KIPP NYC Chief Schools Officer

Company Description

About KIPP NYC:

Founded in 1995,  KIPP NYC Public Schools is a non-profit network of 18 free, public charter schools located in the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Manhattan. We partner with families and communities to create joyful, academically excellent schools where every child grows up free to create the future they want for themselves and their communities.

From our first middle school, KIPP Academy in the Bronx, to today’s network of eight elementary schools, nine middle schools, and one high school, KIPP NYC provides students with engaging academics, arts, athletics, and social–emotional learning that prepare them for college, career, and beyond.

Our commitment doesn’t end at graduation. Through KIPP Forward, we continue to support our alumni as they navigate college, career, and life, helping them define success on their own terms and pursue the paths that align with their goals and sense of purpose.

Together, we serve more than 9,400 students, support 4,700 alumni, and employ over 1,100 dedicated team members who bring passion, expertise, and commitment to our mission every day.

Job Description

Position Overview:

The Chief Schools Officer (CSO) is KIPP NYC’s quarterback and force-multiplier - responsible for driving school performance, supporting a rigorous, joyful culture for both staff and students, developing exceptional leaders, and ensuring organizational coherence across 18 schools serving nearly 10,000 students.

The CSO leads a team of Managing Directors of Schools and other senior leaders to ensure every KIPP NYC school is a place where excellent teaching, strong leadership, and joyful learning thrive every day.

This leader will guide school management across a complex, high-performing network that includes a multi-campus high school serving more than 2,600 students and multiple governing boards. The CSO will build coherence across schools, invest in principals, strengthen leadership pipelines, and ensure that systems, supports, and culture are aligned to deliver exceptional outcomes for students.

This is a pivotal moment for KIPP NYC. With strong academic foundations, a highly tenured staff, and an evolving leadership team, the CSO will inherit a thriving yet complex system poised to reach the next level of excellence and equity.

The right leader will bring the discipline of a systems builder, the empathy of a leadership coach, and the commitment of a servant leader. Their values will require them to center students and families first, holding themselves and KIPP NYC to an uncompromising standard of excellence. This leader sees challenge and opportunity as one and the same, and will help KIPP NYC elevate its legacy while laying the groundwork for its next decade of impact.

Reporting Structure & Location

Reporting directly to the Chief Executive Officer and serving as a core member and fulcrum of the Senior Leadership Team (SLT), the CSO will join a team of experienced executives who prioritize collaboration; value vulnerability, humility, and direct feedback; and view themselves as collectively responsible for the organization’s talent, culture, long-term organizational health, results, and broader impact. The SLT prides itself on holding the nuance and complexity of leading a large organization at scale, while understanding the importance of proximity to change leadership. Recognizing the centrality of their role, this leader partners effortlessly and instinctively to build alignment from vision to execution at scale. This is a full-time, in-person role based in New York City.

Specific responsibilities include:

School Leadership & Management

• Lead the Managing Directors of Schools and Principals to deliver strong academic, cultural, operational, and equity outcomes across all campuses.
• Provide clear vision, coaching, and accountability for systems and school leaders, ensuring alignment with network goals and values.
• Build systems of support and performance management that promote continuous improvement, collaboration, and excellence.
• Balance the complexity of systems leadership at scale with the proximate needs of schools, by frequently and rapidly changing altitude from individual classrooms to organizational data and decision-making.

Organizational Systems & Change Management

• Strategize to embed KIPP NYC’s Graduate Aims as a measurable north star of student success.
• Strengthen organizational systems for decision-making, communication, and accountability, ensuring KIPP NYC’s structures promote clarity, consistency, and effective execution across schools.
• Ensure consistent, equitable application of systems across schools while re