Director, Strategic Partnerships

Learning Commons is Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan’s education initiative, which aims to scale proven teaching and learning practices to benefit every learner. Learning Commons became the name of our education efforts in 2025 to build on the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative’s work over the past decade to advance learning science and help translate that research into classroom practice.

The Team

At Learning Commons, we pair technology with grantmaking to scale proven teaching and learning practices to benefit every learner. We aim to translate what learning science tells us about how students learn best into classroom practice. With the advent of generative AI, that translation work can be accelerated and scaled to have a greater impact. 

Our mission is to bring learning science into the tools used every day by teachers and students, ensuring that technology reflects the realities of classrooms and strengthens teaching and learning.

In today’s fragmented edtech landscape, school districts are often left piecing together products that don’t always align with curricula or instructional needs. While AI holds enormous potential to support educators, it can only deliver on that promise when grounded in research, high-quality educational data, and expert evaluation. That’s why we’re building open, public-purpose infrastructure — datasets, rubrics, and resources — that help raise the standard for educational tools and create more consistent, impactful learning experiences for all students and teachers.

At our core, we are builders, and our unique builder philanthropy approach is what sets us apart from other education funders. Take a closer look at the highlights and significant milestones of CZI’s first eight years of education work.

The Opportunity

Advances in AI have made these tools increasingly present in schools, but lacking in consistent quality and integration into school and district technology systems. This role provides a unique opportunity to work at the intersection of research, practice, technology, and implementation and raise the impact of the edtech industry. 

The Director of Strategic Partnerships will lead and build the product partnerships team that enables deep collaboration between Education and outside organizations in order to advance our overall Education strategy and objectives. This role will provide overarching strategy, management, and operations of a team of partner managers that will work across the spectrum of organizations and individuals – from for-profit edtech organizations to nonprofit grantees, from school districts to critical thoughtleaders and influencers. This leader will help form and develop a strong foundation for our partnerships team operationally that can evolve as we expand our impact across the market. This person will be a critical cross-functional leader, partnering closely with the Education leaders across product, engineering,  research, product marketing, design and operations as well as our central functions. They will also work across our community of external stakeholders to amplify our vision, initiatives, and projects.

Given the scope of the work planned, we are looking for a leader with deep experience building a product-partnerships team from the ground up, combined with strong people management and operational skills. This person needs experience with business development, strategy, and communications, including thinking through financial, legal, operational, and other practical issues to bring plans to life. This person will help lead and coach team members working with both internal and external partners towards excellence in flexible, collaborative, and empathetic ways. This is a critical leadership and management role to help ensure the successful development of our products (including Knowledge Graph and Evaluations) and the adoption and use of our tools towards the success of our overall AI initiative.  You will play a pivotal role in shaping the future of educational technology, driving products and partnerships that are grounded in learning sciences to improve student outcomes.

What You'll Do

• Develop and implement a Product Partnership strategy in close collaboration with Edu Leads, and lead the partnership team to meet the organizational objectives.
• Build, manage, and mentor a team of strategic partner managers with the ability to partner well with different types of organizations across the education ecosystem. Focus on developing the team's capabilities and expertise, while fostering a collaborative environment.
• Develop and build partnership team operations to ensure the partner team is successful at collaborating cross functionally with teams like product, engineering, marketing and legal. Programmatize partnership development and management into efficient, repeatable processes while staying nimble to an evolving landscape.
• Serve as a key leader and advisor to internal team leads on partnerships to pursue and how to best approach them to achieve organizational & initiative goals. Analyze and recommend “build, buy, partner” approaches across the Education projects and priorities. 
• Lead strategic analyses of needs, opportunities, and ecosystem players across the education landscape to drive success for the various product launches and initiatives. Regularly inform the team of the changing market landscape and dynamics, including new companies/non-profits, changes in the research and funding landscape, and changes in education systems. 
• Engage directly with key prospective partners, influencers, and thought leaders to establish relationships and potential collaborations. Help support and advise individual partner managers on how to best drive success for their partners and for our organization as a whole. Develop progress monitoring on the partnership portfolio, to identify challenges and problem solve with key leaders. 
• Organize regular reporting on financial, learning, personnel, and other progress metrics from the many partnerships, tied with initial plans and overall strategy of our Education work.
• Represent Education team both internally and externally.
• Approach all work with humility, thoughtfulness, and an orientation toward collective impact.

What You'll Bring

• Advanced degree in education, business, learning sciences, product management, or related field; experience in K-12 edtech or schools is strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated success in building a product-partnerships team from the ground up and managing a diverse team of partner managers.
• Strong operational and executional skills in building teams for scale and growth and ability to navigate ambiguity and changing environments.
• Deep experience as a strong cross-functional leader in innovating and problem-solving complex deliverables, with strong collaboration, diplomacy, and people management skills to ensure teams remain productive and engaged as they navigate complexity and matrixed teams.
• Demonstrated success in edtech strategy, partnership management, business development, and/or mergers & acquisitions across a range of partner types from nonprofit organizations to for-profit tech companies as well as cutting edge AI leaders.
• Deep knowledge of the K-12 education landscape (including policy, tech trends, and district-level operations) and a personal network in education that includes edtech, school leaders, researchers, philanthropy, and venture.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills. Comfortable and effective in small group and large group presentations as well as executive leadership communications. Experience and a proven track of participating in industry forums and conferences. Compelling and adept writing and storytelling.  
• Highly organized, ability to coordinate activities to drive alignment and attainment of goals. Able to multitask in a fast paced environment and exercise a high degree of initiative in resolving issues and developing process enhancement recommendations. 

Compensation

The Redwood City, CA base pay range for this role is $193,000 - $265,100. New hires are typically hired into the lower portion of the range, enabling employee growth in the range over time. Actual placement in range is based on job-related skills and experience, as evaluated throughout the interview process. 

Work Mode

As we grow, we’re excited to strengthen in-person connections and cultivate a collaborative, team-oriented environment. This role is a hybrid position requiring you to be on-site for at least 60% of the working month, approximately 3 days a week, with specific in-office days determined by the team’s manager. The exact schedule will be at the hiring manager's discretion and communicated during the interview process.

Benefits for the Whole You 

We’re thankful to have an incredible team behind our work. To honor their commitment, we offer a wide range of benefits to support the people who make all we do possible. 

• Provides a generous employer match on employee 401(k) contributions to support planning for the future.
• Annual benefit for employees that can be used most meaningfully for them and their families, such as housing, student loan repayment, childcare, commuter costs, or other life needs.
• Life of Service Gifts are awarded to employees to “live the mission” and support the causes closest to them.
• Paid time off to volunteer at an organization of your choice. 
• Funding for select family-forming benefits. 
• Relocation support for employees who need assistance moving to the Bay Area

If you’re interested in a role but your previous experience doesn’t perfectly align with each qualification in the job description, we still encourage you to apply as you may be the perfect fit for this or another role.

#LI-Hybrid #CZE