Founding Director of Operations

Power Public Schools•Mableton, GA

13d•$85,000 - $95,000•Hybrid

About The Position

The Director of Operations is a Founding leadership role responsible for launching and scaling operations at Power Public Schools. Reporting to the Founder & Executive Director, this role owns student recruitment and enrollment, facilities and campus operations, human resources and personnel administration, school logistics (transportation, safety, food service), student information systems and data compliance, and financial administration with internal controls. This is a mission-critical role for our August 2027 launch and beyond as we build from one founding school toward a multi-school network. Success requires an operator who can build systems others rely on, anticipate challenges, and navigate startup complexity with both urgency and equity-centered judgment. Building a school from the ground up requires disciplined systems, thoughtful planning, regulatory readiness, and consistent execution. The Founding Director of Operations is the operational backbone of Power Public Schools, translating vision into the people, processes, partnerships, and infrastructure required for a safe, compliant, and successful opening day, and for every ordinary day after it. You will lead the school's non-instructional operations and coordinate the internal team members, external consultants, vendors, and service providers who execute this work. You remain accountable for operational readiness while partnering closely with the Founder and Executive Director, the external CFO, the HR consultant, board leadership, and specialized advisors.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in business administration, school operations, public administration, or a related field.
Minimum 3–5 years of professional experience in school operations, finance, public administration, military logistics, or nonprofit management.
Demonstrated experience managing vendor contracts, multi-tiered systems, or diverse operational teams.
High proficiency with cloud-based tools and the ability to learn student information, CRM, finance, HR/payroll, procurement, and collaboration systems quickly.
Proven track record in bookkeeping, accounts payable and receivable, and internal controls.
Willing to complete the Georgia Charter Schools Association Financial Management Certification (GCSA-FMC).
Tech-fluent: comfortable with cloud accounting systems, student information systems, and modern collaboration tools.
Able to clear fingerprint and criminal background checks under O.C.G.A. Section 20-2-211.1.
Able to commute or relocate to Mableton, Georgia

Nice To Haves

Direct experience launching or scaling a charter school.
Experience managing school transportation networks or multi-tiered logistics.
Background in HR administration or personnel management.
Experience with enrollment and student recruitment in education.
Familiarity with FERPA, COPPA, and school cybersecurity practice.
Strong project management skill and comfort with iterative planning methods.
Roots in or long relationship with South Cobb, Mableton, or Austell.
Experience with light personal/logistical support that keeps a leader productive.

Responsibilities

Founding-Year Launch Management and Operational Readiness: Hold the integrated operational launch plan and make dependencies, deadlines, risks, and decisions visible across workstreams. Translate the opening vision into a sequenced, owner-assigned launch plan with milestones, critical paths, decision dates, and contingency plans. Run a disciplined operating cadence: launch dashboards, weekly priority reviews, decision logs, risk registers, and clear follow-through. Coordinate consultants, service providers, vendors, and internal owners while retaining accountability for the quality and timeliness of the result. Anticipate downstream impacts across enrollment, staffing, facilities, transportation, finance, safety, technology, and family experience. Escalate early when a decision, dependency, compliance issue, or resource constraint could place opening readiness at risk.
Student Recruitment, Enrollment, and Registration: Own the end-to-end system that moves families from awareness and interest through intent-to-enroll, lottery, registration, onboarding, attendance, and persistence. Execute and enhance strategy for student recruitment efforts targeting families with school-aged children in surrounding areas; be an active participant in on-the-ground recruitment activities. For the founding campus: recruit a new cohort of 6th & 7th grade students by January 31, 2027, and oversee the student lottery and formal enrollment process. For existing schools: recruit a new cohort of Kindergarten students every year and enroll children in grade levels with availability. Collaborate with Principal to nurture applications and ensure they lead to enrollment and registration. Create family engagement, onboarding, and registration events that warmly welcome families to Power Public Schools and ensure persistence through their first year and beyond. Ensure all enrollment and registration paperwork is submitted and complies with all federal, state, and organizational student registration requirements throughout the enrollment process (transfers, testing, etc.). Lead planning and execution of new student orientation and onboarding to help students get acclimated to campus culture and expectations in an inviting, engaging, and equity-centered way. Lead planning and execution of new family welcome events to help parents integrate and get acclimated to campus culture, expectations, and community.
Student Persistence and Attendance: Drive toward 90% year-over-year student persistence and communicate attendance expectations to families. Collaborate with school leadership and teachers to implement best practices, raise awareness, analyze ADA trends, and leverage tracking mechanisms to positively impact Average Daily Attendance. Identify and problem-solve challenges that impact attendance and persistence, working cross-functionally with academic and support teams.
Financial Administration, Internal Controls, and Back-Office Coordination: Manage day-to-day financial operations in partnership with the Executive Director / Founder and a fractional CFO, protecting public resources through accuracy, transparency, and sound controls. Oversee accounts payable, accounts receivable, deposits, purchasing, reimbursements, vendor payments, and supporting documentation. Implement segregation-of-duties controls so authorization, custody, record keeping, and reconciliation are appropriately separated or independently reviewed. Administer purchasing, contracting, and expense-approval workflows in accordance with board-approved policies and delegated authority. Support annual budgets, forecasts, cash-flow monitoring, and monthly budget-to-actual reporting; surface variances and emerging risks with recommended action. Maintain complete, audit-ready records and support the external CFO and Board Treasurer with annual audit preparation and recurring financial reporting. Coordinate payroll inputs, timekeeping, benefits deductions, retirement administration, and related back-office processes with the appropriate providers. Complete the Georgia Charter Schools Association Financial Management Certification after hire and apply that learning to daily systems.
Facilities, Campus Operations, Procurement, and Inventory: Ensure the building and every operational detail around it are safe, clean, accessible, welcoming, and ready for learning. Partner with the Executive Director / Founder, landlord, board representatives, and contractors to administer lease requirements, coordinate improvements, and monitor obligations. Own the path to opening-readiness approvals, including permits, inspections, safety documentation, and Certificate of Occupancy dependencies. Manage facilities vendors and services such as HVAC, janitorial, pest control, lawn care, utilities, repairs, and preventive maintenance. Build a digital procurement workflow for furniture, technology, equipment, supplies, and administrative resources; document specifications, approvals, lead times, receipt, and deployment. Maintain accurate inventory and asset-management systems, including receiving and logging incoming shipments and monitoring condition, location, and replacement needs. Create campus-use procedures for space scheduling, deliveries, visitors, keys/access, room setup, events, and after-hours use. Ensure the campus, furniture, core technology, and critical building systems are fully operational at least two weeks before opening day.
Human Resources and Personnel Administration: Build reliable people-operations infrastructure in partnership with the HR consultant and school leadership, ensuring compliance while creating a smooth and professional employee experience. Maintain confidential personnel files, employment documentation, I-9 and tax forms, leave and attendance records, required notices, and training logs. Coordinate benefits enrollment, retirement administration, payroll inputs, workers' compensation, and other personnel-administration processes with external providers. Lead non-instructional onboarding and coordinate operational onboarding for all employees, including policies, safety, confidentiality, technology access, and required training. Support recruitment, hiring logistics, background checks, fingerprinting, onboarding, and performance-cycle administration in partnership with the Principal and Executive Director / Founder. Build hiring, onboarding, supervision, feedback, and development systems for the operational team; create role clarity and service standards that scale. Monitor labor-law, state, authorizer, and organizational requirements and engage the HR consultant or legal counsel when specialized judgment is needed.
Transportation, Attendance, Food Service, Health, Safety, and Daily Logistics: Coordinate the interlocking systems that keep scholars safe, nourished, present, and ready to learn each day. Design and manage a practical transportation plan, including vendor agreements, route assumptions, family needs, contingency coverage, and safe arrival and dismissal procedures. Build attendance operations and family-notification workflows; monitor patterns and partner with the Student Support Team and school leadership on barriers, intervention, and persistence. Establish and maintain the Emergency Safety Plan and a drill calendar covering fire, lockdown, severe weather, reunification, and other required scenarios. Supervise school safety/resource operations and partner with public-safety agencies, security providers, and campus leaders on prevention and response. Ensure physical accessibility, ADA compliance, emergency access, signage, and accommodations are reflected in campus design and operating procedures. Coordinate breakfast and lunch operations, vendor performance, meal-service procedures, required documentation, and funding-related nutrition requirements. Oversee health-office operations and coordination with the school nurse/health aide, families, health department, and emergency responders. Create clear duty schedules and operating procedures for arrival, dismissal, transitions, meals, events, and other high-volume moments.
Student Information Systems, Technology, Data Privacy, and Cybersecurity: Ensure the school's operational technology is reliable, integrated, secure, and usable - and that student and family data are treated with care. Lead implementation and administration of the selected SIS, including lottery, enrollment, registration, attendance, and student-record workflows. Define data ownership, data-entry standards, quality checks, permissions, reconciliation routines, retention, and audit trails across systems. Coordinate technology infrastructure, internet connectivity, devices, operational software, account provisioning, and responsive IT support. Partner with the Board's AI and Innovation Committee and appropriate advisors to review school software, external tools, and data partnerships for FERPA, COPPA, privacy, security, and contractual requirements. Implement secure, auditable student-data practices and train staff on password security, phishing prevention, appropriate access, incident reporting, and other cybersecurity expectations. Turn operational data into useful leadership insight without creating disconnected side systems or competing versions of the truth.
Operational Compliance, Authorizer Readiness, and Funding Requirements: Convert compliance obligations into recurring systems rather than last-minute scrambles. Maintain an integrated compliance calendar for state, federal, charter, authorizer, board, insurance, facilities, employment, safety, nutrition, transportation, and funding-related requirements. Assign owners, evidence requirements, internal review dates, and escalation points for every recurring submission or certification. Prepare accurate operational records and documentation for authorizer monitoring, board oversight, audits, inspections, grant or funding compliance, and public accountability. Monitor changes in requirements and coordinate external expertise when the school needs legal, financial, HR, facilities, safety, or technical interpretation. Build quality-control checks so compliance evidence is complete, organized, retrievable, and reviewed before submission.
Vendors, Partnerships, Athletics, Electives, and Extracurricular Operations: Create the operational conditions for partners and programs to deliver a high-quality scholar experience. Source, evaluate, contract with, onboard, monitor, and renew vendors using clear scopes, service standards, documentation, and accountability. Coordinate insurance, background checks, access, scheduling, invoicing, data/privacy terms, safety procedures, and performance follow-up for external partners. Provide operational support for athletics, electives, extracurricular activities, school and community events, and auxiliary programs. Manage calendars, transportation, facilities use, supplies, staffing logistics, permissions, and risk controls connected to these programs. Build equitable, responsive vendor and community relationships that balance quality, cost, reliability, and alignment with POWER's mission.