Director of Student Life

Notre Dame High School, San Jose; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 95,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Notre Dame High School, San Jose, seeks a Director of Student Life to oversee vision, student engagement, and wellness within a mission-driven Catholic education environment.

The role leads academic advisement, counseling collaboration, and holistic education for young women, emphasizing social-emotional development and REDI initiatives.

You will manage staff, coordinate scheduling, and partner with families and administrators to sustain a safe, inclusive learning community.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in educational administration or counseling.
• 5-7 years of leadership, administrator or personnel management in a school setting.
• Master's preferred; experience in adolescent behavior and development is a plus.
• Experience with student information systems (SIS) such as PowerSchool, Gradelink, Skyward.

Responsibilities

• Provide vision, oversight and implementation of mission-aligned student support.
• Lead staff development and annual performance cycles.
• Collaborate in a shared leadership model and coordinate cross-area initiatives.
• Oversee academic advisement, attendance, and graduation requirements in line with policies.
• Manage student wellness and engagement to foster a culture of belonging.

Skills

Leadership

Personnel management

Communication

Collaboration

Student advisement

Education

Bachelor's degree in educational administration or counseling

Master's degree in educational administration or counseling

Tools

PowerSchool

Gradelink

Skyward

Job description

Director of Student Life

Notre Dame High School, San Jose is the center for women's leadership in Silicon Valley and has provided an exceptional Catholic college preparatory education for young women since 1851. The school's mission is guided by the teachings of Saint Julie Billiart, the foundress of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, with a strong focus on social justice to create lifelong learners, spiritual seekers, justice advocates and community leaders. Our mission, summarized by the words of Saint Julie Billiart, is to "teach them what they need to know for life."

The director of student life is responsible for the vision, oversight and implementation of mission-aligned student support ensuring optimal student engagement, academic advisement, student wellness while fostering a nurturing culture of belonging.

Administrative team member responsibilities:

• Work collaboratively in a shared leadership model.
• Center the mission, hallmarks, graduation outcomes, women's leadership, race equity diversity and inclusion (REDI) in all leadership work.
• Communicate at weekly team meetings area highlights, changes and future needs to ensure accountability and transparency to the team.
• Provide strong personnel management, supervision and development opportunities for staff. Assure annual performance cycle for staff to motivate growth.
• Manage horizontally with team members and collaborates on cross area initiatives.
• Shape big picture perspective with the team for communication, solution-finding, and short- and long-term planning purposes.
• Model professionalism for and with colleagues.

Academic Advisement

• Partner with stakeholders across campus to develop and implement a comprehensive, holistic education program for students that is focused on individual course pathways with and is up-to-date with school and state requirements for graduation requirements, A-G compliance, and UC entrance requirements, as well as socio-emotional learning and development.
• Promote and enforce academic integrity by upholding the honor code, investigating plagiarism reports and enforcing disciplinary consequences (restorative practices, detention, suspension, expulsion)
• Create and inform students and parents of academic policies, student support practices and Notre Dame learning community expectations
• Lead administrator in counselor/parent meetings regarding students with poor academic performance, misconduct, or unsatisfactory attendance; Creates and implements with counselor and families, a mission-aligned, actionable student improvement plan
• Ensure the accurate publication of the course catalog, course selections and course prerequisites in PowerSchool annually
• In conjunction with the school information specialist (SIS), approves updates to the school student academic transcript
• Oversee the master schedule 'build' each year in partnership with the school information specialist (SIS) and the director of teaching and learning (course options based on demand, need, trends; course sections; room assignments; teacher block assignments; scheduling conflicts)
• Oversee six grading periods, ensuring grades are entered, incompletes are approved and then cleared in a timely manner, and reports and transcriptions are adequately distributed
• National Merit Scholarship Committee liaison communicating with students, faculty and staff about selected students and their evolving status as well as responsible for all AP CollegeBoard auditing.

Student Support

• Provide oversight and alignment of the school counselors, learning resource specialists, college counselors, director of career and life success, and the first scholars coordinator
• Oversee the student engagement team (counseling, college counseling, career & life success, campus ministry, learning resource specialists, and educational innovation) to provide circular support for the student experience.
• Collaborate with the dean of students, school counselors, and the director of teaching and learning on issues affecting academic progress (i.e. learning, classroom behavior, academic integrity, academic success, attendance, etc.) to effectively make recommendations for student improvement
• Oversight of both Community Circle (including creating the weekly mentor sheet) and Community Programming. Additionally, responsible for assigning mentors to each of these roles.
• Support the implementation of safe, effective supervision of students throughout the school program-this includes weekly faculty/staff supervision and event supervision.
• Create and promote relevant parent education programs presented by school counselors and college counselors
• Attend school events and remain aware of school accomplishments and challenges.
• Partner with the assistant head of school and the director of admissions to identify enrollment concerns and oversee management of student support documentation as a member of the admissions committee..
• Send Weekly Student Update communication to all students about upcoming events, calendar changes, or timely information.
• Collaborate closely with the student activities director to coordinate weekly student activities requests, approval, and community communication.

Student Wellness

• Collaborate with the director of operations and dean of students to ensure safety and security of the school campus during the hours that students are present on campus during stated school hours.
• Work with the director of mission and ministry to assure appropriate pastoral care and counseling support for students and families.
• Analyze trends in student attendance as they relate to academic performance. Signs-offs on all Planned Absence Forms and follows up with families regarding length of requested days off when needed.
• Annually develop and review the student/parent handbook to ensure updated policies and procedures that reflect best practices and mission-alignment.
• In conjunction with wellness room coordinator and school counselor, write and monitor all individual student health plans, including students who need to carry prescription medication and protocols for documenting and incidents related to a medical diagnosis.

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in educational administration or counseling;
• 5-7 years of leadership, administrator or personnel management in a school setting.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Master's degree in educational administration, counseling or a related field
• adolescent behavior and development
• academic advising and classroom management
• academic course mapping and scheduling
• student health and safety
• student information systems (SIS) such as PowerSchool, Gradelink, Skyward

Hours: General school hours; before school, after school and weekend meetings and events occur throughout the school year

Terms of Employment:

• 2026-27 academic year
• Annual renewable contract
• Competitive compensation package
• Full-Time position