Director, Leadership Development

Teach For America • Detroit, MI

2d

About The Position

As a Director, Leadership Development (D,LD), you will be responsible for coaching and developing a targeted subset of corps members (CMs), grouped based on shared trends in development needs, to lead transformational, equity-driven classrooms grounded in our universal program model and your region’s 2030 vision. Your work begins when CMs join Teach For America, supporting their instructional growth, leadership development, and ability to navigate the broader school and community ecosystems. In collaboration with regional and national partners, you’ll drive impact through three core areas of responsibility: Teacher Leadership Coaching – Provide individualized, data-informed coaching to corps members that improves teaching practice, fosters student academic and social-emotional growth, and builds long-term leadership capacity. You’ll analyze trends in your cohort, set goals, and evolve strategies as needed to drive outcomes. School and Community Partnerships – Build and maintain strategic relationships with school leaders and community partners that enhance corps member development and ensure alignment with school priorities. You’ll serve as a liaison between CMs and school stakeholders, proactively addressing challenges and surfacing opportunities for collaboration. Group Learning Experiences – Design and facilitate targeted group learning experiences, such as workshops, coaching milestone events, and learning series, that deepen CM leadership and align with regional goals. You’ll establish clear learning outcomes, gather feedback, and adapt sessions to meet emerging needs. The ideal candidate is a strong relationship builder with leadership coaching experience, an equity-centered approach, and a systems-level understanding of the CM ecosystem. You are skilled at managing multiple workstreams, using data to drive decisions, and working both collaboratively and independently toward bold outcomes for students and corps members alike. Likely, no two weeks in the D,LD role will look the same! Our program is characterized by key milestones over the two-year commitment. The typical activities you will engage in will vary according to the season of the work and will overlap, as you will support CMs in both their first and second year of our program. As we begin to welcome our new CMs into our work this winter and spring, you could spend your time talking to prospective CMs and assisting them with their acceptance of offers from TFA. During this time of year, you will likely spend time gearing up for our pre-service experience by designing a CM learning experience or supporting work to secure both summer and academic year teaching placements for our CMs. You’ll be on-site at one of our summer teaching practicum sites during the summer, observing lessons and coaching corps members. As the academic year gets into full swing, you’ll meet with school leaders and other partners, observe a subset of CMs, and prepare for and execute coaching and support as needed. You’ll work in partnership with others in your CMs’ ecosystem of support should additional interventions need to be put in place to ensure the retention and development of your CMs. Throughout the year, you will work to deepen your internalization of our universal program model and your region’s 2030 goal. You’ll be engaging in meetings and collaborative workspaces with both members of CMALD and your area to prepare for and execute meaningful engagements for our CMs and other stakeholders throughout the year. You will also spend time gathering, inputting, sharing, and analyzing data, as well as completing administrative tasks to ensure the smooth functioning of our program.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree
• 4+ years of experience, with specific expertise in coaching and/or developing adults
• Willing to work flexible hours with some nights and weekends; willing to travel 2-4 times per year for conferences
• You must complete both the Primary (PreK-3rd) and Secondary CLASS certifications prior to conducting your first CLASS observation which typically happens in October.
• CLASS certification for each area requires you to complete a 2-3 day CLASS course and successfully pass a certification assessment (this training is provided by TFA).
• You will also be expected to renew your CLASS certifications annually.

Nice To Haves

• Master’s degree in School Administration/Leadership or another applicable area
• Experience coaching and advising capable leaders through complex challenges towards impact
• A track record of getting results while managing multiple large-scale projects simultaneously
• Deep investment in TFA’s mission and a commitment to live out our core values and our commitment to people, community, and opportunity for all
• Belief that there is a place for both standard and customized approaches to supporting CMs in the service of both the universal program model and a region’s contextualized 2030 goal
• Ability to make meaning of multiple sources of data to inform strategic decision making and action planning at different levels (i.e. cohort, region, hub)
• High skill and orientation towards managing up; in our model, you will have both a capabilities manager (SMD, LD) and a values-creation manager (Regional Point of Contact), and it will be necessary for you to proactively engage each of them to support your development and impact in this role
• Have energy for/get joy from inquiry-based, leadership coaching (as opposed to more specific instructional coaching)
• Be able to toggle between big-picture thinking and vision setting and executing operational tasks (e.g., data entry and tracking, supporting the follow-up to AmeriCorps compliance needs, etc.)
• Strength in critical problem solving - you can strategize and plan independently and at a high level with baseline information (templates/examples not needed) and bring in your colleagues and managers as thought-partners
• High willingness to both draw on your own experiences and adaptability to try new approaches
• Exceptional relationship builder with CMs, school leaders, and other external partners
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Strong interpersonal skills and emotional intelligence
• Strong sense of self-awareness and understanding of strengths and areas for development
• Skilled in creating and upholding accountability practices to ensure cohort, regional, and enterprise success
• Skilled in conducting needs assessments, analyzing complex landscapes, and deriving a set of strategic levers to support prioritized needs
• Demonstrate adaptive leadership by stepping in where needed as new projects or initiatives arrive while maintaining clarity on role-specific impact and capacity.
• Demonstrated ability to: Work with a significant level of autonomy, and make strategic decisions in varying and nuanced situations develop and cultivate effective relationships with diverse internal and external stakeholders and support them in contributing to a shared goal Listen, learn, and earn credibility with all constituencies, then decisively move forward to implement agreed-upon solutions manage multiple priorities, prioritize effectively, and alternate fluidly between thinking about the big picture and executing on specific strategies

Responsibilities

• Collaboratively design and execute the vision and strategy for coaching and support for a targeted subset of corps members, grounded in shared developmental trends, the universal program model, and the regional 2030 vision.
• Serve as a liaison for targeted school partnerships, ensuring strong alignment, clear communication, and proactive problem-solving to enhance corps member development, increase retention, and drive student outcomes.
• Collaboratively design and lead group learning experiences, such as workshops, learning series, or milestone events, tailored to the needs of your subset of corps members and aligned to regional and national priorities.
• Across all workstreams, operate with a deep internalization of our shared programmatic metrics and goals to guide your work, monitor progress towards outcomes, and evolve the vision and strategy as necessary to account for new information and/or current results.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director
• Number of Employees: 101-250 employees