Senior Director, Financial Systems Training and Development

Company Description

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 275 schools, nearly 16,500 educators, and 175,000 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 schools across the country. The KIPP Foundation trains and develops outstanding educators to lead KIPP public schools; provides tools, resources, and training 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:

• Focus on Excellent Results: Winning for Children and Families – Denying people of color and people experiencing economic hardship excellent outcomes from public organizations is longstanding and only perpetuates inter-generational racism and poverty. We pursue excellence at a world-class level because our children and families deserve nothing less. We focus on excellent results, generated by excellent daily action because intentions alone will not enable our children to lead fulfilling lives.
• Courageous Action: We do Hard Things All day, Every Day – Our work is centered on reversing the impact of generational racism and poverty on children of color from low-income families. This work is inherently challenging and will never be easy. Our mission requires that, through concerted action, we embrace, confront, and overcome adversity.
• Resilient Solutions Focus: Find a Way or Make One – We doggedly pursue solutions to every problem we confront. For every problem, we find or invent a solution. We are smart, optimistic, and thoughtful in crafting solutions, but also timely, recognizing that our children only have one life to live. We embrace a growth mindset, believing that simply because we have not achieved our ultimate aims today does not mean that we cannot tomorrow. We chase the continuous improvement of ourselves, our interpersonal relationships, our teams, and our organization.
  
  

Job Description

About The Position

The KIPP Foundation is looking for a Senior Director, Financial Systems Training and Development. The Foundation Finance Team exists to support foundation and regional stakeholders as we work together to meet and exceed our ambitious financial and student achievement goals. The Senior Director, Financial Systems Training and Development will partner with finance, national, regional, and school teams to increase efficiency and provide a high level of support in meeting shared financial goals.  They design professional learning experiences that reflect the most fundamental components of KIPP Foundation’s point of view on fiduciary responsibility, financial compliance, policy and procedures, annual planning, budget management, and customer service. They engage frequently with national and regional leaders, design training, coach managers, and finance functional area partners to execute training and ensure in-field impact.

The Senior Director, Financial Systems Training and Development will be remote and report to the Vice President, Financial Planning and Support. This position will work closely with KIPP regions and local finance leads and KIPP Foundation senior leaders.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Achieve annual operating income goals to ensure long-term financial stability for KIPP Schools across the network.
• Ensure national, regional and campus leaders understand the importance of financial results and their responsibility as KIPP School fiduciaries, support them in making real connections to their functional work through development programming and resources highlighting key elements of monthly and annual financial results on an entity and regional basis
• Support in the development of the ability of members of the Finance Team to educate leaders regarding financial results and key performance indicators through internal development and resources, observation and real-time coaching.
• Assess and respond to the training needs of the organization, adapting programs to meet these needs and evaluate their effectiveness through feedback and performance metrics
• Attend, engage in, and sometimes lead Finance Lead Team operating mechanisms to ensure appropriate communication and support from the Senior Director, Financial Systems Training and Development.
• Develop the financial skills of leaders and financial managers. Ensure members of the Finance Team embody the customer service mindset.
• Design programming directed towards the Finance Team improving the end user experience, focusing on the Finance Team customer service philosophy and service level agreements
• Create high quality reference materials for financial managers related to key finance functions
• Serve as a key advisor in financial planning sessions and high-level decision-making forums
• Support professional development and plans for budget owners and financial managers
• Establish and maintain standards for financial operations, including data entry, processing, and reporting, to foster consistency and reliability across all financial activities
• Lead and inspire a team of financial professionals to identify and implement process enhancements, fostering a culture of continuous improvement and collaboration across departments to streamline financial operations and maximize organizational efficiency.
• Partner with the Senior Director of Financial Planning and Support to execute the annual financial planning and budget process in partnership with key stakeholders and cross functional teams
• Work to continuously improve the process based on glows and grows from each cycle. Ensure the annual financial planning and budgeting process is holistic and adapts to meet the planning needs of the organization in any given fiscal year
• Foster a culture of transparency and collaboration within the finance team and across organizational departments
• Coordinate cross-departmental projects to improve integration and operational efficiency
• Implement best practices in financial management across the organization
• Consult with teams that are off track and provide actionable recommendations to improve financial systems and procedures
• Partner with the Senior Director, Finance Strategy and Support to ensure high quality support, reference materials, and development options are available to financial managers. Ensure these resources are consistently utilized and referred to during team touch points.
• Support KIPP regions in financial performance
• Support KIPP regions to have strong financial performance and full ability to fund One KIPP priorities and ensure strong academic outcomes for students
• Execute the vision for finance communities of practice including consistent touch points, peer support groups, robust resource libraries, and professional development scope and sequence
• Support regions and provide consistent financial management guidance and coaching, increase support as needed and directed by the VP of Financial Planning and Support in collaboration with Regional Superintendents
• Ensure regions are consistently reporting financial results to management and Boards
• Be prepared to personally lean in with portfolio regions that need more intensive support including time in field or consistent virtual connections
• Work to identify trends in need across portfolio regions and where KIPP Foundation resources can be best leveraged to improve regional financial and academic results
• Cascade best practices and learnings from KIPP Foundation best in class finance systems and processes to portfolio regions
  
