Job Description

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.

About The Position

The Regional Superintendent is one of the most important leadership roles at the KIPP Foundation. This person is directly accountable for performance of a portfolio of KIPP regions, and their primary lens is always instructional. Student learning outcomes are the center of gravity for this role, and everything the Regional Superintendent does is ultimately in service of ensuring that every school in their portfolio is delivering a meaningful, high-quality education for kids. The Regional Superintendent is responsible for the performance of every region in their portfolio and drives results through the Executive Directors they support and supervise. They know what excellent school districts look like, they can articulate what it takes to get there, and they hold EDs accountable for building toward that standard with rigor and consistency. Coaching and development are central to how the work gets done — the core coaching relationship in this role is about developing EDs who can make their schools instructionally excellent — not just organizationally functional. In most regions, this looks like ensuring EDs have the content knowledge, skills, and systems to effectively manage and develop their Chief Academic and Chief Schools Officers, those senior leaders responsible for running the academic systems required to ensure excellence in teaching and learning. While the Executive Director is responsible for running the region — its finances, governance, talent systems, and operational infrastructure — the Regional Superintendent is responsible for ensuring the region has an ED capable of doing so. The health of the region is ultimately the Executive Director's responsibility to own and run. The Regional Superintendent's role is not to manage those functions directly, but to help EDs avoid serious mistakes, recognize when a situation is escalating beyond what an ED can manage, and surface those situations to the Chief of Regional Impact before they become crises. When an ED cannot meet the bar even with coaching and support, the Regional Superintendent is responsible for surfacing that judgment and acting on it. This is also a systems and process role. The Regional Superintendent sees across their portfolio, identifies where regional performance is falling short, and builds clear action plans rooted in the habits and systems that drive school improvement — data-driven instruction, intellectual preparation of teachers and leaders, and strong organizational accountability. They are skilled at a particularly important diagnostic question: why isn't all of this expertise making systemic impact? And they help their teams find and act on the answer. The Regional Superintendent is a senior leader who operates with strong judgment and high standards. This role works within the instructional vision set by the Chief Schools Officer and within the framework of our One KIPP strategy. The right candidate is a critical thinker and a results leader who understands that coherence across the network is a feature, not a constraint. They work in close partnership with three peer Regional Superintendents, the Chief of Regional Impact, and the Chief Schools Officer to ensure their work is unified and mutually reinforcing across the full network. They manage a team of Regional Impact teammates responsible for providing coaching and direction to the Chief Academic and Chief Schools Officers on the installation and improvement of our highest priority academic systems. The Regional Superintendent reports to the Chief of Regional Impact.

Responsibilities

Executive Director Accountability and Instructional Leadership

• Hold EDs accountable for performance against anchor metrics by providing direct and candid feedback and escalating talent concerns to the Chief of Regional Impact when warranted.
• Serve as the primary vehicle for evaluating KIPP EDs and managing their performance towards shared goals including informing decisions about ED hiring and continuity in role.
• Articulate a vision for what excellent school districts look like in partnership with the Chief of Regional Impact and Chief Schools Officer and insist that EDs lead – and get outcomes – in alignment with that vision.
• Build ED capacity to hold their own leadership teams accountable for academic outcomes and the faithful implementation of our shared One KIPP strategy.
• Serve as the primary instructional coach to Executive Directors — developing their ability to lead high-performing school districts that deliver meaningful learning outcomes for every student through their management of Chief Academic and Chief Schools Officers.
• Help Executive Directors and their teams bridge the gap between expertise and systemic impact — diagnosing why capable people are not yet moving the needle at scale and coaching them toward more effective, connected execution.
• Inform talent decisions across the portfolio, including selection, development, and transitions of senior regional leaders.

Team Leadership & Performance Management

• Manage excellent execution of a cross-functional pod team — bringing together individuals who hold different areas of expertise and organizing their work so that regional support is coherent, coordinated, and clearly connected to outcomes.
• Manage VP of Regional Impact to implement the academic strategy with CAOs and CSOs of regions in the portfolio in ways that yield student outcomes aligned with goals.
• Motivate team members and create space for them to bring their full expertise — while coaching the team to connect that expertise to systemic regional impact, not just individual contribution.
• Operationalize defined strategy through disciplined cross-functional planning, coordination, and follow-through working within the frameworks and vision established by the Chief Schools Officer and the One KIPP strategy.
• Determine when and where central resources and subject matter expertise are needed, directing support to the highest-impact regional priorities in multiple functional areas – including K-12 academics, College Guidance and Match, School Operations, Talent Systems, and other functional areas.

