Senior Director, Data Management & Governance

Company Description

About the Organization 

KIPP Public Schools is a national network of tuition-free public charter schools that prepare students with the skills and confidence to create the future they want for themselves, their communities, and us all. We are a network of 278 schools, nearly 16,500 educators, and nearly 190,000 students and alumni. 

Our mission: Together with families and communities, we create joyful, academically excellent schools that prepare students with the skills and confidence to pursue the paths they choose—college, career, and beyond—so they can lead fulfilling lives and build a more just world. 

Our vision: Every child grows up free to create the future they want for themselves and their communities. 

The KIPP Foundation is a nonprofit organization that supports KIPP schools across the country. The KIPP Foundation trains and develops outstanding educators to lead KIPP public schools; provides tools, resources and training for excellent teaching and learning; promotes innovation; and facilitates the exchange of insights and ideas across KIPP and other public schools and organizations. 

About Our Values:  

Excellent Results for Students: We value results over effort and know that our work is not finished until all students thrive. We maintain high expectations for self, team, and students. We drive outcomes by operating with agility, removing barriers, differentiating support, and prioritizing student-centered solutions—especially for those at the margins. 

Collective Impact: We are one team. We win together. We embody a one-team mindset by working collaboratively across teams, aligning goals, and leveraging the strengths of all teammates. We build trust-based relationships and ensure inclusive decision-making by engaging those closest to the work. We provide clarity through simple, repeatable systems and goals that enable transformational outcomes. 

Courageous Action: Our belief in what we can achieve is unwavering, fueling our optimism and commitment to overcome any challenge. We demonstrate an unwavering belief in students' potential and ending systemic inequities. We approach challenges with resilience, a solutions-focused mindset, and adaptability. We foster a psychologically safe environment centered on trust and accountability where feedback is encouraged. We leverage data to reflect on progress, own setbacks, celebrate successes, and continuously improve to maximize impact. 

Job Description

About The Position 

The Senior Director of Data Management & Governance will lead the development and execution of enterprise-wide data management and governance strategies, ensuring that KIPP Foundation, along with all 278 KIPP schools and 28 regions, has timely access to accurate data to make informed decisions that best serve KIPP’s communities. This role will oversee the entire data lifecycle—from data creation and collection to storage, integration, usage, and archiving—while ensuring compliance with federal, state, and local education policies. This role will also oversee the design, implementation, and continuous development of our data strategy, including the transition to a new Data Warehouse. The individual in this position will be tasked with ensuring that 100% of necessary data for reporting and dashboards is fully available. The ideal candidate will have deep experience in K-12 data governance, student data privacy, and education technology standards, with a strong ability to collaborate across academic, technology, and administrative teams to drive data-informed decision-making across the KIPP network. 

The Senior Director, Data Management & Governance reports to the Chief Information Officer and manages the team of 10 teammates who support the lifecycle management of our data and its infrastructure. The individual collaborates extensively with Foundation’s Information Technology (IT) teams, including Operations, Analytics & Reporting teams, as well as other program teams. 

Responsibilities 

Data Management Strategy & Execution: 

• Develop and implement a comprehensive data management strategy aligned with KIPP’s mission and objectives. 

• Oversee the entire data lifecycle, ensuring data is accurate, accessible, and secure from intake to retirement. 

• Establish best practices for data collection, storage, integration, quality assurance, and reporting. 

• Implement and manage data governance tools and platforms to support KIPP’s data ecosystem. 

Data Infrastructure & Tools Management: 

• Oversee the design, implementation, and maintenance of data infrastructure, ensuring it meets the needs of KIPP Foundation, and Regions. 

• Manage data warehouse platforms (e.g., Snowflake, Redshift, BigQuery, Azure Fabric) to ensure efficient data storage, retrieval, and processing. 

• Implement data integration tools and ETL/ELT pipelines to streamline data movement across systems. 

• Ensure data architecture scalability, security, and performance, supporting the growing needs of KIPP’s education data ecosystem. 

• Collaborate with IT and engineering teams to optimize database performance, automate workflows, and enhance data accessibility. 

• Evaluate and implement business intelligence (BI) tools (e.g., Power BI, Tableau) to enable data-driven decision-making across KIPP Foundation and Regions. 

K-12 Data Governance & Compliance: 

• Lead the design and enforcement of data governance policies to comply with education-specific regulations, such as:  

• FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) 

• COPPA (Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act) 

• State and district-specific student data privacy laws 

• Ed-Fi, Common Education Data Standards (CEDS), and other K-12 data frameworks 

• Partner with legal, compliance, and IT teams to mitigate risks related to student data privacy and security. 

• Define data ownership, stewardship, and accountability across KIPP Network. 

Data Quality & Stewardship: 

• Implement data quality standards and governance processes to ensure the accuracy, reliability, and timeliness of data. 

• Oversee data stewardship programs that engage KIPP’s educators, administrators, and IT teams in responsible data management. 

• Monitor and report data quality metrics to key stakeholders to drive continuous improvement. 

Collaboration & Stakeholder Engagement: 

• Partner with KIPP Foundation leadership, school regions, state education agencies, and IT teams to ensure timely access to high-quality data. 

• Act as a trusted advisor to senior leadership on student data governance, analytics, and compliance strategies. 

