Director, Applied Analytics

Charter School Growth Fund

8d•$110,000 - $130,000

About The Position

The Charter School Growth Fund (CSGF) is a leading nonprofit venture philanthropy fund dedicated to identifying the nation’s best public charter schools, investing in their expansion, and helping to increase their impact. CSGF operates with the same strategies, discipline, and focus as a venture capital firm by awarding multi-year grants and loans to talented education entrepreneurs building networks of high-quality charter schools that enroll traditionally underserved students. This is an exciting time to join the Charter School Growth Fund. We are successfully completing CSGF’s 4th fund, building on our 20 year track record of success. CSGF’s “Fund IV” is larger in size and scope than previous funds, with a goal to continue to fuel charter sector growth, accelerate innovation, and strengthen long-term outcomes for students, particularly students of color and those from low-income backgrounds. We continue to prioritize investments in leaders of color as our current portfolio is led by more than 50% leaders of color and more than 50% female leaders. We believe it is vital for the networks we support to be proximate to the lived experiences of the students and communities they serve. CSGF’s Analytics team is building a world-class data ecosystem and analytics capability to equip organizational leaders with the insights they need to make high-quality decisions on behalf of students and school networks. As part of a restructured analytics team for Fund V, CSGF has created dedicated “translator” roles—a function that sits at the intersection of data and business, bridging the analytics team and the business teams they serve. The Director, Applied Analytics will own key analytical workstreams for a dedicated portfolio of internal CSGF teams while also driving the strategy for how the Applied Analytics function delivers value across all of CSGF’s business teams. This is a senior individual contributor role that combines deep, relationship-driven analytics partnership with strategic leadership: the Director both does the work and helps shape how all of CSGF uses data to drive our most important decisions. In partnership with the VP, Analytics, the Director drives and informs the vision for the Applied Analytics function—identifying patterns across teams, designing scalable approaches to common analytical challenges, and partnering with the VP to build and refine the function’s norms, scope, and workflows as the team matures. The ideal candidate is a technically strong, strategically minded analytics professional who builds deep trust with stakeholders, navigates ambiguity with confidence, leads through influence rather than authority, and brings the judgment and initiative needed to shape a new function from the ground up. The Director works as a peer alongside the Manager, Applied Analytics—serving as an informal mentor and thought partner while owning a more senior and complex portfolio. This role has no direct reports and reports to the Vice President, Analytics.

Requirements

Ability to motivate and influence peers, senior leadership, and external partners through excellent communication skills, compelling data narratives and well-structured recommendations
Strong strategic thinking and problem-solving: independently identifies complex issues before they arise, owns the development of process-level and cross-functional solutions, and demonstrates comfort making difficult decisions in ambiguous situations
Comfortable navigating ambiguity: able to structure unclear requests into workable next steps and move forward without waiting for full clarity before proceeding
Demonstrated ability to build and maintain strong, deep relationships across a portfolio of internal stakeholders; actively sought out for insights and trusted to exercise sound judgment on behalf of the teams they serve
Viewed as a leader by others: facilitates broader team discussions, raises difficult questions constructively, and models the analytical and collaborative behaviors expected across the function
Exceptional quantitative and qualitative analysis skills with demonstrated ability to analyze data to derive actionable insights.
Advanced proficiency across a core data stack, including SQL, business intelligence tools (e.g., Tableau, Looker, or equivalent), data analysis, and data storytelling
A proven track record of staying at the cutting edge of AI-assisted analytics — actively experimenting with new tools and techniques, and a demonstrated ability to translate emerging capabilities into scalable, adoptable workflows.
Familiarity with AI-assisted analytics approaches; demonstrated curiosity to develop new technical skills and expand knowledge in the job area
Natural mentor and informal coach: able to elevate peers’ work through thought partnership and feedback without relying on formal authority
Demonstrated working knowledge outside of core technical expertise; actively seeks to understand adjacent areas at CSGF and contribute to cross-functional strategy discussions
Deep commitment to CSGF’s mission and passion for K–12 education
Bachelor’s degree required; advanced degree in data science, statistics, public policy, or a related field a plus
10+ years of relevant experience in analytics, data strategy, business intelligence, or a related field
Demonstrated experience driving strategy for an analytics function, major workstream, or cross-functional initiative
Track record of translating complex data into strategic insights and recommendations for senior, non-technical audiences
Experience designing and scaling data literacy or self-service analytics programs preferred
Experience working in or closely with education, nonprofit, or social-impact organizations strongly preferred

