About the Organization
KIPP Public Schools is a national network of tuition-free public charter schools that prepares students with the skills and confidence to create the future they want for themselves, their communities, and us all. We are a network of 279 schools, nearly 16,500 educators, and nearly 210,000 students and alumni.
Our mission: Together with families and communities, we create joyful, academically excellent schools that prepare students with the skills and confidence to pursue the paths they choose—college, career, and beyond—so they can lead fulfilling lives and build a more just world.
Our vision: Every child grows up free to create the future they want for themselves and their communities.
The KIPP Foundation is a nonprofit organization that supports KIPP public charter schools across the country. The KIPP Foundation helps to develop outstanding educators to lead KIPP schools; provides tools and resources for excellent teaching and learning; promotes innovation; and facilitates the exchange of insights and ideas across KIPP and other public schools and organizations.
About Our Values:
Excellent Results for Students: We value results over effort and know that our work is not finished until all students thrive. We maintain high expectations for self, team, and students. We drive outcomes by operating with agility, removing barriers, differentiating support, and prioritizing student-centered solutions—especially for those at the margins.
Collective Impact: We are one team. We win together. We embody a one-team mindset by working collaboratively across teams, aligning goals, and leveraging the strengths of all teammates. We build trust-based relationships and ensure inclusive decision-making by engaging those closest to the work. We provide clarity through simple, repeatable systems and goals that enable transformational outcomes.
Courageous Action: Our belief in what we can achieve is unwavering, fueling our optimism and commitment to overcome any challenge. We demonstrate an unwavering belief in students' potential and a commitment to addressing systemic inequities. We approach challenges with resilience, a solutions-focused mindset, and adaptability. We foster a psychologically safe environment centered on trust and accountability where feedback is encouraged. We leverage data to reflect on progress, own setbacks, celebrate successes, and continuously improve to maximize impact.
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Job Description:About The Position
The Director of College Partnerships will play a pivotal role in strengthening, expanding, and maximizing KIPP's national network of college partnerships to dramatically improve persistence and completion outcomes for KIPP students. Reporting to the Vice President of College Partnerships, the Director will serve as a regional expert who builds deep, strategic relationships with colleges and universities and aligns institutional commitments with KIPP's bold 2030 goals.
The Director will lead the work to secure and deepen MOUs with institutions committed to strong access, affordability, persistence, and completion outcomes. This includes managing a portfolio of partner colleges, cultivating new partnership opportunities with top institutions nationwide, analyzing partner performance data, and collaborating closely with regions, high schools, and the KIPP Forward Counseling and Match team to ensure that partnerships are effectively leveraged to support students.
This is a highly external-facing role requiring exceptional relationship management, negotiation ability, data fluency, and strategic execution. The Director will collaborate with KIPP Forward teams, regional counseling leaders, external partners, and senior institutional leaders to ensure that partnerships strengthen student access, success, and completion.
Responsibilities
Your goal will be to drive YOY increases in signed partnership MOUs and to help build the systems, relationships, and accountability structures needed to establish partnerships with the nation’s top 250 colleges by 2030. The Director will play a critical role in driving measurable improvements in the outcomes of KIPPsters at partner institutions, including the following targets: 95 percent persistence to freshman spring, 90 percent persistence to sophomore year, 30 percent four-year graduation, 45 percent five-year graduation, and 60 percent six-year graduation.
Partnership Development and Expansion
Lead MOU development and negotiation processes, ensuring clarity of commitments and measurable goals.
Identify, vet, and prioritize new partnership opportunities aligned with the goal of partnering with the nation's top 250 colleges.
Portfolio Management and Relationship Stewardship
Manage a regional portfolio of college partners and maintain strong relationships with senior leaders.
Conduct regular partnership performance reviews and data-informed discussions to strengthen collaboration.
Support partners in implementing practices that advance student success.
Driving Student Outcomes Through Partnerships
Analyze persistence, enrollment, and completion data to identify trends and gaps.
Collaborate with partner institutions to enhance advising structures, financial pathways, and campus-based supports.
Ensure that partnership commitments meaningfully contribute to FY27 and 2030 persistence and graduation milestones.
Cross-Team Collaboration and Regional Support
Collaborate with Counseling and Match Directors, high school teams, and regional leaders to integrate partnerships into student advising and match strategies.
