The Chief of Staff (COS) to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) is the right-hand person to our CEO, Elisa Villanueva Beard, enabling her to advance our organizational priorities in service of the mission and vision of Teach For America. In this role, you will act as a trusted thought partner and advisor to the CEO. You will ensure Elisa’s time is allocated strategically, in places where she is uniquely positioned to contribute, and that she is prepared with the high-quality, well-structured information necessary for her to make decisions, form opinions, and provide feedback. You will partner with Elisa to ensure the Management Team (made up of Elisa’s direct reports) has a thriving culture rooted in our core values and is positioned to efficiently and effectively make consequential organizational decisions to advance our progress and impact. You will collaborate with Elisa and other senior staff to manage the engagement of our National Board, and you will own and/or help drive the progress of critical strategic projects.
The ideal candidate for this role will be motivated by the opportunity to influence Teach For America’s operations at the highest level from a position that is often behind the scenes. You will be comfortable working through large volumes of tasks that span proactive opportunities and reactive needs. You will use mental agility to switch topics and altitude frequently any given day given the dynamic nature of an organization where the opportunity and work often needs further definition. You will successfully build collaborative relationships with colleagues at all levels of the organization, and manage through influence to get work done. Using these orientations and skills, you will deliver solutions for complex problems. This role requires maturity, flexibility, humility, resourcefulness, and a sense of humor.
- Act as an trusted partner to the CEO, helping Elisa define her priorities and ensuring she is set up to achieve them by:
- Driving the effectiveness and efficiency of Elisa’s time and ensuring it aligns with the most critical organizational priorities, where Elisa’s voice is specifically necessary
- Gathering necessary information, inputs, and analyses to ensure Elisa is well-positioned to make decisions on a range of issues, and setting a high bar for the quality of deliverables for Elisa’s review
- Building an understanding of the critical work that is happening across the organization and surfacing issues, bright spots, and challenges to Elisa
- Acting as a liaison/advisor to senior organizational leaders and external stakeholders, as appropriate, to help advance both Elisa’s priorities and our organizational priorities
- Acting as a proxy for Elisa, when appropriate, and drafting communications on behalf of Elisa, as needed
- Oversee critical strategic projects operated from within the Office of the CEO or in collaboration with other teams, including:
- Partnering with staff members across the organization to ensure effective overall National Board engagement and that Elisa is cultivating and building relationships with individual board members
- Effectively managing the partnership of the office with CEO Communications, Public Partnerships, Development and other teams across the organization to ensure the creation and effective execution of a strong internal and external communications and engagement strategy for Elisa
- Leading the execution of initiatives/special projects that Elisa has identified as priorities
- Facilitating the annual strategic planning process for national teams
- Ensure the group of Elisa and her direct reports, known as the Management Team, operate effectively as a group, including:
- Partnering with Elisa and others to build a strong culture and sense of team among the Management Team
- Helping the Management Team outline priorities and step back on progress during the course of the year to ensure they are achieved
- Helping to ensure clarity on decision-making processes among the Management Team, and that they have the necessary information to facilitate effective decision-making
- Managing the regular engagements of that group to ensure the Management Team is spending their time most effectively and in the most strategic ways, including owning the scope and sequence of topics, setting clear objectives, and ensuring strong facilitation and materials for each engagement-
- Implementing and managing any team-wide systems, protocols, and processes necessary
- Previous executive leadership or chief of staff experience within Teach For America strongly preferred
- Previous management/strategy consulting experience or MBA strongly preferred
- 8+ years of professional work experience, including 3+ years in roles requiring strong lateral management, relationship building, project management, and cross-functional leadership
- Experience working in education and/or a multi-site non-profit preferred
- Track record of success in a complex, high-stakes environment Experience leading high-performing teams and/or organizations
The ideal candidate will exhibit exceptional skills in judgment, reasoning, problem solving, and strategic thinking, demonstrated by the ability to:
- Make decisions about where and how Elisa should spend her time, and the resources she needs to use that time effectively
- Handle and effectively prioritize a high volume of work, and adapt to new information and changing priorities
- Plan and manage complex projects, including mitigating risk and tracking issues through to completion.
- Build strong relationships with and earn the trust of key internal and external stakeholders at all levels
- Influence others to outcomes and a set a high bar for quality of work
- Display poise, confidence, and maturity in interacting with senior executives
- Communicate effectively at the executive level (written, verbal, and presentation skills)