Director of Project Management, Operations Services

  • Full-time
  • Start Date: Immediate opening
  • Department: Regional Support and Leadership

Company Description

KIPP Texas Public Schools is a network of 59 public charter, open-enrollment, pre-k-12 schools educating nearly 34,000 students across Austin, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Houston, and San Antonio. Together with families and communities, our mission is to create joyful, academically excellent schools that prepare students with the skills and confidence to pursue the paths they choose —college, career, and beyond—so they can lead fulfilling lives and build a more just world.

Founded in Houston in 1994, and operating as KIPP Texas since 2018, our commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and antiracism in our classrooms, in our offices, and in the communities we serve is unwavering. We are looking to hire a diverse team of dynamic, collaborative, and dedicated individuals with an unyielding belief that every child will succeed. Join our Team and Family and champion equity, chase excellence, persist with purpose, bring joy, and help us rise together.

KIPP Texas is part of the national KIPP network of 255 college-preparatory public charter schools in 20 states and the District of Columbia. Nationwide, KIPP students complete four-year college at a rate of 36 percent, comparable to the national average for all students and approximately three times higher than the average of students from low-income communities.

You can see all our job opportunities at https://kipptexas.org/join-our-team/.

Job Description

The Opportunity

The Director of Project Management for the Operations Services Department is a dynamic, entrepreneurial role that will simultaneously lead the creation of a Project Management Office (PMO) and the execution of high value projects for the various functions within Operations Services.  These functions include Child Nutrition, Compliance, Facilities, School Safety and Transportation.  The Director of Project Management is an experienced manager of people and projects who has demonstrated success in creating and scaling processes, navigating, engaging and leveraging organizational stakeholders and delivering results. This is a hands-on role that will require the ability to engage directly in project work, lead others toward the completion of projects and drive the adoption of project management best practices throughout the Operations department through mentorship, operational effectiveness and demonstrated value to key stakeholders.  This role will reside on the Operations Services Leadership Team and report to the Deputy Chief of Operations Services.  The leader for this role may operate from any of the four cities that KIPP Texas serves.

Key Responsibilities

Functional Duties

  • Manage multiple assigned projects designed to meet one or more Operations department strategic goals.
  • Collaborate with stakeholders to develop the scope, objectives and timelines of projects.
  • Plans and identifies project resources needed to reach objectives and manage resources in an effective and efficient manner.
  • Prepares project budget recommendations based on scope of work and resource requirements.
  • Develops and manages detailed project plans and schedules including key milestones and deliverables; initiates actions to address issues, mitigates risks and makes other necessary adjustments as needed.
  • Monitors and reports on project progress; keeps Operations leadership and stakeholders informed of project status, critical paths, risks, pivots, and progress.

Project Management Office (PMO)

  • Utilizes established project management methodologies, practices and templates based on the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) to design, plan, implement, and achieve project objectives throughout the entirety of project execution.
  • Collaborates with stakeholders to promote organizational readiness for project related change
  • Acts as the primary escalation point of contact for all Operations Services projects.
  • Performs post project audits, completes after action reports, and makes improvement recommendations based on findings.
  • Keeps current on emerging  project management trends and best practices and recommends changes and improvements to improve project performance.
  • Manages changes to scope and schedule through established change management processes.
  • Provides input to Operations Services strategic plans, annual budgets and cyclical priorities.

Organizational Adoption 

  • Collaborates on and assists with the standardization of PM methods and templates across the organization.
  • Uses all aspects of projects to teach and mentor stakeholders regarding the rationale and efficacy of project management standards.
  • Includes organizational adoption as a part of stakeholder analyses and communication plans.

Service Delivery

  • Adheres to Project Management standards and maintains a high level of performance against project management Service Level Agreements (SLAs), Key Performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics; updates and maintains project dashboards and documentation.
  • Implements approved project management improvement plans resulting from investigations, evidence-based reports and root cause analyses.
  • Provides project management perspective to key leaders and stakeholders.
  • Measures project performance to identify and recommend areas for improvement.

Qualifications

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities:

  • Demonstrated project management expertise
  • Demonstrated ability to manage people, processes and projects in a complex, geographically dispersed organization
  • Stakeholder engagement/management 
  • Ability to analyze data; synthesize and communicate pertinent information
  • Cultural competency
  • Strong written and verbal communication skills
  • Ability to lead change, adapt and thrive in a fluid environment
  • High proficiency in Excel (formulas, pivot tables), Google suite, OFFICE 365, project management software, etc.

Required Education and/or Experience: 

  • Bachelor’s Degree or 6+ years project management experience required

Preferred Education and/or Experience:

  • PMP certification or equivalent demonstrated project management experience
  • Degree in Business or Public Administration
  • Lean/Six Sigma (LSS) Green or Black Belt Certification 
  • K-12 or higher ed experience

Additional Information

Compensation and Benefits

As a full-time KIPP Texas employee you are eligible to participate in all KIPP Texas’ benefit plans. KIPP Texas offers a robust variety of benefits choices with competitive rates, including medical, dental, and vision options, life insurance, and disability plans.

KIPP provides equal employment opportunities for all applicants and employees. As an equal opportunity employer, we hire without consideration of race, religion, creed, color, national origin, age, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, veteran status, or disability.

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