TEAM: Office of the CEO

REPORTS TO: CEO

LOCATION: Flexible

WHAT YOU’LL DO

The Chief of Staff is the CEO’s right hand and chief dot connector leading the integration of all teams that report to the CEO, monitoring progress toward enterprise priorities and goals, and ensuring timely discussions, decisions and interventions where needed to advance them. The Chief of Staff also serves as a trusted advisor to the CEO and executive management team and drives enterprise-level strategic special projects as needed.

Finally, the Chief of Staff also manages a small team, including, but not limited to:

• A Deputy Chief of Staff who works to ensure that the CEO is focused on his highest level priorities, in the ways he is most uniquely positioned to advance them;
• A General Counsel & Corporate Secretary, who serves as the chief legal advisor to the CEO and executive management team, while also managing board governance responsibilities and a legal affairs team; and
• A Director, CEO Operations & Executive Support

While there are different types of chief of staff roles, this one is primarily focused on supporting the executive team, CEO and cross-functional teams across the organization to make and execute strong, timely decisions and move quickly to make progress on consequential work requiring cross-functional collaboration. In leading cross-functional priorities, the Chief of Staff will at times serve as the primary architect of initiatives, accountable for ensuring their ultimate success, even as the responsibility for making many of the day-to-day decisions and moving from ideas to action lie with managers on other teams. The successful candidate, therefore, will be someone capable of inspiring individuals and teams from across the organization to contribute their talents toward making these initiatives successful and helping teams get unstuck when faced with thorny challenges. We are looking for an experienced senior executive, with exceptional executive judgment as well as strong analytical problem solving and influencing skills, combined with a deep understanding of - and unwavering commitment to - our mission, theory of systemic change, and core values.

The ideal candidate for this role will be motivated by the opportunity to influence Teach For America’s impact and operations at the highest level from a position that is highly visible internally but behind the scenes externally. You will be candid when offering recommendations and advice to the CEO while committed to making his final decisions a success. You will be comfortable managing the deliberate effort needed to identify opportunities and move proactive work forward with the need to be reactive and urgent when the moment calls for it. You will successfully build collaborative and trusting relationships with colleagues at all levels and keep your finger on the pulse of our people and culture through both formal and informal means. This role requires a high degree of discretion, emotional intelligence and commitment to working in ways beyond traditional, hierarchical teams.

WHAT YOU’LL BE RESPONSIBLE FOR

In this role you will perform three essential functions:

• Enable, recommend, and make strong decisions:
  • Design and manage effective processes for rigorous, strategic, responsive and fair organizational decision-making; design change management and communications campaigns around key decisions and when strategic, be the communicator internally.

• Manage cross-functional leadership bodies and strategic special projects:
  • Lead the integration across all teams that report to the CEO, supporting that team to live into its charge and creating alignment and cohesion among them to advance priorities and goals; manage other executive leadership bodies, determining which ones are needed, aligning on their purpose and charge, and deciding their meeting cadence, topics and decision-making protocols;
  • Drive and/or delegate some priorities from start to finish and execute strategic projects or initiatives on behalf of the CEO and the executive team; for example, you might be in charge of leading a priority around clarifying decision rights within and across teams.

• Support the CEO directly:
  • Serve as a strategic advisor and confidante; lead the Office of the CEO and manage a deputy chief of staff and director of CEO operations and executive support who work to align the CEO’s time to priorities, manage and triage workflow of the CEO and prepare the CEO for internal and external engagements, including meetings of the national board of directors; at times, directly complete work on behalf of the CEO.

As a senior executive leader, the SVP will also:

• Lead a high-performing team: recruit, hire, develop and retain exceptional talent; engage in team management practices that result in high levels of engagement and exceptional results; align on vision, priorities and role expectations with all team members and ensure a high degree of alignment between organizational goals, team goals and individual role goals.

• Promote organization-wide systems and practice improvements that advance our mission and progress toward our goals: identify and change practices, structures, and policies - on own team and in the organization broadly - to make them more impactful, agile and fair.

• Operate as an organizational leader and steward: engage rigorously to inform organization-wide strategy, budget and other key decisions; own the success of decisions once made; build strong, trusting relationships across the enterprise and model our core values and our commitment to people, community and pursuing opportunity for all; represent organizational decisions; steward resources and ensure team compliance in critical areas.

OUR IDEAL CANDIDATE

This role operates at the enterprise level, requiring direct partnership with the CEO, executive management team and board to shape and execute organizational progress. To be successful, candidates must have substantial experience in roles that have required influencing outcomes across an entire organization, not just within a single department or region. This distinction is critical, as the Chief of Staff will be accountable for driving enterprise-level progress and navigating complex, cross-functional challenges from day one.

YOUR EXPERIENCE

• Minimum of 10 years of progressive leadership experience including some at the executive/c-suite level, where you had responsibility for solving problems at an enterprise (not just team or regional) level
• Advanced degree (MBA, MPA or similar) and/or equivalent experience (e.g., management consulting or strategy roles) that reflects rigorous analytical training and exposure to complex organizational dynamics
• Track record of achieving exceptional results and managing a significant workload without dropping balls
• Track record as an exceptional manager of high-performing teams
• Experience working with non-profit CEOs and boards of directors

Work demands:

• Willing to work some weekend and evening work hours required; willing to travel approximately 2x/month

​Skills and values: The ideal candidate will exhibit exceptional skills in:

• Analytical thinking & problem solving: exceptionally skilled in identifying an area of opportunity from a complex situation; skilled in using logic, data, and pattern recognition to understand problems, evaluate potential solutions and arrive at sound recommendations and decisions; exhibits a strong bias toward action and an ability to drive toward effective, pragmatic solutions that create measurable impact.
• Influencing and management: remarkable ability to inspire teams and individuals to collaborate and solve problems more effectively, operating with a very high degree of emotional intelligence and ability to shape outcomes through persuasion, attraction and credibility (vs. through direct control); ability to manage teams and individuals, both directly and laterally, to achieve exceptional results.
• Executive judgment: ability to demonstrate good judgment and make timely decisions in a wide array of situations; ability to discern safe-to-try risks from show-stopping ones; sought out for advice and perspective by other executives on a range of topics, from strategy to management to culture; exceptional ability to manage up, with judgement about when challenges do - and do not - require alignment with and/or involvement of the CEO.
• Resourcefulness and can-do spirit: when faced with ambiguity or obstacles, operates with an uncommon level of resourcefulness to complete projects and/or arrive at answers.
• Communication: exceptional written, presentation and oral communication skills; ability to quickly learn to communicate in the CEO’s voice.
• Mission and values: deeply invested in TFA’s mission and approach and core values and dedicated to making significant, measurable impacts for children.

YOUR COMPENSATION

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 salary ranges for this role are set forth below. These ranges may be modified in the future.

Tier A: $211,100 - $299,200

Tier B: $230,100 - $326,200

Tier C: $249,100 - $353,100

You can view which tier applies to where you plan to work here. If your location is not listed, please click here for additional total rewards information.