Vice President, People

Job Description

Job Description

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 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. 

Job Description

About The Position

KIPP Foundation is at a defining moment—an opportunity to deepen our impact by building a talent system that enables every leader and staff member to thrive in service of students and communities. We are committed to setting a high bar for excellence, strengthening leadership capacity, and ensuring our talent systems are clear, consistent, and built to scale. 

The Vice President of People, reporting to the Senior Vice President of People Operations, will play a critical leadership role in bringing this vision to life. This leader will design and drive an integrated, insights-driven talent strategy that connects every part of the employee experience—from how we attract and onboard talent, to how we develop, engage, and retain our people. 

By aligning the full talent lifecycle including recruitment, performance management, employee engagement, Total Rewards, professional development, and offboarding the Vice President will ensure that our systems not only support leaders, but empower them to deliver meaningful results and thrive. 

At KIPP, we believe great outcomes are driven by great leaders operating within strong systems. In this role, you will ensure those systems are not only well-designed, but deeply embedded, building the capacity of leaders across the Foundation to lead effectively, develop their teams, and consistently meet a high bar for performance. 

This is an opportunity for a strategic and systems-oriented leader who is energized by complexity, driven by impact, and committed to building the conditions for people and organizations to do their best work. 

Responsibilities 

Talent Strategy & Organizational Alignment 

• Set and drive the overall talent strategy and talent philosophy for the KIPP Foundation workforce, ensuring alignment with organizational priorities, culture, and long-term goals. 

• Partner with the SVP of People Operations and executive leadership to align talent strategy with organizational design, workforce planning, and operational priorities. 

• Ensure a coherent, integrated talent system across the Foundation, including recruitment, onboarding, HR operations, performance management, development, engagement, and offboarding. 

• Serve as a strategic advisor to leadership on organizational effectiveness, talent health, and workforce strategy, using data and insights to inform decision-making. 

Talent Systems & Organizational Effectiveness 

• Oversee the design and effectiveness of the full talent lifecycle, ensuring systems and processes drive strong performance, development, and retention outcomes. 

• Set the vision for performance management and development systems, including goal setting, feedback cycles, and evaluation processes, in partnership with the Senior Director of Development & Growth. 

• Ensure effective HR operations and infrastructure, including recruitment, onboarding, Total Rewards, and compliance, in partnership with the Senior Director of People Operations. 

• Use workforce, engagement, and performance data to monitor organizational health, identify risks, and drive continuous improvement across talent systems. 

Employee Relations, Policy & Risk Management 

• Establish the vision, policies, and standards for employee relations, including performance management, conflict resolution, and policy compliance. 

• Ensure consistent, fair, and compliant application of HR policies and practices across the organization. 

• Advise senior leaders on complex employee relations matters and organizational risk, ensuring alignment with legal and organizational standards. 

Leadership & Team Management 

• Lead and develop the Talent function, setting the vision and strategic direction to ensure strong execution across both People Operations and Development & Growth. 

• Oversee and coach Senior Directors, ensuring clear ownership, alignment, and accountability across: 

• People Operations (HR systems, recruitment, Total Rewards, and HR operations)  

• Development & Growth (goal setting, performance systems, manager development, and engagement)  

• Set enterprise-level priorities and allocate resources to ensure the Talent function is focused on the highest-impact work and positioned to deliver against organizational goals. 

• Drive alignment and integration across talent systems, ensuring a seamless and consistent employee experience across both sub teams. 

• Foster a high-performing, outcomes-driven culture across the Talent team that emphasizes accountability, collaboration, and continuous improvement. 

• Build leadership capacity across the team by coaching senior leaders, strengthening decision-making, and ensuring clear expectations and performance standards. 

• Act as a visible culture leader and ambassador for KIPP, modeling organizational values and reinforcing a high bar for performance, equity, and impact across the Foundation. 

Organizational Talent Planning & Culture 

• Partner with leadership to drive annual workforce planning, talent strategy, and culture priorities aligned to organizational goals. 

• Ensure alignment between talent strategy, employee experience, and organizational culture, reinforcing a high bar for performance and development. 

• Support the organization in building a strong, inclusive, and high-performing workforce, aligned to KIPP’s mission and values.

Qualifications

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 and effectively distributes and redistributes work among direct reports, teammates. 

• Work Management: Sets a clear vision that ensures alignment of the teams work to organizational goals. Effectively prioritize and deliver work products that ensure sustainability and scalability of work.   

• Data Driven Actions: Able to generate, implement, and evaluate solutions with a focus on scalability and sustainability.   

• Problem Solving:  Takes calculated risks to test and implements correct, scalable solutions.   

• Change Management: 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. 

• People Management and 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.    

 

Experience and Qualifications 

• 8+ years of senior HR and talent management leadership experience in nonprofit or education contexts at progressive levels of responsibility with evidence of successful development and organizational outcomes 

• Understanding of current education climate and corresponding response strategies for the communities we serve 

• Strong background in leading with equity at the center, especially through organizational change and growth 

• Experience cultivating a work culture in a virtual environment that is value-driven, equitable, and inclusive 

 

Additional Information

Work Conditions 

• Travel: Moderate Travel: Up to 10% (up to 20 days per year)

• Full, exempt role 

Location 

It is preferred, but not mandatory for this role to be based out of a KIPP Foundation office. This role also 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 $197,600-$236,500. 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.