As the Managing Director of Network Impact in Indianapolis, you will lead our regional Network Impact team and be responsible for fostering and developing the community and collective leadership of over 650 Teach For America members (current corps members and alumni) living in the Greater Indianapolis region. As a senior leader on the regional team, you will set the strategy for orienting our alumni affairs and engagement efforts towards our vision of Network Impact while evolving and refining this vision in partnership with others over time. You will contribute to and advance our work by building authentic relationships with alumni and corps members in all stages of their careers, throughout our city; creating mechanisms to cultivate, develop and foster individual and collective leadership towards educational equity and excellence; and strategically partner with the Program Continuum team to ensure alignment across the corps member and alumni experience towards collective leadership. You will serve as a culture leader on our staff; an effective coach and direct manager to the Manager of Network Impact; and a collaborative, strategic, and thoughtful member of the Indianapolis Leadership Team. As a member of the Leadership Team, you will model professionalism, integrity, and our organizational core values at all times.
The Network Impact team is one prong of the larger Program Continuum Team within our regional Indianapolis Team. The Network Impact team’s charge is to provide structures, resources, and leadership development that support building community and deepening a collective commitment to understanding the root causes of and dismantling educational inequity and initiating towards collective impact. Through the work of this function, our members will become a powerful network fueling learning and innovation in Indianapolis education. You will develop the vision and strategy of the Network Impact team alongside your manager, the Chief Program Officer, and will invest heavily in relationship building, cross-team collaboration, and strategic planning towards ambitious Network Impact goals in alignment with our regional 2023 Plan.
- Entrepreneurial spirit. You thrive in charting a new course and developing a bold vision, building and being entrepreneurial in pursuit of educational equity and excellence. You can imagine a different reality for the future and align vision and strategy to reach ambitious outcomes to lead to this future state. You inspire others in charting a new course and exhibit a strong orientation to learning and continuously improving. You take calculated risks and encourage others to do the same, focusing on testing and learning. You leverage data, strong data analysis, and rigorous decision-making to prioritize and drive toward outcomes. You believe in our regional vision, mission, goals, and core values and strive to embody them in every endeavor.
- Committed to collective leadership. You embrace the idea that leadership can be shared, and that stewarding groups, structures, and processes that build capacity in others is essential. You catalyze collective leadership and see the growing TFA-Indy community as a powerful network for change, especially when we act collectively to make change.
- Credible with leaders at all levels and uncommonly high personal responsibility.Leaders at all levels view you as a credible partner. You are able to comfortably speak to, influence, and organize leaders at all levels in their career and age group. You take immense ownership and assume significant personal responsibility for achieving results. You are self-driven and constantly seek to increase your locus of control and influence to drive strong outcomes. You possess a persistent optimism and “whatever it takes” mentality to make change happen, particularly in the face of challenges.
- A talented team and culture leader. You model our core values and are known as a culture builder and leader in both visible and invisible ways. In every action and interaction, you are an example to others and you take that role seriously and with pride. You are an experienced and tested manager of individuals and have a track record of getting exceptional results with and through others. You cultivate strong and lasting relationships with diverse stakeholders (internal and external) along lines of sameness and difference. People grow as a result of your interactions, coaching, and mentorship. You have impeccable judgment and decision-making skills to influence decisions that will impact our network for the ultimate benefit of the kids, families, and communities we serve.
- A conscious leader. You are always oriented towards justice and equity, particularly in education. You lead and believe others must lead, through a culturally responsive lens and in a way that empowers students and communities to lead lives of their choosing. You constantly reflect, learn, and improve and model this for others.
Set, own, and execute vision and strategy for Network Impact function (40%)
- Create and manage Network Impact strategies in alignment with regional priorities and goals, specifically alumni community culture, involvement, stewardship, and retention metrics
- Test and develop strategies to bring forth growing collective leadership within the TFA-Indy community
- Analyze and synthesize survey data on an ongoing basis to inform strategy
- Research organizations and other Teach For America regions with strong network culture to pilot local initiatives that would foster a thriving network within our region
- Manage and foster strong relationships through one-on-one and group meetings and programming
- Orient new alumni to our region to ensure they feel welcomed and part of the network
- Liaise with alumni-run organizations, such as our Alumni Board, Collective, and PRISM
- Manage systems to easily manage alumni data utilizing data management platform, Salesforce
- Collaborate and partner with Program Continuum colleagues to craft regional Theory of Leadership and ensure coherence in member experience and development trajectories
Be a strong manager, coach, and developer of staff (30%)
- Develop a strong, outcomes- and core values-focused performance culture within the Network Impact team; coach and develop Manager of Network Impact to build their own expertise as a systems-change leader and drive increasingly strong outcomes
- Ensure that Manager of Network Impact has full clarity on goals and outcomes they are driving toward in their work in alignment with TFA-Indy strategy; to this end, ensure that team members have robust strategies to deliver short- and long-term results, and that they execute strategies efficiently and effectively
- Coach and develop the Manager of Network Impact to reach their goals/outcomes and continually increase their effectiveness and learning over time as an outcomes-focused, corps values-driven leader
Serve as member of the Leadership Team and cultural leader within region (20%)
- Inform the strategic direction of TFA-Indy as one of the senior-most leaders of the region and member of the Leadership Team
- Establish strong partnerships with the community grounded in a shared vision of excellent education for all and to optimally advance our mission and strategy
- Grow yourself as a leader by holding a clear, personal vision for impact and how it relates to your goals
- Have deep knowledge of your identity and how race, class, and privilege influence your values, mindsets and behaviors and ability to work alongside lines of sameness and difference
- Serve as a cultural leader of the Network Impact function as well as the broader regional team through visible and invisible ways of stewarding a strong core values-based culture
- Sustain yourself in this work and model this for our team, corps, and alumni
Fulfill our Mission through Organizational and Regional Priorities (10%)
- Participate in our region’s corps member selection, matriculation, induction, and ongoing engagement initiatives
- Attend regional meetings and retreats held throughout the year, bi-weekly staff meetings, and occasional conferences and trainings
- Teach For America alumnus/a or former staff member preferred
- Record of achieving ambitious results and possessing a strong results-orientation
- A track record of getting exceptional results with and through others, either was a manager or in a comparable role of influence
- Demonstrated conviction to the constituents Teach For America serves and/or Indianapolis region
- Experience with Salesforce a plus
Work Demands
- Ability to work early mornings, evenings, and weekends, if needed
- Travel 1-2 times per year to out-of-state conferences
Skills
- Setting Vision and Direction
- Organizing, Planning, and Executing. Superb organization, detail-orientation, and project management skills.
- Making Decisions and Demonstrating Judgment. Operates with urgency and sense of possibility
- Assembling Effective Teams; Managing Team Execution; Influencing & Motivating Teams
- Building Relationships and Networks. Ability to build and leverage deep relationships with all types of people in different contexts and across lines of sameness and difference
- Influencing Others to Achieve Outcomes. Ability to build relationships toward successful outcomes
- Communicating Effectively. Exceptional verbal and written communications skills and the ability to craft high quality written communications and professionally respond to alumni, internal, and external partners with a high level of respect and humility
- Defining the Opportunity/Problem; Conducting Analysis
- Synthesizing, Integrating and Developing Strategies