Job Application for Senior Director of Talent Development at Democracy Prep Public Schools

As the Senior Director of Talent Development, you serve as a key architect and strategic leader for teacher and leader development across Democracy Prep Public Schools. Reporting to the Vice President of Talent Development and working closely with the Academics and People Teams, you drive high-impact initiatives that strengthen instructional quality, build current leadership capacity along with a leadership bench, and advance organizational equity.

Who You Are

An experienced and mission-driven leader with a deep commitment to antiracism, educational equity, and Democracy Prep’s mission of college success and civic engagement.
A champion of people-centered, outcomes-driven systems, who balances consistency and clarity with the nuanced needs of individuals, schools, and communities.
Somebody who enjoys both strategy and execution and who has the proven ability to lead change, scale programs, and drive impact across multiple schools and teams.
A passionate developer of people at all stages of their careers—especially teachers and school leaders—who brings a track record of designing, implementing, and improving development programs that are both equitable and results-oriented.
A skilled collaborator and relationship builder, able to navigate complex organizational structures and partner effectively with Talent, Academics, Schools, and People Teams to align priorities and move work forward.
A data-informed and reflective decision-maker who uses multiple forms of evidence to identify needs, measure impact, and advocate for continuous improvement.
An excellent communicator who is able to craft clear, compelling messages—both written and verbal—that inspire action and create shared ownership across diverse audiences.

What You’ll Do

Organizational Strategy and Impact

In collaboration with the full Talent Development Team, facilitate the planning, execution, and follow-up of Democracy Prep’s semiannual school review process. In partnership with each school’s Deputy Superintendent, ensure schools receive clear, actionable feedback and sustained coaching between each school review.
Support the development of high-functioning, equitable, and outcomes-driven schools through strategic consultation and program leadership.

Leadership Development and Succession Planning

Lead network-wide leadership development initiatives, including targeted programming for Assistant Principals and succession planning strategies. This includes designing scalable systems to identify and grow high-potential talent, and the potential for planning for the relaunch of an internal leadership cohort.
In partnership with the Vice President and Director of Talent Acquisition, refine current recruitment and interview processes for school leadership positions, with a focus on attracting diverse, equity-minded, and high-impact leaders.
Maintain a dynamic leadership heat map in partnership with the Chief, Schools and People teams to track leadership performance, identify risks, and inform proactive development strategies.
Recommend school leadership placements to the Chiefs Team, Schools Team, and People Team grounded in interview performance and organizational needs.
Develop and maintain Internal competency based pipeline development programs for leaders to support succession planning

Teacher and Talent Development

Alongside the full Talent Development team, design and lead a comprehensive teacher development strategy that improves instructional effectiveness, strengthens retention, and supports educators across experience levels—from new to master teachers—while advancing our commitment to antiracism and inclusive excellence.
In alignment with Talent Acquisition strategy, ensure that teacher and leadership pipelines are supported by meaningful development opportunities that attract, prepare, and retain high-quality instructional talent.
With the People and Academics team, co-facilitate Democracy Prep’s internal substitute programming, ensuring continuity of instruction and support during leaves of absence.
Collaborate with the Academics and Schools Teams to evaluate network-wide development needs and co-lead the planning, execution, and continuous improvement of professional learning experiences for teachers, leaders, and other school-based staff.
Develop and maintain Internal competency based pipeline development programs for teachers

Performance Management and Talent Systems

Support the Vice President of Talent Development in the ongoing refinement of school-based performance evaluation systems to ensure they are aligned with Democracy Prep’s strategic plan, values, and antiracist commitments.
Ensure cross-campus alignment and norming around teacher evaluations to promote consistency, equity, and clarity in how instructional and leadership performance is assessed.
Collaborate with CMO functional teams to align non-instructional school-based evaluation processes, ensuring systems allow for differentiated evaluations that are well normed for each school-based role.
Equip school leaders to lead strong developmental conversations and coaching cycles, ensuring all managers are empowered to grow their teams with clear, actionable feedback.

Compensation

Salary range for this position is $130,000 to $150,000 and commensurate with your experience. This is a non-exempt position. Democracy Prep employees are provided with a benefits package that includes medical, vision, and dental insurance, 403b retirement matching, parental leave, a smartphone, and a laptop.

Democracy Prep is an Equal Opportunity Employer and will not discriminate against an applicant or employee on the basis of race, color, religion, creed, national origin, or ancestry, sex, age, physical or mental disability, pregnancy, veteran or military status, genetic information, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, familial status, domestic violence victim status, or any other legally recognized protected basis under federal, state or local laws, regulations or ordinances. Our mission is to educate responsible citizen-scholars who will change the world. We strongly believe that by building a DREAM team that represents numerous perspectives, backgrounds, and expertise, we can achieve this goal together. This is a value we highly support and strongly encourage candidates of all backgrounds to apply.

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Senior Director of Talent Development

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