Managing Director

About InnovateEDU:

InnovateEDU is a national nonprofit focused on catalyzing education transformation by bridging gaps in data, policy, practice, and research to center the needs of the field in accelerating innovation towards an equitable, inclusive, and radically different future for all learners. The organization is currently seeking a Managing Director to oversee its Education Technology and Markets Portfolio, which supports the work of Project Unicorn, the EDSAFE AI Alliance, and GETN-US, among other aligned efforts.

Responsibilities:

• Serve as a member of the InnovateEDU Leadership team; attend board of directors update meetings as needed to share portfolio progress
• Lead the strategic direction of the portfolio, including the development of a fundraising strategy and fundraising work to accelerate organizational impact alongside the Executive Director
• Oversee project grant reporting for all portfolio activities and manage portfolio budgets in coordination with the Finance team
• Draft preliminary project and portfolio grant budgets consistent with the Operating Budget and organizational priorities
• Proactively support the alignment of grant deliverables with top-line organizational impact metrics and across portfolio projects
• Maintain consistent lines of communication with portfolio funders
• Provide management and professional development support to all Project Directors and Project Associates to ensure the successful completion of portfolio grant deliverables
• Supervise Project Directors and Project Associates
• Schedule regular check-ins with Project Directors, Project Associates, operational teams, and executive leader
• Identify and support opportunities to increase portfolio impact through internal collaborations, external partnerships, thought leadership, communications, etc.
• Help facilitate clear communication across portfolio projects and operational teams to increase organizational efficiency
• Oversee internal reporting for the portfolio, including performance management and payroll approval, as well as ensuring the timely submission of S&E and reimbursement requests, among other reporting
• Support portfolio of projects with a servant leadership mindset by attending relevant meetings/events, providing additional capacity as needed, and holding accountability for meeting grant deliverables

About Project Unicorn

https://www.projectunicorn.org/

Project Unicorn is an effort to improve data interoperability within K-12 education. Its key goals are:

• To create a community of innovators advocating for secure data interoperability by determining shared priorities and working in partnership with school systems and vendors.
• To drive demand for interoperability through partnerships and educating buyers on considering the total cost of ownership when comparing vendors.
• To ensure teachers have the information they need to do their jobs and innovate in instructional practices by solving data interoperability challenges facing districts and schools.

Project Unicorn believes that solving these interoperability issues is critical for enabling well-connected data systems to deliver accurate, real-time performance information about students' learning progression, leading to better student outcomes and time-savings for teachers. It aims to achieve this by creating principles, a rubric, and shared language for evaluating edtech tools on aspects of interoperability to empower informed procurement decisions by districts.

About EDSAFE AI Alliance

https://www.aipolicylab.org/

The EDSAFE AI Alliance is a cross-sector collaborative effort to shape responsible AI adoption in K-12 education through policy work, research, and industry engagement guided by its SAFE Framework principles. Its key activities are:

• Guiding responsible AI policy development at federal, state, and local levels through initiatives like district policy labs.
• Publishing research, white papers, and best practice guidelines.
• Supporting AI education policy through fellowship programs.
• Convening a coalition of education and technology companies in the EDSAFE AI Industry Council to align on SAFE principles.

The SAFE Framework

• Safety: Ensuring data privacy, security, and a "do no harm" approach.
• Accountability: Defining clear responsibilities for stakeholders.
• Fairness: Promoting bias-free, equitable, and ethical AI solutions.
• Efficacy: Demonstrating positive learning outcomes from AI technology use.

The Alliance aims to provide global leadership in developing a safer, more secure, equitable, and trusted ecosystem for AI innovation in education. It envisions an education system that leverages AI effectively to improve student outcomes, save time for teachers, and increase efficiencies.

About GETN-US

https://globaledtech.org/

The Global Edtech Testbed Network (GETN) is a collaborative initiative supported by the Jacobs Foundation that aims to advance best practices in the co-development and evaluation of educational technology (edtech) through "testbeds" or authentic school environments where emerging edtech solutions can be trialed. The network involves edtech researchers, philanthropic organizations, edtech founders, civil society organizations, non-profits, policy leaders, practitioners, teachers, school administrators, investors, and government representatives. Key Activities include:

• Conducting a global survey to gather knowledge on diverse edtech testbed opportunities, experiences, structures, resources, and funding mechanisms.
• Organizing events and forums to bring together stakeholders and synthesize existing models for system-wide edtech testbeds.
• Collaborating to develop and share resources that support testbed design, implementation, and evaluation as a global good.

Specifically, in the US the network is co-led by LeanLab Education and InnovateEDU. Last fall, GETN-US released “Tenets & Principles of EdTech Trialing Networks & Environments,” outlining new shared language to drive forward a modernized and equity-centered approach to R&D for education technology. This work prioritized the ESSA tiers as a backbone of evidence generation work, as well as principles of inclusive innovation. The report includes a summary of the barriers to and benefits of a more robust innovation infrastructure and the guiding ideas – four tenets and ten principles – necessary to yield unprecedented breakthroughs in the field. The organizations are now building on this work alongside other US-based stakeholders.

Compensation

Consistent with our diversity, equity, and inclusion statement we strive to address systemic gaps in pay often present in our larger society as a result of gender, identity, or sexual orientation. All candidates are pay scaled by an independent third-party service or application which calculates the market rate for the applicant based on skills and qualifications, job duties, market conditions within the location of the applicant, education, and experience. This position’s compensation range is $105,000-$136,000. InnovateEDU full-time employees receive paid vacation and sick leave, medical/dental/vision insurance, retirement, and other standard benefits.

Keywords

Managing DirectorEducation TechnologyMarkets PortfolioProject UnicornEDSAFE AI AllianceGETN-USFundraising StrategyGrant ReportingStrategic DirectionPortfolio ImpactInternal CollaborationsExternal Partnerships