Director, College Partnerships (Multiple Positions)

KIPP • New York, NY

2d • Remote

About The Position

The Director of College Partnerships will play a pivotal role in strengthening, expanding, and maximizing KIPP's national network of college partnerships to dramatically improve persistence and completion outcomes for KIPP students. Reporting to the Vice President of College Partnerships, the Director will serve as a regional expert who builds deep, strategic relationships with colleges and universities and aligns institutional commitments with KIPP's bold 2030 goals. The Director will lead the work to secure and deepen MOUs with institutions committed to strong access, affordability, persistence, and completion outcomes. This includes managing a portfolio of partner colleges, cultivating new partnership opportunities with top institutions nationwide, analyzing partner performance data, and collaborating closely with regions, high schools, and the KIPP Forward Counseling and Match team to ensure that partnerships are effectively leveraged to support students. This is a highly external-facing role requiring exceptional relationship management, negotiation ability, data fluency, and strategic execution. The Director will collaborate with KIPP Forward teams, regional counseling leaders, external partners, and senior institutional leaders to ensure that partnerships strengthen student access, success, and completion.

Requirements

• 7 or more years of experience in college access, college partnerships, higher education, nonprofit management, or related fields.
• Experience developing or managing strategic partnerships, preferably with colleges or universities.
• Demonstrated experience using data to identify trends, inform decisions, and drive outcomes.
• Experience in K-12 education, charter networks, or similar environments.
• Experience negotiating MOUs or institutional agreements.
• Track record of managing complex, multi-site programs or portfolios, including data-informed decision making and resource allocation.
• Experience collaborating with cross-functional teams and external partners to implement initiatives at scale.
• Bachelor’s degree required; Master’s degree in Education, Counseling, Higher Education, or a related field preferred.
• Mission and Student Focus: Demonstrates passion and commitment to KIPP’s mission and possesses the desire and ability to uphold KIPP’s core values (Focus on Excellent Results, Collective Impact, and Courageous Action)
• Self-Management: Demonstrated record of setting ambitious goals and achieving them with consistency. Invests in developing teammates’ skills and mindsets to address gaps in achieving team growth; determines what quantitative and qualitative data are most relevant to their goals and supports the team in creating and monitoring systems for collecting, reviewing, and acting upon data to drive outcomes; able to monitor progress, communicating status to the right stakeholders and adjusting plans and use of time to ensure systems are yielding desired outcomes.
• Effective Work Management: Sets a clear vision for new or complex bodies of work. Develops and implements agile project plans, navigating difficult situations or conflicts while maintaining effective relationships with all stakeholders; creates and ensures systems are in place for knowledge management.
• Strategic Decision Making & Problem Solving: Efficiently defines the right metrics to evaluate work and ensures critical team actions, decisions, and recommendations are driven by data; effectively works with team to resolve issues around data to ensure sound data-informed decisions. Effectively identifies and addresses root causes to the most important problem.
• Collaboration: Has the interpersonal, diplomatic, relationship building, and communications skills needed to develop successful working relationships with diverse constituents to deliver results. Evolves and adapts plans and approach with diverse stakeholders to drive results. Possesses excellent communication skills with aptitude for translating complex information into a clear and persuasive narratives that convince others by identifying benefits for all.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with networked or multi-school educational organizations, ideally with experience in KIPP, charter school networks, or similar contexts.
• Familiarity with tools and platforms supporting student data tracking, college/career readiness programming, and communication with families.

Responsibilities

• Cultivate, negotiate, and formalize college and university partnerships that increase access, affordability, persistence, and completion for KIPP students.
• Lead MOU development and negotiation processes, ensuring clarity of commitments and measurable goals.
• Identify, vet, and prioritize new partnership opportunities aligned with the goal of partnering with the nation's top 250 colleges.
• Manage a regional portfolio of college partners and maintain strong relationships with senior leaders.
• Conduct regular partnership performance reviews and data-informed discussions to strengthen collaboration.
• Support partners in implementing practices that advance student success.
• Analyze persistence, enrollment, and completion data to identify trends and gaps.
• Collaborate with partner institutions to enhance advising structures, financial pathways, and campus-based supports.
• Ensure that partnership commitments meaningfully contribute to FY27 and 2030 persistence and graduation milestones.
• Collaborate with Counseling and Match Directors, high school teams, and regional leaders to integrate partnerships into student advising and match strategies.
• Provide guidance on partner institution strengths and opportunities.
• Align partnership commitments with scholarship pathways and persistence strategies.
• Build and refine systems, tools, and codified practices that strengthen partnership effectiveness.
• Contribute to the development of the College Partnerships strategy, including goals and accountability structures.
• Document and share best practices to strengthen execution nationally.

Benefits

• 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

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director
• Number of Employees: 251-500 employees