Chief Talent Officer

Company Description

About KIPP Texas Public Schools

KIPP Texas Public Schools is a network of 57 public charter, open-enrollment, pre-k-12 schools educating nearly 34,000 students across Austin, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Houston, and San Antonio. Together with families and communities, our mission is to 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.

Founded in Houston in 1994, and operating as KIPP Texas since 2018, our commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and antiracism in our classrooms, in our offices, and in the communities we serve is unwavering. We are looking to hire a diverse team of dynamic, collaborative, and dedicated individuals with an unyielding belief that every child will succeed. Join our Team and Family and champion equity, chase excellence, persist with purpose, bring joy, and help us rise together.

KIPP Texas is part of the national KIPP network of 255 college-preparatory public charter schools in 20 states and the District of Columbia. Nationwide, KIPP students complete four-year college at a rate of 36 percent, comparable to the national average for all students and approximately three times higher than the average of students from low-income communities.

Job Description

About the Role

The CTO will play a pivotal role in supporting KIPP Texas’s ambitious goals outlined in the Committed to Excellence strategic plan. By ensuring our talent strategy directly contributes to elevating student performance and fostering innovation, the CTO will help scale our impact across all regions, ensuring every school is fully equipped to achieve its academic objectives. The CTO will also focus on building a high-performing, engaged workforce to support the organization's growth to serve 100,000 students by 2030.

Key Responsibilities and Duties

Strategic Talent Leadership

• Align talent strategy with the goals outlined in the Committed to Excellence plan, focusing on academic excellence, fully enrolled schools, and innovative schooling practices.

• Drive talent strategies that support the Transformation Schools initiative, ensuring high-quality educators and leaders are in place to uplift historically underperforming schools and sustain KIPP Texas’s expansion.

• Collaborate with the Executive Team to align talent strategies with organizational goals, ensuring talent initiatives are consistent with KIPP Texas’s mission and values.

• Innovate and implement best practices in talent management, leveraging data and industry trends to shape an agile, impactful Talent function.

Talent Acquisition & Retention

• Collaborate with school leaders to support fully enrolled schools, ensuring talent acquisition strategies align with regional enrollment targets.

• Focus on building and retaining talent that can execute KIPP Texas’s priorities, particularly in academic excellence and innovation, to meet the organization’s ambition to one day educate 100,000 students.

• Drive a culture of ownership around talent retention, implementing programs that enhance employee engagement, satisfaction, and career development.

• Foster partnerships with external organizations and networks to support recruitment efforts, particularly for high-impact roles in education and administration.

Talent Development & Performance Management

• Develop talent development initiatives that support KIPP Texas’s goal of creating transformational leadership and instructional excellence, a key pillar of the strategic plan.

• Focus on ensuring educators and staff are trained to execute innovative schooling initiatives, such as leveraging technology in the classroom to enhance student learning outcomes.

• Create performance management systems that drive alignment with the organizational goals of raising academic standards, improving STAAR performance, and increasing college readiness.

• Provide guidance and support to managers on handling performance issues, fostering professional development and effective employee-management relationships.

Employee Engagement

• Build a culture that aligns with the Committed to Excellence plan’s focus on academic achievement, student well-being, and community impact.

• Implement engagement strategies that support teachers and staff in achieving high levels of performance in a rapidly growing and evolving educational landscape.

• Serve as a trusted advisor to senior leaders on issues related to talent, culture, employee relations,