Program Executive Director

General Information

To support you in the application process, we have shared the job description and application process below. Please see the website https://aerdf.org/prove-the-impossible/ which includes the Application Guide and FAQ Document for more information.

Dates and Deadlines

All applicants should submit their resume and contact information through this form, which expresses their Intent to Apply, as soon as possible to ensure full consideration.

Intent to Apply will close May 23, 2024 at 11:59 PM PST. After this date we will no longer accept new applicants.

Submission of concepts and interviews, for applicants advanced to Stage 3, are due by May 31, 2024 at 11:59 PM PST.

Finalists will be notified if they are advancing to the full review panel by June 21, 2024 with official invitations to fellowship sent by July 3, 2024. 

The AERDF AdvancED Fellowship will start July 19, 2024 and run for three months through October. The full-time Executive Directorship is likely to start in early 2025.

Organization 

AERDF (Advanced Education Research & Development Fund) is a national nonprofit organization launched in 2021 that advances scientific discovery & inventions that further learners’ brilliance and transform their PreK-12 futures.

AERDF’s ambitious three-to-five-year initiatives (known as programs), funded with up to $25 million, address major teaching and learning challenges and opportunities the public and private sector have historically ignored for Black and Latino learners and learners experiencing poverty in America. Our programs build on existing community-driven evidence and expertise, as well as learning sciences, to translate fundamental insights into usable knowledge, useful practices, equitable approaches and transformative tools for education practitioners and students.

Learn more about AERDF and our programs at https://aerdf.org/

About the Position

The AERDF team identifies compelling leaders with ambitious goals for improving student learning to serve as Program Executive Directors. To reach those goals, Program Executive Directors build on existing evidence from science to design multi-year Inclusive R&D programs to translate fundamental insights into more useful practices, approaches and tools to fulfill AERDF’s mission.

Role and Responsibilities

• Design an Advanced Inclusive R&D program that is audacious in its vision to unlock dramatic impact for one or more of AERDFs priority populations (PreK-12 students who are Black, Latino, or experiencing poverty).
• Direct funding and actively manage an Advanced Inclusive R&D portfolio of projects and partners
  • Articulate a vision, set goals and metrics, assemble a team and set of collaborative relationships and pursue program outcomes.
  • Continuously refine learning and steward the R&D process within communities, partnering districts, private sector partners and other stakeholders.
• Drive to a convincing demonstration of the program’s breakthrough goal through varied implementations with a significant number of our priority learners. 
  • Program proposals will define their field’s current status quo (scientific knowledge, technology, equity, and practice) and specify metrics to be achieved.
  • As a program produces evidence their hypothesis should be revisited; this may lead to pivoting on individual projects, and modifying or even disproving the original hypothesis. A disproved hypothesis is not a program failure –  it is information for society.
  • Program EDs should understand the limitations preventing the breakthrough from being possible at this time, communicate them, and propose a revised hypothesis and program plan that is consistent with the original breakthrough vision.
• Create a cross-sector community who participate in the R&D (e.g. researchers, educators, learners, intermediaries, developers, policy-makers) are inspired with the program’s goal, have shown it to be possible, and are able to carry it forward. 
  • Proposals define the approach to diversity and inclusion, the community that must be engaged, and how that engagement will help fulfill the program’s goals. 

Required Experience

• Has worked in a full–time capacity for at least 10 years and has managed both people and budgets.
• Has experience working across sectors and organizations
• Has worked in collaboration with Black and/or Latino communities and/or high poverty communities
• Has experience with both Research and Development in the education sector

Qualifications

They have a program idea that is audacious and that they are uniquely positioned to pursue.

• Seek to test an embedded belief and challenge the fundamentals of how things are done.  If successful, the new insight would unlock dramatic impact to be created for priority populations, they are not seeking to pursue incremental change.
• Accumulated strengths are well-aligned to the stage and needs of their program idea. 

Established leadership

• Demonstrated bold and visionary leadership with a track record of building things successfully.
• Effective people and resource manager with experience making sound decisions in complex and dynamic environments.

Track record of “bridging” and collaboration

• Ability and deep experience with communicating effectively across a wide array of audiences.
• History of building productive relationships outside of a primary sector or function and utilizing those relationships to move work forward. 
• Consistent and active role in stewarding ideas back and forth between research and application.
• Specific experience working inclusively in collaboration with populations AERDF seeks to serve: Black and Latino students and students experiencing poverty. 

Expertise and technical acumen

• Expert knowledge about subject matter and unambiguous in articulating questions they seek to answer.
• Rigorous and evidence based in setting, measuring, and evaluating metrics and milestones.
• Transparent and objective when making decisions, and able to change direction quickly when the evidence suggests another course may yield better results. This approach has yielded a high degree of respect from peers and colleagues.

