Senior Managing Director, Ignite Program Impact

TEAM: Ignite

REPORTS TO: Priscilla Forsyth, VP, Ignite Program Impact

LOCATION: Flexible

PRIORITY APPLICATION DEADLINE: We anticipate a high volume of interest in this role and will be reviewing applications on a rolling basis. Early applications are strongly encouraged, as the posting may close once we reach our target applicant pool.

THE ROLE

Teach For America’s Ignite Fellowship seeks a Senior Managing Director, Ignite Program Impact to ensure Ignite’s programmatic success and impact across 150+ schools and 40+ communities by leading a team of up to 10 Ignite Program Impact portfolio leads (Managing Directors of Ignite Program Impact or “Managing Directors”). In this role, you’ll work closely with Managing Directors to ensure they have access to the strategies, tools, resources, and solutions to establish and deepen strong school partnerships and steward progress towards Teach For America’s 2030 goal. Through supporting and developing Managing Directors, you’ll ensure that each school partner receives standardized and customized support to maximize the impact of Ignite in their unique local context. This role may be a good fit if you (1) enjoy being a partner and guide, managing staff to support educators (experienced and novice) to navigate a vast and complex ecosystem; (2) have strong systems-level and critical thinking skills, and thrive in making sense of the moving pieces of a complex ecosystem to maximize learning and impact; (3) are experienced, comfortable, and effective with management, and are confident managing through layers; and (4) operate with deep respect, humility, and empathy for the challenges and limitations that our school partners may be experiencing, and (5) enjoy working in a fast-paced start-up environment, being creative in building solutions while ensuring sustainable success for Ignite across our national network of partners. 
 

THE PERSON

(70%) Team Management: Manage a team of Managing Directors of Ignite Program Impact, who each serve as the primary relationship holder and success partner responsible for ensuring a portfolio of ~14-16 schools achieve strong results and value partnering with Ignite. 

• Set overall vision for partnering with school leaders and external, school-based Ignite site leaders to increase investment in Ignite’s programmatic impact

• Onboard, train, and support Managing Directors to high levels of programmatic expertise, performance, and impact in their roles

• Plan and lead learning experiences for Program Impact team to mine insights and codify learnings that will inform continuous improvement of the Ignite model

• Create solutions for programmatic challenges as needed in response to partnership or Fellowship issues, partnering cross-functionally with the Ignite team and others 

• Drive strategy for partnerships communications to support program impact

(10%) Programmatic Strategy: In collaboration with Program Impact staff, evolve, design, and facilitate a centralized strategy for Ignite site leader onboarding, training, and learning as well as systems to support programmatic success.

• Strengthen onboarding approach to meet programmatic needs and the needs of Ignite site leaders

• Design and facilitate impactful and engaging onboarding for Ignite site leaders

• Design systems and structures for Managing Directors to leverage to drive impact across the program (e.g., data trackers, progress monitoring systems)

• Manage program-level strategies to progress monitor with local and school partners (i.e., Customized Vision for Impact strategy, Local Partner Alignment Tool)

(10%) Codify Learning and Evolve Partnerships Strategy: In collaboration with VP, Ignite Partnerships, help Ignite determine which conditions, practices, processes in the field lead towards strong impact. 

• Through supporting Managing Directors and collaborating across the Program Impact team, ensure that we are thoughtfully stewarding success with school partners, fostering impact and delight

• Contribute to strengthening Ignite’s conditions for success based on insights from programmatic partnerships to inform future growth strategies

• Participate in school partnership cultivation and confirmation for FY26+

• Manage a successful transition from cultivation partners to Managing Directors

(10%) Contribute to Team:

• Be an active member in building an inclusive, positive, learning-focused, and transparent culture within our team

• Engage in ongoing personal reflection and learning, acknowledging that we are never done learning and growing

• Serve as an “all hands on deck” team member willing to support your program team in various ways as needs and opportunities arise, including admissions

THE MUST HAVES

• Prior Experience

  • 10+ years of professional experience, including 7+ years of management experience and partnerships experience

  • Track record of success in roles requiring strong team management, lateral management, partnership cultivation, relationship building, project management, and learning and development

  • A history of operating and leading in the spirit of Teach For America’s Core Values

  • Previous experience working with mission-driven organizations

• Skills

  • Demonstrated ability to lead, influence, and be in relationship with diverse internal and external stakeholders to use their “superpowers” toward project completion

  • Demonstrated competency in strategic planning, project management, and designing systems and structures for managing to outcomes across diverse contexts 

  • Experience designing and facilitating high-impact learning experiences with adults that incorporate principles of adult learning

  • Aptitude to oversee big-picture and day-to-day project operations

  • Ability to evaluate and analyze project performance 

  • Experience working in Title 1, US-based public schools a plus

  • Bachelor’s degree required

• Work Demands

  • Excitement to work virtually with colleagues and educators across the country and leverage remote technologies (e.g., phone, video conference)

  • Ability to travel to in-person meetings and conferences in various U.S. cities (pending org travel policies in COVID-era and practices thereafter)

  • Willingness to work some weekends and evenings

THE TEAM

Ignite is a national tutoring corps designed to accelerate learning and foster belonging with students, leveraging research-based best practices for high-impact tutoring. Ignite builds on Teach For America’s over 30 years of experience recruiting, developing, and supporting talent and partnering with communities across the country to help students overcome the systemic barriers to an excellent education. The Ignite Fellowship brings extraordinary leaders into classrooms virtually to add immediate value for students, while creating shifts towards the future of learning.

Ignite is anchored in Teach For America’s 2030 goal: twice as many children in communities where we work will reach key educational milestones indicating they are on a path to economic mobility and co-creating a future filled with possibility. In a system that is hard to change, Teach For America cannot realize this goal without finding solutions that will meet the needs of students today and propel us forward toward system level change. This is our chance to deepen partnership with schools and co-create an education system our young people deserve and the future demands.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

The applicable salary range for each U.S.-based role is based on where the employee works and is aligned to one of 3 tiers according to a cost of labor index in that geographic area. Starting pay for the successful applicant will depend on a variety of job-related factors, which may include education, training, experience, location, business needs, or market demands. New hires are typically brought into the organization at a salary between the range minimum and the salary range midpoint depending on qualifications, internal equity, and the budgeted amount for the role. The expected starting salary range for this role is set forth below. This range may be modified in the future. You can view which tier applies to where you plan to work here.

Tier A: $113,000 - $145,600
Tier B: $123,100 - $158,600

Tier C: $133,300 - $171,800