Senior Manager, Career Continuum
Senior Manager, Career Continuum
KIPP Through College, KIPP Foundation
KIPP
Great education transforms lives. KIPP, the Knowledge is Power Program, is a non-profit network of 242 college-preparatory, public charter schools educating more than 100,000 early childhood, elementary, middle, and high school students. KIPP schools are tuition-free, public charter schools open to all students. KIPP schools, KIPP regions, and the KIPP Foundation – are united by a common mission, a commitment to excellence, and a belief that if we help children develop the academic and character strengths they need for college and career success, they will be able to build a better tomorrow for themselves, for their communities, for us all.
The non-profit KIPP Foundation trains and develops outstanding educators to lead KIPP schools, provides tools, resources, and training for excellent teaching and learning, promotes innovation, and facilitates the exchange of insights and ideas within the KIPP network and with partners including: other charters, districts, colleges and universities, and non-profit organizations across the country.
If you believe all children deserve great schools and programs where they can gain the knowledge, skills, character, and habits necessary to achieve their dreams while making the world a better place, join us!
Position Overview
For the past several years, our KIPP Through College national team has been building out an emergent career strategy for both students and alumni which includes: 1) high school career integration, 2) regional occupational/technical partnerships and advising for high school students and alumni and 3) national “strong first job” partnerships and communications. Our career integration approach deploys an iterative regional learning collaborative model for pilot regions to collect alumni and student insights to design and implement career integration solutions.
We are looking for a full-time dedicated team member to help lead this next phase of work with alumni, students, families, and regions to continue to address the question: “How can KIPP help students and alumni to prepare for, secure, and advance in careers of their choosing to improve pathways to economic mobility and success?”
The location for the Senior Manager, Career Continuum is flexible. This is a full-time, exempt position.
The Senior Manager, Career Continuum, reporting to the Senior Director, Strategic Projects, and collaborating with national and regional KIPP Through College, Alumni Impact, development, and high school teams, will improve the career preparation and success rates of KIPP alumni. He/She/They will be responsible for:
(1) supporting the emergent build of KIPP’s career-success strategy
(2) serving as product and project manager for the development and continued refinement of a 9th-12th college knowledge and career success curriculum
(3) leading training, prof. dev. and coaching of regions to implement the curriculum and related programming
(4) building high-quality national career partnerships that prepare alumni to prepare for, secure, and advance in careers of their choosing to improve economic mobility
(5) supporting other strategic projects as they arise
Key Responsibilities and Duties
- Support emergent build of KIPP’s career-success strategy (15%)
- Leverage an emergent / strategic design process, by continuously listening to KIPP students and alumni, families, teachers, counselors, leaders, along with external organizations that have career success programs to understand needs / wishes, what is working / not working, and to co-design and prototype solutions together
- Work with Senior Director, Strategic Projects and cross-team members to continuously improve and adapt our emergent national career success strategy, which encompasses 1) high school career integration, 2) regional occupational/technical partnerships and advising for high school students and alumni, and 3) national strong first job partnerships, professional development and communications
- Product and project management of the development and continued refinement of a 9th-12th college knowledge and career success curriculum (35%)
- With career continuum project team, build and execute project plan to develop a new national college knowledge and career success curriculum, focusing on completing the project on time within budget
- Serve as program liaison with a curriculum consultant to adopt, adapt and build the components of the curriculum, ensuring that students and practitioner voice is centered and design parameters are met
- Run cycles of inquiry, focus groups, learning collaboratives and other strategies to learn from curriculum launch and to improve content and implementation for ever-improving outcomes over time
- Lead training, professional development and coaching of regions to implement career-integration curriculum and programming (20%)
- Lead KTC career integration learning collaborative by building agendas/materials and facilitating monthly calls
- Support learning collaborative pilot regions by providing strategy and implementation support, along with driving continuous refinement and improvement
- Collaboratively work with the Alumni Success cross-team, regional leaders, and students/alumni to curate and market career resources and tools for KIPP students and alumni
- Build high-quality national career partnerships that support alumni to prepare for, secure, and advance in careers of their choosing to improve pathways to economic mobility (20%)
- Build out KIPP’s national career-pathways partnership strategy
- Investigate and build partnerships with nonprofits (e.g., Management Leadership for Tomorrow, Basta, Braven, NPower), employers (e.g., Accenture, Google), and career placement organizations/tech platforms (e.g., LinkedIn, YuPro) where 50-100+ alumni can benefit per partnership
- Work with Alumni Communications team to communicate resources and partnerships out to students and alumni
- Support other strategic projects as they arise (10%)
- Other projects and requests will vary and may be in support of discrete questions being explored by the broader KTC team or Alumni Success cross-team. Examples could include but are not limited to: serving as career product business owner, conducting testing on KIPP’s Alumni Database, KTC retreat program support, etc.
Key Competencies
- Systems thinker: ability to lead through influence (as opposed to positional power) and formulate effective approaches to implementing coaching and programming in a large, matrixed, decentralized network
- Effective coaching skills: ability to listen deeply to key stakeholders, understand and reflect back challenges and guide individuals through a solutions-finding process
- Strong presentation skills: comfortable leading presentations and trainings to a diverse array of audiences
- Achievement orientation: self-directed and results-oriented, demonstrating initiative and follow-through
- Solutions orientation: excellent analytical and critical thinking skills
Experience and Qualifications
Strong emphasis will be placed on this individual’s demonstrated track record in leading and managing major, complex efforts and partnerships requiring strong process and project management as well as significant stakeholder engagement and management in fast-paced, dynamic, results-oriented team environments. The KIPP Foundation is seeking an individual with:
- Minimum of 6-8 years of relevant experience, preferably in a secondary school or school system, an institution of higher education or a highly matrixed non-profit organization that is geographically dispersed
- Experience in college and career access or success and outcomes-based partnership development to build content, training and resources for regions across the KIPP network
- Excellent relationship management, communication, and listening skills
- Achievement orientation: self-directed and results-oriented, demonstrating initiative and follow-through
- Solutions orientation: excellent analytical and critical thinking skills
- Willingness to travel up to 35% of time
- Bachelor’s degree preferred; demonstratable commitment to constant learning required.
Compensation and Benefits
KIPP offers competitive salary commensurate with experience. A comprehensive benefits package, generous vacation and PTO, 401k retirement plan with both pre- and post-tax options, as well as gym reimbursement, flexible spending account (FSA), and cell phone reimbursement are also offered by KIPP.
To apply please submit your resume and cover letter online. Applications submitted via email will not be accepted.
KIPP Foundation is an equal opportunity employer and an organization that values diversity. People from all diverse backgrounds are strongly encouraged to apply.