  

Qualifications

Skills

• Mission & Student Focus: Expresses high expectations for all students and expresses belief in their potential to complete college and succeed in life. Keeps commitments made to others – especially students; desire and ability to uphold KIPP’s values (Focus on Excellent Results, Courageous Action, and Resilient Solutions Focus) 
• Achievement Orientation – infuses clarity in accountability and goals, ensuring measures of success are tied to student and organizational outcomes; Eliminates unnecessary bureaucracy/inefficiencies in pursuit of outcomes; can solve problems and make decisions collaboratively with others in pursuit of student outcomes;
• Process & Project Management: Can effectively manage complex projects with multiple stakeholders to deadlines while balancing multiple short- and long-term projects; highly organized and disciplined and can take an innovative approach to translating strategy into priorities and project plans, even in unstructured spaces; continually applies strong attention to detail in the execution and follow through of all projects; constantly looks for ways to improve and to scale learning quickly.
• Industry and financial Acumen – Knowledge of public education finance and the willingness to learn other states education finance systems; Skill in creating, maintaining, tracking, and monitoring budgets and developing projection costs associated with operating expenses
• Communications Skills: Clear and effective communicator; can effectively share complex information, translate for end users, and maintain a supportive and helpful tone; responds promptly to concerns and ensures that stakeholders are aware of actions that are being taken and explains the rationale for decisions and/or outcomes to the stakeholder; Asks questions to maintain clear communication regarding mutual and realistic expectations, desires or needs for improvement.
• Impact & Influence and Stakeholder Management: Adapts personal leadership style/approach to influence others. Stimulates others to act and accomplish goals, even when no direct reporting relationship exists. Gains the trust of key stakeholders by active listening and seeking to understand their views and needs.
• Critical Thinking and Strong Judgement - Ability to problem solve and to navigate and lead through complexity; effectively leverages data effectively for strategic decision-making and driving improvement; can make courageous yet necessary decisions in the interest of students and families with experience working with and in the interests of communities of color; can maintain exemplary integrity, discretion, and cultural competence while working with staff and with confidential/sensitive information.
• Cultural Competence & Commitment to Equity: A proactive cultural leader and team player who thrives on collaboration and learning; examines the impact of his/her identities, biases, assumptions, and behaviors on his/her power and privilege, interactions with others, work and leadership in the organization; able to recognize, immediately respond, and consistently remedy interpersonal and systemic bias and inequities.
  
  

Experience & Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in education, management, finance, business or another relevant field. Master of Education Administration or other relevant field preferred.
• 10 years of work experience with 5 years in management, training, finance, accounting or auditing experience; preferably non-profit or educational setting.
  
  

Additional Information

Work Conditions

• Full-time, Exempt position
• Travel requirements: Able to travel up to 30% of the time with increased travel during the busiest parts of the year.
  
  

Location

It is preferred, but not mandatory for this role to be based out of a KIPP Foundation office. This role also offers 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 $150,000-$181,000.  In addition, KIPP Foundation provides a variety of benefits to employees, including: 

• 28 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 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.