Manager, Service Delivery Management

Pearson•United States,

12d•$130,000 - $140,000

About The Position

The Director of School Operations (DSO) is a senior, enterprise-level leader responsible for operational excellence across a portfolio of Connections Academy schools. The role directly manages school leaders and partners with principals, directors, and leadership teams to ensure schools are operationally strong, well-supported, and positioned to serve students successfully. The DSO spends most of their time working directly with schools, leading leaders, operating at scale, and balancing priorities across multiple schools and PVS. The DSO applies a multi-layer leadership model to align school operations with PVS standards and values. This includes supporting operational systems, compliance structures, and leadership accountability through school-based leadership teams. The role partners closely with the School Success Partner (SSP), who holds overall accountability for school/account success and continuity of operations, and supports operationalizing and holding leaders accountable for academic improvement strategies established by the Academic Outcomes Teams. The role leads operational execution across multiple schools, ensures compliance with regulations and contract requirements, strengthens school leader effectiveness and succession, and enables enrollment growth through operational readiness while maintaining a focus on student experience and success. It also supports implementation of the Connections Academy model with fidelity and alignment to Pearson values. Responsibilities include coaching school leaders; establishing operational expectations; monitoring operational health, engagement, and compliance; supporting enrollment readiness, staffing, onboarding, scheduling, and systems; coordinating school-year-cycle activities; managing leader performance, hiring, onboarding, development, and succession; supporting board, authorizer, district, and partner engagement; and enabling change management and continuous improvement across schools. The role requires 3–5 years of proven leadership experience as a Principal or equivalent, an advanced degree in Education or Management, and virtual school leadership experience. The position requires frequent travel. The full-time salary range is $130,000–$140,000, and the position is eligible for Pearson’s annual incentive program. Applications are accepted through 11/13/26, with the window subject to extension based on business needs.

Requirements

3–5 years of proven leadership experience as a Principal or at an equivalent level.
Advanced degree in Education or Management.
Virtual school leadership experience.
Flexible.
Innovative.
Comfortable with technology.
Strong communication skills.
Data-driven and results-focused.
Ability to travel frequently.

Responsibilities

Directly manage and coach multiple school leaders across a portfolio of schools.
Influence leadership teams and school staff through strong systems, expectations, and execution discipline.
Establish consistent operational expectations across schools while accommodating required local differences.
Hold school leaders accountable for academic action plans and initiatives, compliance and charter/SOA requirements, and school-year-cycle milestones and deliverables.
Monitor operational health, engagement trends, and compliance indicators to identify risks and interventions.
Provide structured, data-informed coaching to improve school leaders’ execution at scale.
Work with schools to ensure operational readiness for enrollment growth, including leadership capacity, staffing, onboarding, scheduling, and systems readiness.
Identify operational constraints that could limit growth, persistence, or staff sustainability, and strengthen retention-supporting practices.
Identify risks to charter stability and renewal readiness and coordinate mitigation across PVS departments.
Ensure consistent school-year-cycle execution across schools, including calendar and handbook alignment, annual policy and process reviews, and summer school planning.
Identify strain points affecting leaders and staff and coordinate mitigations across the portfolio.
Set performance expectations for school leaders tied to operational excellence, compliance, and execution of strategic initiatives.
Conduct performance evaluations and manage development plans for school leaders.
Lead hiring and onboarding of school leaders and drive succession planning.
Facilitate leadership development that cascades through leadership teams and school staff.
Maintain working relationships with boards, authorizers, districts, and other key partners, supporting school leaders and the SSP without assuming primary ownership of stakeholder relationships.
Support school leaders’ engagement with boards, authorizers, districts, and other partners.
Prepare with school leaders for board, authorizer, and partner meetings, including agenda development, data review, performance narratives, and follow-up actions.
Support and contribute to evidence-based formal performance reviews of school leaders delivered to boards.
Support operational change as PVS launches new products and services.
Ensure adoption of enterprise systems, processes, and initiatives while minimizing disruption to stakeholders.
Contribute to continuous refinement of the School Operations operating model.
Partner with the SSP to translate account strategy into disciplined, scalable execution and support academic improvement initiatives established by the Academic Outcomes team.