Chief of College Advancement & Partnerships

About the Organization

KIPP Public Schools is a national network of tuition-free public charter schools that prepares students with the skills and confidence to create the future they want for themselves, their communities, and us all. We are a network of 278 schools, nearly 16,500 educators, and nearly 190,000 students and alumni.

Our mission: Together with families and communities, we create joyful, academically excellent schools that prepare students with the skills and confidence to pursue the paths they choose—college, career, and beyond—so they can lead fulfilling lives and build a more just world.

Our vision: Every child grows up free to create the future they want for themselves and their communities.

The KIPP Foundation is a nonprofit organization that supports KIPP schools across the country. The KIPP Foundation trains and develops outstanding educators to lead KIPP public schools; provides tools, resources and training for excellent teaching and learning; promotes innovation; and facilitates the exchange of insights and ideas across KIPP and other public schools and organizations.

About Our Values:

Excellent Results for Students: We value results over effort and know that our work is not finished until all students thrive. We maintain high expectations for self, team, and students. We drive outcomes by operating with agility, removing barriers, differentiating support, and prioritizing student-centered solutions—especially for those at the margins.

Collective Impact: We are one team. We win together. We embody a one-team mindset by working collaboratively across teams, aligning goals, and leveraging the strengths of all teammates. We build trust-based relationships and ensure inclusive decision-making by engaging those closest to the work. We provide clarity through simple, repeatable systems and goals that enable transformational outcomes.

Courageous Action: Our belief in what we can achieve is unwavering, fueling our optimism and commitment to overcome any challenge. We demonstrate an unwavering belief in students' potential and a commitment to addressing systemic inequities. We approach challenges with resilience, a solutions-focused mindset, and adaptability. We foster a psychologically safe environment centered on trust and accountability where feedback is encouraged. We leverage data to reflect on progress, own setbacks, celebrate successes, and continuously improve to maximize impact.

About The Position

KIPP Foundation is seeking a highly networked and results-oriented executive leader to serve as its Chief of College Advancement & Partnerships.  In this role, you will establish a multi-year vision and strategy to ensure high quality post-secondary opportunities for all KIPP alumni for the KIPP network. This role is responsible for two primary functions: 1) to oversee KIPP Foundation’s work to support its regions in counseling, advising, and matching high-school students with colleges, and to a much lesser extent, career-and-technical-education programs, that enable KIPPsters to graduate from competitive post-secondary programs and access economically secure career opportunities; and 2) build, grow, and monitor strategic partnerships with colleges and, to a lesser extent, career-and-technical-education programs, in which the data shows the partnering organization delivers against priority expectations concerning cost, completion rates, and economic outcomes.  

The ideal candidate for this role is a student-centered, data-anchored executive and social entrepreneur who holds themselves accountable for time-bound outcomes and can navigate seamlessly with board members, c-suite leaders, senior education administrators, and university presidents, progress monitoring KIPP’s placement of high school students to competitive post-secondary placements and closing deals with post-secondary partners with proven track records of serving first-generation college students well.   We seek a leader who can leverage the existing post-secondary landscape to maximize opportunities for KIPP’s students and who has the leadership and entrepreneurial capacity to push post-secondary institutions to reimagine practices that are not working.  While we are steadfast in centering college for the great majority of our students, we also strive to build partnerships with quality career-and-technical education programs where those programs demonstrate strong probabilities for successful careers and economic outcomes.   

 Responsibilities

The Chief of College Advancement & Partnerships will oversee KIPP Foundation’s work to support regions in advising and matching high-school students with quality post-secondary placements as well as the KIPP network’s partnerships with competitive post-secondary and career institutions.  Reporting to the CEO, the Chief of College Advancement & Partnerships will oversee a team of 10-15 staff members with direct management of two to three staff members.  

1. Ensure strong outcomes for KIPP Forward and MATCH.   The charge of KIPP Forward is to counsel and support all students toward their best-fit post-secondary college and career training pathway after high school.  MATCH is a signature KIPP program that guides students through the process of selecting colleges to apply to – considering academic, financial, and personal factors that would make a school a good fit.
1. Set bar for excellence that ensures all KIPP high school students are matched to colleges and postsecondary opportunities that lead to degree completion and economic stability.
2. Supervise the VP of KIPP Forward to run a team that will deliver high quality MATCH programs across the network to counsel and support all students toward their best-fit post-secondary college and career pathway after high school.  
3. Leverage data and national research to refine KIPP’s definition of “best fit” and ensure regions are making evidence-based MATCH decisions.
4. Enable continuous improvement by monitoring program fidelity, student-level outcomes, and regional implementation quality.
5. Ensure the seamless integration of MATCH programs and our post-secondary partnership strategies that will best drive college completion rates for KIPP alumni.   
2. Strengthen and grow formal partnership with post-secondary institutions for KIPP alumni.   
1. Envision the standards and metrics for high quality post-secondary partnerships, ensuring formal partnerships with post-secondary institutions are rooted in data concerning affordability, completion rates, and economic outcomes for KIPP’s students.  
2. Lead the partnership function to design, develop and continuously improve infrastructure and processes to source, manage, and sustain healthy partnerships that will serve KIPP’s goals and strategies.  This includes:
1. Updating our partnership tools and rubrics to assess the health of our national partners and guide KIPP regions in doing the same through offering substantive training.  
2. Assessing the quality of KIPP’s current post-secondary partnerships and make recommendations on which partners to sunset, sustain, or amplify.  
3. Steward KIPP’s brand among industry leaders in the post-secondary space (board members, c-suite leaders, senior education administrators, and university presidents,) that will lead to the expansion of partnerships – and formal MOUs – to support KIPP students’ post-secondary success.  This includes:
1. Proactively negotiating refreshed arrangements for those partnerships where existing agreements or realities do not align with qualitative expectations.
2. Assertively pursuing partnerships with new universities and new post-secondary institutions that align with qualitative expectations.
3. Continually monitoring our portfolio of partnerships and ensuring our partnerships produce outcomes aligned with our qualitative expectations, including measurable outcomes concerning affordability, completion rates, and economic security for KIPP alumni.  
4. Collaborating with the Office of the CEO, Schools Team, and Development Team to (1) set and meet ambitious performance expectations rooted in consistent growth in the number and quality of postsecondary partnerships serving KIPP alumni and (2) ensure partnership agreements are executed at the highest level.
3. Team Leadership and Management 
1. Lead and manage two functions (partnerships and KIPP Forward) through layers, a team of 10-12 high-performing individuals to deliver a partnership strategy and KIPP Forward strategy that aligns with KIPP’s goals and vision.
2. Ensure strong succession management is in place to deliver scalable and sustainable solutions that will drive postsecondary success metrics for the KIPP network
3. Foster a thriving team culture that aligns with KIPP Foundation’s core values, supporting high performance, engagement, and retention. 
4. Drive development across teams to ensure each team member is thriving and unleash their full potential for the benefits of all KIPPsters. 
5. Provide strategic coaching and support to key stakeholders within KIPP’s network to ensure implementation of partnership agreements focused on KIPPsters’ post-secondary success. 

