Partner, Design Journey Content Lead

Transcend

2d•$121,500 - $180,000•Remote

About The Position

Transcend is a national nonprofit dedicated to helping communities redesign schools for the future. The Journey Supports Team (JST) creates the tools, resources, and learning experiences that enable Design Partners to guide communities through multi-year design journeys. These journeys involve school design teams in envisioning and building new school models tailored to their community's needs. The JST is part of Transcend's Program team and focuses on developing expertise, usable knowledge, and technological infrastructure. The Journey Supports Team includes Design Journey Content Leads, Builders, a Partner of Systems & Operations, and a Managing Partner. Design Journey Content Leads are intellectual leaders responsible for developing Transcend's perspective on specific parts of the design journey, creating tools for Design Partners, and staying connected to field realities to ensure guidance remains practical and grounded. This role specifically focuses on Later Stage work, which encompasses the implementation, refinement, deepening, and sustaining of school designs, typically from Year 2 onwards. The Later Stage Content Lead will build upon existing foundations, translating concepts into practical guidance and tools, disseminating these across the organization, and continuously learning and iterating.

Requirements

Deep commitment to Transcend's mission of transforming education and a passion for designing learning experiences where all students thrive.
Curiosity, care, and a drive to make meaningful change, living into Transcend's values through work, connection, and leadership.
School or system-level leadership experience and a background in K-12 teaching, with an understanding of leading change in a school community.
Expert-level knowledge of implementation, continuous improvement, and sustained change management, grounded in multiple years of direct experience supporting schools or communities through this type of work.
Steeped in implementation science and comfortable drawing on that research to inform guidance.
A builder's instinct: ability to synthesize complex ideas into clear, accessible, and actionable tools and guidance.
Experience designing and facilitating learning experiences that build others' capacity to understand and apply complex guidance.
Skilled facilitator and decision-maker: ability to hold a clear point of view, navigate complex dynamics between senior leaders with differing perspectives, and drive decisions to resolution.
Strong project management skills: ability to scope work clearly, coordinate contributors, set clear direction, and drive toward completion even in ambiguous conditions.
Skill at navigating the tensions between program work and field work, with habits of listening, testing, and revising to keep work grounded in reality.
Coachable and growth-oriented, actively seeking feedback and letting it shape thinking and work.
Proficiency with Google Suite.
Familiarity with AI tools and a drive to keep learning as they evolve.

Nice To Haves

Experience at an organization that supports schools to implement innovative models.
Proficiency with Notion.
Experience with evolving guidance and seeing iteration as a strength.

Responsibilities

Build and hold expertise in later-stage work, understanding Transcend's foundational schemas and their connection to Later Stage work.
Develop and maintain deep expertise on what strong Later Stage work looks like conceptually and practically, staying current with field approaches to implementation and school transformation.
Stay rooted in the work on the ground by maintaining active touchpoints with projects where Later Stage work is happening, learning from what is being used, adapted, and built at the project level.
Use field learning to continuously inform and strengthen centralized guidance and tools, while resisting over-prescription or guidance too removed from practical application.
Coordinate with other Design Journey Content Leads to tend to the connections between Later Stage work and earlier stages of the design journey, ensuring robust learning across stage areas without overwhelming projects.
Own the Later Stage product roadmap, maintaining a clear view of existing resources, needs for development or refinement, and prioritization.
Maintain a clear, organized hub of all tools and guidance that Design Partners need to lead Later Stage work effectively.
Lead the development of tools and resources covering the full scope of Later Stage work, building out what remains and strengthening existing resources.
Build tools and resources that are clear, accessible, and designed for adaptation and application in diverse contexts.
Ensure coherence across the library of resources, aligning with Transcend's broader foundations, wider collection of journey guidance, and team specifications.
Provide launch support and ongoing touchpoints for Managing Partners, Project Leads, and Design Partners leading Later Stage projects, staying close to how the work unfolds in communities.
Play an active role in how Later Stage work is represented in onboarding and other centralized learning experiences, in collaboration with Portfolio leadership and the School Design Learning & Development team.
Ensure Later Stage tools and resources are clearly organized, easy to navigate, and genuinely useful to users.
Serve as project lead for one or more build projects in a given quarter, setting clear direction and managing execution across a small team.
Ensure project work is coherent and aligned with centralized supports and broader organizational vision.
Bring together Portfolio and Program leadership and other senior leaders to make clear, aligned decisions about Later Stage guidance and tools.
Navigate complex dynamics, hold ground when necessary, and drive decisions to resolution even when perspectives diverge.
Be an active, collaborative member of the Journey Supports Team.
Build and maintain strong relationships with strategic collaborators across the organization, including Portfolio teams, the Usable Knowledge team, and the School Design Learning & Development team.