Director of Student Data

EdOps Director of Student Data

The Director of Student Data oversees the strategic direction and delivery of our student data work for a portfolio of schools across several regions, as well as the staff providing that support. The Director is responsible for setting the vision and direction for the team, and monitoring the overall quality of our service delivery to ensure our student data offering is meeting EdOps’s mission.

The Director leads a team of managers (each of whom, in turn, has direct reports), with the staff mix and count determined by the respective client count / mix. Over time, the Director is expected to significantly grow the portfolio of schools overseen and the service delivery team that would make that growth possible.

Reports to COO. Location flexible (this is a fully remote position).

Who we are:

EdOps is a B-Corp focused on minimizing the financial, operational, and compliance demands of running a school and supporting education leaders with data-driven insights to improve student outcomes. Simply put, we make it easier for school leaders to increase student achievement. We work with all the schools that need us. Our growing team of 100+ professionals located throughout the country work with over 100 schools and school networks nationwide. We are serious about being the best possible partners to schools, and it shows in our 97% annual client retention rate and rapid growth rate. We work hard at being a rewarding, enjoyable workplace where staff can grow professionally and make an impact, and we were recognized as a Washington Post Top Workplace 2020. We are looking for education focused, data loving, collaborative people to join our team.

What you will do:

• Service Quality & Consistency. Responsible for the oversight and service delivery of our student data services in several regions. Some of these regions are still growing and our service offering is evolving; within these, the Director is expected to define and develop best practices that meet client needs and are aligned with our overall value proposition. Lead efforts to standardize internal data processes and client scopes when appropriate. Ensure consistency in client experience between disparate regions.
• Quality Improvement. Drive team to set up mechanisms to monitor, understand and reflect on current systems and processes with the goal of ensuring that quality and efficiency continue to improve. Create infrastructure that, in the short term, will support the team in delivering on current contracts with quality, and in the intermediate term will support sustainable growth.
• Doing the Work. Develop proficiency in EdOps’s student data scope of work in order to be able to train new managers to perform it and oversee other individuals in performing it.
• Team Management & Development. Serve as the primary leader to several managers and a total team of ~10. The staff type and count will be determined by the respective client count / mix. Recruit and hire new staff as needed.
• Team Culture and Climate. Support a collaborative, supportive and inclusive culture through own action and manager coaching.
• New Manager Training. Train new managers on region-specific and technical skills required to do the job well.
• Leveraging Technology. Collaborate with the Chief Technology Officer to develop and refine client-facing tools that address client needs.
• Business Development and contract renewals. Submit proposals for prospective clients using standard EdOps templates, and join or lead business development conversations as needed. Lead annual contract renewal process for all clients in overseen regions.
• Regional Leadership. Occasionally represent EdOps at conferences and industry events.
• Client Listening. Engage in client listening and endeavors to actively resolve clients’ emerging pain points - either directly, or through engaging other staff at EdOps.

What you will accomplish:

• By Year 1 you will:
  • Lead a strong and newly reorged team to deliver on our mission to a portfolio of school clients.
  • Collaborate with the other Data Director to design and oversee systems to support successful change management with empathy.
  • Deliver on the data scope of work for at least 1 school directly as a way to deeply understand our offering.
  • Develop direct reports in the people and product management aspects of their roles.
  • Manage tricky client situations.
  • Set strategic direction and priorities for the team, determining goals and areas to improve while managing them to completion. In particular, set quarterly areas to improve for direct reports and hold them accountable to attaining them.
  • Partner with the other Director of Data to solve service line wide challenges.
  • Deeply understand the needs of our diverse clients, and how they intersect with our product offerings, capabilities, and tools. Make adjustments to our scope of work accordingly.
  • Develop knowledge of our tools and external tools we use
  • Develop policies and processes to improve the day-to-day internal operations of the the team, with the goal of increasing the team’s ability and capacity to support their schools

• By Year 3 you will:
  • Deliver on sustainable growth: bring in new clients, and build the processes, tools, and structures needed to serve a larger client base in regions overseen without sacrificing quality or efficiency.
  • Contribute to the development and refinement of EdOps’s data tools and resources to enable schools to use best practices to bring their program to fruition.
  • Continue to solve real problems, small and large, for schools every day.
  • Be recognized as a leader in the regional education/charter sectors through your role in partner relationship management and business development.
  • To support a growing client base, grow the team while maintaining a customer service oriented, collaborative culture.

Who you are:

• Care about education and outcomes for students as much as you care about developing data tools and data processes.
• Committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Open to learning and growing in these areas together so that each of us can contribute to building a culture of equity and support our schools in advancing these values. Please see more on EdOps's commitment here.
• Able to support and hold accountable manager-level staff in accomplishing company objectives while respecting their expertise and experience.
• Able to make big, data-informed decisions, sometimes quickly and with limited information.
• Comfortable at being an external face for EdOps with partners and in the sector more widely.
• Able to toggle back and forth between details and big picture easily.

What you need:

• Deep knowledge of K-12 public schools and state accountability frameworks is required. Significant prior experience interpreting technical guidance.
• At least 2 years experience developing solutions for different parties’ (e.g., teachers, principals, school leaders, etc.) student data needs - either within a central office / district office, or as part of a third-party vendor.
• Prior experience managing people, programs, and systems that support data analysis and decision-making for schools. Prior experience managing managers strongly preferred.
• Deep understanding of the student data technology ecosystem, and experience across a variety of platforms (e.g., SISes, enrollment platforms, discipline management systems, assessment platforms, etc)
• Ability to navigate and extract data from student information systems, along with proficiency in Excel and Google Sheets.
• Experience, commitment, and skill at building and managing a productive and engaged team - one where team members are continuously learning and improving, where inclusivity, collegiality and support are foremost, direct feedback is recognized as a value, and people are connected to each other and to the mission.
• Experience building and maintaining relationships with school leaders and boards, along with comfort in navigating complex client situations with them.
• Strong quantitative analysis, strategic thinking, and problem-solving skills. We endeavor to make data informed decisions, and as such, you will be expected to use data in day-to-day decision making as well as in longer term strategic planning and thought. In some cases, you’ll need to set up mechanisms that will allow you to collect, collate, analyze, and understand the data you need to make decisions.
• Excellent client communication and written communication skills. We make a lot of decisions after writing memos here (those memos almost always include the data mentioned above).
• Nice to have: Prior experience with dedicated business intelligence tools like Tableau, Power BI or Metabase.
• Nice to have: Ability to identify potential partners/client opportunities and develop proposals to present to them. Prior business development experience is appreciated but not required.
• Typically, a Data Team Director has more than 15 years of work or post-secondary educational experience.

What you get:

• Purpose driven work focusing on student achievement through operational excellence. That is what it is all about.
• Chance to work every day with colleagues who are committed to kids and supportive of each other’s efforts.
• Check out other perks of working at EdOps here. And some details on benefits here.

We know that a team from a wide range of backgrounds with different life experiences, identities, opinions, and talents makes us better able to innovate and deliver on our mission of supporting schools to improve student outcomes. Every day we work to build an inclusive company culture where everyone can be themselves at work and do their best work.

What you can expect from the hiring process:

• Application Review
  
• First Interview
  
• Performance Task
  
• Final Interviews
• Reference Check
  
• Offer