Uplift Education: Primary School Academic Director (Principal) Pool (26-27)

Position Type:
Administration - Deans, Directors, etc/Director - Academic

Date Posted:
12/9/2025

Location:
Central Management Office Dallas

Closing Date:
01/07/2026
Mission Statement:

Uplift's mission is to create and sustain public schools of excellence that empower each student to reach their highest potential in college and the global marketplace and that inspire in students a life-long love of learning, achievement, and service in order to positively change their world.

Primary Purpose:

The Primary School Academic Director is the leader of the school and, in conjunction with the Operations Director, is responsible for all aspects of running the school. The Primary School Academic Director sets the instructional and academic vision for the school, aligned with Uplift's IB vision for excellence. They will establish and maintain a supportive, respectful learning environment and guide the school leadership team to develop the talent on campus to achieve strong academic and cultural outcomes. The Primary School Director will partner and work effectively with the campus leadership team as well as other leaders across the network to realize Uplift's mission for the communities it serves.


Duties & Responsibilities:

Campus Leadership: The Academic Director is responsible for establishing and maintaining a vision for the school and campus with high expectations for staff and scholars.

• Develop and execute on a strategic vision for school that aligns with network priorities
• Establish and maintain a shared vision of success for staff members and scholars
• Outline clear goals for the school and create targets and aligned strategies to continually improve scholar outcomes through teacher and staff effectiveness
• Establish and maintain a culture of continuous improvement
• Serve as visible campus leader in the community with families, community partners, and board members

Instructional Leadership (Coaching, Planning & Management): The Academic Director is responsible for setting the vision for instruction for the school and leading the school in managing instructional and academic outcomes, aligned to Uplift's IB vision for excellence.

• Establish and implement systems and protocols to regularly and effectively assess school wide instructional practice
• Coach and develop Deans, teacher leaders and a portfolio of teachers, as applicable
• Observe staff members regularly and provide targeted feedback
• Monitor progress of teams (grade level/content area) through debriefs, observation, and academic data review at frequent checkpoints
• Create, deliver and manage professional development offerings for staff members aligned to campus priorities
• Facilitate data meetings and action planning with leadership and other key teams
• Analyze and synthesize school, teacher, and scholar data regularly in order to plan effective course corrections

People Management & Development: The Academic Director is responsible for cultivating the highest level of professional capacity of all staff members at the school.

• Establish school norms for all people managers at the school around people management and development
• Recruit, hire, mentor and retain high-quality and high-performing staff members
• Define expectations and goals for staff performance across all areas of their job to ensure school operations and goals are fulfilled
• Provide day to day feedback and coaching (performance/technical and developmental) to staff
• Serve as a thought partner and guide for planning professional development for direct reports aligned to developmental goals
• Observe employee performance, record observations, and conduct rigorous performance evaluations based in continuous improvement and accountability for results
• Supervise all employee discipline situations and make decisions about termination or suspension

Scholar Culture & Family Partnership: The Academic Director is responsible for leading staff members, scholars and families to establish a positive, IB aligned, achievement-oriented school culture in compliance with state/federal law and Uplift policy.

• Ensure the student handbook and Code of Conduct is published and applied in compliance with Uplift guidelines, and that all related procedures regarding student discipline, investigations and documentation standards are correctly executed
• Ensure rules are implemented consistently and that scholar discipline is appropriate and equitable in accordance with the handbook and Code of Conduct, with an emphasis on the use of restorative practices
• Support the Dean with preparing for and facilitating meetings/conference with parents, scholars and teachers
• Facilitate and/or conduct high priority meetings with parents, scholars and teachers with emergency or repeated violations of the Code of Conduct, including making recommendations for scholar expulsion
• Create or facilitate the creation of systems to ensure strong plans are in place for scholar services and management (support services, discipline management, etc.)
• Encourage and foster strong relationships with families to encourage community involvement in the school

Professional Growth & Learning: The Academic Director is responsible for acting professionally and ethically at all times, while relentlessly pursuing continual improvement.

• Model and demonstrate the highest standard of professional conduct, ethical principles and integrity in decision making, actions and behaviors
• Seek and engage in learning opportunities to develop holistically as leader (technical skill development, adaptive leadership development, cultural development)
• Attend and participate in network leadership meetings, academies, conferences, as applicable
• Implement practices learned at professional development, monitor and evaluate implementation for effectiveness, and share findings with network leaders

Administrative Functions: The Academic Director with collaborate closely with school and K-12 campus leadership teams to ensure strong implementation of programs and events.

• Manage resources (people, financial) effectively to support school and organizational goals
• Utilizes funds in compliance with organizational, state and federal guidelines in order to achieve school goals
• Establish organizational structures and systems for scholar and teacher management and retention
• Coordinate the planning of daily school activities with leadership team and staff

Qualifications:

Education, Experience, and/or Certification(s)

Education & Certification Requirements:

• Bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university required. Master's degree is desirable but not required.
• Valid teaching certification and/or principal certificate in the State of Texas is preferred but not required.

Experience Requirements:

• Minimum of five years of experience in education, with at least two of those years' experience with primary school level instruction.
• Minimum of three years as a Dean or Assistant Principal.
• Teaching or leadership experience at an IB World School is preferred but not required.
• Prior experience leading a school through IB authorization and/or evaluation is preferred but not required.

Required Skills/Abilities:

• Communication Skills: Excellent oral and written communication skills with an ability to effectively present information to top management, public groups, and/or boards of directors.
• Bi-lingual Skills: Bilingual (Spanish) preferred but not required.
• Technology: Proficiency in Microsoft Office and Google Suite applications is required. Working knowledge of common educational technology and IB digital platforms is preferred.

Other required skills/competencies:

• A belief in Uplift Education's mission, values, and operating norms and a commitment to living them daily
• Thorough knowledge of the principles, methods, strategies, goals, and objectives of public education
• Excellent interpersonal, leadership, and management skills with a keen ability to motivate, educate, and inspire both internal and external stakeholders
• Ability to effectively plan, organize and execute the management functions of school operation and initiatives
• Ability to effectively analyze, address and solve complex problems and develop creative solutions
• Ability to engage sensitively and fairly with persons from diverse cultural backgrounds and interact with a broad range of stakeholders with different interests and needs
• Ability to navigate complex student situations, including escalated student discipline issues, couple with advance knowledge of federal and state law as it pertains to scholar and family rights
• Ability to handle multiple priorities and frequent interruptions

Work Environment: The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• Employee must be able to maintain emotional control under stress.
• Occasional prolonged and irregular hours will be necessary.
• While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to sit and talk or hear.
• The employee frequently is required to use hands and fingers to handle, feel and reach with hands and arms.
• The employee is frequently required to stand, walk, and use stairs.
• The employee must occasionally lift and/or move up to 30 pounds.
• Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, depth perception, and ability to adjust focus.
• Occasional travel between home campus and CMO or other campuses is required. Employee must have reliable transportation to travel between campuses/offices within the DFW Metroplex

Uplift Education is an equal employment opportunity employer and will not discriminate against any employee or applicant on the basis of age, color, disability, gender, national origin, race, religion, sexual orientation, veteran status, or any classification protected by federal, state or local law.