The Senior Managing Director (SMD) will oversee critical regional financial management and corps allocation practices across Teach For America’s portfolio of 51 regions. The SMD will sit in the Office of the Chief Operating and Program Officer (COPO), and will work in close partnership with the Vice President (VP) of Regional Strategic Initiatives and the national Finance, Development and Admissions functions to achieve shared goals.
Teach For America’s regions are the heart of our organization’s programmatic and financial outcomes. Regions account for nearly 75% of TFA’s revenue, raising more than $200M annually to support the 6,000+ teaching corps members and tens of thousands of alumni who live and work in our regions. As SMD, you will be responsible for creating the systems-level conditions to enable this diverse portfolio of regions to thrive financially by designing and overseeing strong financial management structures, executive decision-making practices, and national team partnerships. The SMD will also manage our annual corps allocation process, which bridges our multi-year strategic plan with annual recruitment and financial results to determine how many corps members are assigned to each region annually.
The ideal candidate for this role is an exceptional strategic thinker and problem-solver, eager to unpack and address complex financial management challenges that sit at the intersection of competing organizational priorities. You approach problems through a rigorous analytical lens, bridging quantitative and qualitative data by working in close partnership with stakeholders to understand needs, generate alternatives, and build investment in solutions.
As the SMD, you have a gift for facilitating decision-making among senior executives. Your work sets our CEO, COPO, and other senior executives up for successful leadership of the organization by clearly identifying and communicating the crux of extremely complex problems, distilling complex analysis into takeaways, identifying possible solutions, and making a recommendation that accounts for tradeoffs.
You seamlessly transition between abstract problem-solving and operational implementation. You are eager to roll up your sleeves and translate big-picture ideas into operational plans in partnership with a diverse group of peers and stakeholders across the organization; you enjoy the work of implementation, refinement, and continuous learning and improvement.
In support of the Chief Operating and Program Officer (COPO), the SMD will oversee regional financial management and corps allocation across our portfolio of regions.
The COPO is responsible for managing our regions toward strong financial and programmatic outcomes. In service of that objective, and in collaboration with national partners on Finance and Development, the SMD will:
- Set vision and strategy for our approach to regional financial management across our portfolio of regions, with the objective of ensuring our regions are financially thriving and meeting the financial needs of the enterprise
- Design the specific policies, expectations and management structures that enable Executive Directors, in partnership with their managers, to build and manage our regions towards strong financial management outcomes
- Build the alignment, understanding, capacity, and skills needed for strong regional financial management through direct engagement with executives (e.g., facilitating norming sessions) and with the partner teams who support regions most closely (e.g., Finance, Development, Partners and Coaches on Home Teams)
The COPO, in partnership with the CEO and Management Team (inclusive of the CEO’s direct reports), is responsible for ensuring that our incoming corps is “allocated” across regions each year in alignment with our organizational strategy. The SMD will:
- Develop a recommended approach to corps allocation each year, for ratification by Management Team (MT), that accounts for current market constraints, aligns with our org-wide strategy, and is informed by analysis and input from key stakeholders and partner teams
- Facilitate decision-making among the Management Team to ratify or amend the recommended approach, clearly presenting a recommendation, analysis and implications
- Manage implementation and execution of corps allocation throughout the year, designing a cadence of operations and communication across partner teams (Recruitment, Admissions, Development, Finance, Regional Operations) for seamless integration of one of the most complex processes in the organization
- Monitor and proactively manage risks, including re-engaging executives to amend decisions, as-needed
- 7+ years prior work experience
- Enterprise-level financial acumen and experience (e.g., MBA; management consulting; finance role)
- Experience facilitating decisions with senior executives in an organization
- Some statistical background (e.g., 1-2 courses at the undergraduate or graduate level)
- Systems thinker with track record setting vision, designing strategies, and operationalizing solutions that function across an entire organization
- Exceptionally clear verbal and written communicator; able to distill complex problems and analyses for diverse audiences, including senior executives
- Strong facilitation skills towards decision-making
- Exceptional analytical and problem-solving skills
- Strong project-manager with experience managing complex cross-functional projects
- Pattern of developing strong relationships with diverse colleagues
- Hungry for learning and continuous improvement; inquisitive; inclined to reexamine the status quo
- Embodies Teach For America's Foundations, including our core values and commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusiveness
Work Demands
- Able to work 40-50 hour work weeks, with variability across the year
- Willing to work occasional weekend or evening hours
- Travel 1-2 weeks per quarter (typically only for part of the week)