Partner, Portfolio Director STEM

Start Date: Immediate

Role Type: Full-time

Title: Partner, Portfolio Director

Reports to: Anirban Bhattacharyya - Managing Partner

Location/Travel: Flexible; willingness to travel approximately 1-2x a month, ~20-25% Travel.

Who We Are

Transcend's mission is to support communities to create and spread extraordinary, equitable learning environments. Founded in 2015, Transcend has partnered with over 390 schools/partners which collectively serve thousands of students in over 30 states across the country. As a research and development (R&D) hub for the education field, Transcend provides schools and systems with research-backed, community-driven models and capacity so they can make significant leaps to reimagine the future of education. Transcend is a nonprofit that operates with a fully remote, nationwide team; currently with 120+ teammates and growing. For more information, visit our website; follow us on LinkedIn or Twitter, check out this podcast featuring our two co-founders on Class Disrupted, or read this recent article that illuminates the need for this work.

The Opportunity

School Design Teams across Transcend engage in a variety of projects that directly support schools, systems, and communities to reinvent the way we do school. Working in specialized "portfolio" teams, we support school teams - in partnership with their communities - to design, build, and spread innovative school models. Our School Design portfolio teams use various methods to achieve these aims, including facilitating in-person and virtual workshops, 1:1 coaching (virtual and in-person), hands-on instructional and new model design work, resource creation and sharing, and forging connections to support the work.

We are looking for a Partner, Portfolio Director to support one of our portfolio teams that's working on the following projects:

• COMP3 (COMPutational Thinking + COMPuter Science + General COMPuting = COMP3): The Texas tech scene has grown significantly in recent years, drawing in job seekers from outside the state, and yet, there is a clear absence of local pathways for K-12 students to transition into these tech roles. This has led to increased difficulties and inequities for students who are interested in pursuing these opportunities. In response, we're working with communities to help increase the number of students who have access to high-quality computer science programming! Transcend supports 5 districts in Central Texas in their efforts to design and implement comprehensive K-12 models. We are so proud that in our first year, 1600 more students in Central Texas are learning COMP3!
• Math Learning Models: In the face of challenges in math achievement due to COVID-related learning losses and lack of impactful educational tools and resources, we are actively reimagining the future of math education in schools! To make this possible, our team is launching a new project bringing together each component of Transcend's mission and theory of action in the area of high-quality math models. Over the next several years, we will work with math solution providers (i.e. curriculum designers, model developers, professional development and support organizations, etc.) and schools with strong math models to increase the supply of adoptable math models. Additionally, we will support communities to implement one or more of these developed models, demonstrating what is possible and generating valuable insights for the field.

The Role

As the Partner, Portfolio Director on this project, you will leverage your talents in project management, operations, team culture, and passion for education to help our team reimagine STEM education, making it accessible to learners across multiple communities.

You will play a mash-up of roles akin to project manager, operational whiz, and culture steward to ensure all the moving pieces within the portfolio are well-coordinated, communications internally and externally are clear and cohesive, timelines are met, the team remains focused on the most important priorities, and the team is happy and thriving. As part of this role, you will get to:

• Create structures for internal team operations and project coordination. With the support and oversight of the Managing Partner, create and manage cohesive systems to organize diverse work streams across the portfolio by providing guidance, structure, and support for internal, cross-functional meeting collaboration and processes. This includes spearheading smooth logistics for internal and external meetings by supporting the facilitation of team meetings, preparing agendas/slide decks, taking meeting notes, and sending follow-ups. In addition to, supporting and providing feedback on the portfolio's strategy to ensure goal alignment, resource allocation, and consistent progress monitoring.
• Lead internal/external communications and steward relationships, including the creation of summary decks/materials, coordination of streamlined communication structures and routines for the internal team, and collaboration with other teams internal to Transcend to keep people in the loop and coordinate across functions as needed. As appropriate, serve as the primary point of contact between Transcend and its external partners, and join alongside Transcend Partners and Managing Partners directly in partner-facing work with funders, partner organizations, school and system leaders, Principals, and District Leadership.
• Lead and contribute to portfolio projects. This ranges from collaborating with our finance team to support onboarding for project contractors (background checks, materials, etc.), to creating a library of our materials for easy access by project teams, to preparing slide decks for potential partners, to drafting memos, to advising on the data infrastructure we need to understand progress, to researching instructional partners, etc.! This role is ready to roll up sleeves to pick up a range of tasks, as they emerge, to ensure the project is well managed, on-track, and has all the artifacts and tools it needs.
• Plan and facilitate events and day-to-day portfolio operations for all project needs (including in-person workshops with school teams, team retreats and community-building activities, school visits, and day-to-day logistics and coordination). And, leverage strong project management systems to ensure timelines and deadlines for projects are met and meaningful experiences are created and executed. At times, this may include working with internal operations teammates and/or operations contractors, and external vendors.
• Grant management. Monitor grant deliverables and requirements, and support the team in executing and reporting against those deliverables.
• Budget management. Support overseeing budget finances for the team in collaboration with the portfolio team's Managing Partner.
• Participate fully in Transcend's culture and uphold and live into Transcend's core values.

Who You Are

You are a project management whiz, with top-notch organizational and communication skills and follow-through. You know how to get people to do what needs to get done and you do it with clarity, vision, and care. (Your friends look to you to organize the potluck, and you secretly have fun whipping up the spreadsheet -- and calendaring the reminders -- to make sure the meal is well-rounded and no one forgets forks!) You are effective at working with a range of personalities, working styles, and functions; deftly synthesizing information from all corners into a cogent way forward.

In a nutshell, you have:

• A deep commitment to Transcend's mission of transforming education, and an eagerness to add to Transcend's culture and live into Transcend's core values
• Outstanding project management and organizational skills that allow you to gather and organize multiple work streams and logistics efficiently
• Exceptionally clear, persuasive, and efficient writing skills in prose, slides, and other creative methods
• Detail-orientation, and skills to build easy-to-use systems from scratch to manage all details and support effective decision-making with impeccable follow-through. Proficient with data, spreadsheets, and basic analytics
• Flexibility, enthusiasm, and trust - to build positive relationships and collaborate with internal and external stakeholders
• Proven experience navigating ambiguity and succeeding in dynamically- changing contexts
• Strong personal org systems for the remote work environment

Perks and Benefits

Transcend is committed to providing our colleagues with a competitive benefits package. Transcend offers medical, dental and vision coverage options, org-wide holidays, paid time off, paid parental leave, professional development opportunities, and fully remote work. We're also proud of our values-grounded, equity-focused, and fun (!) work environment, incredible colleagues, and dedication to our purposeful work and to one another. Early in our process, we will share the salary band for the role based on your location as we operate in a fully remote national team and apply a cost-of-labor adjustment by adjusting salaries into 3 geographical bands (geo-bands). These geo-bands help us tailor compensation appropriately based on the specific location of each teammate.

Join Us!

Transcend is an equal opportunity employer. We are building a diverse team that values diversity, equity, and inclusion.