Chief Operating Officer

Team: Operating Team

Location: All regions

Standard Work Hours: 7:30am - 5:00pm

Full-Time/Part-Time: Full-Time

Salary: $245,000

TO APPLY: Please send cover letter and resume as one PDF to DeRonda Williams with title format “Last Name First Name - Letter Resume”.

About Achievement First

Achievement First (AF) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization that currently supports 41 public charter schools in New York, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. Consistently rated as one of the top charter school networks in the country for almost 25 years, AF is committed to continuous improvement, programmatic evolution for enhanced student outcomes, and sustainable growth. The majority of AF students are Black and Latinx children from low-income families who will be the first in their families to graduate from college. AF currently employs more than 2,200 staff — 61% of whom identify as Black, Indigenous, and Multi-racial — who collectively educate nearly 15,000 students in Brooklyn and Queens, NY; New Haven, Bridgeport, and Hartford, CT; and Providence, RI.

The mission of Achievement First is to deliver on the promise of equal educational opportunity for all of America’s children. AF knows that every child—regardless of race, zip code, or economic status—deserves access to great schools. At AF, students realize their potential and develop the skills they need to graduate from high school, succeed in college, thrive in a competitive world, and serve as the next generation of leaders in their communities. At AF, students and staff embark on a shared journey to fulfill their incredible potential.

Your Impact

The Chief Operating Officer (COO) is a newly created leadership role that will report directly to the CEO, Lisa Margosian. The Chief Operating Officer will serve as a member of AF’s senior leadership team (“the Cabinet”) and will partner with other senior leaders to move the organization powerfully forward.

As the leader of teams that coordinate administrative and operational functions for Achievement First's network of schools as well as its central office (Network Support), the COO ensures that every operational function—student recruitment and enrollment, facilities management and development, school operations, meals, transportation, procurement, student information systems, teacher certification, risk management, safety, and new school openings—is performed seamlessly and with excellence, so that student learning and joy can flourish.

Reporting directly to the CEO you will be expected to:

• Achieve excellence across all our Network Support based operational functions, including direct management of Team Facilities, Team School Operations, Team Information Technology, and Team Systems and Data.
• In collaboration with team leads and senior management, establish a clear vision of excellence for each of these teams and continually assess progress towards that vision
• In collaboration with team leads, set goals and priorities to ensure continual improvement and move forward on key initiatives designed to innovate and make significant improvement on areas needing special attention. Oversee teams in making continual progress, including seeking feedback
• Oversee cross functional operational safety protocols and infrastructure, including crisis response and threat response, facilities safety, and cyber safety. serve as the senior-most leader responsible for overseeing ~200 school-based operations teammates at 40+ schools
• Oversee services to schools (and in some cases, network support) managed by operational teams, including meals, transportation, student information systems, tech support, facilities support etc.
• Ensure that AF’s technology and network infrastructure is high-performing, reliable, compliant, and safe
• Ensure that AF’s portfolio of facilities is well maintained and meets school needs to the greatest extent possible, including the development of new facilities (as aligned with organizational strategy)
• Ensure that schools and network teams have strong practices, tools, products and systems for data collection and management, and access to data reporting that meet their needs
• Serve as a member of the Senior Leadership Team, participating in organizational strategy, planning, and decision-making.
• Lead cross-functional teams and projects with colleagues from other teams, including Finance, Legal, Communications, and Talent to ensure that teams are working collaboratively and communicating effectively on critical projects and processes to improve cross functional performance.
• Model AF’s values as a leader, and ensure that our operational teams and functions exemplify our values, including Lead for Racial Equity

You should consider this role if you are...

An outstanding leader with a track record of achieving excellence with equity

AF’s COO must have an impressive track record of results - ambitious goals set and achieved. You must have shown that you have been able to achieve excellence in an area while being very attentive to issues of equity (ensuring that success is equally shared across different demographic groups). In addition, we are looking to leverage your deep expertise in at least one of the areas you will lead at AF (student recruitment and enrollment, facilities, school operations, meals, transportation, procurement, student information systems, teacher certification, risk management, safety, and new school openings). While we do not expect you to be an expert in all areas, you need to demonstrate baseline competence and an ability to learn quickly.

A “warm AND demanding” coach

The COO will support AF in meeting its goals by effectively managing and coaching a team of senior leaders. As the leader overseeing many of our Network Support functions, you must be exceptionally strong at setting clear, ambitious goals and effectively coaching leaders and teams to achieve them. You must also be an effective listener and relationship-builder who creates trust with--and between--senior leaders and who successfully coaches leaders through adaptive challenges that may be holding back leaders or teams from fulfilling their potential.

A big picture and systems thinker who can work collaborative with others to achieve a seamless user experience

As the leader of all our operational work, the Chief Operating Officer must co-develop (with the team) a holistic plan for our approach to our organization’s operations and subsequently collaborate with both your direct reports and others throughout the organization to achieve it. You will need the change management and organizational development skills to implement this vision across teams and schools, especially in an organization like ours that is large and multi-region. And, you must possess the “user experience” mindset to create a streamlined, aligned design that consistently delivers excellent outcomes for students, staff, and families.

An equity champion and organizational culture leader

The Chief Operating Officer will need to set the standard for how Achievement First models our core values and specifically what leading for racial equity looks like for one of the country’s biggest charter networks. Therefore, you are an empath who works hard to understand the experience of people of all identities at all levels of the organization, you approach issues with an explicit values-based lens, and you are a tested organizational culture leader whose background includes getting to the root of adaptive challenges and tackling equity issues manifested at the systemic level.

Skills and Characteristics

• The ideal candidate will be a results-oriented, determined, and skilled leader with a strong track record of operational excellence
• Ability to convene and engage colleagues and lead processes to solve complex problems and improve systems and processes
• Excellent communication and influencing skills to interact effectively with all levels of the organization and the school network
• Exceptional strategic, analytical, systems thinking, and critical thinking skills

Educational Background and Work Experience

• Bachelor’s degree required
• Broad operational expertise and explicit experience in two or more of the functional areas within the COO portfolio (school operations, systems and data, IT, facilities) minimum of 10 years of professional experience including specific experience in an operational leadership capacity that involves managing multiple teams in a complex, multi-site organization

Compensation

Achievement First sets salaries through a lens of equity, and based on the requisite skills, education, and experience relevant to the role. Salary for this role is$245,000. In order to uphold our commitment to equity, Achievement First does not negotiate pay. Achievement First offers to all regular, full-time employees a comprehensive benefits package that includes paid time off, medical, dental, vision, and life insurance, a 403(b) retirement benefit package with match, and paid Family Leave.

Achievement First is an equal opportunity employer and an organization that values diversity. People from all diverse backgrounds are strongly encouraged to apply. Spanish language proficiency is a plus. You can learn more about diversity at Achievement First here: