As the Managing Director, Collective Leadership (CLE) Strategy you serve as the Chief of Staff and will manage a portfolio of projects in partnership with the leadership team of the Collective Leadership & Engagement team. While this is a one year role, you’ll have the opportunity to grow your skills in critical domains, gain exposure across Teach for America’s programmatic efforts, and play an important role in accelerating our alumni efforts.
You will also be responsible for taking projects from ideation to strategic planning and stewarding them through execution, engaging team leaders, and tracking milestones and metrics for progress and success. You will also play a leading role in stewarding the day to day operations of the team as well as serve as the chief budget steward for the team.
You are a strong collaborator and are able to navigate the organization. You serve as the liaison between CLE and the administration functions of the organization. You can effectively influence others to outcomes, guided by the strength of your planning but also through the strength of your relationships across the CLE team, Program Continuum, and organization. To lead this work well, you must be a dynamic leader with strong skills in strategy, planning, and executing. You are highly organized and systems-oriented. You will report to the office of the Chief Program Officer with a dotted line to the CLE leadership team.
This position is funded through June 1st of 2020.
The Managing Director, Strategy and Chief of Staff (Collective Leadership and Engagement) is responsible for:
Team Leadership and Operations (40%)
- Support the work of the CLE Leadership Team (LT)
- Advance the connection of CLE with other teams across the organization
- Serve as the key liaison with the administration functions of the organization, including Finance and Human Assets
- Act as Selection Partner for the team
- Support development of and execution of key LT priorities throughout the year
- Support LT team call logistics, agenda creation, and content generation
- Create and lead a team culture that is empowering, supportive, and encourages leadership so that at every level of the team
- Lead cross functional priorities as determined by the LT
- Monitor the team’s execution of the team’s strategic plan, celebrate milestones and accomplishments and correct course as needed to ensure the team’s effectiveness and impact
Project Management (40%)
- Partner with CLE LT in prioritizing projects and strategy work streams
- Design strong project plans that take concepts from ideation through execution
- Set strategy collaboratively; include data gathering and research to make decisions about resource investments, programmatic developments, and evolution or stopping of current programming
- Facilitate discussions and effective input gathering to ensure that the process and outcomes are informed by all stakeholders
- Based on insights and outcomes of projects, make recommendations and write strategy papers and presentations to share with decision makers including our CEO
- Partner with CLE LT in prioritizing projects and strategy work streams
- Partner with Vice Presidents and other leaders in CLE to design strategy projects to advance their work and inform decisions about evolution of programs and products
- Build strong relationships with key stakeholders, including other CLE teams as well as other Program Continuum and TFA teams in order to effectively lead cross-team projects
- Draft and lead a common onboarding experience for new team members
- Manage communication in advance and ongoing with all project stakeholders
Act as team lead buyer and finance tracker (15%)
- Ensure CLE team meets all compliance and risk obligations
- Manage the team’s budget and ensure that we are making fiscally responsible decisions.
- Support budget tracking and compliance monitoring
- Manage expense report submission and approval tracking
- Create and manage system for processing all purchase orders and supplier invoices
- Serve as team Purchase Card holder/process manager
- Manage annual budget planning process
Additional Team Involvement (5%)
- 7 + years of professional experience
- Strong understanding of Teach For America
- Ability to build strong relationships and credibility with diverse stakeholders
- Proven track record of success in setting vision and direction
- Exceptional project management experience
- Proven track record of executing to outcomes
Skills
- Ability to develop and cultivate effective relationships with diverse internal and external stakeholders and support them in contributing to a shared goal
- Ability to build investment and influence others to outcomes
- Able to set vision, charge and strategy for projects independently but collaboratively
- Able to create effective, efficient, and prioritized plans (and contingency plans) to guide the project team’s work and lead to outcomes
Work Demands
- Ability to travel to in-person meetings in various U.S. cities
- Occasional weekend or evening work is required