• Lead a national team and drive innovative programs
• Work with purpose and create life-changing education opportunities for children
• Flexible hybrid working environment
• Additional time off offered for staff wellbeing and birthdays

About Schools Plus

In its first decade, national not-for-profit Schools Plus has created education opportunities for over 500,000 children and young people in more than 1,500 schools in communities across Australia. We have ambitious goals to grow the number of children, teachers and schools we support each year and strengthen our position as an authority on the needs of schools in disadvantaged communities.

The Director of Education sits as a member of School Plus’ Executive team and is responsible for leading the strategic direction and delivery of Schools Plus’ education programs nationwide. The Director of Education will have input into Schools Plus’ organisational strategic direction to ensure we successfully grow and deliver support for disadvantaged schools that improves student outcomes.

The Director of Education will be hands-on in building and managing significant stakeholder relationships within the education sector, as well as play a support role in major donor partnerships. This role will also oversee case/project management, resource development, evaluation and insights and coaching related activities/initiatives across the program. The Director of Education will work with the team to drive the growth and impact of the work nationally, ensuring the model continues to deliver successful outcomes for schools.

This is a full-time permanent role based in Sydney.

Responsibilities of the Director of Education include (but are not limited to):

• Lead the strategic direction of education programs to achieve the organisation’s objectives in improving student outcomes in disadvantaged schools across Australia and to grow the reach of our work
• Build strong relationships and work collaboratively with key stakeholders and donors aligned with programs
• Use their extensive education expertise to create new or evolve existing education program models and processes
• Oversee the refinement of the coaching delivery model to ensure program fidelity and to meet schools’ needs
• Lead the Education Team in developing resources, structures, systems and processes that enable and support program delivery
• Work with the CEO and Executive team to strengthen and grow strategic partnerships with education jurisdictions (government and non-government), education expert partners, schools and external evaluators to further the program’s objectives
• Ensure the enhancement of the organisation’s evaluative and insights work by overseeing the team in the design and delivery of the framework, ensuring schools are well placed to measure the outcomes of their projects and exploring academic partnerships to deepen evaluative capacity
• Provide strategic input into the design of knowledge sharing between schools and the broader systems
• Work with others in the Schools Plus team to ensure organisational alignment of all education programs across Schools Plus
• Collaborate effectively with the wider teams internally

Skills and experience required

• Significant leadership experience in, and strong knowledge and understanding of, education systems
• Strategic ability to design and implement high impact strategic programs
• Strong business acumen
• Successful experience leading, mentoring and developing teams
• Demonstrated knowledge of current literature/practices on issues faced by low ICSEA schools
• Experience in developing and implementing evaluation frameworks
• Experience in bringing communities together, in particular through establishing communities of practice and shared learnings
• Outstanding written and verbal communication/relationship building skills to engage different senior level stakeholders
• Ability to contribute to and undertake advocacy work
• Experience in design and management of program budgets
• Excellent decision making and problem-solving skills
• Excellent organisational and time management skills
• Positive and energetic team player, with adaptability to work within a small team and changing circumstances
• Passion for education and wanting to make a difference, and an understanding of not-for-profit organisations

To apply, please submit a cover letter explaining your reason for applying and how you meet the above requirements and a resume via the "Apply Now" button.

Schools Plus is committed to equal opportunity whilst achieving a diverse workforce and strongly encourage applications from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

The successful applicant will be required to undergo a Working with Children Check. Please note that only short-listed candidates will be contacted.