Necessary Mindsets

• Equity Focus
  • Belief that the most transformative opportunities will come from those that have been the most impacted. 
  • Understanding that structural racism and other forms of inequity must be confronted actively throughout their work.
• Systems Thinking
  • Head in the clouds, feet on the ground. Able to toggle between big picture and detail work. 
• Insatiable Curiosity - the Spark
  • Begin from a place of true curiosity rather than with a specific solution in mind.
  • Constant peeling of the layers of a problem and its impact on different groups
• Flexible Problem Solving
  • Expects challenges and proactively avoids or confronts them as the situation requires.
  • Agile and adept at pivoting when something is not working. 
• Appetite for Risk
  • Excited about pursuing bold ideas and creative approaches, even when the chances of success are low. 
  • Willingly to openly face failure and criticism as part of what is necessary to identify true breakthroughs.

Compensation and Additional Information

AERDF will maintain a robust FAQ about the role that will be continuously updated through the process.  All individuals that express their intent to apply will be kept up to date on the FAQ, and it will be linked from the website as well.  You can also contact us with additional questions at [email protected].

Compensation

AERDF offers a competitive compensation package including base salary and comprehensive benefits. AERDF is a remote and flexible work environment and their base compensation levels vary depending on location, experience, and qualifications.

The starting salary range for this Level 6 - Executive position is $200,000-280,000.

Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion - for You.

AERDF is deeply committed to the diversity of their workforce. People of all backgrounds, particularly those with the lived experience of the students and communities they serve, are encouraged to apply.  Please do not hesitate to apply even if you do not meet all of the qualifications. Candidates of all backgrounds and identities are encouraged to apply.

We also acknowledge this role is incredibly unique in the world.  Very few people have ever done it, and it can feel intimidating.  We hope to support you through the learning curve as a candidate.

There are two core equity moves we have created:

1. During the open application process, we are providing a public, robust resource page with information from our existing Program Executive Directors and multiple outstanding partners in the R&D space.  They cover the different aspects of the State of the Art: Practice, Technology, Scientific Knowledge, and Equity to inspire you and provide background knowledge.
2. Finalists for the role will be invited to a one-of-its-kind AERDF AdvancED Fellowship that will include a stipend and direct training and coaching to develop your forming ideas into a strong, advanced inclusive R&D proposal.  You will receive training on how to think and approach problems in the APRA (advanced projects research agency) way, and be connected with leading researchers, educators, developers, and more.

Application Process and Fellowship
There are 6 stages of the overall application and program development process:

Stage 1: Intent to Apply 

• As soon as possible, submit your resume and contact information using this form. 
• By submitting your information  the AERDF team can assure that you receive all relevant updates for candidates as the application deadline approaches. While this form will remain active through most of May, candidates are strongly encouraged to complete this form as soon as possible.
• We aim to review your information as soon as possible. If you meet the minimum qualifications, you will be moved to Stage 2. We will notify you if we do not plan to further consider your candidacy this year.

Stage 2: Candidate 

• At this stage, you are considered a candidate, and we will begin a deeper review of your work experience. No action is required by you at this stage.

Stage 3: Interview and Concept Paper

• Submit a recorded interview via SparkHire where you’ll respond to several questions about your leadership experience. 
• Submit brief answers to the Concept Questions explaining the initiative you are proposing to lead.  Full directions will be provided to candidates at this stage as well as office hours and resources to support their imagination.
• The final deadline for completing these steps is May 31, 2024 at 11:59 PM PST.  Due to the tremendous interest in the position and review and judging that needs to occur in June, this is a hard deadline. No extensions are possible.
• Candidates who submit a full application can expect an update on the status of their candidacy by June 21, 2024.

Stage 4: External R&D Ecosystem Selection Committee

• Top applications will be evaluated by the full Selection Committee, consisting of AERDF staff, learners, educators, researchers, developers, funders, and other key members of the R&D ecosystem of American education. We do this to live our Inclusive R&D Threads at the earliest stages possible.
• Finalists will be notified if they are advancing to the full review panel by June 21, 2024 with official invitations to the AdvancED Fellowship sent by July 3, 2024.

Stage 5: AERDF AdvancED Fellows

• Finalists will be invited to participate in AERDF’s AdvancED Fellowship for a one-of-its-kind experience to support the development of their breakthrough idea and advanced inclusive R&D approach. It is a paid, part-time fellowship involving about 10 hours per week from July 19, 2024 to October 2024.

Stage 6: Job Offer

• Top candidate(s) will be extended a full-time job offer to become the next AERDF Program Executive Director and launch their program in early 2025.
• Please be clear this is a full-time role to drive social change. As a full-time staff member, you will have zero rights to intellectual property of the research and development created during your time. AERDF is guided by policies  that ensure our commitment to high ethical research and data standards as well as ensure our scientific discoveries and inventions reach as many of our priority learners as possible. AERDF is not an incubator nor a philanthropic organization; we are an Advanced Inclusive R&D organization with a commitment to open science, knowledge, and R&D.

Note on Co-Leadership Option

Our goal is to reduce a competitive mindset and encourage multi-sector collaboration during the application process. You can apply as a co-leadership team with the following structure:

• Primary leader = Program Executive Director
• Secondary leader = Program Deputy

Please note there can only be one primary applicant for the Program Executive Director position. If you do not have a co-leader right now, you may add one at any stage during the process. If you do have a deputy in mind, if selected, you will be able to hire them in a full-time co-leader position.