The Valhalla Foundation is seeking a Director for its Effective Educators portfolio to manage investments aimed at enhancing teaching and learning, particularly for underserved students. This role involves building relationships with organization leaders, monitoring their impact, and providing tailored support. The Director will engage with community members, collaborate with funders and education leaders, conduct thorough investment evaluations, and share insights to refine strategies. Reporting to the Managing Director of K-12 and Data Science Education, this position focuses on improving educational outcomes and preparing teachers for the integration of AI in their practices.
About Valhalla Foundation
Valhalla Foundation, founded in 2003 by Scott Cook and Signe Ostby, focuses on enhancing the lives of children, families, and the health of the planet through targeted investments in early childhood development, K-12 and data science education, climate innovation, and medical research. As signatories of The Giving Pledge, Cook and Ostby emphasize "giving while living" and prioritize collaborative efforts with other funders to maximize philanthropic impact. The foundation supports a range of initiatives, including research, direct service models, policy advocacy, and capacity building, all aimed at delivering meaningful outcomes to address complex societal challenges while fostering a diverse and dynamic team culture.
IDEAL Qualifications
Assessing situations from multiple perspectives, seeing patterns, identifying key insights about potential solutions, and charting a viable path to overcoming barriers to impact.
Thinking critically about what it takes to achieve outcomes at scale and taking a creative approach to problem-solving.
Developing, articulating and standing behind a clear point of view, based on soliciting a wide array of perspectives, with the confidence to sometimes play the contrarian.
A capacity to reflect critical thinking and analysis in your written arguments and recommendations, and
Building authentic and collaborative relationships with those you seek to serve, driven by a belief that developing solutions that address complex education challenges requires deeply understanding the needs of children and families in under-resourced communities.
Responsibilities
Leading the execution of the Effective Educators portfolio strategy: The Director will apply strategic decision-making, risk-assessment, and performance monitoring skills to manage the implementation and oversight of a structured investment plan to achieve portfolio goals. This will require developing highly collaborative and productive relationships with the leaders of portfolio organizations and Valhalla colleagues that signal a commitment to and accountability for the successful achievement of stated goals.
Coaching of high-potential K-12 education portfolio organizations, with a primary focus on organizations that support teachers to effectively reach students: The Director will work closely with a subset of portfolio organizations to supercharge their impact and scale. This involves identifying where organizations are performing well versus where they may be facing challenges and risks, and serving as a coach and mentor to the leaders of these organizations. The Director will marshal capacity-building resources and facilitate customized support of these organizations to improve their performance, as appropriate.
Leading diligence on new investment opportunities and developing reinvestment recommendations in the Effective Educators portfolio and other portfolios as needed: The Director will lead diligence on new investment opportunities with a particular focus on growing our portfolio of organizations supporting teacher effectiveness, including organizations that are leveraging edtech (especially artificial intelligence) to accelerate impact. In addition, as grants mature or new rounds of funding are raised for organizations, the Director will conduct due diligence and present a well-argued point of view in writing on whether to reinvest, the appropriate grant amount and structure, and the key risks associated with an investment recommendation.
Synthesizing and sharing learning from portfolio organizations and across individual portfolios: The Director will glean and distill data, insights, and learning from portfolio organizations and initiatives, then effectively and efficiently share insights and learnings with the Valhalla team, the Trustees, other portfolio organizations, and other funders. Further, the Director will synthesize key trends and insights from the sectors in which the Trustees are investing to inform Valhalla’s philanthropic strategy and sourcing of new opportunities.
Collaborating with and influencing others in the field: The Director will build relationships with other leaders and funders in the K-12 field, collaborate, learn from and influence collective actions. This involves staying apprised of key sector trends, participating in relevant networks by attending conferences, staying closely connected to key leaders/funders, sharing ideas with the field in various forums, and organizing convenings/gatherings.
COmpensation and Benefits
The salary range for this position is $198,000 - $297,000 based on experience and performance. Valhalla also offers generous benefits.
To Apply
Review of applications will begin immediately and continue until the position is filled. For best consideration apply before November 4, 2024. Follow these instructions to submit your resume and responses to the prompts indicated:
Visit the Opportunities section on Promise54’s website and click on the APPLY NOW tab within the Valhalla Foundation, Director, K-12 Education Program position description.
Create your video response to the prompts and link it in the document you create to respond to the writing prompts.
Below the prompts, you’ll be able to upload your resume.
If you have questions about the application process contact: leslie@promise54.org. If you encounter any technical difficulties, please contact: admin@promise54.org
