Director of Growth Planning
About The Position
KIPP Team & Family is on a path to serve over 24,000 students across 40+ schools in New Jersey and Florida by 2033. Getting there requires more than ambition-it requires exceptional planning, coordination, and execution across dozens of moving pieces: real estate acquisition, financial modeling, talent recruitment, academic program design, operations setup, and community engagement. We're looking for a strategic planner and project management leader who can bring rigor, clarity, and coordination to our growth efforts. You'll be the person who ensures that when we commit to opening a new school or expanding to a new region, we do it with excellence-that timelines are realistic, dependencies are clear, teams are aligned, and leadership has the information they need to make smart decisions. This isn't about managing growth strategy (that lives with senior leadership) or doing the frontline work (that happens within functional teams). This is about being the orchestrator: the person who sees across all the workstreams, identifies what needs to happen when, produces the analysis and documentation that drives decisions, and keeps complex, multi-year projects on track. If you're energized by bringing order to complexity, translating strategy into executable plans, and enabling teams to do their best work through clarity and coordination, this role is for you.
Requirements
- 5-7+ years of professional experience in strategic planning, program management, project management, or related roles managing complex, multi-stakeholder initiatives
- Proven track record of successfully coordinating work across multiple teams or departments toward shared goals
- Strong analytical and research skills: You can gather data from multiple sources, identify patterns and insights, and translate analysis into clear recommendations
- Exceptional writing and communication skills: You produce documents that are clear, well-structured, and tailored to different audiences (board members, donors, internal teams, government partners)
- Project management expertise: You know how to build realistic plans, track progress, identify risks, and keep complex projects on track
- Relationship-building ability: You can build trust and credibility with people across different functions and levels, even without formal authority
- Comfort with data and tools: Experience with demographic analysis tools (Census data, ESRI mapping, etc.), project management software, financial modeling basics, and presentation tools
- Bachelor's degree required; Master's degree in business, public policy, urban planning, education, or related field preferred
Nice To Haves
- Charter school or education organization growth/expansion experience: You've been part of opening new schools or expanding education organizations and understand the unique complexities of this work
- Experience managing large-scale organizational growth or expansion projects in nonprofit or for-profit contexts (multi-site rollouts, market expansion, new product launches, etc.)
- Real estate or facilities planning experience, particularly in education or public sector contexts
- Experience working in fast-growing, entrepreneurial organizations where you had to build processes and bring structure to ambiguity
- Knowledge of New Jersey and/or Florida education policy, charter school regulations, and funding structures
Responsibilities
- Manage Growth Project Planning from Pre-Diligence to Launch
- Draft Key Documents for Decision-Making and External Engagement
- Conduct Pre-Diligence on Emerging Markets
- Drive Continuous Improvement in Growth Planning
Benefits
- Robust benefits that include medical, dental, and vision
- Optional participation in the KIPP NJ 403b retirement plan, including matching contributions
- A school-issued laptop
- Transportation benefits for TEAMmates commuting into Newark from the New York City area
- Generous Time-Off including 3.5-4 school vacation weeks (depending on the year), allocated sick and personal days, and an extended summer break
- Up to 12 weeks 100% parental leave for primary caregivers
- Employer paid life insurance
- Extensive optional ancillary benefits including, short term and long term disability and accident and hospital indemnity
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Director
Number of Employees
11-50 employees
