Director of Business Process Improvement - New Jersey

Job Description

The Director of Business Process Improvement plays a central role in developing solutions to drive strategic initiatives and business improvements across KIPP TEAM and Family Schools as we grow to serve over 15,000 students by 2025. This is an exciting role that works directly with key stakeholders in the organization to improve and innovate how we support schools, students and families.

This position requires an advanced skill set in project management, expertise in improving business processes, and experience in organizational change management in order to balance multiple projects, including some that are complex, multi-year phased initiatives. Potential initial projects include delivering solutions for strategic initiatives such as unifying student enrollment CRM platforms, aligning HR and performance management systems, implementing staff time and attendance tracking, and optimizing compliance and asset management tools

• Drive solutions for organizational strategic initiatives
  • Lead the strategic planning, thought leadership, execution and administration of all aspects of diverse projects across KIPP TEAM and Family Schools from conception to completion.
  • Work with a wide range of stakeholders across the organization as an “internal consultant” who seeks to understand business needs and can scope solutions that drive successful implementations.
  • Engage and lead projects across multiple departments and functions, including but not limited to Technology, Data, Finance, Talent, Human Resources, Academic and Operations teams.
• Prioritize and define business needs
  • Meet with stakeholders to review, analyze, and evaluate user needs to create solutions that support overall business strategies.
  • Document requirements, functional specifications, and mock-ups to clearly illustrate product ideas and concepts.
  • Develop a prioritization process for ranking projects in alignment with KIPP TEAM and Family School’s strategic priorities.
  • Design effective feedback protocols with a diverse set of stakeholders to inform priorities and solution design.
  • Manage and coordinate platform selection processes that involve multiple vendors to develop best fit solutions.
• Manage projects
  • Manage and oversee all aspects of a project to ensure it is completed on-time and within budget while managing scope, costs, schedule, team responsibilities, goals, metrics, vendor and contractual deliverables.
  • Develop timelines and project plans that track project progress to goals.
  • Lead day-to-day project activities, such as issue tracking, facilitating project team meetings and preparing/delivering status reports.
  • Manage teams representing multiple departments and functions and ensure accountability of team members’ contribution to the project.
  • Determine project risk and assess project activities and resources to mitigate risk.
• Manage rollout and support of new products
  • Coordinate planning and research required for the identification and introduction of new products and business opportunities.
  • Work on cross-functional team to translate needs and technology directions into product definitions.
  • Oversee review of new product concepts and decision making process required for new product introduction and roll out.
  • Coordinate alignment of products with strategic initiatives to ensure implementation of best fit organization-wide systems.
  • Support and lead key training and support efforts such as user guide documentation, adult learning resources and in-person training.

Qualifications

• At least 5 years of experience improving solutions and managing complex systems implementation projects.
• Experience with documenting business needs and analyzing business processes.
• Strong project management skills, including ability to break down and organize complex projects on realistic timelines and track deliverables across multiple initiatives while balancing competing priorities.
• Proficiency with project management and/or task software such as Asana, Smartsheet or LucidChart.
• Proven product management skills, including coordinating rollout, support and development of innovative solutions.
• Demonstrated ability to effectuate change management across multiple stakeholder groups in a large complex environment.
• A commitment to People First leadership practices, valuing the inclusion of all teammates’ voices.
• Strong communication skills, including ability to “translate” technical concepts to non-IT teammates.
• Strong data analysis skills, including ability to look at a data set, diagnose challenges, and immediately recommend clear next steps for leaders and/or other stakeholders.
• The ideal candidate will be:
• A detail-oriented, self-starter and determined problem-solver who works best in a goal-oriented, timeline-driven environment with the ability to create and innovate.
• Responsive, service oriented, and able to invest and inspire others the KIPP TEAM and Family Schools teams exist to support and serve our schools, and so a top-down mentality will not work well.
• A proactive planner who does not wait for explicit direction but rather asks the appropriate questions and self-directs taking on additional projects without compromising the integrity of existing ones.
• A big picture thinker who can develop and drive a vision that scales and addresses complex needs without getting bogged down by logistics or uncertainty.
• A flexible planner who sees unforeseen obstacles and challenges as an opportunity to design a better solution.

• PMP or other project management certification.
• Past work experience in an academic environment, preferably within K-12 and non-profit operations.
• Familiarity with best in class software and solutions for mid-sized 1000-5000 staff organizations across People, Tech, Data, Finance and Operations domains.
• High fluency with Google Apps and Microsoft Office tools.

Additional Information

KIPP New Jersey | KIPP Miami is an equal opportunity employer