Chief People Officer

Company Description About KIPP NYC:

Founded in 1995, KIPP NYC Public Schools is a non-profit network of 18 free, public charter schools located in the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Manhattan. We partner with families and communities to create joyful, academically excellent schools where every child grows up free to create the future they want for themselves and their communities. From our first middle school, KIPP Academy in the Bronx, to today’s network of eight elementary schools, nine middle schools, and one high school, KIPP NYC provides students with engaging academics, arts, athletics, and social–emotional learning that prepare them for college, career, and beyond. Our commitment doesn’t end at graduation. Through KIPP Forward, we continue to support our alumni as they navigate college, career, and life, helping them define success on their own terms and pursue the paths that align with their goals and sense of purpose. Together, we serve more than 9,400 students, support 4,700 alumni, and employ over 1,100 dedicated team members who bring passion, expertise, and commitment to our mission every day. The Next Chapter KIPP NYC enters its next chapter from a position of considerable strength. Over the past several years, the organization has nearly doubled enrollment, expanded its presence across New York City, and celebrated its 30th anniversary. Today, KIPP NYC is one of the largest and most influential regions within the national KIPP network — a network of more than 1,200 educators and staff across three boroughs, in service of thousands of students and families. As KIPP NYC has grown, so too has the opportunity to strengthen the systems and infrastructure that support its next phase of impact. Since CEO Leslie-Bernard Joseph joined KIPP NYC in August 2025, the executive team has embraced a highly collaborative, systems-oriented approach to preparing the organization for what's next. Significant progress has already been made to strengthen and modernize core organizational functions, including substantial investment in finance. Over the past year, KIPP NYC has also taken a deliberate approach to strengthening its People function, creating greater stability and clarity before bringing in its next Chief People Officer. As KIPP NYC approaches a $300M annual operating budget and a workforce of 1,200+ across three boroughs, the opportunity is significant. The organization is ready to invest with intentionality in the systems, culture, and leadership pipeline required to attract, develop, and retain exceptional people at every level — from school-based educators to central office leaders. For the next Chief People Officer, this is a rare opportunity: to build a talent function with strong organizational support and a mandate for innovation alongside an invested and aligned executive team.

Job Description The CPO Opportunity KIPP NYC is seeking an exceptional Chief People Officer (CPO) to serve as chief architect of the organization's talent strategy, culture, and employee experience, and as a critical member of the Executive Leadership Team. Reporting directly to the CEO, the CPO will own all aspects of the People function — including talent acquisition and workforce planning; talent development and performance management; organizational effectiveness and change leadership; total rewards; employee and labor relations; HR operations, governance, compliance, and risk management; and equity and belonging — across a complex, multi-entity organization of 1,200+ employees serving thousands of students and families across three boroughs. This is an enterprise-level mandate requiring both strategic leadership and operational excellence. The CPO will sit alongside the Chief Financial Officer and Chief Development Officer as one of the CEO's core strategic partners, responsible for ensuring that the organization's people strategy scales at the same pace as its budget, its footprint, and its ambition. Early priorities include:

• Strengthening and building areas of an integrated, data-driven People function capable of supporting a $300M+, multi-entity, three-borough organization — with the infrastructure to match near-term execution against long-term scale. • Modernizing core HR systems (HRIS, performance management, applicant tracking) and exploring AI and modern people-analytics tools to move from reactive HR administration to proactive workforce strategy. • Partnering closely with the CFO on the transition of payroll into Finance, and establishing a durable, well-defined operating partnership between People and Finance going forward. • Building a school-leader and central-office leadership pipeline strong enough to support continued growth, with clear succession planning at every critical seat. • Strengthening recruitment, onboarding, and retention strategies for school-based educators — historically the highest-turnover, highest-stakes talent segment in the network. • Embedding equity and belonging as operating disciplines, not slogans, across hiring, compensation, promotion, and performance management. Key responsibilities of the CPO include, among others: Talent Strategist and Empowering Culture Leader

Qualifications Candidate Profile While it is understood that no candidate will offer every desired skill, quality, and characteristic, the following competencies offer a detailed, aspirational view of the ideal candidate profile. A Strategic and Empowering Culture Leader This leader will bring:

• A track record of serving as a trusted strategic advisor to CEOs, executive teams, and boards on talent and organizational strategy, bringing executive presence, sound judgment, and the confidence to constructively challenge assumptions. • A demonstrated ability to lead organizational design and enterprise-wide change, including building stakeholder investment, communicating through uncertainty, and helping leaders and teams adopt new structures, systems, and ways of working. • Significant experience building and scaling people functions within large, complex, multi-site organizations (ideally 1,000+ employees and $100M+ operating budgets). • A demonstrated ability to build workforce plans that anticipate organizational needs rather than react to them. • An empowering leadership style that develops high-performing teams through clear expectations, coaching, accountability, and a genuine culture of ownership. Trusted Relationship Builder and Communicator This leader will bring:

• Exceptional communication and relationship-building skills, with the ability to build trust and influence across school leaders, executive leadership, and the Board. • A high degree of emotional attunement – the ability to read what’s said and unsaid in a room or relationship and translate that insight into action. • The ability to pair genuine empathy with high accountability: someone who can hold people closely and still hold the line. • Executive presence and warmth in equal measure – possessing gravitas that earns trust. • A sense of humor and levity that builds connection, even amid serious, high-stakes work. An Equity-Minded Enterprise Leader This leader will bring:

• A collaborative, enterprise-wide mindset, with the ability to build strong partnerships across People, Finance, Development, and school-based leadership. • A demonstrated, substantive commitment to equity in hiring, compensation, and advancement with the ability to translate values into concrete policy and practice, not just language. • Deep expertise in human resources (HR), compliance, and engagement with complex legal employment matters. • A demonstrated track record of building effective performance management, talent development, and succession-planning strategies within organizations with distinct frontline and central-office talent segments. • A strong command of total rewards strategy, including compensation philosophy, benefits design and administration, and competitive benchmarking. An Innovative Systems-Thinker This leader will bring: