Description
Chief of Staff to the Deputy Superintendent
Position Overview
The Chief of Staff is an executive-level role responsible for facilitating and overseeing the functions of the Deputy Superintendent 's senior team to ensure that they are able to maximize their focus and productivity to achieve organizational goals.
The Chief of Staff has the skills, knowledge, and leadership presence to design, lead, execute, and evaluate the impact of strategic initiatives within the scope of the Deputy Superintendent 's line of management in response to a topic-specific directive from them . The Chief of Staff is able to effectively manage complex situations and multiple responsibilities simultaneously, balancing long-term priorities with urgent demands.
The Chief of Staff serves the Deputy Superintendent as a strategic and trusted advisor, including advisement on confidential matters; as a collaborator in identifying and solving problems to achieve outcomes; and as a credible voice and proxy. The Chief of Staff is responsible for ensuring that the teams within the Deputy Superintendent 's line of management operate with a high level of efficiency and discipline through organizing functional team systems; ensuring that the Deputy Superintendent 's time is focused on their stated priorities and on functional areas with gaps in progress toward goals; and ensuring that the Deputy Superintendent has relevant, timely, and comprehensive data and analysis to make informed decisions.
From the outset, the Chief of Staff must build trust with colleagues within their department and in all other HQ departments, and collaborate with and achieve results through influencing others. The Chief of Staff must be able to effectively manage highly confidential information, and must be viewed as credible and reliable among the staff and key external partners. The Chief of Staff must have strong verbal and written communication skills to effectively and efficiently convey information with clarity to stakeholders within their department, in other departments, including at the school level, and externally.
The Chief of Staff should directly manage members of the Deputy Superintendent 's team, including the Executive Assistant and /or Project Manager; manage specific scopes of work or time bound projects; and support effective preparation and follow-through on items for consideration by the Board of Directors.
The Chief of Staff is the Deputy Superintendent 's partner in prioritizing the most important work- both now and in the future- and creating time and space to ensure it gets done.
Location: This is a full-time position based in Texas in one of our IDEA regions, including Austin, El Paso, Houston, Permian Basin (Midland/Odessa), Rio Grande Valley, San Antonio, and Tarrant County (Fort Worth), or who are willing to relocate.
Travel Expectations are up to 25% at the busiest times of the year.
What You'll Do - Accountabilities:
Essential Duties
• Design and lead strategic initiatives and objectives of the departments within the Deputy Superintendent 's line of management or at the organizational level, along with processes and projects in accordance with the directives of the Deputy Superintendent and senior leadership.
• Act as a strategic thought partner, confidante, and sounding board for the Deputy Superintendent by helping them shape and advance their vision, providing them with the most relevant information, data analysis and decision support through synthesizing, funneling and filtering advice and perspective.
• Act as a strategic thought partner, confidante, and sounding board for leaders within the Deputy Superintendent 's line of management, including Chiefs, Vice Presidents, and other Chiefs of Staff.
• Inform the Deputy Superintendent of timely and relevant information, including department-specific data and diverse perspectives, during deliberation and decision-making. Support the Deputy Superintendent and Chiefs in their line of management to be accountable to feedback data from staff and to make improvements as needed.
• Develop over time the in-depth knowledge, communication, and leadership skills to represent the Deputy Superintendent internally. The exceptional proxy represents the Deputy Superintendent when needed to gather and cascade information, seek input, or provide guidance.
• Coordinate and interact with senior leaders and external partners as needed on a diverse range of strategic, instructional, operational , and organizational matters.
• Design and implement systems of organization for repeated procedures, including setting responsibilities, coordinating functions among departments, and providing accountability for adherence.
• Prepare and/or contribute to the preparation of reports, proposals, briefings, presentations, and responses on functional or organizational data/outcomes.
• Communicate with a variety of audiences, primarily internal, and within a variety of contexts, including but not limited to progress toward goals, organizational priorities, and functional scopes of work that are in turnaround or other improvement modes.
• Manage the processes related to achieving organizational priorities on an annual basis to ensure that stakeholders are executing their strategic plan, engaging in consistent data monitoring and analysis, and effectively evaluating outcomes.
What You Bring - Competencies
Knowledge and Skills :
• Ability to engage in analytical, critical, conceptual thinking, and problem-solving, along with the ability to coach and develop these skills in others.
• Anticipate problems and whenever possible resolve those by taking initiative independently or bringing options and recommendations to the Deputy Superintendent for engagement.
• Emotional intelligence to engage in the complex, sensitive, and high-impact challenges that must be resolved at the Deputy Superintendent 's level.
• Fluid ability to build trust with others to create and sustain effective working relationships.
• Fluid ability to activate trust to influence others and/or manage conflict.
• Act with empathy and diplomacy as warranted, maintaining direct and honest communication with the Deputy Superintendent and colleagues.
• Act with integrity, including making and supporting honest and ethical decision-making, exercising sound judgment, and maintaining confidentiality.
• Ability to organize, prioritize, follow through, and attend to detail using a variety of project and performance management tools and techniques.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, including identifying and replicating the Deputy Superintendent 's "voice" to ensure consistency and clarity of expectations in departmental and cross-functional spaces.
• Taking initiative to self-assign responsibilities or challenges, with exceptional independence and requiring minimal supervision, including sharing opinions and setting direction.
• Owning follow-through and being trusted throughout the organization as dependable and consistent.
• Orientation toward achievement and effort by establishing and maintaining individually challenging achievement goals that serve the organization's mission.
Required E xperience:

• Education: bachelor's degree required (master's degree preferred).
• Minimum experience: A minimum 8 years of experience or a combination of 8 years of experience in one or more of the following : Education or Educational Leadership
• Preferred experience: A minimum 10 years of experience or a combination of 10 years of experience in one or more of the following : Education or Educational Leadership
• Must have demonstrated experience in strategy, analysis, project management, and interacting and influencing senior leaders.
• High level of proficiency with the Office 365 suite.
• Proven experience translating data and metrics to action.
• Demonstrable experience managing high-profile projects.
• Robust written and verbal communication portfolio.

Supervisory Responsibilities: This position has supervisory responsibilities to be determined in partnership with the Deputy Superintendent .
What We Offer:
Compensation & Benefits :
Salaries for people entering this role typically fall between $ 108,100 and $128,600, commensurate with relevant experience and qualifications and in alignment with internal equity. This role is also eligible for performance pay based on organizational performance and goal attainment.
Additionally, we offer medical, dental, and vision plans, disability, life insurance, parenting benefits, flexible spending account options, generous vacation time, referral bonuses, professional development, and a 403(b) plan. You can find more information about our benefits at https://ideapublicschools.org/careers/benefits/ .
* IDEA may offer a relocation stipend to defray the cost of moving for this role, if applicable.
Application process:
Submit your application online through Jobvite. Please note that applications will be reviewed on an ongoing basis until the position is filled. Applicants are encouraged to apply as early as possible.
Learn more about IDEA
At IDEA the Staff Culture and Belonging Team uses our Core Values to promote human connection and a culture of integrity, respect, and belonging for all Team and Family members. Learn more about our Commitment to Core Values here: https://ideapublicschools.org/our-story/#core-values
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