Partner, Instruction at Bay Ed Fund

PARTNER, INSTRUCTION

LOCATION: San Francisco Bay Area (defined as Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo, and Santa Clara counties)

THE OPPORTUNITY

The ideal candidate for this role is an experienced instructional leader who believes deeply in reimagining education and eliminating systemic inequities by putting students, families, and communities at the center of change efforts. You are Curious and love Collaborating: You co-design visions with students, families, and educators — centering those closest to the work to shape durable change and translating listening into responsive decisions that shift practice in classrooms and schools. You bring expertise in Instructional strategy and Instructional Excellence: You combine a rigorous grasp of instructional best practice with systems-level change skills: strategic visioning, talent development, and disciplined use of formative metrics. You’ve led measurable turnarounds — for example, significant literacy gains, successful curriculum adoption, and the cultivation of a data-driven improvement culture. And you’re an Innovator and Capacity Builder: You champion equity and aren’t afraid to disrupt counterproductive power dynamics in service of students. You drive breakthrough initiatives yourself while coaching partners and teams to sustain and scale those changes over time.

You will spend 70% or more of your time in communities with school leaders, teachers, partners, and stakeholders. You will be the instructional lead for our team, providing direct support to Bay Ed Fund staff the identifying the role you’ll play in supporting our district partners. 

ABOUT THE BAY ED FUND

The Bay Ed Fund, founded in 2022, is taking a new approach to closing the opportunity gap and ensuring all students are prepared to thrive in the Bay Area. We begin with the voices and aspirations of students, families, and communities to create a local vision for how graduates will be prepared to thrive as adults in the Bay Area. We then commit to supporting the district and community over ten years to realize that vision through collaborative, transformative work at both the district and school levels. The Bay Ed Fund provides community partners with the resources to be powerful partners with the district, and district partners with strategic facilitation support, meaningful philanthropic funding, and capacity building in the areas of talent, change management, instructional improvement, family engagement, and resource allocation. Currently, we are working in South San Francisco, East Palo Alto, and San Mateo - Foster City.

ROLE & RESPONSIBILITIES

As an entrepreneurial leader, you’ll bring deep instructional expertise to drive dramatic improvement in outcomes for each district partner—while building a replicable approach to instructional excellence across all communities. You’ll draw on your experience leading system-level change to guide and coach district partners and Bay Ed Fund staff, offering frameworks and mindsets that strengthen local capacity to implement instructional priorities with focus and coherence. Above all, you’ll model our values—showing up each day as a humble leader, equity champion, and thoughtful disruptor of the power dynamics that have too often held public education and philanthropy back.

In this pivotal role, you will have four primary responsibilities that will shape the lives of thousands of students:

MANAGE INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGY AND SET OBJECTIVES

Why it matters
Once a community and district co-create a vision for students, that vision needs to quickly turn into a clear instructional plan that drives consistent improvement in every classroom towards the shared vision.

What you’ll do

• Partner with district leaders, the Bay Ed Fund community lead partner, and anchor instructional partners to translate the community vision into a clear instructional plan with prioritized, measurable OKRs that accelerate student outcomes.
• Identify quick instructional wins in each district that generate momentum and build belief in what’s possible when we work together. 
• Facilitate strategy and alignment sessions with Superintendents and CAOs to build a cross-district community of practice.
• Apply entrepreneurial problem-solving to design targeted pilots and iterate on OKRs using research and cross-community evidence.
• Codify cross-community learnings and iterate the plan where gaps appear; produce synthesis memos and playbooks summarizing what’s working, what isn’t, and recommended adjustments.

ENABLE CO-CREATION & EDUCATOR LEADERSHIP

Why it matters
Sustained instructional change requires educators to own implementation; this role builds the facilitation, tools, and coaching capacity required for BEF staff, district leaders, and instructional partners can, when necessary, co-create with teachers, classified staff, and principals.

What you’ll do

• Directly design or support the design of processes and change strategies that activate teachers and principals as planning and implementation leaders.
• Ensure educator voice is embedded in Bay Ed Fund’s theory of change, OKRs and feedback loops so frontline insight drives decisions.
• Lead exemplar co-design sessions or stepbacks when partners or district teams need direct support or demonstration.
• Coach partners and BEF staff to prototype new facilitation and models, then capture and reuse the learning.

