Nonprofit Remote Digest - Issue #751

Feb 1, 2022

Today's Job

The Learning Accelerator — learningaccelerator.org

Our mission is to connect teachers and leaders with the knowledge, tools, and networks they need to transform K-12 education.

Chief Program Officer

The Learning Accelerator (TLA) is a national nonprofit working to ensure each student receives an effective, equitable, and engaging education that supports them to reach their full and unique potential. Our mission is to connect teachers and leaders with the knowledge, tools, and networks they need to transform K-12 education.

Founded in 2012, TLA has a current annual operating budget of $3.4 million and partners with over 200 organizations across the education sector. TLA works as a “learning engine” across the K-12 field to accelerate equitable progress towards more personalized, mastery-based, and whole child models of learning. The team does this through three core programmatic capabilities:

Learning alongside educators and those who support them to make sense of challenges, emerging approaches, and opportunities;
Building and sustaining networks for learning and collective action; and,
Actively disseminating knowledge openly and accessibly through resources, tools, platforms, and partnerships.

We are committed to building a best-in-class, values-driven nonprofit organization, driving outcomes for students furthest from opportunity. Above all else, TLA puts kids first. We harness diversity, equity, inclusion (DEI), collective intelligence and action, joyful authenticity, humble persistence, and a nimble and entrepreneurial spirit to have the broadest possible impact.

THE OPPORTUNITY

TLA is seeking to hire its first Chief Program Officer (CPO) at a pivotal moment of strategic decision-making and growth. Reporting to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and serving as a key partner in organizational strategy and leadership, the CPO will work collaboratively with the broader TLA team and leaders across the K-12 education field to drive shared action and impact by:

Developing a clear and compelling vision for TLA’s next phase of programmatic impact, evolving core activities and team processes to coherently achieve goals.
Serving as a key partner in developing TLA’s overall organizational strategy, distributed leadership, and culture, helping the organization stay tethered to its mission, values, and commitment to DEI as the organization develops and grows.
Creatively and entrepreneurially think, build, and leverage partnerships and resources to execute envisioned program activities alongside TLA’s programmatic and external relations leaders.

Joining a small but mighty team of 14, the CPO will manage three program teams with five direct reports:

Practitioner Learning and Resources: Ensure education practitioners access the knowledge they need to transform classrooms through platforms, programs, engagement points, and ongoing dissemination.
System Learning and Improvement: Bridge learning between the ‘leading to leaping edge’ of the education sector to accelerate implementation and adoption of promising approaches through field mapping and research, tool creation, and collective action initiatives.
Research and Measurement: Build field capability to create, understand, and act upon evidence of learning at all levels (student, system, ecosystem).

WHAT YOU’LL DO

Oversee and manage the ongoing execution, improvement, and development of TLA’s core programs

Evolve, strengthen, articulate, and execute a strategic vision for program growth and improvement to meet TLA’s impact and DEI goals.
With CEO, set annual organizational learning and priorities, and articulate aggressive but achievable objectives and key results across programs.
Develop a clear plan with each program leader to execute programs and projects, including the articulation of timelines, progress milestones, DEI goals, and performance indicators.
Ensure coherence across program subteams and projects.
Work hand-in-hand with the CEO and Managing Directors to support TLA’s acquisition and management of resources for programs, including shaping proposals and plans, reporting on progress against key metrics, and communicating with potential supporters of TLA’s work (including K-12 funders).
Develop a clear, mission-aligned vision for how the program team will operate together with an eye toward quality, collaboration, innovation, efficiency, and equity.
Directly manage, coach, and develop six to eight program team leaders and members to achieve desired results with quality and continuous improvement.
Ensure each team member has the support and infrastructure needed to maximize impact and achieve their program goals.
Work across TLA’s functional leadership areas and with program leaders to build and expand ongoing partnerships and engagement with key strategic allies and stakeholders across the K-12 education field.
Identify opportunities and actively contribute to ongoing organizational thought-leadership and dissemination activities at the national level.

