About the Organization 

KIPP Public Schools is a national network of tuition-free public charter schools that prepares students with the skills and confidence to create the future they want for themselves, their communities, and us all. We are a network of 279 schools, nearly 16,500 educators, and nearly 210,000 students and alumni. 

Our mission: Together with families and communities, we 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. 

Our vision: Every child grows up free to create the future they want for themselves and their communities. 

The KIPP Foundation is a nonprofit organization that supports KIPP public charter schools across the country. The KIPP Foundation helps to develop outstanding educators to lead KIPP schools; provides tools and resources for excellent teaching and learning; promotes innovation; and facilitates the exchange of insights and ideas across KIPP and other public schools and organizations. 

About Our Values: 

Excellent Results for Students: We value results over effort and know that our work is not finished until all students thrive. We maintain high expectations for self, team, and students. We drive outcomes by operating with agility, removing barriers, differentiating support, and prioritizing student-centered solutions—especially for those at the margins. 

Collective Impact: We are one team. We win together. We embody a one-team mindset by working collaboratively across teams, aligning goals, and leveraging the strengths of all teammates. We build trust-based relationships and ensure inclusive decision-making by engaging those closest to the work. We provide clarity through simple, repeatable systems and goals that enable transformational outcomes. 

Courageous Action: Our belief in what we can achieve is unwavering, fueling our optimism and commitment to overcome any challenge. We demonstrate an unwavering belief in students' potential and a commitment to addressing systemic inequities. We approach challenges with resilience, a solutions-focused mindset, and adaptability. We foster a psychologically safe environment centered on trust and accountability where feedback is encouraged. We leverage data to reflect on progress, own setbacks, celebrate successes, and continuously improve to maximize impact. 

About The Position 

The Vice President, KEDA, will serve as the program lead responsible for founding KIPP’s first-ever Executive Director leadership program. The KIPP Executive Director Accelerator (KEDA) is scheduled to launch in School Year 2026–2027. This leader will design, build, and continuously refine three core programmatic components — ED identification and selection, the ED Fellowship, and the New ED Program — ensuring they function as a cohesive, high-impact leadership development pipeline. 

This role is fundamentally focused on building and executing a best-in-class leadership program that produces a robust and sustainable pipeline of ED-ready candidates prepared to lead one of KIPP’s 28 regions nationwide. The Vice President of KEDA will translate KEDA’s vision into concrete programming, curriculum, learning experiences, and operational structures. They will build and manage the fellowship model; design learning experiences aligned to KIPP’s leadership expectations; coordinate selection processes; cultivate facilitators, coaches, and partners; and establish the systems and rhythms necessary to run KEDA effectively at launch and beyond. 

As KIPP works toward its 2030 goals, KEDA is focused on preparing a specific kind of leader: an Executive Director who leads with conviction, centers students and community in every decision, and has the vision, drive, and cultural competency to deliver breakthrough outcomes across regional leadership. This role will design and deliver programming that develops a diverse cohort of leaders who excel across the five domains critical to leading a KIPP region in this era — Driving Performance, Leadership Mindset, Vision and Strategic Direction, Talent and Culture Cultivation, and Communication, Influence, and Leading Change — while remaining deeply grounded in who KIPP is and why we exist. 

Specifically, the VP of KEDA will be responsible for the following: 

Responsibilities 

Act as a talent magnet, cultivating current and future Executive Director (ED) prospects:  

• Strategically identify and cultivate a bench of the most talented and successful education leaders with track records of extraordinary results.  

• Cultivate results-driven pipeline sources over time while building KIPP’s brand as the home for top executive level talent and development  

• In partnership with the KIPP Foundation Talent Team, co-design and implement executive-level recruitment strategies, inclusive selection practices, and succession planning systems aligned to network-wide talent strategy. 

• Partner with Regional Superintendents to ensure that 75% of candidates who complete the ED Residency are certified “ED Ready,” and 100% of ED ready candidates successfully matriculate into an Executive Director role within two years.  

• Establish annual and long-term targets based on ED attrition data and collaboration with Regional Superintendents on talent landscape and needs to meet our goals of 85% retention of high performing EDs and 100% of regions with an ED vacancy fill the role with a best-in-class successor:  

• Collaborate with the Talent Team to identify a search firm partner for national searches  

• Set goals, establish expectations, and monitor efforts of the partner search firm  

• Tap into personal networks and cultivate relationships leading to ED referrals and candidates   

Create and maintain ED identification and selection practices in partnership with Regional Superintendents and local Board Chairs:  

• Partner with Regional Superintendents and the Talent Team to operationalize toolkits and resources for existing national expectations set by the CEO including decision rights and processes related to ED selection   

• Engage consistently with Regional Superintendents to gather feedback, share updates, and communicate status of each ED Fellow   

• Prepare explanatory materials for local Boards and regional leadership teams  

• Build resources and toolkits related to ED searches for local Board use  

• Support Regional Superintendents in material creation and professional development of local boards in ED searches  

• Develop selection criteria for successful completion of ED Fellowship  

Drive programming for ED Residency and New ED Cohort to support the vision of KEDA:  

• Collaborate with Talent Team to define certification standards, performance metrics, and longitudinal tracking of ED Fellows and New ED participants. 

