The Director, Public Affairs, Texas will support the work of the Vice President, Public Affairs, Texas and the work of our four regional teams to strengthen the position of Teach For America on a statewide level, through the coordination of key public affairs efforts related to our state funding and cross regional collaboration. We are looking for a strong process designer who can communicate across multiple teams and outside of our organization, with an attention to detail and a high bar for work products and a focus on deadlines and meeting expectations of large public grants.
The ideal candidate is a self-directed, fast learning team contributor, who can effectively work across our four regional teams and the sub-teams within them to ensure that we are fully meeting the expectations of our public grants in Texas. You have a passion for working on processes at scale, focus on clear, measurable outcomes, are obsessed with accuracy and efficiency, have an unshakeable orientation towards customer-service, and love project planning. You also understand that developing and managing complex systems at scale requires relationships and a deep understanding of how the organization operates.
To reach this vision, you would work with the Vice President, Public Affairs, Texas and designated staff members on our four regional teams, and our national Public Partnerships teams to successfully write our state public grants, establish or execute on internal systems for data management and process tracking and completion, support our corps members in their AmeriCorps membership and help drive learning for our teams on how to more efficiently support the largest OneStar Foundation program in Texas.
(35%) Regional Support and Coaching:
- Manage a portfolio of four Texas regions to follow all AmeriCorps requirements by acting as a strategic thought-partner, coach, and in-house AmeriCorps expert
- Support development and management of compliance tracking and reporting
- Support regional AmeriCorps manager staff onboarding and performance
(30%) Organizational Compliance & Systems: as required by AmeriCorps regulations, and partnering with other regional and national staff, the Technology Team, the Admissions Team, and others:
- Serve as primary program staff and point of contact for all OneStar communication and compliance
- Update, manage, and if necessary, redesign internal tools and protocols to ensure all AmeriCorps members are enrolled and exited accurately, in a timely manner.
- Manage Teach For America Texas’s centralized processes for ensuring all AmeriCorps members complete and pass background checks
- Manage systems to ensure required processes are followed if a member exits early or transfers.
- Develop and evolve process to ensure individual corps member files have all necessary documentation and are audit ready
(10%) Grant Writing, Data Management & Reporting
- Write public grants (Texas Education Agency and OneStar Foundation), through project management of four Texas regions and national AmeriCorps staff, on a yearly basis
- Implement and improve upon current systems for tracking ongoing data and information over the course of a grant year
- Write public grant reports, through project management of four Texas regions and national AmeriCorps staff, on a yearly basis
(20%) Research, Analysis & Recommendations
- Write research profiles on key decision makers in public grant making, including but not limited to board members, elected officials, appointed officials
- Analyze key proposals in state education policy
- Recommend internal and external courses of action to Vice President, Public Affairs to strengthen Teach For America’s brand in Texas
(5%) Other Organizational Responsibilities
- Participate in yearly review of applicants to Teach For America corps
- Participate in Teach For America all-staff learning and development
- Teach For America &/or AmeriCorps experience highly preferred
- 4+ years professional experience
- Demonstrated experience building relationships and influencing others to achieve goals and execute complex projects
- Some weekend and evening work required
- Ability to travel to in-person meetings in various Texas cities, approximately monthly
- Excellent project-management skills
- Strong critical thinker: has an ability to identify problems and opportunities, and identify and implement aligned solutions.
- Operates with a strong customer service ethic, and ability to manage internal TFA staff laterally
- Extremely organized, detail-oriented, relentless, energetic and professional
- Systems-thinker who is able to translate vision, goals, and best practices into practical, actionable, scalable plans
- Ability to work efficiently and with accuracy in a fast-paced, deadline-driven environment and juggle several projects at once with a spirit of flexibility and sense of possibility is critical
- Strong written and verbal communication skills
- Deep commitment to Teach For America’s mission and core values and to the value and importance of the AmeriCorps program and partnership