Job Description

The mission of Success Academies is to reimagine public education. From the classroom to the halls of government, this means finding profoundly different approaches to how we structure, implement and support schooling. We re-conceive every aspect of school design, from writing rigorous new curricula to drawing regularly on the advances in technology and business that are transforming every sector except education.

Over the past decade, Success Academies has grown faster than any charter network in the nation, building a vibrant network of 47 elementary, middle and high schools. Our over 20,000 children – mostly poor and minority – are out-performing students at top city and suburban schools across New York State. Within the next decade, our goals are even more ambitious: to grow to 100 schools and to educate 50,000 children across New York City in a uniquely holistic pre-k-12 system, bringing transformational change here and across the country. At 100 schools, we will graduate 3,000 scholars each year who are prepared to enter, persist and graduate from college and eventually to lead in business, government and civic realms. 

In support of our ambition, the Network Schooling department has been working to become the engine of schooling excellence through its management of schools and school quality -- its execution of K-12 schooling services and support -- its engagement of our families. To truly reimagine and rapidly scale schooling excellence requires Schooling to do even more -- more transformational change in “what we do” and “how we do the work”, and more dedicated management capacity to plan, shape and drive this change. To enable necessary progress on this front, we will establish Schooling Planning & Management, a new capability within Schooling that will partner with the Schooling Management Team to devise and execute new and different strategies to help achieve our schooling excellence goals, and take the lead on certain initiatives. This new capability will lead Schooling’s departmental business planning and goal setting to ensure optimal alignment with both our overall enterprise-wide strategy and the deployment of our resources. It will also manage performance against our goals through a set of Schooling key performance indicators (KPIs). Schooling Planning & Management will lead on these fronts by collaborating with not only the Schooling Management Team, but with Network and School Leadership as appropriate. At Success Academies, we have embraced a systematic approach to problem solving and process improvement using Danaher Corporation’s patented methodology -- this approach is Success EDGE. Schooling Planning & Management will be Schooling’s EDGE Champion -- applying this methodology to effect the desired transformational change. 

Our intent is to swiftly establish this Schooling Planning & Management capability and seek to source requisitely skilled talent which includes a new position, Lead of Schooling Planning & Management. This position will report into a Head of Schooling Planning & Management. 

The Lead of Schooling Planning & Management will be responsible for the following: 

• Continuous build-out and update of a Schooling multi-year departmental strategy and roadmap that allows achievement of our schooling excellence goals and mitigation of our enterprise risks. 

• Collaboration with the Chief Schooling Officer and Schooling Management Team to carry out departmental business planning and goal setting that is informed by our enterprise strategic plan and goals, Schooling’s multi-year plan and state of schooling. 

• Leveraging work done to date, definition, maintenance and reporting on key performance indicators (KPIs) to monitor Schooling financial and non-financial performance. Once established, use of KPIs to analyze gaps and trends in our Schooling performance, and working with the Chief Schooling Officer and Schooling Management team to take appropriate actions. 

• Competency development in EDGE processes and tools with emphasis on Problem Solving Process, Visual and Daily Management, and Transactional Process Improvement. 

• Working closely with Chief Schooling Officer and Schooling Management Team, definition and prioritization of the highest impact, yet highly inefficient processes to apply EDGE tools and processes within Schooling; and the application of EDGE methodologies and execution of EDGE projects within Schooling to help realize targeted and radical improvements. 

The Lead of Schooling Planning & Management will also be responsible for leading and managing senior specialists and specialists that will support the day to day execution of the work. S/He will need to set out clear expectations, roles and responsibilities for team members and hold them accountable for delivering agreed upon outcomes. 

The Lead of Schooling Planning & Management is someone who … 

• Possesses a Bachelor's Degree in a relevant area

• Minimum of 5 years’ solid experience utilizing formal continuous improvement methodologies such as Lean Six Sigma to manage and lead change across organizations 

• Experience in Education is not a requirement but preferred

• Exhibits leadership and managerial excellence, and the willingness and ability to cultivate this capacity in others; 

• Effectively collaborates with broad base of constituents to achieve desired outcomes; 

• Has strong communication skills; 

• Is flexible and comfortably adept with managing complexity; 

• Is a quick study and is eager to learn schooling; and 

• Is committed to our dual mission of disrupting public education to provide greater access to high quality education. 

• Ability to set-up, facilitate and lead service improvement/’WorkOut’ sessions with a range of business stakeholders (incl. Experience of process/value stream mapping) 

• Experience of designing remediation plans to address productivity and efficiency issues, and track record of following through to ensure closure 

• Strong analytical, project and product management skills, including a thorough understanding of how to interpret business needs and translate them into operational requirements

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills and the ability to interact professionally with a diverse group of stakeholders, technical and non-technical, senior leaders senior managers, and subject matter experts