Act as a senior leader of organizational strategy and culture

In collaboration with the CEO and Managing Directors of Operations and External Relations, drive the organization’s vision, strategy, and cultural development.
Provide critical input into TLA’s annual and multi-year strategic plans for organizational impact and operational excellence.
Play an active role in creating organizational structures that support growth, improvement, and sustainability, such as staffing structures and business models.
Support TLA’s DEI work, ensuring the operationalization of DEI principles, practices, and learnings across all program activities.
Maintain a “30,000-foot view” across a diverse portfolio of projects and programs to make sense of emerging patterns and needs, and identify new opportunities to expand TLA’s reach and impact.
Represent TLA, its work, and the organizational vision, mission, and values to a broad range of stakeholders in a variety of contexts and formats at the national level.

KEY COMPETENCIES YOU BRING

Big picture thinking: You are skillful at seeing the big picture and looking across systems and projects to integrate learning, make connections, and think generatively.
Driving engagement: You create a climate where people are motivated to act and do their best, bringing a consultative approach to helping your team and partners leverage their strengths to accomplish big goals and grow.
Building networks: You effectively build formal and informal relationship networks inside and outside the organization and are successful at forging lasting connections and working with and through people to create collective impact.
Strategic mindset: You see ahead to future possibilities, leveraging the wisdom of others, along with best practices, resources, and insights from the field and translating them into breakthrough strategies and tactics.
Effective communication: You are skilled in analyzing, breaking down, and communicating complex ideas for both expert and lay audiences, demonstrating an understanding of the context surrounding an issue area and creating logical arguments that clearly articulate the “why” behind an organization’s mission, strategy, and impact.
Nimble learning: You are action-oriented and learn through experimentation when tackling new problems, maximizing available resources to make the greatest impact both within your organization and the broader ecosystem as well as using both successes and failures as learning fodder.

WHO YOU ARE

An education advocate who is committed to TLA’s mission and values. You believe in connecting teachers and leaders with the knowledge, tools, and networks they need and driving systems-level change to transform K-12 education. You thrive in an environment that values impact, collective intelligence and action, joyful authenticity, humble persistence, nimbleness and entrepreneurialism, diversity, equity, and inclusion, and – above all – putting kids first.
A versatile and proven program leader. You bring 10+ years of relevant work experience, including 5+ in a leadership role, with demonstrated skill in nonprofit program development and execution, including team management, program development, improvement, and growth, and systems creation. Demonstrated knowledge of the K-12 education sector is required.
A resourceful, agile, and willing team player. You roll up your sleeves in a highly entrepreneurial environment with the enjoyment of working on a small-but-mighty team that pulls beyond its weight. You are comfortable working remotely and in a matrixed fashion to drive towards outcomes and impact goals.
A catalyst for diversity, equity, and inclusion. You hold an analysis of racial and social inequities within education systems. You are self-reflective about your own growth and learning, relative privilege, and positional power. You believe that diversity makes us better and that inclusivity is an active and intentional pursuit. You consistently model these beliefs in your actions and words.

LOCATION AND COMPENSATION

TLA is a national remote organization. The Chief Program Officer will work flexibly from a location of their choosing. Occasional travel for key programmatic work and team events (up to 20% if needed) is expected.

This is a full-time, salaried position with competitive benefits and the opportunity to work in a flexible, culture- and mission-focused professional environment. TLA is an unlimited paid-time-off (PTO) and four-day internal meeting week organization. Compensation is commensurate with skills and experience; however, the anticipated salary range for this position is $175,000-$195,000.

We will begin reviewing applications on a rolling basis on February 15, 2022. Start date is as soon as possible.

As an equal opportunity employer, The Learning Accelerator recognizes the power of a diverse community and strongly encourages applications from individuals with varied experiences, perspectives, and backgrounds. TLA considers applicants for all roles without regard to race, color, religious creed, sex, national origin, citizenship status (provided you are legally able to work in the U.S.), age, physical or mental disability, sexual orientation, marital, parental, veteran or military status, unfavorable military discharge, or any other status protected by applicable federal, state or local law. TLA aims to be an inclusive organization committed to accessibility; if you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know.

This is a Remote (work from home) position.

How to Apply

https://thelearningaccelerator.applytojob.com/apply/KJKfMVUCCV/Chief-Program-Officer

Nonprofit Remote Jobs