Senior Director, Strategy & Business Development

Success Academy Charter Schools; New York (NY); Hybrid; USD 250,000 - 275,000; Full time

Job summary

Success Academy Charter Schools is seeking an experienced Strategy and Business Development leader to serve as a strategic architect and operator, tackling the network's toughest challenges. You will navigate between enterprise-level strategy and tactical program execution, shaping the strategic agenda and driving cross-functional initiatives across the organization.

The ideal candidate has 10+ years in strategy or BD, exceptional problem-solving, and a proven ability to build partnerships with

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in strategy or business development, ideally at top-tier firms or in-house strategy.
• Strong analytical capabilities and data-driven decision making.
• Exceptional communication skills with executives and cross-functional teams.
• Proven ability to drive complex initiatives from definition to execution.
• Experience sourcing and structuring partnerships with external organizations.

Responsibilities

• Shape the enterprise agenda and partner with senior leaders to drive strategic priorities.
• Build systematic strategic operating cadences and planning processes.
• Lead cross-functional problem solving on high-impact challenges.
• Deliver insights to inform executive decisions and strategic direction.
• Operationalize market intelligence and surface actionable trends.
• Source and structure external partnerships to enhance capabilities.
• Leverage AI to elevate analysis, communication, and decision support.

Skills

Strategic thinking

Analytical mindset

Executive communication

Problem solving

Partnership development

AI-enabled strategy

Ownership / accountability

Data visualization

Job description

Thanks for your interest in Success Academy! Running a large, fast-growing, and high-performing network of public charter schools takes a village - families, children, teachers, staff and faculty, advocates, and supporters alike. We are growing fast in New York and expanding to Florida, and we would love to welcome you to our community! We work tirelessly every day to ensure children have access to a fun, rigorous, whole-child education regardless of zip code or economic status. When you join SA, you play a part in giving every student who walks through our doors a fair shot at reaching his or her potential.

Department

Strategy & Business Development (BD) helps author and orchestrate the enterprise strategy and provides the analytical capabilities required to drive it forward. The team owns the strategic planning process, manages the organization's market intelligence capability, leads key cross-functional initiatives, and runs Business Development and Partnerships. Working end-to-end across all departments, Strategy & BD is positioned to help Success Academy deliver its most ambitious goals.

The Opportunity

We are seeking an experienced Strategy and Business Development leader to serve as a strategic architect and effective operator. This role will tackle the organization’s most complex and highest-priority challenges, moving between enterprise-level strategy and tactical program execution. With an enterprise-wide scope, you will play a leading role in building the strategic capabilities, systems, and processes that will enable Success Academy to deliver on its ambition to scale world-class schools and reimagine public education.

The ideal candidate combines rigorous strategic thinking, strong analytical horsepower, and exceptional communication skills: someone who can take a complex problem, develop a data-driven solution, and then effectively implement it across the organization, influencing others to drive change. To be effective in this role, you will need to be able to navigate ambiguity, solve problems like an owner, and move complex work forward quickly.

Key Responsibilities

• Shape the enterprise agenda. Serve as a trusted thought partner to senior leaders—helping shape, pressure-test, and drive the strategic priorities of the network.
• Build systematic solutions. Develop the strategic operating cadences the network runs on. Establish and own strategic planning processes and structures that will enable the organization to operate with speed as it scales.
• Solve the hardest cross-functional problems. Lead structured problem-solving on the network's most consequential challenges. Bring structure to ambiguous issues, drive the analysis, and ensure successful execution and sustainment.
• Deliver business insights and decision support. Proactively surface trends and opportunities, arming executive leadership with actionable insights.
• Operationalize market and competitive intelligence. Contextualize the external landscape in which Success Academy operates. Systematically surface key insights to drive enterprise strategy and inform key decisions.
• Source partnership opportunities. Bring outside-in perspective to the organization. Identify, vet, and structure partnerships that solve internal problems and bring new capabilities to the enterprise.
• Elevate and enhance work with AI. Find where AI can raise the quality and speed of the team's work, and build it into how we analyze, communicate, and support decisions.
  
  

Requirements

• A world-class analytical foundation. 10+ years of experience, ideally including time at a top-tier strategy consulting firm or comparable environment. In-house strategy or business development experience is highly valued.
• Exceptional problem-solving. You break down hard, ambiguous problems quickly, see the connections others miss, and bring structure where there was none.
• Independent ownership. A track record of driving complex initiatives from definition through implementation, with high agency and excellent execution.
• Executive communication. You distill complex, multi-source information into clear and synthesized recommendations. Presentation and delivery build trust and confidence with executive audiences.
• Partnership development acumen. Able to scan the external ecosystem to source, vet, and structure potential partnerships with financial and strategic rigor. A compelling representative of Success Academy to external parties—able to articulate our needs and frame partnership opportunities in a way that resonates.
• Fluency with the modern strategy toolkit. Strong quantitative and data-visualization skills, and genuine enthusiasm for using AI to elevate your work.
• High drive, low ego. Pairs ambition and intensity with humility—no task too small, willing to roll up sleeves and pitch in wherever needed to drive change.
• Location. NYC-based or willing to relocate; hybrid, 3 days/week in the Manhattan office.
  
  

Exact Compensation May Vary Based On Skills And Experience.

Compensation Range

$250,000 - $275,000 USD

Success Academy Charter Schools is an equal opportunity employer and actively encourages applications from people of all backgrounds. Compensation is competitive and commensurate with experience. Success Academy offers a full benefits program and opportunities for professional growth.

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We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our organization. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. We actively seek applications from people of all backgrounds to strengthen our community and the perspectives needed to flourish in a multicultural world. Success Academy offers a full benefits program and opportunities for professional growth.

Success Academy Charter Schools does not offer employment-based immigration sponsorship.