Senior Portfolio Manager, Education Grantmaking

WHO WE ARE

Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies (Schusterman) is a global organization that seeks to improve lives, strengthen communities and advance equity. Our philanthropic vision is grounded in a commitment to pursue justice, repair the world and treat all people with dignity and civility. We invest in efforts to improve public education in the United States, strengthen the Jewish people and Israel, and address the needs of marginalized individuals and communities.

JOB SUMMARY

The Senior Portfolio Manager (SPM) is a member of the Education team, which is based in Schusterman’s San Francisco, CA and Washington, DC, offices. The SPM for research and measurement will lead our Education team’s efforts to codify, measure, and track progress against our strategic goals. This role will be responsible for developing and managing a process for setting targets and providing continuous feedback to the team for improvement over time, for managing the systems for collecting and analyzing internal and external data, and for managing a portfolio of grant investments intended for both field-based learning and evidence building on improving instructional practice. This is a unique opportunity to bring rigor and strong equity-centered, strategy-connected measurement and evaluation practice to Schusterman and our grantees, helping us all to use relevant and timely evidence to inform decision-making. This role will provide leadership to other Education team members on when to use what types of evaluation approaches to be most useful and relevant to strategic decisions and the most rigorous and equity-centered research designs that will support goals. This role will lead on the development and execution of a cross-strategy measurement plan that will track strategy goals and provide evidence to inform decisions about strategic direction. This role will manage evaluation and measurement investments, ensuring that the deliverables advance the work of the team and our grantees.

Our ideal colleague has strong technical research, measurement, and/or evaluation skills with a deep commitment to rigorous measurement approaches that center racial and economic equity in both outcomes and approach. This person has equally strong communication and collaboration skills and understands how to balance best practice with the realities of strategic decision-making. We are looking for someone who can use data to facilitate effective strategy implementation, learning, and improvement. This person can use data to motivate and inspire, to active, and excite. To be successful with our team, this person will need to be solutions-oriented, flexible, and a strong team player able to use informal influence and non-positional leadership to build trust, and skilled in collaborative, equity-centered approaches regarding evaluation and measurement options.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Works with leadership and teams to codify cross-strategy and portfolio hypotheses and goals. This could include creating cross-team tools, processes, or systems; cross-team training; and individualized support for specific teams.
• Provides thought partnership and technical support to colleagues and partners in connecting individual investment strategies to broader portfolio and cross-team strategies.
• Leads identification and operationalization of measurement of strategy hypotheses and goals in collaboration with leadership.
• Leads planning for data sourcing efforts against measurement of strategy hypotheses and goals.
• Provides thought partnership and technical support to colleagues and partners with a focus on measurement of individual investments.
• Coordinates with other funders on common approaches to grantee measurement, sharing of best practices around strategy codification and measurement development.
• Coordinates with Operations to ensure that measurement data meets reporting needs and is available on time to meet deadlines.
• Manages a portfolio of grants focused on evidence building for instructional improvement and measurement tools for professional learning, teacher preparation, student engagement, and policy improvement.
• Provide expert consultation to portfolio teams to develop and manage measurement tools, learning and evaluation activities related to their strategies.
• Represent the Education team in organization-wide efforts on data collection and impact.
• Consult with grantees on measurement and evaluation efforts, which may include conducting site visit, providing technical guidance, convening meetings, and applying and evaluating milestone-based performance objectives.
• Review letters of inquiry & grant proposals; provide clear, concise & insightful written analyses & recommendations for funding including drafting & editing proposal summaries & progress reports for existing grants for review by Schusterman leadership.

QUALIFICATIONS

• 6+ years of relevant experience required.
• A Master’s degree or comparable, relevant experience required.
• Deep experience with the development of measurement and data collection plans for complex strategies required.
• Knowledgeable in rigorous approaches to goal development, operationalization, and data sourcing required.
• Extensive project contribution and management experience. Ability to manage complex and interdependent work streams contributing towards a broader project required.
• Strong analytical, writing & verbal skills for communicating with a broad & diverse audience required.
• Experience with performance management and/or continuous improvement; ability to use data to inform decisions and support improvement required.
• Experience working as part of a team, able to both lead and follow required.
  Comfortable working with ambiguity required.
• Experience with K-12 instructional practice preferred.
• PC skills (with proficiency in Microsoft Outlook, Word, Excel and PowerPoint), as well as a thorough knowledge and comfort of basic web skills required.
• Ability to travel up to 30% required.

COMPENSATION

Competitive salary band of $120,000+ based on experience and on Schusterman’s commitment to internal equity. A strong benefits package is also included. Schusterman encourages ongoing professional development and supports activities aligned with one’s individual career growth plan. Schusterman does not cover relocation expenses for this position.

Interested candidates should visit https://grnh.se/6e019aa62us to submit an Application.

The Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Schusterman promotes diversity and provides equal employment opportunities without regard to race, color, national origin, ancestry, sex, gender, gender identify, gender expression, religious creed, disability, genetic information, age, marital status, sexual orientation, or military and veteran status. We encourage individuals of all backgrounds to apply.