Vice President of Program Operations
THE ORGANIZATION
The Pahara Institute’s mission is to provide transformative development opportunities for American education leaders. We support exceptional, innovative leaders in the non-profit schools sector who are committed to equity and access to excellent public schools for our children. We focus on a diverse set of leaders, with a specific priority on representation and inclusion of leaders who share life experiences with our most marginalized and underserved student populations. Our work is guided by the following core values:
- Wholeness: We bring our whole selves. We are authentic and vulnerable.
- Transformative Love: We create belonging. We build inclusive and deeply connected communities across many lines of difference.
- Excellence: We deliver exceptional quality without compromising our integrity or humanity.
- Continuous Learning: We learn, grow, adapt, and change. We get better.
- Liberation: We find new ways to ensure that everyone can live a free and meaningful life.
THE OPPORTUNITY
- Design and systematize a strategic, scalable vision for the Program Operations Team that aligns processes across Pahara’s delivery of programming, which provides space for fellows to reflect on their identity, equity, and the values tensions involved in effective and enlightened leadership.
- Lead, manage, and coach the Program Operations Team, inspiring and empowering team members to carry out the day-to-day operational systems and processes that support and generate values-aligned, high-quality, transformative programming for the Pahara network.
Sample goals for this role:
The Vice President of Program Operations will be key to setting the vision for successful implementation of our program operations. Here are four examples of how we’ll measure your success:
- By July 2023, Program Operations Team members express 100% clarity in their streams of work.
- Fellows’ survey results report 95% satisfaction rate with operations support.
- By December 2023, the Vice President of Program Operations has articulated a clear vision for preparing program operations to lead at scale, grounded in the Pahara Way.
- By Spring 2024, all program operations systems across events and functions have been streamlined and optimized for compatibility with our data and evaluation tools and systems.
What your week might look like:
- Mostly: Visioning and strategically building the Program Operations Team’s structure as Pahara scales; inspiring, managing, coaching, and developing Program Operations Team members to lead respective workstreams and carry out their responsibilities effectively, while ensuring the team’s work is aligned with Pahara’s vision and the team’s overall strategy.
- Some: Creating a scalable operations model for programs by diagnosing the current state of operations; strategically developing and providing clarity around redesigned roles and responsibilities; and effectively managing change as the team evolves.
- A little: Serving as the primary liaison in Pahara’s relationship with Lone Rock, holding knowledge related to our operational arrangements.
- With a sprinkling of: Collaborating with Senior Vice Presidents and Vice Presidents who lead other teams to support streamlined programming, including a focus on Pahara’s internal operations, communications, and data.
WHO SHOULD APPLY
We are looking for someone who can demonstrate skills and abilities that reflect the following statements:
- You LOVE managing people through organizational change. You lead steadily and effectively as an organization grows and scales. You manage change and ambiguity productively, with a focus on people that doesn’t overshadow your pragmatic judgment on what’s best for Pahara. You are deeply committed to continual development - personally and in others. You are energized by studying best practices for adult development, and you implement them thoughtfully as you train, coach, empower, and manage the team and its performance.
- You are committed to impacting and changing the educational ecosystem. You understand how schools and school systems work. You understand the complexity that school-based educators are leading through every day. You have a track record of creating structures and systems that support diverse, high-integrity operations leaders through coaching, management, and development. And you do this work so that every child in America has access to excellent educational opportunities in public schools.
- You are a deeply strategic thinker with a clear vision. You connect current thinking to where we’re going. This expertise shows up in your ability to quickly and effectively gather information, weigh what’s happening and what’s at stake, provide clarity around roles and responsibilities, and make decisions about operations processes and the team’s performance. You intentionally build your context, which enables you to individualize your approach to ensure equity, clarity, and accountability when setting a vision, designing systems, and interacting with team members.
- You are constantly looking for new ways to ensure that everyone can lead a free and meaningful life. You prioritize racial equity at every level of the work you do and in all systems you design and lead. You have a strong analysis lens related to DEI that supports action in the design and implementation of operational systems. You build and maintain relationships and foster inclusiveness and belonging in virtual and in-person environments.
ADDITIONAL DETAILS
Who: The Vice President of Program Operations reports to Idrissa Simmonds-Nastili, Senior Vice President.
Where: Our campus in the Denver area (Lone Rock) will serve as a hub for our work and as the main location for all in-person events. While we are a virtual organization by design so our team can work where they have built their lives, to be effective in this role, the Vice President of Program Operations should be Colorado-based and is expected to be on campus at Lone Rock multiple times throughout the week.
When: All phases of the interview process are virtual, as Pahara is a remote organization. For us to consider your application complete, please submit your resume and written application by Thursday, December 1st, 2022, by 5pm PST.
- Early December: Candidates will be selected to complete a candidate exercise.
- Mid-December: A small number of candidates will advance to a virtual first interview.
- Mid-January 2023: First interviews take place.
- Early-February 2023: Finalists will engage in a virtual final interview with additional members of the Pahara Team. Pahara checks 3 references for each finalist, though we may request more.
- Mid-February 2023: Offer extended
- Early-March 2023: Start date
How Much: Pahara provides competitive compensation and an attractive benefits package, including full health care coverage and access to a 401(k) account with a matching contribution policy. The expected salary range for this position is $130,000 to $175,000.
Pahara is committed to nondiscrimination and to providing equal opportunity. It is our policy to ensure that all individuals with whom we are in contact are treated equally without regard to age, color, disability, gender, marital status, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, expression, gender identity, or veteran’s status.