The Senior Managing Director, Strategy & External Affairs is a senior leader on the Houston team and serves on the Regional Leadership Team. In this role you will work closely with the Executive Director, Regional Leadership Team, and Regional Board to support the region in developing a bold regional strategy that accelerates progress toward educational equity in Houston, while ensuring that in-year strategy and day-to-day operations of the region run smoothly.
You will also work closely with the Executive Director, Regional Leadership Team, and Regional Board to communicate the brand and story of Teach For America, ensuring we are known as the most impactful organization and network of leaders fueling educational equity for kids across Houston. To realize your outcomes, you will directly oversee the following projects: leading the development of our next 5 to 10 year regional strategy, developing our external affairs (marketing, communications, branding) strategy, and improving our board growth and development strategy.
Your team will be comprised of 3 to 4 people who drive in-year progress toward these projects and/or provide direct support to our work. The combination of these efforts will allow us to continue to grow and strengthen the corps in Houston, engage and activate our alumni, and put Teach For America in the best position to meet our partners’ demand for our teachers and leaders across our community.
You will report to the Executive Director in Houston, Tiffany Cuellar Needham.
In this role you will work closely with the Executive Director, Regional Leadership Team, and Regional Board to support the region in developing a bold regional strategy that accelerates progress toward educational equity in Houston, while ensuring that in-year strategy and day-to-day office operations run smoothly. (40%)
- Determine and manage the process and resources necessary to develop a 5 to 10 year regional strategy that accelerates progress toward educational equity in Houston.
- Plan and execute our in-year strategic planning and finance monitoring and our in-year regional staff engagement strategy (includes management of RLT meetings and retreats and all staff engagements and communications).
- Manage the Manager of Executive Support to provide direct support to TFA Houston’s Executive Director, support scheduling and logistics for all board meeting and committee meetings.
You will also work closely with the Executive Director, Leadership Team, and Regional Board to elevate the brand and story of Teach For America, ensuring we are known as the most impactful organization and network of leaders fueling educational equity for kids across Houston. (40%)
- Develop our external affairs (marketing, communications, branding) strategy.
- Improve our board growth and development plan, ensuring we have the most effective board make-up and that they are consistently championing our efforts.
- Plan and execute our in-year board growth and development strategy.
- Execute against our in-year external affairs strategies, producing high volumes of communications (newsletters, social media, print media, PPT decks, talking points for Tiffany etc.).
Fulfill Critical Regional Team Responsibilities (20%)
- Carry out foundational activities that ensure everyone in our region is rooted in our organization’s foundations and our regional strategy, has the opportunity to give input on major decisions, grows as professionals, and strengthens our team culture by:
- Engaging in leadership team and regional team retreats and meetings;
- Preparing and leading check-ins with your manager around progress toward goals;
- Leveraging national resources (e.g. weekly newsletters, daily gift reports, etc.);
- Preparing for and engaging in our performance development program; and
- Upholding our data management, office operations, and fiscal responsibilities.
- Make a direct impact on the organizational mission of enlisting, developing and mobilizing leaders to strengthen the movement for educational equity by interviewing applicants to Teach For America; communicating regularly with incoming corps members; and assisting with member facing events, our alumni giving campaign, alumni survey, and other initiatives that impact our members and partners.
To be the most successful candidate, you must be obsessed with the potential of our corps members and alumni to transform our current education system such that every child has the opportunity to realize their fullest potential. Furthermore, you must be compelled to share this story of our impact broadly and garner support for our efforts. More specifically, you will be:
- Passionate about Houston and educational equity. You are passionate about issues related to educational inequity in Houston. You are incredibly optimistic about what we can achieve when we embrace the strengths that are omnipresent in Houston and partner with our schools to solve our most pressing challenges, namely in education.
- A conscious leader. You have a strong understanding of the dynamics of race and class in America and a history of operating in the spirit of our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusiveness. You have a pattern of modeling self-reflection, curiosity and exploration, and an ability to connect and empathize with people. You lead, and believe others must lead, through a culturally competent lens and in a way that empowers supporters, staff, corps members, alumni, students and communities.
- Innovative and strategic. You seek to chart a new course and create something where something does not yet exist. When you face a large problem, your first instinct is to break it down into smaller, manageable pieces and ruthlessly prioritize what is most important.
- A compelling and strategic communicator. You work across multiple stakeholders to ensure consistency and quality of internal and external communications. You craft compelling, inspiring stories about our mission and work and can tailor them to different audiences across a wide variety of communication channels. You keep your manager regularly updated as critical partners in your work. When communicating decisions you are able to assess the impact these decisions can have on others and are able to effectively plan accordingly. You are naturally empathetic and can quickly understand people’s needs and aspirations and how information can help them achieve their goals.
- Motivated by relationships. Whether working with your teammates, external stakeholders, or our corps members and alumni, you cultivate and manage strong and lasting relationships with ease. Additionally, you have strong gravitas, presence, and maturity that engender respect and facilitate strong partnerships.
- Obsessive about outcomes. You have an incredibly strong record of achieving ambitious goals despite obstacles and have experience doing so in complex situations when the stakes are high and with diverse teams. Your decisions are data-driven, and you stay laser-focused on your goals regardless of any day-to-day chaos or distractions. You are motivated to achieve extraordinary performance and cultural outcomes in the midst of change, knowing what that will require of you emotionally, mentally, and physically, etc.
- A team player. You strive towards outcomes by working collaboratively with others on the team, knowing your outcomes are interdependent. You expect your team to act in the same ways in their work and hold them accountable to doing so. You bring a clear opinion to all meetings, especially when we make decisions, and when a decision is made, you are a champion of the team’s decision.
- Self-driven. You have superior organizational skills, attention to detail, integrity, and great follow-through on all facets of your work. You demonstrate an uncommon level of personal responsibility for achieving results, define broadly what is within your control, persevere in the face of challenges and you’re exceptionally optimistic about what is possible. You take initiative to do what it takes to achieve success. You are obsessed with learning and growing and consistently act on feedback to improve your performance, outcomes and impact on others.
Prior Experience
- Have five to seven years of work experience, at least three of which include managing teams
- Have experience developing strategy, engaging constituents in the process, and socializing final plan
- Are proficient in MS Outlook, Word, Excel and PowerPoint (advanced proficiency in Excel and PowerPoint ideal)
Work Demands
- Be able to work weekends and evenings, as necessary
- Be able to travel up to 2 to 4 times per year for conferences and professional development