Do people who know you refer to you as “The Connector” or some other type of network aficionado nickname? Does your commitment to every child’s education drive you to do whatever needs to be done to ensure that education is of the quality they deserve? Have you seen the difference effective and equitable management practices can make in how well teams can deliver results for the children they educate? We’d like a word with you!
The Management Center (TMC) is seeking our first Partner, Education Sector Engagement & Partnerships to contribute to the ever-expanding work of our Educational Equity (Ed Equity) Team. The Partner will leverage their, and TMC’s, networks of leaders, schools, and organizations committed to the success of every child to build and grow partnerships with TMC to offer our services of management coaching and training.
Who We Are
We view educational equity as much-needed social change, and our mission is to help social change leaders learn how to build and run more effective organizations so they can deliver great results. Founded in 2006, we have helped shape the practices of hundreds of influential organizations and thousands of individual managers, focusing in particular on leading progressive organizations working for social change. In 2015, we expanded our reach to include the educational equity sector. This sector development is still in start-up mode as we build our support of superintendents, school leaders responsible for the children and adults in their buildings, among other leaders in the education space, and organizations advocating for more equitable educational policies. Our clients work on issues where they face an inherently uphill battle and so must fight more effectively if they are going to achieve their missions and do their best for children. We aim to help them by making their organizations as effective as possible.
The Ed Equity Team has ambitious goals to support as many school leaders and organizations that educate some of our most vulnerable populations (students of color and low-income students) as possible. We are particularly committed to serving schools/organizations led by and for leaders of color and indigenous leaders.
What You’ll Do
Reporting to the head of the educational equity sector, the Partner will be an integral member of the team who will create an outreach game plan and execute it by quickly identifying and winning over strategic clients who have high expectations for our work with them. This individual will cut through all red tape to get the job done and secure future partnerships/business for our ed sector coaches and trainers in order to help us reach our ambitious goals.
This newly developed role will evolve over time, but you’ll have 2 major areas of responsibility:
Strategic engagement and partnership-building – approximately 70% of your time
- Build and maintain relationships across the education sector to generate business (primarily in schools, school districts, and non-profits/foundations that support either).
- Secure and/or maintain at least 7 Ed Equity partnerships within the first year with at least 1 being an organization lead by a person of color or indigenous person.
Team support – approximately 30% of your time
- Identify/develop internal systems that make the building and maintenance of relationships with external partners easier to scale.
- Steward strategic partnerships that help us accomplish our goals around impact and number of managers trained, including
- Acting as a liaison between external partners and the rest of the Ed Equity team.
- Delegating logistical aspects of partnerships (e.g. writing contracts, conducting intake calls, scheduling onsite trainings) to the relevant TMC team member
- Collaborating with the Administrative Team and the Ed Equity Sector Head to ensure everyone has the information they need to move forward
- Lead trainings for select clients; including the majority of trainings at education conferences TMC attends
If you were a member of the team this year, you would have been
- Networking with school and district leaders, hearing their needs, and recommending resources to them (TMC and others).
- Identifying and pursuing potential new partnerships that TMC’s Ed Equity Sector should pursue.
- Setting up the initial systems for new partnerships and analyzing the systems for current partnerships to ensure client needs met and all members our team understand their roles with the client.
- Creating an outreach plan to secure school leader management trainings for the summer.
- Partnering with large public school districts when big and tricky issues arise.
Who You Are
To be successful in this job, you will be adept at networking, business development, project management, and centering equity and inclusion (particularly around race and gender-identity) in your work. More specifically, you will be most of the following:
- An experienced education sector leader: You have been a school leader; worked as a programs or operations leader for a system or network; or supported schools and school leaders in another way that provides you with insight into what it takes to effectively manage teams and individuals towards ambitious results for children.
- A relationship-builder and master communicator: You are able to build strong relationships with education sector leaders and give them advice about our management services that could meet their needs (this likely comes from deep experience in the sector). You manage relationships with demanding school and district leaders, both in managing their expectations and delivering on our promises. You convey concise and simple messages in writing and you respond to people quickly, helpfully, and completely.
- Committed to centering racial and gender equity and inclusion: You understand the impact of systemic and implicit biases related to race and gender identity that can play out in management practices and you’re able to surface this with clients in a way that allows them to hear what is being said without compromising the clarity of the message. You can proactively spot issues of equity and inclusion in the work and can bring practical solutions.
- A problem-solver and solutions-oriented: You are able to anticipate problems with a partnership (like, if a district hasn’t done X, they might miss the deadline for setting training dates) and enjoy working through a problem until it is solved.
- A systems designer: You are able to envision systems for multi-part projects that busy people can implement. You can then put those systems into place and get everybody up to speed and bought into using them.
- A fast-paced and detail-oriented project manager: You bring a passion for making things work well and an ability to handle a large volume of work impeccably in a high performing environment, including strategically prioritizing the most important and impactful projects while keeping the others moving or explicitly placing them on the back burner. You backwards plan, troubleshoot, anticipate and burst through obstacles and move things forward, while managing in all directions, especially across lines of difference (by quickly gaining trust and rapport through warmth, humility, and optimism) with remote folks who are often away with clients. You stay on top of multiple projects use resources wisely.
The full-time salary range is between $122,400 to $166,400 for Partners, with exact salary depending on experience and new staff rarely starting at the top of the range. We also offer excellent benefits, including an additional 5% employer contribution to your retirement fund with no match required.
What Else You Should Know
We are an equal opportunity employer, are committed to racial equity, and we make a particular effort to recruit people of color, indigenous people, and gender-non-conforming people to apply for open positions.
This position is full-time, can be based anywhere in the United States, and requires moderate travel (1 – 4 days per month).