to turn ambitious ideas into action and extend the team's reach and impact.

Requirements

Minimum of 10–15 years of experience, including significant experience managing complex portfolios across functions or geographies and/or leading teams.
Demonstrated operational leadership, with a track record of building effective systems and ways of working that enable high-performing teams to translate vision into action.
Comfort with strategic planning, budgets, and resource management.
Strong project management and organizational skills, including the ability to independently manage multiple projects with competing deadlines and support others to drive strong execution against priorities.
Strong strategic judgment, systems thinking, synthesis, and problem-solving skills, with the ability to prioritize effectively, connect day-to-day execution to broader strategic priorities, and navigate competing perspectives constructively.
Proven ability to build strong relationships and work effectively across cultures and with diverse stakeholders.
Excellent written, visual, and executive communication skills, with the ability to distill complex ideas into clear, simple, and compelling messages for diverse audiences.
Ability to structure ambiguous, open-ended questions into rigorous inquiry plans and work effectively with research, interviews, case examples, surveys, and other evidence.
Deep alignment with the belief that education should develop young people holistically, growing purpose, awareness, wellbeing, connectedness, agency, and expertise.
Strong programmatic experience in education, leadership development, or related fields, with the ability to engage deeply in substantive questions.
Must already possess valid work and residency authorization to work in the country of hire at the time of application.

Nice To Haves

Could have previously held a senior leadership role, served as a COO or chief of staff, or worked as a strategic consultant.

Responsibilities

Lead the team’s operating model and drive execution, including planning, systems, budgets, resourcing, operating rhythms, cross-team coordination, and execution across priorities.
Serve as the CLO’s senior strategic and operational partner, translating priorities into action, creating systems for high performance, anticipating future needs, and ensuring work moves forward with pace and quality.
Build and manage the team’s capacity by leveraging support from the wider Global Institute team, managing the Program and Operations Manager, and identifying and addressing capacity gaps.
Provide strategic and operational leverage to the CLO by taking ownership of key cross-cutting priorities, strategic projects, and partnerships.
Support the CLO on key meetings and external engagements, including assessing opportunities, preparation, and follow-through.
Develop clear, compelling presentations and materials to communicate priorities and insights to internal and external audiences.
Advance the team’s funding strategy by partnering with the Global Development team to cultivate supporters, translate priorities into proposals and reports, and strengthen impact measurement.
Strengthen and advance major strategic inquiries and initiatives by partnering with the CLO and Global Leadership Directors to enhance quality, coherence, and execution.
Provide strategic, research, and operational leverage on key initiatives, and lead cross-cutting efforts to scale impact.
Serve as a strategic and operational partner on priority initiatives, potentially taking an emerging idea through to execution or working with initiative leads to drive impact, including developing plans, mobilizing resources, evaluating impact, and ensuring execution stays on track.
Lead targeted research and synthesis on priority learning questions, drawing on evidence and practice to generate insights and examples.
Strengthen cross-cutting work across the portfolio by connecting learning across initiatives and identifying opportunities for coherence and impact.
Extend the reach and impact of the team’s learning by defining how insights can be scaled, turning learning into knowledge products, and expanding their reach through the Better Future Hub and external channels.