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.

As the Director your goal is to solidify external partnerships for student internship and summer program experiences.  You will own and drive all strategic planning related to building partnerships for our Internship and Summer Programming in line with our organizational priority.  This role will conduct outreach and pave partnerships with organizations and companies that are a strong fit for our vision for student experiences and success.  Once partnerships are solidified, you will utilize existing frameworks to implement programming for strong and impactful student experiences within internships, summer programs and workforce exposure experiences.  You will be responsible for managing school staff to participation goals and benchmarks, including weekly data progress monitoring and interventions and supports to ensure as many students as possible are taking advantage of these opportunities. 

As the Director, you will own all aspects of engagement with partner organizations, as well as data, reporting, and quality of experiences data both internally and for external grant reporting 

Develop long-term vision and strategy for student internships and summer programs in all 5 regions in partnership with the Student Talent Team and Uncommon High School Leadership Team as part of our Organizational Priority to increase student Talent and Voice

• Create a strategic outreach plan to engage potential partners in the vision of student experiences in the internship and summer programs realms, including priority regions and partners
• Influence key internal stakeholders (Uncommon Executive Team, regional and school leaders) to engage in internships, workforce exposure programs and summer programs work as a core tenant of growing our students’ experiential learning and improving their college options upon high school graduation

Develop partnership outreach strategy and solidify partnerships

• Determine partnership outreach strategy both within regions and cross-regionally in partnership with our Development team 
• Identify, approach, and solidify new partners, prioritizing regions who do not yet have stable and consistent partnerships
• Visit employers to promote Uncommon students and our mission
• Maintain a partnership database collaboration with our Development Team to track engagement and outreach and pitch strong partners
• Engage and meet with partners on-going to drive toward formalized partnership agreements

Spearhead the development of internship partnerships within our 5 regions with a goal of creating programs that will supplement student learning

• Codify the current programmatic model from existing internships and tweak with learned best practices to create a replicable programmatic model across schools and regions
• Codify process with school teams to ensure internships are executed and reporting exists
• Tour current and potential internship sites to assess relevancy and student experience
• Collaborate with current partnerships to ensure their on-going engagement and support in future programming alongside our Development Team; monitor these internship partnerships for quality of student experience, engagement and learning

Enhance and expand current summer program offerings to students to ensure they encapsulate a diverse range of interests and programming

• Develop vision and systems for documenting and enhancing current summer programs and expanding meaningful summer offerings for all Uncommon students across fields and experiences
• Evaluate current summer programs for opportunities to create formal partnerships with the offering organizations with the goal of increasing the consistency in our student's participation in these programs
• Conduct site visits to current and potential programs to evaluate the quality and experience of summer programming for students
• Collect data on-going to progress monitor enrollment and student engagement in summer programs through school-based Program Managers, with interventions and supports as needed to address data gaps

Build our Uncommon dialogue to amplify high school students’ talent and voice

• Explore and utilize all avenues of communication and promotion of our students’ talent and voice as developed through internship and summer experiences, including collaboration with our Development, Media, and External Affairs teams
• Influence school based staff and leaders to market the opportunities, experiences and program offerings to our students and families through the development of promotional materials for summer programs and internships 

Partner with Direct of Projects to monitor campus Program Managers to target enrollment benchmarks for internship and summer program opportunities 

Perform other essential duties and tasks specific to the position.

Education Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree required; Masters preferred

Experience Requirements:

• 5+ years of professional experience
• 5-6 of directly related experience
• 3+ years managing strategic partnerships or working within Development

Travel Requirements:

• 3 days in person work at Uncommon Home Office (NYC) or school campus
• Visits to partner organizations and internship sites as necessary
• Travel to Uncommon’s schools across all regions (NJ, NY, MA)

Physical Requirements:

• This role will require both periods of desk work, and significant walking during school and site visits.

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: Candidates who meet all job description requirements will likely receive an offer of $117,000.  The starting compensation for this role is between $104,000 to $130,000.  The starting pay will depend on various factors including but not limited to relevant professional experience, education, certifications, and tenure with Uncommon Schools.   To receive an offer at the top of the range, candidates will need significant experience beyond the job description  requirements.  Because we value staff tenure in a role, we do not currently cap salary ranges for current staff members. 

Other Benefits:

• 19 days of paid time off in addition to three weeks of paid winter and summer org-wide holidays
• Extensive, best-in-class training and development  
• Choice of 3 comprehensive health insurance plans
• Pre-tax flexible spending and health saving accounts
• Financial planning & wellness
  • 403(b) retirement savings program + employer match
  • 529 college savings program
  • Public Service Loan Forgiveness application assistance
  • Financial  planning tools and assistance
• Dependent Care FSA, back up childcare and daycare discounts, pet care insurance
• Paid leave of absence 
  • Fully paid parental leave
  • Fully paid medical leave
  • Additional paid Short Term and Long Term Disability insurance 
• Mental health and counseling support + wellness benefits

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, Uncommon provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws. 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].