Director of STEM Innovation & Partnerships

SR1 College Preparatory and STEM Academy; Canton (MS); On-site; USD 63,000 - 77,000; Full time

Job summary

SR1 College Preparatory & STEM Academy seeks a Director of STEM Innovation & Partnerships to build a K-5 STEM program and lead community partnerships in Canton, MS. This role blends design leadership with strategic alliance development and practical lab implementation.

You will create a comprehensive STEM lab, coordinate robotics progression, and drive college and career pathways from kindergarten onward, with a focus on real-world impact and scalability.

Qualifications

• Master's degree in education or STEM leadership.
• Mississippi Administrator License or eligibility (strongly preferred).
• Deep command of educational standards and backward design.
• Real STEM depth: practical building/coding/experimentation experience.
• Proven track record with industry or college partnerships.

Responsibilities

• Design the K-5 STEM program and vertical progression from ScratchJr to advanced robotics.
• Develop AI & data literacy modules appropriate for elementary students.
• Lead community partnerships, grants, and pathway agreements.
• Oversee lab planning, equipment procurement, and competition participation.
• Translate visions into a scalable, funded plan for a startup school.

Skills

Startup leadership

Partnership building

Collaborative design

STEM education

Education

Master's degree in education or STEM leadership

Mississippi Administrator License or eligibility

Job description

We have the scholars. We have the scores. We do not to date have the nation leading STEM program those scholars deserve - and that is the job.

SR1 College Preparatory & STEM Academy is hiring a Director of STEM Innovation & Partnerships. For the right leader, this role carries the Vice Provost (Principal) portfolio.

88% of our 3rd graders passed the Mississippi ELA reading assessment on their first attempt - more than 10 points above the state average on the educational institution first try. We did that in three years, in Canton, Mississippi. Now we need someone to build the K-5 STEM experience that matches those numbers, and then carry it out into the community.

This is a design job as much as a leadership job. We call it SR1 CPSA Imagineering.

What you'll build:

• Robotics & computer science, K-5 - a vertical progression from ScratchJr and Bee-Bots to VEX, LEGO Education, and competitive teams. You'll spec the lab, buy the gear, and get our scholars on the competition floor.
• AI & data literacy - age-appropriate for elementary: how machines learn, what data is, and how to think critically about what a machine tells you.
• Agriculture, precision farming & outdoor STEM - school gardens, growing systems, sensors, drones, soil and water data, and field study across the Canton, Jackson, and Yazoo corridor.
• College & career pathways starting in kindergarten - not one career day in April.
• Industry & college partnerships - mentors, equipment, site visits, grants, and pathway agreements our families can actually use.

What we're looking for:

• Master's degree in education, educational leadership, a STEM discipline, or related (doctorate welcome)
• Mississippi Administrator License or eligibility - strongly preferred, required to carry the Vice Provost portfolio
• Deep command of educational standards - you can read a standard, design backward from it, and tell the difference between a fun activity and a lesson that moves a scholar
• Real STEM depth - you've actually built, coded, grown, engineered, or researched something. Our scholars can tell the difference.
• A partnership track record - you can walk into a company or a college and walk out with a commitment in writing
• Startup leadership - there is no department to inherit but a great start from our STEM Learning Designers. You are the department until you build one.
• Work with STEM Designers

Compensation: base $70,000 on a 12-month contract, with growth steps as the school expands and performance and partnership incentives - total compensation with details to finalist. We are 130 scholars today - this package is built to grow with what you build.

The honest part: this is a startup role in a startup school. No existing STEM department, no closet full of robots, no partner list to inherit. You will write the plan, source the funding when needed, train the teachers, run the first competition, and stand at the family night explaining all of it - sometimes in the same week. The heavy lifting is real.

So is the ownership. What you build here will outlast you and belong to children who have never been handed anything like it.

www.sr1cpsa.org | 601.206.4544 | Canton, MS SR1 CPSA is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Creating the Future as One with A Commitment to Excellence