Thanks for your interest in Success Academy! Running a large, fast-growing, and high-performing network of public charter schools takes a village - families, children, teachers, staff and faculty, advocates, and supporters alike. We are growing fast in New York and expanding to Florida, and we would love to welcome you to our community! We work tirelessly every day to ensure children have access to a fun, rigorous, whole-child education regardless of zip code or economic status. When you join SA, you play a part in giving every student who walks through our doors a fair shot at reaching his or her potential.
Department
Strategy & Business Development (BD) helps author and orchestrate the enterprise strategy and provides the analytical capabilities required to drive it forward. The team owns the strategic planning process, manages the organization's market intelligence capability, leads key cross-functional initiatives, and runs Business Development and Partnerships. Working end-to-end across all departments, Strategy & BD is positioned to help Success Academy deliver its most ambitious goals.
The Opportunity
We are seeking an experienced Strategy and Business Development leader to serve as a strategic architect and effective operator. This role will tackle the organization’s most complex and highest-priority challenges, moving between enterprise-level strategy and tactical program execution. With an enterprise-wide scope, you will play a leading role in building the strategic capabilities, systems, and processes that will enable Success Academy to deliver on its ambition to scale world-class schools and reimagine public education.
The ideal candidate combines rigorous strategic thinking, strong analytical horsepower, and exceptional communication skills: someone who can take a complex problem, develop a data-driven solution, and then effectively implement it across the organization, influencing others to drive change. To be effective in this role, you will need to be able to navigate ambiguity, solve problems like an owner, and move complex work forward quickly.
Key Responsibilities
Shape the enterprise agenda. Serve as a trusted thought partner to senior leaders—helping shape, pressure-test, and drive the strategic priorities of the network.
Build systematic solutions. Develop the strategic operating cadences the network runs on. Establish and own strategic planning processes and structures that will enable the organization to operate with speed as it scales.
Solve the hardest cross-functional problems. Lead structured problem-solving on the network's most consequential challenges. Bring structure to ambiguous issues, drive the analysis, and ensure successful execution and sustainment.
Deliver business insights and decision support. Proactively surface trends and opportunities, arming executive leadership with actionable insights.
Operationalize market and competitive intelligence. Contextualize the external landscape in which Success Academy operates. Systematically surface key insights to drive enterprise strategy and inform key decisions.
Source partnership opportunities. Bring outside-in perspective to the organization. Identify, vet, and structure partnerships that solve internal problems and bring new capabilities to the enterprise.
Elevate and enhance work with AI. Find where AI can raise the quality and speed of the team's work, and build it into how we analyze, communicate, and support decisions.
Requirements
A world-class analytical foundation. 10+ years of experience, ideally including time at a top-tier strategy consulting firm or comparable environment. In-house strategy or business development experience is highly valued.
Exceptional problem-solving. You break down hard, ambiguous problems quickly, see the connections others miss, and bring structure where there was none.
Independent ownership. A track record of driving complex initiatives from definition through implementation, with high agency and excellent execution.
Executive communication. You distill complex, multi-source information into clear and synthesized recommendations. Presentation and delivery build trust and confidence with executive audiences.
Partnership development acumen. Able to scan the external ecosystem to source, vet, and structure potential partnerships with financial and strategic rigor. A compelling representative of Success Academy to external parties—able to articulate our needs and frame partnership opportunities in a way that resonates.
Fluency with the modern strategy toolkit. Strong quantitative and data-visualization skills, and genuine enthusiasm for using AI to elevate your work.
High drive, low ego. Pairs ambition and intensity with humility—no task too small, willing to roll up sleeves and pitch in wherever needed to drive change.
Location. NYC-based or willing to relocate; hybrid, 3 days/week in the Manhattan office.
Exact compensation may vary based on skills and experience.
Success Academy Charter Schools is an equal opportunity employer and actively encourages applications from people of all backgrounds. Compensation is competitive and commensurate with experience. Success Academy offers a full benefits program and opportunities for professional growth.
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We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our organization. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. We actively seek applications from people of all backgrounds to strengthen our community and the perspectives needed to flourish in a multicultural world. Success Academy offers a full benefits program and opportunities for professional growth.
Success Academy Charter Schools does not offer employment-based immigration sponsorship.
Skills Required
- 10+ years of experience
- Experience at a top-tier strategy consulting firm or comparable environment
- In-house strategy or business development experience
- Exceptional problem-solving and structured analytical ability
- Proven track record of independent ownership driving complex initiatives from definition through implementation
- Executive-level communication and presentation skills
- Partnership sourcing, vetting, and structuring experience with financial and strategic rigor
- Fluency with modern strategy toolkit, strong quantitative and data-visualization skills, and enthusiasm for using AI
- High drive, low ego; willingness to roll up sleeves
- NYC-based or willing to relocate; hybrid, 3 days/week in Manhattan office
What We Do
Since 2006, Success Academy has tackled educational inequities head-on by providing exceptional public education for 20,000 K-12 students in New York City. Our network of over 50 free public charter schools is looking for diverse, ambitious, talented people like you to join our team! Starting on your first day, you’ll receive world-class training and mentorship while working in a collaborative environment with passionate colleagues. As part of the Success Academy team, you will have ample growth opportunities within our network — including leadership roles. Success Academy is seeking candidates from all majors and backgrounds. All interviews are virtual, and a degree in Education is not required to teach. If you graduated or will be graduating with a bachelor's degree between Dec 2023 and Dec 2024, we encourage you to apply! We encourage you to look at our current openings and consider applying.
