About Ascend
Ascend is the largest Brooklyn-based public charter school serving nearly 6,000 K-12 students in 16 schools. We exist to serve every student to help them embody their inherent excellence by providing rich, joyful learning experiences that unlock a life of boundless choice.
Access to education is a social justice issue. As educators, we center justice and live out our commitment to Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Anti-Racism (DEIA) by ensuring that our students have the skills, tools, and confidence they need to thrive today and in the future. We are proud to have a workforce that mirrors the diversity seen in our students. Working at Ascend provides a community focused on developing an environment of support and belonging. Educators collaborate closely and encourage each other to achieve great outcomes.
Our schools honor, nurture, and challenge the whole child. Ascend fosters critical thinking skills and a love of learning through an inquiry-based learning approach, Responsive Classroom model, and anti-racist education. We are deeply committed to advancing educational equity for all of our students. Students at Ascend benefit from a rich and rigorous liberal arts curriculum that nurtures natural curiosity about the world and guides them to think critically and independently.
Ascend invests in employees by providing competitive compensation, benefits, and ongoing professional development programs. Total compensation includes a generous benefits package with flexibility in healthcare plan choices, including mental healthcare services, and a 403(b) match. Our paid time off includes Wellness Days set aside for employees to focus on their personal care. We also believe in bringing joy to the office, with committees focused on employee programs and events to foster collaboration.
For more information on Ascend Public Charter Schools model, approach, and core values, please visit our website.

Overview

Ascend is seeking to hire a strategic, analytical, and highly organized individual as its Chief of Staff. This individual will support the strategy function and partner with the President and executive team to influence and scale the organization as it embarks on its next chapter. The Chief of Staffs primary responsibility will be to support the executive team to ensure that Ascend sets and achieves its strategic objectives in support of Ascends mission. The Chief of Staff will ensure efficiency and alignment among the executive team, lead strategic planning and progress monitoring, manage cross functional projects, and engage in strategic stakeholder communication.

The Chief of Staff will facilitate collaboration across the Ascend network and school teams as they work together efficiently, and urgently in their drive to end educational inequities.

Executive team planning

• Serve as a thought partner and strategic advisor to the President
• Lead and manage all executive team meetings with a clear arc of year, purpose and facilitation of meeting topics,and establish strategic plans and establish clear ownership of work streams
• Support the President in supporting the org accountable for team and org commitments and ensuring communication between AL team members is timely, collaborative, and results oriented
• Support executive team leaders in managing priorities and responsibilities by monitoring progress towards goals, proactively anticipating challenges, and providing tactical support
• Serve as the knowledge keeper of all executive team initiatives and identify opportunities for cross functional collaboration and increased efficiencies within teams
• Own all logistical components of leadership team meetings including agenda creation and notetaking to ensure executive and extended leadership team meetings are conducted efficiently and effectively

Strategic planning

• Drive the implementation of the multi-year strategic plan and communicate regular status updates to the executive team, boards, and organization at large.
• Oversee monitoring and communication of progress on strategic plan with line of sight into longer term vision.
• Ensuring oversight of key performance indicators to measure and improve team performance and lifting up risks or areas of focus given the data provided.
• Develop and maintain the organizational tools required to monitor progress towards goals including dashboards to monitor key performance indicators.
• Conduct research and synthesize information on complex topics resulting in clear and concise recommendations to CEO and executive team.

Special projects

• Draft communications for internal and external stakeholders including staff, volunteers, board members, and other stakeholders as needed
• Develop strategic content for AL and ACS board meetings including executing on a roadmap to communicate Ascends strategic progress in line with annual board priorities and meeting content while driving strategic board initiatives in collaboration with legal counsel.
• Lead and oversee executive and leadership-level meetings, keeping meetings focused, and planning and coordinating them effectively.
• Acting on behalf of the executive team to answer inquiries and provide guidance across the organization, understanding how to shift ideas into action, appropriate approvals and stakeholder engagement, and providing hands-on support to transform ideas into reality and monitor their progress.

• Bachelors degree required, advanced degree preferred (MPA, MBA, or other relevant degree)
• Minimum of five years experience structuring and managing complex cross-functional projects and demonstrating analytical and strategic thinking skills
• Strong project management as well as time and task management skills, enabling multiple and large-scale projects to be completed on time; proven track record of setting and achieving ambitious goals
• Proven ability to lead and drive change, including influencing and motivating others through building and maintaining strong relationships
• Facility to move comfortably between high level strategic thinking and intricate details
• Ability to learn quickly, to pivot when needed, and to be effective in a fast-paced, dynamic, and entrepreneurial environment
• Effective written and verbal communication,strong active listening skills, and the ability to tell stories through written and oral presentations
• Ability to inspire and influence and manage a team to produce highest-quality work

Diversity at Ascend

Ascend is committed to building a diverse, equitable, inclusive, and anti-racist community, both through our hiring practices and our focus on creating a culture and environment where diverse perspectives, ideas, and identities are valued and integrated into our way of working and educating students. Ascend staff represent a wide diversity of racial, socio-economic, gender, religious, and national identitiesopening a window to the entire Ascend community on the richness of humanity. We welcome all applicants who share our mission and vision to join us in our deeply consequential work.

Compensation

The starting salary range for this position is $180,000-$200,000. Several factors such as candidate's work experience, education/training, job-related skills, internal peer equity, as well as market and business considerations may influence base pay offered. This salary range is reflective of a position based in New York City.