Provide guidance on partner institution strengths and opportunities.
Align partnership commitments with scholarship pathways and persistence strategies.
Strategic Initiatives and Knowledge Management
Build and refine systems, tools, and codified practices that strengthen partnership effectiveness.
Contribute to the development of the College Partnerships strategy, including goals and accountability structures.
Document and share best practices to strengthen execution nationally.
Skills and Mindsets
Mission and Student Focus: Demonstrates passion and commitment to KIPP’s mission and possesses the desire and ability to uphold KIPP’s core values (Focus on Excellent Results, Collective Impact, and Courageous Action)
Self-Management: Demonstrated record of setting ambitious goals and achieving them with consistency. Invests in developing teammates’ skills and mindsets to address gaps in achieving team growth; determines what quantitative and qualitative data are most relevant to their goals and supports the team in creating and monitoring systems for collecting, reviewing, and acting upon data to drive outcomes; able to monitor progress, communicating status to the right stakeholders and adjusting plans and use of time to ensure systems are yielding desired outcomes.
Effective Work Management: Sets a clear vision for new or complex bodies of work. Develops and implements agile project plans, navigating difficult situations or conflicts while maintaining effective relationships with all stakeholders; creates and ensures systems are in place for knowledge management.
Strategic Decision Making & Problem Solving: Efficiently defines the right metrics to evaluate work and ensures critical team actions, decisions, and recommendations are driven by data; effectively works with team to resolve issues around data to ensure sound data-informed decisions. Effectively identifies and addresses root causes to the most important problem.
Collaboration: Has the interpersonal, diplomatic, relationship building, and communications skills needed to develop successful working relationships with diverse constituents to deliver results. Evolves and adapts plans and approach with diverse stakeholders to drive results. Possesses excellent communication skills with aptitude for translating complex information into a clear and persuasive narratives that convince others by identifying benefits for all.
Experience and Qualifications
Required:
7 or more years of experience in college access, college partnerships, higher education, nonprofit management, or related fields.
Experience developing or managing strategic partnerships, preferably with colleges or universities.
Demonstrated experience using data to identify trends, inform decisions, and drive outcomes.
Experience in K-12 education, charter networks, or similar environments.
Experience negotiating MOUs or institutional agreements.
Track record of managing complex, multi-site programs or portfolios, including data-informed decision making and resource allocation.
Experience collaborating with cross-functional teams and external partners to implement initiatives at scale.
Bachelor’s degree required; Master’s degree in Education, Counseling, Higher Education, or a related field preferred.
Preferred:
Experience with networked or multi-school educational organizations, ideally with experience in KIPP, charter school networks, or similar contexts.
Familiarity with tools and platforms supporting student data tracking, college/career readiness programming, and communication with families.
Work Conditions
Travel requirements: Up to 30% travel to partner institutions, KIPP regions, or staff convenings
Job Type: Full Time, Exempt
Location
It is preferred, but not mandatory for this role to be based out of a KIPP Foundation office. This role has the option of working from a remote office full-time. KIPP Foundation offices are in NYC and Chicago.
Compensation and Benefits
In compliance with local law, we are disclosing the compensation, or a range thereof, for roles in locations where legally required. Actual salaries will vary based on several factors, including but not limited to external market data, internal equity, and relevant experience. The salary range for this position is $124,800 - $150,000. In addition, KIPP Foundation provides a variety of benefits to employees, including:
25 holidays for + 18 days additional flexible PTO days (flexible PTO increases to 23 days for years 3 and 4 and to 28 days for years 5+).
100% paid parental leave
100% coverage of the premium for employee and 75% for employee + family’s medical/dental/vision plans.
Wellness benefits such as fitness reimbursements, discounted tickets to theme parks/attractions, backup care support for children and adults/elders, and our employee assistance program
Finance Security benefits include such as a 401K retirement plan with 4% match, employer-sponsored legal plans, life/disability insurance, and flexible spending accounts
KIPP Foundation embraces the opportunity to build a workforce that reflects the diversity of the students and communities with whom we work and the world that’s around them. Being an equal opportunity employer means that we take seriously our responsibility to consider qualified candidates on the basis of merit, without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, mental or physical disability, and genetic information, marital status, citizenship status, military status, protected veteran status or any other category protected by law.