LEAD IMPLEMENTATION, MEASUREMENT, & CHANGE MANAGEMENT

Why it matters
A strong vision and strategy only matters when executed with fidelity, measured continuously, and adapted quickly.

What you’ll do

• Help districts and community partners define focused instructional goals and formative measurement systems that link to classroom practice.
• Oversee Bay Ed Fund instructional priorities, monitor progress, and ensure routine fidelity checks and coaching cycles are in place.
• Equip district instructional leads to build a data-driven culture—prioritize formative metrics, run observation cycles and data stepbacks, and spend time in classrooms to validate implementation.
• Design or support the design of rapid-cycle experiments (small pilot → evidence → scale) and use research-aligned criteria to decide what to expand.

BUILD RELATIONSHIPS & ORGANIZATIONAL DURABILITY 

Why it matters
Sustained impact depends on a durable BEF, high-quality partners, and strong funder and board relationships.

What you’ll do

• Coach and develop BEF staff, shape team culture, and lead cross-team initiatives to strengthen operational and programmatic systems.
• Lead the selection of contracting partners, co-create instructional KRs with districts and BEF, and run quality assurance and regular partner reviews to ensure impact.
• Represent BEF to funders, the board, and sector partners; surface and communicate learning and impact.
• Approve project charters, set partner performance expectations, publish playbooks and replication tools, and support board and stakeholder engagement.

QUALIFICATIONS

We recognize that qualifications extend beyond a checklist, and we encourage candidates who believe they could be a good fit to apply, even if they do not meet every qualification. We value diversity and inclusivity. We invite all to join us in driving transformative change in education.

1. Extensive, Diverse Set of Experiences: With over 15 years of professional experience, you have a proven track record of success in executive leadership in schools, districts, and education nonprofits that have transformed systems and schools, resulting in dramatically improved outcomes for students. 
2. Deep instructional expertise: With your experiences, you’ve built deep instructional and change management expertise. You are prepared to guide a district in executing instruction exceptionally. Your experiences include leading instruction at a district or CMO.
3. Exceptional Interpersonal Skills: Your interpersonal skills are well-rounded, enabling you to build strong relationships with various stakeholders, from elected officials and district leaders to students and families. You effortlessly collaborate with stakeholders from diverse backgrounds and skillfully facilitate joint problem-solving with partner organizations, communities, and districts.
4. Extensive Network: You possess a strong network of local and national relationships within the education and/or community organizing sectors that you can use to serve our local partners.
5. Insightful Analytical & Communication Skills: Your excellent analytical skills and creative problem-solving abilities enable you to tackle challenges with innovative solutions. Your verbal and written communication skills effectively convey complex ideas simply and compellingly to diverse audiences.
6. Orientation to Action & Impact: You have demonstrated the ability to translate ideas and recommendations into action. Your well-developed influence skills allow you to facilitate change, build capacity, and achieve desired outcomes through collaboration.
7. Self-Motivated and Entrepreneurial: You possess a highly self-motivated work style and eagerly embrace leadership roles within our organization. Your proactive nature and initiative are catalysts for progress and growth- within our organization and partner communities.
8. (Preferred but not required) Experience Living in and/or Working in San Mateo, Santa Clara, or San Francisco Counties: You have built positive relationships and a reputation that you can bring to bear in our partnership work. 
9. (Preferred but not required) Adept at communicating in Spanish: You are able to engage a diverse range of community members, including many who are Spanish-speaking.

Additional Details

In this role, you would be joining a small and growing team. Bay Ed Fund currently has 12 staff members and serves ~20,000 students. In this role, you would meet in-person with our communities across the Bay Area and attend team in-office days on Monday in Oakland. You would work closely with all team members and report to Paul Keys, our Managing Partner.

This role has a salary range of $190K-$260K based on experience. Bay Ed Fund offers a generous benefits package, including holiday and vacation time; health, vision, and dental insurance; and 401K matching.

Apply now to contribute your expertise and inspire a future where every student can achieve their full potential and thrive as an adult in the Bay Area. Together, we will make a lasting impact.