Director, School Partnerships
About The Position
The Director, School Partnerships is a new role on the Foundation’s Impact team, reporting to the VP of Impact. This role leads new school site investments in collaboration with the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD), focusing on a select group of elementary schools to transform the school experience and student outcomes. The position requires education expertise, strong school and district relationship management, and project management skills to translate the organization's Theory of Change into measurable school-level plans. The Director will work with the VP, Impact, and CEO to integrate investments in nutritious food, transformed schoolyards, play opportunities, literacy tutoring, and teacher professional development. This role is ideal for a senior education leader who can balance strategy and execution, build trust with stakeholders, and is passionate about the organization's mission. The goal is for principals and teachers to view this role as a collaborative partner rather than just a funder.
Requirements
- Substantial, progressively responsible experience in K-12 education, education nonprofits, philanthropy, or district partnerships, including direct experience in schools or districts.
- Proven experience implementing school- or district-level initiatives in partnership with principals, educators, and central office leaders.
- Leadership experience in school improvement, partnership management, or education strategy.
- Track record managing complex initiatives with multiple partners, workstreams, timelines, and strategic tradeoffs.
- Experience managing a multimillion-dollar program budget and overseeing contractors, consultants, or vendors to achieve results within that budget.
- Strong facilitation, communication, and problem-solving skills.
- Ability to build credibility with educators, district leaders, community partners, and executives.
- Proficiency with Microsoft Office and relevant data or project management tools.
- Discretion with sensitive information.
- Enthusiasm for the organization's mission.
Responsibilities
- Translate the organization's Whole Child, Whole School approach into a practical model for investing in OUSD elementary schools, including selection criteria, plan development, and execution.
- Integrate the organization's programmatic investments into a cohesive plan for each school, ensuring synergy between different initiatives.
- Refine the model based on implementation learnings, documenting successful strategies for replication in additional schools.
- Define the characteristics of a strong partnership between the organization and OUSD schools, including enabling conditions, literacy strategies, and whole-child support mechanisms.
- Collaborate with the Managing Director, Impact & Advocacy and the Director, Impact Investments to align school partnership efforts with broader impact and advocacy strategies.
- Develop school-level plans with clear goals, activities, milestones, and assigned responsibilities in conjunction with school leaders.
- Partner with the OUSD Data team and the Director, Impact Investments to establish success metrics, measurement approaches, and feedback loops for decision-making and strategy adjustment.
- Manage multiple workstreams and external partners to achieve milestones, ensuring clarity on timelines, decisions, and accountability.
- Oversee a program budget exceeding $4 million.
- Select and manage implementation partners, contractors, and consultants, defining scopes, setting expectations, and ensuring results.
- Develop plans that account for the realities of school operations, such as bell schedules and staffing changes.
- Navigate ambiguity within a developing program and maintain focus on student outcomes.
- Build trust with principals, educators, community school managers, central office leaders, families, and partners through consistent engagement and follow-through.
- Support partners as a convener, implementer, and thought partner, in addition to providing funding.
- Represent the organization's Impact work to funders, partners, community stakeholders, and others.
Benefits
- 7.5% discretionary annual bonus
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Director
Education Level
No Education Listed
