Director of Growth Planning

About This Role

KIPP Team & Family is on a path to serve over 24000 students across 40 schools in New Jersey and Florida by 2033. Getting there requires more than ambitionit requires exceptional planning coordination and execution across dozens of moving pieces: real estate acquisition financial modeling talent recruitment academic program design operations setup and community engagement.

Were looking for a strategic planner and project management leader who can bring rigor clarity and coordination to our growth efforts. Youll be the person who ensures that when we commit to opening a new school or expanding to a new region we do it with excellencethat timelines are realistic dependencies are clear teams are aligned and leadership has the information they need to make smart decisions.

This isnt about managing growth strategy (that lives with senior leadership) or doing the frontline work (that happens within functional teams). This is about being the orchestrator: the person who sees across all the workstreams identifies what needs to happen when produces the analysis and documentation that drives decisions and keeps complex multi-year projects on track.

If youre energized by bringing order to complexity translating strategy into executable plans and enabling teams to do their best work through clarity and coordination this role is for you.

Who Youll Work With

Youll report to the Chief Growth & Advancement Officer who oversees Development Advocacy and Growth across both New Jersey and Florida. You wont have direct reports but youll work closely with leaders across every department: Real Estate Finance Operations Talent Academics Marketing & Communications and Development.

Your success depends on building strong relationships across these teamsbecoming a trusted partner who helps them plan better see around corners and coordinate their work with others. Youll also work closely with the Co-President and present to the Board of Directors when growth decisions require their input and approval.

What Success Looks Like

In Year One you will:

• Establish yourself as the go-to person for growth planning coordination across the organization
• Build trust and working relationships with leaders in every functional area involved in growth
• Develop planning templates timelines and processes that bring clarity and consistency to how we approach new launches
• Produce high-quality strategic documents (market analyses launch plans board presentations) that enable confident decision-making
• Successfully coordinate planning for at least one major growth initiative from pre-launch through opening
• Identify and help resolve bottlenecks dependencies and misalignments before they become crises

In Year Two and beyond you will:

• Own the planning process for multiple concurrent growth projects across different stages (exploration pre-launch launch stabilization)
• Continuously refine and improve our growth planning practices based on lessons learned
• Become an institutional expert on what it takes to launch with excellence in our context
• Enable faster smoother launches as our processes and shared understanding mature
• Help leadership make increasingly sophisticated decisions about where when and how to grow

What Youll Do

Manage Growth Project Planning from Pre-Diligence to Launch

• Develop and maintain comprehensive project plans for each growth initiative from initial exploration through successful launch and stabilization
• Identify all critical workstreams (real estate fundraising finance operations talent academics) and the dependencies between them
• Work with functional leaders to establish realistic timelines milestones and deliverables for their areas of responsibility
• Create clear visibility into project status risks and blockers through dashboards status reports and regular check-ins
• Proactively identify gaps misalignments and potential issues before they derail timelines
• Build strong frontline relationships with team members across departments to understand their work and coordinate effectively
• Escalate issues to the CGAO and Co-President when cross-functional conflicts or resource constraints require senior leadership intervention
• Facilitate planning meetings and working sessions that drive alignment and progress
• Ensure lessons learned from each launch inform planning for future growth

Draft Key Documents for Decision-Making and External Engagement

• Produce market analyses and viability assessments that synthesize demographic data competitive landscape regulatory environment and strategic fit
• Create launch plans and readiness documents that clearly articulate what needs to happen by when and by whom
• Develop board presentations and decision memos that frame choices present options and recommend paths forward
• Draft materials for donor conversations government partners and community stakeholders that tell a compelling data-informed story about our growth
• Translate complex multi-workstream plans into clear executive summaries that enable quick understanding and decision-making
• Maintain living documents that track assumptions decisions and changes throughout the lifecycle of each growth project
• Ensure all documentation is high-quality accurate well-organized and accessible to relevant stakeholders

Conduct Pre-Diligence on Emerging Markets

• Collaborate with the Finance Team to build and revise financial models to help drive growth planning.
• Lead exploratory research on potential new markets to assess whether KIPP should pursue growth in specific geographies
• Analyze demographic data educational outcome reports enrollment trends and competitive landscape using tools like ESRI Census data and state/local education data
• Investigate regulatory and policy environments to understand charter authorization processes funding structures and operational requirements
• Identify key questions that need answers before making a go/no-go decision
• Conduct stakeholder interviews and site visits to gather on-the-ground intelligence
• Synthesize findings into clear actionable recommendations about market viability and strategic fit
• Present pre-diligence findings to leadership and facilitate decision-making conversations about which markets to pursue

