Chief Operating Officer

Job Description

Our client is a rapidly growing, well-funded, private equity-backed EdTech publisher delivering high-impact instructional solutions to the US K-12 market. Following significant institutional investment and strong market adoption, the company is scaling its operations to support accelerated growth, product expansion, and market penetration.

The company is seeking a highly strategic and operationally rigorous Chief Operating Officer (COO) . Partnering closely with the Chief Executive Officer and the Board of Directors, the COO will oversee the modernization and scaling of the company’s operational infrastructure, product delivery pipelines, customer success mechanisms, and cross-functional execution. This executive will ensure the business achieves its aggressive value creation plan while maintaining a culture of educational excellence and high performance.

Major Responsibilities

Operational Scaling & Strategy Execution

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• Drive the Value Creation Plan: Translate the overarching corporate vision and private equity investment thesis into actionable, measurable operational strategies and KPI frameworks across all departments.
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• Optimize Product Delivery Pipelines: Oversee the operational lifecycle of digital and print-supplemental curriculum delivery, ensuring seamless coordination between product development, content engineering, supply chain, and deployment.
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• Infrastructure & Systems Modernization: Evaluate and upgrade internal systems, enterprise software (ERP/CRM/LMS integration), and cross-departmental workflows to support a multi-X growth trajectory.
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Performance Management & PE Reporting

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• Establish Operational Rigor: Implement data-driven performance management structures utilizing clear OKRs and dashboards to track efficiency, margin optimization, and organizational capacity.
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• Board & Sponsor Engagement: Act as a key liaison to the Private Equity sponsor; prepare and present comprehensive operational metrics, variance analyses, and scalability assessments for Board of Directors meetings.
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• Capital Allocation & Budgeting: Collaborate with the CFO to manage operational P&L, optimize resource allocation, and ensure capital expenditures directly align with growth milestones.
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Customer Experience & Scale

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• Post-Sale Excellence: Champion the optimization of the customer lifecycle—from strategic implementation and rostering to customer success and technical support—ensuring world-class retention and Net Promoter Scores (NPS) across school districts.
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• Cross-Functional Alignment: Bridge silos between Sales, Marketing, Product Development, and Finance to ensure organizational readiness for peak K-12 seasonal adoption cycles (Back-to-School).
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Preferred Qualifications

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• EdTech Sector Expertise: Minimum of 10–15 years of progressive executive leadership experience, with a proven track record as a COO, EVP of Operations, or equivalent scale-up role within a K-12 EdTech or K-12 instructional publishing environment .
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• Private Equity Track Record: Direct experience operating within a PE-backed portfolio company is highly preferred. Demonstrated familiarity with the pace, reporting cadence, leverage constraints, and exit orientation of institutional sponsors.
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• Scale Execution: Proven success scaling a technology or content platform business from early/mid-stage growth to substantial scale (e.g., $50M+ ARR and beyond).
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• K-12 Market Fluency: Deep understanding of the operational nuances of the US K-12 purchasing ecosystem, including state adoptions, district procurement timelines, implementation complexities, and student data privacy compliance (FERPA/COPPA).
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• Academic Credibility & Technical Sophistication: Ability to command respect from both educational content creators and sophisticated software engineering teams, balancing pedagogical impact with technical scalability.
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Leadership Attributes & Cultural Fit

The ideal candidate is a "strategic executioner"—someone who can think high-level alongside the CEO and Board but possesses the granular operational discipline to build processes that don't break under pressure.

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• Data-Driven Decisiveness: Exceptional analytical capabilities; relies on hard metrics and financial models to diagnose operational bottlenecks and justify resource shifts.
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• High-EQ Leadership: A collaborative builder of high-performing teams who motivates cross-functional organizations through transparency, accountability, and a shared mission to improve student outcomes.
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• Agility & Resilience: Thrives in fast-paced, fluid environments where priorities must adapt quickly to market demands or strategic M&A integration opportunities.
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The Renaissance Network - Building World-Class Teams to Impact Education

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