• Develop case studies, codify best practices, and gather exemplar resources for ED Residency and New ED Cohort  

• Collaborate with Regional Superintendent Team to scope monthly New ED virtual sessions for planning purposes   

• Lead process for identifying and contracting with external faculty, identifying and preparing internal faculty  

• Ensure a seamless participant experience through facilitator expectation setting, training, and norming    

• In partnership with KIPP Foundation Chiefs and Regional Superintendents, create targeted development goals, scope and sequences, and participant resources in alignment with KEDA’s vision  

Drive strong operations and learning visit experiences in partnership with KIPP Foundation’s Event Design and Operations Team:  

• Plan learning visits and in-person cohort development aligned to KEDA goals   

• Partner with regional hosts and mentors to ensure a strong experience for both participants and hosts  

• Coordinate scheduling and operations alongside the EDO team for all virtual and in person events   

Develop and manage an executive talent strategy in alignment with the vision for KEDA 

• Analyze ED attrition and performance data in partnership with the KIPP Foundation leadership team  

• Establish clear, data-driven benchmarks for ED readiness, certification, and placement 

Who You'll Work With:  

The Vice President of KEDA will leverage influence skills and strong stakeholder management to build trust and relationships with regional leaders through strong execution, excellent programming, responsiveness to feedback, and ability to differentiate while holding a consistently high bar.  

Skills and Mindsets 

• Mission and Student Focus: Demonstrates passion and commitment to KIPP’s mission and possesses the desire and ability to uphold KIPP’s core values (Focus on Excellent Results, Collective Impact, and Courageous Action)  

• Self-Management: Demonstrated record of setting and achieving ambitious goals for their departments in complex or ambiguous environment; uses data, research, and analysis to set a high bar of excellence for goal setting; effectively distributes and redistributes work among direct reports, teammates, and teams to optimizes goal attainments; effectively sets and fosters a culture that enables and celebrates teammates’ achievements and goals attainment. 

• People Management & Development: Effectively ensures strong professional development and coaching for teammates directly and through layers.  Proficient in the mechanics of succession management and performance management for teammates.  Able to coach manager of managers and skilled at fostering a positive team culture in which teammates feel ownership and accountability for their own and the broader team’s work and results.  

• Collaboration: Identifies and leverages opportunities with both internal and external stakeholders (including students, parents, community partners and leaders, donors, and staff) to increase impact.  Leads successful collaboration across functions and evolves plans to get strong results. Has the interpersonal, diplomatic, relationships building and communication skills to connect and compel teammates across different functions to collaborate effectively toward shared goals.  Effectively builds, maintains and leverages teams and systems to move work forward.  

• Data Driven Actions & Decisions: Effectively uses data to shape teamwide decisions and the learning agenda or evaluation of a function or significant initiative.  Able to generate, implement, and evaluate solutions with a focus on scalability and sustainability.  

• Process Management: Able to build and align goals and project plans with organization priorities; Develops and codifies processes that promote coordination, efficiency and efficacy across KF and the Network; Prioritizes processes that ensure sustainability and scalability; ensures team is finding efficiencies through process implementation and improvement, resource sharing, or other methods 

• Communications & Change Management: Effectively articulates case for change to multiple functions, teams, and/or offices through clear and compelling presentations, tailoring communications and engagement approach for different audiences.  Effectively translates vision into actionable plans among across team stakeholders; Champions KF and networkwide change with all stakeholders. 

Experience and Qualifications 

• Bachelor's degree required; Master's degree or advanced certification preferred  

• 10+ years of leadership experience in education, public charter systems, or non-profits with at least 5 years in a leadership role, with a proven record of success in leading complex organizations or networks  

• Strong gravitas and alignment with KIPP’s values and beliefs  

• Experience in talent development and performance management  

• Experience leading complex systems to achieve goals in partnership with diverse stakeholders  

• Strong track record of results in leading complex change management efforts   

• Demonstrated success in driving academic, operational, and cultural excellence through others  

• Results-Driven: Proven track record of setting and achieving ambitious goals, particularly in challenging or high-growth environments  

• Relationship Building: Exceptional ability to build trust with stakeholders, including students, parents, community partners and leaders, donors, and staff.  

Work Conditions 

• Travel requirements: 25-30% travel  

• Full Time 

Location 

This role has the option of working from a remote office full-time, with expectations to work across time zones when necessary.  

Compensation and Benefits 

In compliance with local law, we are disclosing the compensation, or a range thereof, for roles in locations where legally required. Actual salaries will vary based on several factors, including but not limited to external market data, internal equity, and relevant experience. The salary range for this position is $197,000-$236,500. In addition, KIPP Foundation provides a variety of benefits to employees, including:  

• 25 holidays for + 18 days additional flexible PTO days (flexible PTO increases to 23 days for years 3 and 4 and to 28 days for years 5+). 

• 100% paid parental leave 

• 100% coverage of the premium for employee and 75% for employee + family’s medical/dental/vision plans. 

• Wellness benefits such as fitness reimbursements, discounted tickets to theme parks/attractions, backup care support for children and adults/elders, and our employee assistance program 

• Finance Security benefits include such as a 401K retirement plan with 4% match, employer-sponsored legal plans, life/disability insurance, and flexible spending accounts 

KIPP Foundation embraces the opportunity to build a workforce that reflects the diversity of the students and communities with whom we work and the world that’s around them. Being an equal opportunity employer means that we take seriously our responsibility to consider qualified candidates on the basis of merit, without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, mental or physical disability, and genetic information, marital status, citizenship status, military status, protected veteran status or any other category protected by law.