Drive Continuous Improvement in Growth Planning

• Document processes templates and best practices so institutional knowledge doesnt live only in peoples heads
• Identify patterns across growth projectswhat consistently works well and what consistently causes problems
• Recommend process improvements and organizational changes that would enable smoother faster better launches
• Build tools and resources that make planning more efficient and effective (templates checklists data dashboards etc.)
• Help the organization get better at estimating timelines costs and resource requirements based on historical performance
• Foster a culture of learning and improvement within the growth function

Qualifications :

Who You Are

Required Experience and Qualifications

• 5-7 years of professional experience in strategic planning program management project management or related roles managing complex multi-stakeholder initiatives
• Proven track record of successfully coordinating work across multiple teams or departments toward shared goals
• Strong analytical and research skills: You can gather data from multiple sources identify patterns and insights and translate analysis into clear recommendations
• Exceptional writing and communication skills: You produce documents that are clear well-structured and tailored to different audiences (board members donors internal teams government partners)
• Project management expertise: You know how to build realistic plans track progress identify risks and keep complex projects on track
• Relationship-building ability: You can build trust and credibility with people across different functions and levels even without formal authority
• Comfort with data and tools: Experience with demographic analysis tools (Census data ESRI mapping etc.) project management software financial modeling basics and presentation tools
• Bachelors degree required; Masters degree in business public policy urban planning education or related field preferred

Preferred Experience

• Charter school or education organization growth/expansion experience: Youve been part of opening new schools or expanding education organizations and understand the unique complexities of this work
• Experience managing large-scale organizational growth or expansion projects in nonprofit or for-profit contexts (multi-site rollouts market expansion new product launches etc.)
• Real estate or facilities planning experience particularly in education or public sector contexts
• Experience working in fast-growing entrepreneurial organizations where you had to build processes and bring structure to ambiguity
• Knowledge of New Jersey and/or Florida education policy charter school regulations and funding structures

The Right Fit Will Have

• Systems thinking: You naturally see how pieces connect anticipate downstream effects and identify dependencies others miss
• A bias toward clarity: Youre bothered by ambiguity and feel compelled to bring structure documentation and shared understanding to complex situations
• Strong facilitation skills: You can run meetings that actually move work forward and help groups reach alignment
• Intellectual curiosity: You ask great questions dig into details and genuinely want to understand how things work
• Adaptability: Youre comfortable with changing priorities and can manage multiple projects at different stages simultaneously
• Ownership mentality: When you take on a project you see it throughyou dont wait for someone else to solve problems
• Collaborative approach: You accomplish things through and with others not by force of authority
• Commitment to excellence: Good enough doesnt satisfy youyou want to help the organization do this work exceptionally well
• Mission alignment: Youre motivated by KIPPs work to expand educational opportunity and believe that growth done well creates transformative opportunities for students and families

What You Should Know

This role requires:

• Significant collaboration across the organizationyoull interact with virtually every department and need to be effective across different working styles and priorities
• Flexibility in how you spend your timesome weeks are deep analytical work others are facilitating meetings and coordinating teams others are writing board presentations
• Comfort with both strategic and tactical workyoull move between high-level planning and detailed execution tracking
• Travel to visit potential new markets attend site visits and participate in stakeholder meetings across New Jersey and Florida (approximately 15-25%)
• Occasional evening or weekend work during critical launch phases or when board meetings require preparation

Were committed to:

• Giving you access to leaders across the organization and ensuring your work informs real decisions
• Supporting your professional development and learning about growth in the charter school sector
• Building this function thoughtfullyyoure helping establish how KIPP does growth planning not just executing someone elses process
• Celebrating what goes well and learning from what doesnt without blame

Additional Information :

Compensation & Benefits

KIPP Team & Family offers a market-competitive salary range of $135000-$150000. Salary ranges at KIPP are set based upon the role level and function using benchmarks in the education and non-profit sector and allow for growth within the role.  Individual compensation within this range will be set  based on a variety of factors including but not limited to: relevant professional experience and qualifications; education skills and training; and market conditions.  

In addition to a competitive salary we a generous benefits package including but not limited to the following:  

• Robust benefits that include medical dental and vision 
• Optional participation in the KIPP NJ 403b retirement plan including matching contributions
• A school-issued laptop
• Transportation benefits for TEAMmates commuting into Newark from the New York City area
• Generous Time-Off including 3.5-4 school vacation weeks (depending on the year) allocated sick and personal days and an extended summer break 
• Up to 12 weeks 100% parental leave for primary caregivers
• Employer paid life insurance
• Extensive optional ancillary benefits including short term and long term disability and accident and hospital indemnity

Our organization is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race color sex gender age religion national origin citizen status marital status physical or mental disability military or veteran status sexual orientation gender identity or any other characteristic protected by applicable law. Our organization will make a reasonable accommodation to known physical or mental limitations of a qualified applicant or employee with a disability unless the accommodation would impose an undue hardship on the operation of the organization. No questions on this application are asked for any unlawful purpose.

#LI-NJ

Remote Work :

No

Employment Type :

Full-time