Key Skills and Mindsets

• Mission & Student Focus: Demonstrates passion and commitment to KIPP’s mission and possesses the desire and ability to uphold KIPP’s core values (Focus on Excellent Results, Collective Impact, and Courageous Action)
• Achievement & Outcomes Orientation - Demonstrated record of setting and achieving ambitious goals for their departments in complex or ambiguous environment; uses data, research, and analysis to set a high bar of excellence for goal setting; effectively distributes and redistributes work among direct reports, teammates, and teams to optimizes goal attainments; effectively sets and fosters a culture that enables and celebrates teammates’ achievements and goals attainment.
• Partnership, Alliance-Building and Stakeholder Management - Can generate excitement, enthusiasm, and commitment across internal and external stakeholders (from universities to CTE-focused organizations to board members to KIPP leaders and staff members) to advance KIPP’s Mission; has the interpersonal and diplomatic skills necessary to develop successful working relationships with diverse constituents. 
• Strategic Decision Making & Problem Solving - Effectively develops network-wide metrics across departments & monitors own & others effectiveness to drive improvements; defines the vision for how data is used across multiple teams and allocates resources to fulfill vision and holds team accountable for making timely, data-informed decisions and progress against them.   
• People Management & Development: Effectively builds systems to enable learning and continuous improvement across functions; highly skilled at coaching and supporting mid- and high-level leaders in excellent team management practices, including identifying and developing future org leaders; strategically designs and staff teams with the skill and capacity to sustainably drive multi-year plans and goals; ensures an inclusive productive team that supports teammate effectiveness, engagement, retention.

• Effective Work Management: Able to engage in long term planning and vision setting for the organization; effective at building systems and culture that facilitate continuous improvement, ensure organizational health and viability, and enable cross-functional collaboration to drive results

Change Management and Communications: Able to set a compelling organizational directive for change efforts, catalyzing teams to achieve change at scale. Effectively navigates internal and external political dynamics and stakeholders to drive change efforts at the systems level; Champions KF and network-wide change and recruits internal and external sponsors.

Experience and Qualifications

• 15+ years of progressive leadership experience supporting clients or staff across multiple regions and programs.
• 10+ years leading partnerships to strong measurable results at a national scale.
• Commitment to education equity, social justice, and a passion for KIPP’s mission and values, including a demonstrated commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Experience with the K-12 Charter School Sector is strongly preferred.

Work Conditions

• Travel requirements: 25% approximately
• Full Time Regular 

Location

It is preferred, but not mandatory for this role to be based out of a KIPP Foundation office.  This role also offers the option of working from a remote office full-time.  KIPP Foundation office is in NYC and Chicago.  

Compensation and Benefits  

In compliance with local law, we are disclosing the compensation, or a range thereof, for roles in locations where legally required. Actual salaries will vary based on several factors, including but not limited to external market data, internal equity, and relevant experience.  The salary range for this position is $300,000 -$335,000.  In addition, KIPP Foundation provides a variety of benefits to employees, including: 

• 25 holidays for + 18 days additional flexible PTO days (flexible PTO increases to 23 days for years 3 and 4 and to 28 days for years 5+).
• 100% paid parental leave
• 100% coverage of the premium for employee and 75% for employee + family’s medical/dental/vision plans.
• Wellness benefits such as fitness reimbursements, discounted tickets to theme parks/attractions, backup care support for children and adults/elders, and our employee assistance program
• Finance Security benefits include such as a 401K retirement plan with 4% match, employer-sponsored legal plans, life/disability insurance, and flexible spending accounts

KIPP Foundation embraces the opportunity to build a workforce that reflects the diversity of the students and communities with whom we work and the world that’s around them. Being an equal opportunity employer means that we take seriously our responsibility to consider qualified candidates on the basis of merit, without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, mental or physical disability, and genetic information, marital status, citizenship status, military status, protected veteran status or any other category protected by law.