Senior Director, High School Student Talent

  • Full-time
  • Hiring Start Time: Immediate Start (Home Office)
  • HO Team: 9-12 Chief Schools Offcer

Company Description

Uncommon Schools is a nonprofit network of high-performing, public charter schools providing an outstanding K-12 education in historically under-resourced communities. We have proudly built schools that reflect our student population, with more than 60% of our teachers and staff across our network identifying as a person of color. Uncommon currently manages 53 schools serving more than 20,000 students in five cities: Boston, Camden, New York City, Newark and Rochester. We are proud that Uncommon graduates persist in and graduate from college at five times the rate of their peers nationally. We achieve this by offering strong academic, co-curricular, and social-emotional learning that prepares students for success in college and beyond.

Job Description

The Senior Director of Experiential Learning will set the vision and strategy for ensuring 100% of Uncommon Schools 9th-12th-grade students find their passions, participate in and lead important experiences aligned to their passions during and after the school day, and can speak about who they are and what they care about. They will design and facilitate working groups to align our school-based non-academic programming (advisory, community meetings, etc.) to this vision of fostering student talent and voice. Further, they will manage two direct reports - the Director of High School Projects and the Director of High School Internships and Summer Programs. Finally, because this role and initiative are grant funded, they will be the primary manager of this grant, collaborating with Uncommon’s Development Team and the grantees to provide regular updates and annual reports.

Set and Direct the Vision for 9th-12th Grade Student Talent and Voice:

  • Lead the development of the vision for High School Student Talent and Voice at Uncommon Schools, including extracurriculars, advisory, community meetings, and other enrichment activities
  • Develop Key Performance Indicators to support the assessment of the quality and impact of programs and initiatives
  • Maintain, supervise, and continuously improve that vision and approach year over year
  • Plan and run working groups at the High School level to advise changes to Uncommon Schools’ High School non-academic programmatic model that better facilitates Student Talent and Voice work
  • Work collaboratively with faculty and administration to build and implement policies and procedures that ensure our programs operate effectively and consistently across Uncommon’s high schools
  • Ensure program vision, policies, and procedures are gathered in ways to ensure sustainability and scalability
  • Evaluate and report on the program and initiatives internally and externally
  • Support and influence leaders, teachers, students, and other key partners to adopt innovative approaches within High School Talent and Voice
  • Build and maintain effective relationships with school leaders, staff, and students
  • Stay up to date with educational research and implications for the vision and program

Lead the High School Student Talent Team Toward Vision:

  • Own the performance and development of the Experiential Learning team
  • Provide direction, monitoring and support in the professional development for leaders and teachers that support the vision

Serve as the Primary Advocate for Student Talent and Voice Work:

  • Represent Uncommon Schools with external partners; cultivate and manage relationships with external partners in support of High School Student Talent and Voice
  • Partner with the Uncommon Media and External Affairs teams to share our students’ stories
  • Serve as the owner of the grant that supports the Student Talent and Voice work, including partnering with the Development team, being the primary liaison to the grantees, and sharing regular updates with various internal and external collaborators

Miscellaneous Responsibilities:

  • Champion change by role modeling the behavior encouraged by all colleagues and consider the impact of change on all processes, systems, and people to ensure appropriate steps are taken for successful implementation
  • Perform other crucial duties and tasks specific to the position as determined by your manager

Qualifications

  • 7-9 years of directly related experience
  • Bachelor’s Degree required
  • Relevant Master’s Degree (ex: Education, Business, Public Policy, Public Administration) preferred
  • 7+ years of proven experience in one or more of the following areas:
    • Experience in a high school environment, ideally as a high school Principal and Director of Operations, to understand 9-12 academic culture and systems
    • Ability to effectively interact with and form relationships with faculty, staff, students, parents, and administrators
    • Experience leading teams and budgets
    • Experience in program development and management, change management
    • Familiarity with corporate and nonprofit human resource management
    • Understanding of experiential education and career advising
    • Experience in the presentation of workshops or public speaking

Additional Information

Our people are what make us uncommon. It’s important to us that our compensation practices align with our values and enhance our ability to attract and retain talent.  Our compensation philosophy is focused on equity and fairness, retaining our talented staff and valuing their expertise, and transparency and clarity.

Compensation for this position: The starting compensation for this role based in New York, NY is between $124,000 to $155,000 and generally, we expect that qualified candidates in this location will be made an offer between $124,000 and $139,500. The starting pay will depend on a variety of factors that may include but are not limited to experience, education, training, certification, and location. Because we value staff staying in their roles over time, we do not currently cap salary ranges.

Benefits: We offer comprehensive, flexible, and competitive benefits that support the personal health, wellness, and finances of our staff and their families.

Uncommon believes in the importance of being a diverse, equitable and inclusive organization that enables our students and staff to thrive. We are committed to building an exceptional team that reflects the diverse backgrounds and experiences of our students. We also strive to ensure an inclusive community by creating a space for meaningful dialogue about issues of race and identity for our staff and students. As an equal opportunity employer, we hire without consideration to race, religion, creed, color, national origin, age, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, veteran status or disability. We also ensure that individuals with disabilities receive all privileges and benefits associated with employment and are provided reasonable accommodations for the interview process and to perform core job functions. If you would like to request an accommodation, please email [email protected].