Executive Director Innovation and Strategy

Position Type:

Administration and Professionals

Date Posted:

2025-07-09

Location:Administration or As Assigned

INTRODUCTION: CONTEXT AND MISSION

The Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD) serves approximately 37,000 students in 100+ schools. Over the past several years, the Greater Cleveland community has united behind the collective goal of ensuring every child in Cleveland attends a high-quality school and every neighborhood has a multitude of great schools from which families can choose. The Cleveland Plan defines CMSD’s approach to the reinvention of public education and holds our community accountable for the success of Cleveland’s schoolchildren. The Cleveland Plan is supported by Ohio House Bill 525, which provides much-needed flexibility and autonomy for the district and its schools. Our schools have autonomy over human and financial resources in exchange for accountability for

performance. The principal has primary responsibility and accountability for establishing his or her school as a high-quality, high-expectations academic center with a focus on personalized instruction, professional support for teachers, and school-wide practices that lead to measurable results.

The Cleveland Metropolitan School District has developed standards of excellence that the district applies to all parts of the organization inclusive of schools, principals, school leadership teams, networks, and central office. Alignment between Standards of Excellence (SoE) and the district’s Theory of Action helps ensure that principals are able to focus on scholar achievement and that central office supports are timely and effective.

Our Vision for Learning in a Post-Pandemic World:

In our pursuit of a more fair, just, and good system of education, we want each of our learners, both each of our scholars and each of their educators, to be individually and collectively presented with academically / intellectually complex tasks that are worthy of their productive struggle and allow them authentic opportunities to demonstrate their work and their learning of academic content and transferable skills in a joyful and adventurous environment.

THE OPPORTUNITY:

 

Location: Administration or As Assigned
Reports to: Chief of District Operations
FLSA Status: Exempt
Salary Band: 11
Compensation: $108,402.00 - $140,922.00

This position has the primary responsibility for alignment and growth of high-performing District schools, coordinating CMSD's investments and advising the Chief of District Operations on strategic issues and operation policy planning decisions to ensure that a coherent centralized system of options supports all Cleveland school communities which is constantly improving to meet neighborhood, student and family needs.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• Provide administrative and communications support necessary to put the District Operations Division strategy and plans into action
• Assess and lead the school facilities design and re-design process to align programs to support the work of a strong and engaging instructional core in alignment with the District’s board-approved long-term plan for its facilities and programs
• Lead innovation and strategic planning initiatives, focusing on revamping and redesigning systems and processes to enhance school and District-wide functionality.
• Provide support to networks and schools to identify and implement improvement strategies to address specific challenges identified through the portfolio evaluation cycle in support of the District Operations Policy and Planning team
• Provide and facilitate professional growth and learning for various audiences to strengthen District capacity to implement effective change
• Maintain up-to-date knowledge of research, best practices, and innovation in teaching and learning, academic models, and whole child support
• Prepare presentations and create user-friendly reports to develop a deeper understanding of the basis for and execution of strategy implementation 

SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Oversee and provide guidance to the distribution and logistics team manager ensuring alignment with organizational goals and effective team performance
• Supervise and support an individual contributor, fostering his/her professional development and ensuring high-quality output
• Conduct regular performance evaluations and provide constructive feedback to both the team manager and the individual contributor
• Facilitate communication and collaboration between the team manager and the individual contributor to ensure cohesive and efficient operations