Responsibilities

Inform the strategy for CSGF’s Applied Analytics function in close partnership with the VP, Analytics—including defining department norms, refining scopes and workflows, and making iterative adjustments to roles and responsibilities as the team matures and organizational needs evolve
Support the establishment of clear working rhythms between the Applied Analytics function and peer Analytics departments, surfacing friction points, and collaborating with the VP to resolve gaps in scope or ownership across departments
Proactively identify complex issues and challenges before they arise across the function and CSGF-wide; own the development of process-level solutions and drive their implementation
Own AI strategy for leveraging AI as an analytical capability—including ad hoc analysis and rapid prototyping—in coordination with the Data Products & Engineering team
Serve as an informal mentor and thought partner to the Manager, Applied Analytics—sharing analytical judgment, offering feedback on approach and communication, and modeling the standard for the function without formal management authority
Own the analytics relationship for a dedicated portfolio of internal CSGF teams, developing deep knowledge of each team’s goals, workflows, and data needs in order to serve as a trusted, actively sought-out resource
Manage and execute ad hoc analysis and rapid prototyping using SQL, BI tools, and AI-assisted analytics to answer routine business questions and support timely, data-informed decision-making
Design and implement interim analytical solutions to meet immediate team needs while long-term engineering builds are underway, maintaining data integrity and stakeholder trust throughout
Gather and manage requirements from business team stakeholders, validate use cases, and prototype self-service tools before handing off to the engineering team for fully integrated builds
Exercise independent judgment in prioritizing competing analytical requests across assigned teams, with support from the VP, Analytics; proactively communicate tradeoffs and timelines to stakeholders
Successfully manage the full project management cycle from end-to-end
Thought-partner with teammates to advise on analytical approach, helping them identify the best framing and methodology for the questions they want to answer
Own the delivery of analyses—from data pull through final communication—presenting findings in clear, user-friendly formats that non-technical audiences can act on
Collaborate with the Data Science team on more complex analyses; contribute to problem framing and own the storytelling of results back to business team users
Produce insights that directly support CSGF’s work with portfolio members, recognizing that many analytical outputs inform school network decisions and student outcomes
Set clear expectations for high-quality analytical communication across the function, modeling what excellent data storytelling looks like and helping elevate the Manager’s analytical outputs
Direct QA standards for data products from the stakeholder lens across assigned teams, ensuring systematic review processes catch issues that automated back-end processing may miss
Spot and report data anomalies in data products from the stakeholder lens, identifying quality issues that automated back-end processing may not catch; Investigate root cause for errors, report errors to relevant Analytics teammates, and manage stakeholder communications to proactively provide flag issues and/or provide explanation and interpretability where a resolution is not possible
Drive implementation and adoption of self-serve analytics tools across assigned business teams — including onboarding, coaching, and ongoing support
Identify where business questions cannot be answered with existing data or tools; develop well-reasoned recommendations for data warehouse additions, public data infrastructure, self-service tool improvements, and research agenda priorities, and influence their prioritization with the VP and Data Products & Engineering teams.
Maintain active working knowledge of CSGF’s full data stack—data warehouse, BI tools, self-service tools, and public data infrastructure—to credibly advise business teams and inform infrastructure decisions
Coach business team members on data literacy, self-service tool usage, and AI-assisted analytics approaches that increase their independence and confidence with data
Design and implement process-level solutions that help assigned teams use data more effectively over time; proactively identify recurring friction points and bring solutions before they escalate