Ideal Candidate
- Proven experience in leading HR and/or Talent within a large, multi-site organization is required, with a preference for experience in non-profit or educational institutions, and knowledge of charter school/educational policies.
- They bring a balance of strategic vision and practical execution, with the ability to influence across lines of authority and lead through trust, credibility, and collaboration.
- They are recognized as a thought partner to CEOs and executive teams, a coach to regional and school leaders, and a builder of strong, scalable systems that still honor local context.
- Experience leading or transforming talent acquisition functions, aligning workforce strategy to growth and retention priorities, strong knowledge of HR best practices, employment laws, leadership, communication, and analytical abilities, is essential.
- Experience with Workday and data analytics is also a valuable asset.
- The successful SVP, HR will embody Rocketship’s Vision, Mission, Values, and Core Characteristics and earn the trust of the Rocketship Public Schools Board of Directors and Regional Boards, Network Executive Team, regional leaders, Principals, and team members through clarity, partnership, and results.
Essential Functions
- Lead and develop a high-performing HR organization, including direct oversight of Human Resources, Talent Acquisition, and Talent Performance & Analytics.
- Build leadership capacity within the HR team, ensuring strong partnership, responsiveness, and credibility with regions and schools.
- Foster a culture of continuous improvement, collaboration, and service-oriented leadership within the HR function.
- Serve as a strategic partner to Executive Directors and their leadership teams ensuring HR strategies are co-created, regionally responsive, and consistently executed across the network.
- Partner closely with Regional Executive Directors and their leadership teams to translate employee feedback and engagement data—including eNPS—into regionally grounded action plans that improve staff experience and retention.
- Build strong feedback loops between regions and the network HR team to ensure employee voice meaningfully informs policies, practices, and leadership behaviors.
- Serve as a trusted advisor to regional and school leaders in strengthening culture, trust, and engagement at all levels of the organization.
- Lead the Human Resources function to ensure excellence in employee relations, performance management, compliance, and risk mitigation across all regions while ensuring legal and regulatory compliance with policies; applicable federal, state, and local laws; and regulations within the various regions that we serve.
- Partner closely with national, regional, and school leaders on promotion, performance improvement, and separation decisions, building leadership capacity in effective people management.
- Oversee and continuously improve evaluation processes, ensuring clarity, fairness, and alignment to instructional and organizational priorities.
- Own and elevate Rocketship’s enterprise talent acquisition strategy, ensuring alignment to regional and school staffing needs, growth plans, and long-term workforce sustainability.
- Elevate Rocketship’s current strategy to market to and recruit staff locally and nationally, leveraging Rocketship’s unique mission, focus on staff development and growth, and deep partnership with families and communities.
- Strengthen partnership between Talent Acquisition and regional leaders to anticipate hiring needs, respond quickly to local labor market dynamics, and deliver high-quality candidate experiences.
- Ensure recruitment strategies build representative and high-performing talent pipelines for teachers, school leaders, and critical network roles.
- Position Rocketship as an employer of choice by leveraging its mission, development pathways, and community partnerships in both local and national recruitment efforts.
- Establish clear metrics, service-level expectations, and continuous improvement cycles for Talent Acquisition performance.
- Lead the effective implementation and ongoing evolution of Rocketship’s performance management systems, ensuring they drive development, accountability, performance, and retention.
- Lead identification of enterprise leadership pipelines and succession planning for all critical roles, including Principals, Regional leaders, and Network Executives.
- Partner with regional leaders to use talent data and insights to inform staffing decisions, leadership development, and resource allocation.
- Oversee HRIS, analytics and reporting to assess the effectiveness of human capital initiatives, including engagement, retention, leadership pipelines, and compensation competitiveness.
- Partner with Total Rewards, Finance and Network Executives to align compensation and rewards to financial sustainability, growth priorities, competitiveness and regional performance
- Ensure the quality implementation of Rocketship’s unique performance management system as well as the ongoing evolution and improvement of the system, especially to innovate around elevating retention beyond tenure based systems as well as ensuring compensation strategies remain competitive (top quartile for critical roles) and aligned to organizational priorities and financial sustainability.
- Own and lead Rocketship’s strategy to continue to elevate employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS) over the next five years, in alignment with organizational strategic priorities.
- Hold leaders and managers accountable for employee experience, staff belonging, engagement, and retention outcomes
- Partner with ADs of HR, regional leaders, principals, and managers to: Diagnose root causes of eNPS trends, Strengthen manager capability and leadership behaviors, Strengthen talent systems and practices, Inform professional development and collaboration with Program, Regional, and School teams, and Improve clarity, growth opportunities, recognition, and trust.
- Establish clear accountability, dashboards, and progress monitoring tied to engagement, retention, and advocacy outcomes.
- Lead continuous improvement cycles that respond to employee feedback with visible action and transparent communication.
Required Qualifications
- Bachelor’s Degree is required.
- 10+ years of relevant work experience including demonstrated strategic HR leadership in a complex organization (multi-site, multi-regional).
- Significant experience partnering with senior leaders and regional teams in a matrixed environment.
- Demonstrated success leading enterprise talent acquisition and workforce strategy.
- Ability to travel to provide effective strategic guidance to organizational leadership and remain deeply connected to our regions, teams, and impact.
- Outstanding ability to lead and inspire change, including influencing, aligning, and motivating others through relationship building with the ability to mobilize diverse stakeholders.
- Ability to move comfortably between high-level strategic thinking and intricate details.
- Solid understanding of education and charter organizations.
- Experience using data, analytics, and systems (e.g., Workday) to inform decision-making.
Rocketship Public Schools provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, marital status, amnesty, or status as a covered veteran in accordance with applicable federal, state and local laws. Rocketship Public Schools complies with applicable state and local laws governing non-discrimination in employment in every location in which the company has facilities. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including, but not limited to, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation, and training.
Rocketship Public Schools expressly prohibits any form of unlawful employee harassment based on race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, age, genetic information, disability, or veteran status. Improper interference with the ability of Rocketship Public Schools’ employees to perform their expected job duties is absolutely not tolerated. Click here for our Sexual Harassment Policy. For questions, concerns, or complaints, please contact Human Resources.
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