Deputy Chief of Leadership Initiatives

About Mastery:

Founded in 2001, Mastery Schools is a public charter network of 23 K-12 schools in Philadelphia and Camden, serving more than 14,000 students. 

At Mastery, we’re on a mission to provide all students with the academic and personal skills they need to succeed after graduation and pursue their dreams. Student achievement is not just a goal for our organization; it's the reason we exist, and every member of our team is dedicated to securing student success. We are also committed to pursuing equity, actively disrupting systemic racism, and addressing the disparities that limit our students' choices. 

Our culture is built on respect, service, and the belief that the success of our students, their families, and the communities we serve will help us achieve our mission. We foster a positive, open, and inclusive environment where honesty, humor, and continuous improvement are celebrated. 

Join us in creating a model urban school district that serves all students with excellence. Together, we can make a lasting impact.

Position Summary:

The DCLI ensures the Mastery Network sets the standard for recruitment, retention and development of school-based leaders and ensures all Mastery schools are led by teams of diverse, exceptionally talented, and mission-aligned leaders. The DCLI will serve as the senior leadership team’s adaptive leadership lead, specifically ensuring the development, evaluation, and support for all school leaders is best in class. The DCLI will serve as a critical partner to the CPO to ensure that all school-based and central office recruitment, retention, onboarding, succession planning, development, engagement, and evaluation systems set Mastery up to achieve continued success.

• Leads Mastery’s Principal Managers team to ensure the highest quality leader recruitment, retention, and development.
• Ensures a bold focus and success with leadership diversity and representation across the Mastery network.
• Defines and codifies the leadership skills and competencies (technical and adaptive) that support the meeting of our schools’ goals and all related aspirations of our mission and values (such as academic achievement, student experience, staff retention, and parent engagement) across all school-based leadership roles.
• Creates and drives a strong network-wide leader onboarding and engagement system to ensure new leaders have as standardized experience that prepares them for success.
• Drives internal leadership development and promotion strategies to support the career paths of employees that aspire to enter leadership positions and for leaders that aspire for further leadership.
• Drives external leadership recruitment strategies that serve to supplement internal development pathways and ensure the highest caliber candidates nationally are attracted to opportunities at Mastery.
• Develops strong succession plans for all key leadership roles.
• Leads Principal Fellows development program and ensures that coaching and multi-year development plans result in a highly trained and diverse pipeline to the Mastery principalship.
• Drives high rates of leadership retention by coordinating and supporting principal managers and other central office teams to ensure principals and APs receive a consistent experience in which they are highly supported, developed, motivated, valued, and successful.
• Drives leadership engagement initiatives to ensure Mastery leaders feel a sense of belonging and affinity to the network and our collective mission.
• Partners with Academic Team to ensure professional development offerings align to a common leadership rubric and include key adaptive skills that support world-class adult culture and staff retention outcomes.
• Partners with HR, the Academic Team, and Principal Managers to enhance our performance management tools and systems to reward strong student achievement outcomes, recognize employees, and retain diverse talent.
• Leads equitable central office hiring, retention, and advancement efforts and reviews data regularly to ensure equity is at the forefront of all internal advancement processes.

• Strong background in talent acquisition, onboarding, retention, succession planning, professional development, and knowledge of effective adult learning practices.
• Strong background in effective development of school-based leader evaluation including development of competency models.
• Equity focused: Understands the ways systemic racism impacts the communities we serve. Seizes every opportunity to disrupt systems and processes to drive internal equity.
• Analytical Thinker: Can determine key points, root cause, opportunities, logic flaws, etc.
• Builds strong relationships with a wide variety of individuals.
• Organized & detail-oriented.
• Exceptional project manager.
• Effectively leads and develops a team of direct reports and manages laterally through complex problem solving.
• Highly effective presenter and communicator.
• Deep mission alignment and conviction.
• Persistent – not rattled by difficultly and failure.

• Bachelor’s degree required; Master’s degree preferred.
• Minimum of 5 years of experience leading in a K-12 setting
• Minimum of 5 years of experience leading a function in a Human Resources, Recruitment, Talent Development, or related field

• Ability to physically perform the essential duties of the role – either on-site or remotely – as required, and to work in the environmental conditions required, such as: traveling to network campuses; maneuvering in office spaces (including standing, walking, sitting for long periods of time, speaking loudly and clearly, seeing and hearing things both near and far away); stooping, kneeling, reaching file cabinets/shelves; fine finger and hand manipulation in use of computer, chalkboard, dry erase, &/or projectors; filing, faxing, scanning, coping, typing, mailing, and making phone calls; sitting for up to two (2) hours looking at a computer monitor, using a keyboard/mouse, and typing.

• Position requires local &/or regional travel to Mastery and other sites. Must have a valid driver’s license and vehicle, or access to reliable transportation.

Mastery's Benefits Package:

We offer a full benefits program and opportunities for professional growth. Some of our most popular benefits include our 403(b) retirement plan for PA employees (with a 5% match from Mastery), enrollment in the State of New Jersey Pension Plan for NJ employees, a robust Employee Assistance Program, mental health and counseling programs, an annual Professional Development Fund, and discounts and perks at a myriad of retailers, travel organizations, insurance providers, and so much more, as well as a Benefits VIP Helpdesk to help you navigate various benefits-related topics. Please go here to see all of our Benefits offerings!

Annual Calendar:

As you plan to make Mastery your new work home, please feel free to review our Calendar for the 24/25 School Year. We like to think our calendar is a benefit of working here too!

Why You Should Apply:

Studies have shown that women and people of color are less likely to apply for jobs unless they believe they can perform every job description task. We are most interested in finding the best candidate for the job, and that candidate may come from a less traditional background. Mastery may consider an equivalent combination of knowledge, skills, education, and experience to meet minimum qualifications. If you are interested in applying, we encourage you to think broadly about your background and skill set for the role.