Chief Operating Officer

Democracy Prep educates responsible citizen-scholars for success in the college of their choice AND for lives of active citizenship. In close partnership with families, we empower young people with the skills and values to flourish as community leaders who will strengthen our American democracy and change the world! Democracy Prep Public Schools (DPPS) is a tuition-free high-performing public charter school network operating in New York, NY, educating over 3,000 students, preK-12th grade, on 10 campuses. DPPS is executing a five-year Strategic Plan to govern its growth, quality assurance, staffing, and sustainability. In the strategic plan, DPPS is building on past successes and ensuring strong academic outcomes at each of our schools. Our scholars are current advocates, future voters, and blossoming leaders in their communities.

The Chief Operating Officer serves as the primary operational leader for our ten schools across New York City. The Chief Operating Officer ensures that all operational functions—student recruitment and enrollment, school operations, meals, transportation, procurement, student information systems, compliance and reporting, safety, and facilities management —are performed with excellence, so that student learning can flourish everywhere.

Who You Are

• An educator with an unwavering commitment to the Democracy Prep mission of college success and authentic civic engagement for our scholars. 
• A self-reflective and self-aware teammate who is dedicated to aligning their work to Democracy Prep's commitment to antiracism and who is eager to use these skills to contribute to a culture of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
• A dynamic and visionary leader with significant operational experience to drive the operational strategy and systems for a multi-site K-12 charter management organization.
• A self-starter who is creative and entrepreneurial with 10-15 years of experience in and a track record of success in a charter management organization (CMO) or school district leadership. 
• An excellent manager and team leader with a track record of leading teams in diverse functional areas.  
• An excellent systems leader with: 
• Strong process and detail orientation, including experience designing complex and scalable systems/processes from scratch and improving upon existing ones, 
• Ability to define strategic issues clearly despite ambiguity, provide sound recommendations, and take all critical information into account when making timely, tough decisions, 
• Ability to reflect on school-facing systems using varied data from diverse sources, challenging the status quo when necessary,
• Ability to manage through layers and ensure strong management and team culture through multiple levels of management. 
• A strong relationship builder with excellent interpersonal skills, a proven ability to work collaboratively across teams, and an ability to develop and maintain long-term, productive relationships internally and externally.
• A leader with a deep belief in engaging families in school communities in meaningful ways, knowing that family involvement and investment are keys to maintaining a thriving school system. 
• A professional who is highly responsive to and thinks critically about feedback and works to implement change in the right ways at the right time.
• An excellent writer and skilled orator who can take information from many sources, distill it to core messages, and effectively tailor that communication to multiple stakeholders in a variety of situations.
• A professional with proven experience in business management, human resources, and executive-level advising. 

What You’ll Do

School Operations Leadership

• Set vision for and oversee all school-facing operational functions across the network, including all operational systems and team structures (including student recruitment and enrollment, school operations, meals, transportation, procurement, student information systems, compliance and reporting, safety, facilities management, and real estate management). Drive excellence across these functions.
• Manage through layers at the network level to ensure excellence in enrollment, school operations, food service, transportation, safety, facilities, compliance, and student information systems.
• Monitor schools’ experience with the Democracy Prep operations team to ensure consistent, responsive, and high-quality operational support that enables instructional focus.
• Remove operational barriers that limit teaching, learning, and school culture.
• Establish clear service standards and operational expectations for schools.
• Partner with principals to resolve complex operational challenges.
• Lead escalation and response to school-level operational issues and crises with urgency and care.

Operations Team Leadership & Culture

• Lead and manage senior leaders overseeing network operations functions.
• Build a unified, service-oriented operations culture across central and school-based teams.
• Set clear goals, performance expectations, and accountability structures that center on efficiency and operational excellence, customer service for our schools, and the creation of a safe and productive learning environment for our scholars.
• Ensure operational strategies for schools are translated into specific objectives and plans (with contingencies); integrate and align efforts across functions; set realistic yet aggressive timeframes for achieving key objectives.
• Develop, coach, and retain high-performing operations leaders.
• Foster collaboration, inclusion, and strong management practices across teams.

Systems, Process & Performance Management

• Audit, evaluate, and refine, and continuously improve scalable operational systems and processes. Identify gaps in processes and design, and monitor new systems and processes where necessary.
• Ensure consistency of protocols, tools, and school-facing workflows and establish processes for rollout and consistent monitoring where needed.
• Continuously evaluate operational KPIs and dashboards to monitor performance and risk.
• Use data and school leader feedback to drive continuous improvement for schools and scholars.
• Identify operational risks early and implement preventative solutions.

Growth, Facilities & Infrastructure

• As required, lead operational planning and execution for any network growth in New York.
• Oversee facilities planning, maintenance, and capital projects for both private and shared school spaces.
• Develop and manage real estate strategy, leases, renovations, and construction projects; ensure alignment with current and future growth strategy.
• Ensure all facilities meet safety, regulatory, and instructional needs. Develops and organizes ongoing, long-range, and preventive maintenance plans and programs for sites, buildings and equipment, including grounds keeping, transportation, and custodial services.
• In the future, build sustainable, cost-effective infrastructure to support growth.

Financial, Vendor & Compliance Oversight for Operations Teams

• Maintain responsibility for all facilities management and planning, lease and licensing agreements, hazardous materials management, security systems, capital improvement, maintenance and repair service, energy management, refuse collection and disposal, and recycling programs
• Partner with Democracy Prep’s Finance Team to manage operations budgets and cost controls.
• Oversee processes for procurement, contract negotiation, and vendor performance.
• Ensure compliance with federal, state, local, and authorizer requirements.
• Oversee operational audits, reporting, and risk management.

Enrollment, Marketing & Family Engagement Operations

• Ensure the implementation of a best-in-class student recruitment, enrollment and retention program across all Democracy Prep schools. Operationalize enrollment efforts for accountability at all levels.
• Oversee enrollment forecasting, data tracking, and reporting.
• Oversee all public relations and marketing vendor contracts and relationships.
• Operationalize the CEO’s vision for Democracy Prep’s brand and marketing.

Cross-Functional Leadership

• As needed to reach the CEO’s strategic vision for Democracy Prep, collaborate with Academic, People, Finance, and Strategy leaders.
• Ensure operational readiness for academic and organizational initiatives.
• Align operational execution to network priorities and timelines.
• Perform other related duties as assigned, including participation in network-wide or department specific initiatives and/or projects.

Qualifications 

• A graduate of a Bachelor’s degree program (required), Master's degree in related field (preferred).
• Network-level operational leadership within a school-based setting required.

Compensation

Salary range is $225,000-$245,000, commensurate with your experience. Democracy Prep employees are provided with a benefits package that includes medical, vision, and dental insurance, 403B matching, and parental leave.

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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.