Lead Service Delivery Management

Customer Facing Title: Director of School Operations

Job Overview

The Director of School Operations (DSO) is a senior, enterprise-level leadership role responsible for operational excellence across a portfolio of Connections Academy schools.  The DSO focuses on strengthening the effectiveness of school leaders and leadership teams through hands‑on partnership, coaching, and operational problem‑solving. This role directly manages the primary school leader and at each school will work directly with principals, directors, and school leadership teams to ensure schools are operationally strong, well‑supported, and positioned to serve students successfully. 

The DSO uses a multi-layer leadership model to ensure alignment and execution of school operations to PVS standards and values.  This is accomplished by supporting operational systems, compliance structures, and leadership accountability through school-based leadership teams. The scope of this role is inherently complex and high-impact, requiring a majority of time spent working directly with schools, the ability to lead leaders, operate at scale, and balance competing priorities across multiple schools and PVS simultaneously.

The DSO works in a number of cross-functional teams identified as key members to accomplish school goals.  This includes close partnership with the School Success Partner (SSP), who holds overall accountability for school/account success and continuity of operations.   In addition, they provide critical support to operationalize and hold leaders accountable for academic improvement strategies identified by the Academic Outcomes Teams. 

Role Purpose

• Lead operational execution across multiple schools and leadership teams.

• Ensure compliance with regulations and contract requirements, operational efficiency, and sustainability at scale.

• Strengthen school leader effectiveness, stability, and succession

• Enable enrollment growth through operational readiness while maintaining a focus on student experience and success. 

• Partner with SSP to translate account strategy into disciplined, scalable execution

• Support academic improvement by holding school leaders accountable to initiatives established by the Academic Outcomes team who holds academic accountability.  

• Ensure Connections Academy model is implemented with fidelity and overall alignment to Pearson values.  

Core Responsibilities

1. Portfolio-Level School Operations Leadership

• Directly manage and coach multiple school leaders across a portfolio of schools.

• Indirectly support and influence entire leadership teams and school staff through strong systems, expectations, and execution discipline.

• Establish consistent operational expectations across schools while allowing for local nuances where required.

• Hold school leaders accountable for execution of:

• Academic action plans and initiatives

• Compliance and charter/SOA requirements

• School year cycle milestones and operational deliverables

• Monitor operational health, engagement trends, and compliance indicators across schools to identify risks and required interventions.

• Provide structured, data-informed coaching to leaders to improve execution at scale.

2. Operational Sustainability & Enrollment Enablement

• Work closely with schools to ensure they are operationally prepared to support enrollment growth.

• Validate leadership capacity, staffing structures, onboarding processes, scheduling, and systems readiness at each school.

• Identify school operational constraints that could limit growth, persistence, or staff sustainability.

• Strengthen retention-supporting school practices that indirectly impact student and staff experience.

• Identify risks to charter stability and renewal readiness and work across PVS departments to mitigate risks.  

3. School Year Cycle & Operational Readiness at Scale

• Ensure consistent execution of school year cycle activities across multiple schools, including:

• Calendar and handbook alignment

• Annual policy and process reviews

• Summer school planning

• Identify strain points affecting leaders and staff and coordinate mitigations across the portfolio of schools. 

4. Leadership Management & Capacity Building

• Serve as a leader of leaders, managing school principals responsible for large, complex organizations.

• Establish clear performance expectations tied to operational excellence, compliance, and execution of strategic (academic, financial, etc.) initiatives.

• Conduct performance evaluations and manage development plans for school leaders.

• Lead hiring and onboarding of school leaders.

• Drive succession planning to ensure leadership stability across schools.

• Facilitate leadership development that cascades through leadership teams and school staff.

5.  Board, Authorizer & External Partner Support

• Establish and maintain working relationships with boards, authorizers, districts, and other key partners as a key account team member, supporting the school leader and SSP by reinforcing trust, continuity, and effective communication—without assuming primary ownership of those stakeholder relationships.

• Support school leaders in effectively engaging with boards, authorizers, districts, and other key partners.

• Partner with school leaders to prepare for board, authorizer, and key partner meetings by supporting agenda development, data review, school performance narratives, and follow‑up actions.

• As the School Leader’s manager, support and contribute to the delivery of formal performance reviews of the school leader to the board, ensuring reviews are evidence‑based, clearly articulated, and aligned to agreed‑upon goals and governance expectations.

6. Change Management & Continuous Improvement

• Support operational change across multiple schools and leadership teams as PVS launches new products and services.

• Ensure adoption of enterprise systems, processes, and initiatives while working to minimize disruption to all stakeholders. 

• Contribute to continuous refinement of the School Operations operating model.

Key Competencies

• Ability to lead leaders across multiple organizations

• Enterprise-scale operational judgment

• Cross-functional influence and alignment

• Capacity planning and sustainability thinking

• Accountability-driven coaching

• Risk identification and mitigation

• Executive communication and partnership

Success Indicators

• Multiple schools operate compliantly and sustainably year over year

• School leaders demonstrate strong execution discipline and stability

• Leadership teams and staff experience improved clarity, consistency, and predictability

• Enrollment growth is supported by strong operational readiness

• Operational risks are identified and mitigated before impacting continuity

• SSP and DSO partnership results in aligned, scalable account success

Requirements

• 3-5 years proven leadership experience as a Principal or equivalent level required

• Advanced degree in Education or Management is required 

• Virtual school leadership required

• Flexible

• Innovative

• Comfortable with technology 

• Strong communications skills

• Data-driven and results-focused

• Ability to travel frequently