Operational Guidance and Support

• Partner with a portfolio of regions to set clear priorities in alignment with our One KIPP strategy across student outcomes, talent health, operational execution, and financial sustainability.
• Monitor results across anchor measures for all regions in the portfolio and intervene when performance falls short – recognizing that while the ED owns regional health, the Regional Superintendent is responsible for ensuring problems don’t go unaddressed.
• Provide guidance to EDs on operational and organizational matters — not to manage those functions directly, but to help EDs navigate complexity, avoid serious mistakes, and make sound decisions.
• Exercise sound judgment about when an operational, governance, or financial situation warrants escalation to the Chief of Regional Impact — and move quickly when it does.
• Identify cross-regional patterns, scaling effective practices and addressing systemic gaps to strengthen outcomes across the network.

Governance & Enterprise Influence

• Partner with Chiefs and regional boards to resolve complex challenges and maintain alignment across the network.
• Serve as point of escalation for regions in their portfolio on all non-academic related matters and determining if/when the escalation should reach the attention of the Chief of Regional Impact, Chief Schools Officer, or CEO.
• Operate as a unified and coherent member of the Regional Superintendent team — working alongside three peer Superintendents, the Chief of Regional Impact, and the Chief Schools Officer to ensure the Foundation's work across all regions is mutually reinforcing and network-wide in its impact.

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 and achieving ambitious goals for their departments in complex or ambiguous environment; uses data, research, and analysis to set a high bar of excellence for goal setting; effectively distributes and redistributes work among direct reports, teammates, and teams to optimizes goal attainments; effectively sets and fosters a culture that enables and celebrates teammates’ achievements and goals attainment.
• Problem Solving: Takes calculated risks to test and implements correct, scalable solutions. Addresses the root of problems and removes obstacles from work. Understands how solutions may unearth other obstacles further downstream.
• Data-Driven Actions and Decisions: Effectively uses data to shape teamwide decisions and the learning agenda or evaluation of a function or significant initiative. Able to generate, implement, and evaluate solutions with a focus on scalability and sustainability.
• Communication and Change Management: Effectively articulates case for change to multiple functions, teams, and/or offices through clear and compelling presentations, tailoring communications and engagement approach for different audiences. Effectively translates vision into actionable plans among across team stakeholders; Champions KF and networkwide change with all stakeholders.
• Collaboration: Identifies and leverages opportunities with both internal and external stakeholders to increase impact. Leads successful collaboration across functions and evolves plans to get strong results. Has the interpersonal, diplomatic, relationships building and communication skills to connect and compel teammates across different functions to collaborate effectively toward shared goals.
• People Management & Development: Effectively ensures strong professional development and coaching for teammates directly and through layers. Proficient in the mechanics of succession management and performance management for teammates. Able to coach manager of managers and skilled at fostering a positive team culture in which teammates feel ownership and accountability for their own and the broader team’s work and results.

Experience and Qualifications

• 15+ years of progressive experience in education leadership, including direct experience as an Executive Director, Superintendent, or CEO of a school system or education nonprofit.
• Demonstrated record of improving student outcomes at scale, including direct accountability for academic performance across multiple schools or regions.
• Proven ability to coach and develop senior leaders — ideally Executive Directors or equivalent — with measurable impact on their performance.
• Strong track record of navigating complex stakeholder environments, including governance structures, executive teams, and board-level accountability.
• Demonstrated change leadership experience at a systems level, including restructuring, strategy pivots, or major program redesign while maintaining team culture.
• Strong financial and operational fluency; experience overseeing complex budgets and operating models. • Experience in K-12 education strongly preferred.

Work Conditions

• Extensive Travel: 31-40% (65–90 days per year)
• 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 $310,000-$345,000. 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.