• Lead cross-functional working groups to improve data governance adoption across the KIPP network. 

Technology & Innovation in K-12 Data Management: 

• Evaluate and recommend data governance technologies, including data catalogs, data lineage tools, and metadata management platforms. 

• Guide the integration of AI, automation, and interoperability frameworks (Ed-Fi, CEDS, SIF, etc.) into KIPP’s data governance practices. 

• Stay informed about emerging K-12 education policies, technology standards, and data security threats. 

Leadership & Team Development: 

• Build and mentor a high-performing data governance and management team. 

• Foster a culture of data literacy and accountability across KIPP Foundation. 

• Provide training and professional development on data privacy laws, governance best practices, and ethical data usage. 

Skills and Mindsets 

• Mission and Student Focus: Demonstrates passion and commitment to KIPP’s mission and possesses the desire and ability to uphold KIPP’s core values (Focus on Excellent Results, Collective Impact, and Courageous Action)  

• Achievement & Outcomes Orientation: Demonstrated record of setting ambitious goals and achieving them with consistency. Invests in developing teammates’ skills and mindsets to address gaps in achieving team growth; determines what quantitative and qualitative data are most relevant to their goals and supports the team in creating and monitoring systems for collecting, reviewing, and acting upon data to drive outcomes; able to monitor progress, communicating status to the right stakeholders and adjusting plans and use of time to ensure systems are yielding desired outcomes. 

• Effective Teaming & Stakeholder Management: Has the interpersonal, diplomatic, relationship building, and communications skills necessary to develop successful working relationships with diverse constituents to deliver results; evolves and adapts plans and approach with diverse stakeholders to drive results; excellent communication skills with an aptitude for translating complex information into a clear and persuasive narrative; convinces others by identifying benefits for all. 

• People Management & Development: Effective differentiating approaches to develop and coach teammates; skilled in setting managing both performance and development goals; provides timely and actionable feedback to drive teammate development and performance; strategically distributes work based on skill and capacity between self and teammates to ensure the work outcomes of the collective team; able to build a culture of accountability and productive discourse to help teammates achieve at the highest level. 

• Change Management & Communication: Effectively articulates case for change through clear and compelling presentations and translates this into actional plans.  Effectively tailors communications and engagement approach for different audiences to deepen investment and drive actions and behavior change that would lead to org-wide goals; acts as a champion for change with cross-team stakeholders.   

• Data Acumen: Proficiency in qualitative data systems and tracking to ensure accurate data collection and dissemination for team use. Knowledge of reporting, analysis, data processing, data management, and quality assurance practices. Ability to build dashboards to share data with relevant stakeholders. 

• Technical Fluency: Demonstrated familiarity with proficiency in languages like Python, C++, and .Net to drive data architecture.  Advance skills in SQL, NoSQL, Tableau, database architecture, and optimization. 

Qualifications

Experience and Qualifications 

Required: 

• Bachelor's degree in Data Management, Information Systems, Computer Science, or a related field or 8-10 years of relevant work experience.  

• 5+ years of experience in data management, governance, or education technology, while in a leadership role. 

• Strong knowledge of K-12 data governance frameworks, student data privacy regulations, and interoperability standards. 

• Experience overseeing data lifecycle management, ensuring data accuracy, integrity, and security. 

• Familiarity with data governance tools (e.g., Collibra, Informatica, Alation), student information systems (PowerSchool, Infinite Campus), and assessment platforms (I-Ready, mClass, Renaissance). 

• Excellent leadership, communication, and stakeholder engagement skills. 

Preferred: 

• Experience working with state education agencies (SEAs), school districts, or charter networks on data governance initiatives. 

• Background in cloud-based data management (AWS, Azure, GCP) for K-12 education.  

• Experience designing and managing data warehouse platforms and data governance strategies. 

Additional Information

Work Conditions 

• Travel requirements: 30-40% 

• Full-time, exempt role 

Location 

It is preferred, but not mandatory for this role to be based out of a KIPP Foundation office.  This role also offers the option of working from a remote office full-time.  KIPP Foundation offices are in NYC and Chicago.    

Compensation and Benefits.    

In compliance with local law, we are disclosing the compensation, or a range thereof, for roles in locations where legally required. Actual salaries will vary based on several factors, including but not limited to external market data, internal equity, and relevant experience. The salary range for this position is $120,000-$145,000. In addition, KIPP Foundation provides a variety of benefits to employees, including:  

• 25 holidays for + 18 days additional flexible PTO days (flexible PTO increases to 23 days for years 3 and 4 and to 28 days for years 5+). 

• 100% paid parental leave 

• 100% coverage of the premium for employee and 75% for employee + family’s medical/dental/vision plans. 

• Wellness benefits such as fitness reimbursements, discounted tickets to theme parks/attractions, backup care support for children and adults/elders, and our employee assistance program 

• Finance Security benefits include such as a 401K retirement plan with 4% match, employer-sponsored legal plans, life/disability insurance, and flexible spending accounts 

KIPP Foundation embraces the opportunity to build a workforce that reflects the diversity of the students and communities with whom we work and the world that around them. Being an equal opportunity employer means that we take seriously our responsibility to consider qualified candidates on the basis of merit, without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, mental or physical disability, and genetic information, marital status, citizenship status, military status, protected veteran status or any other category protected by law.