Vice President of Education

Remote Location, United States

Job Description
Reporting to and working in partnership with the President, the Vice President of Education will play a critical role in growing, leveraging and enhancing the resource hub and other educational materials to reach a broader audience with relevant and accessible tools. This role will be a key part of the senior leadership team and collaborate closely with the VP of Consulting and the VP of Operations as well as supervise key education staff in future years. The first 3-6 months of this position will include close mentorship with the President, including regular feedback and opportunities for reflection and dialogue, as the VP of Education learns the culture, educational approach, partnerships, and systems, and becomes intimately familiar with the content areas and existing resources of Sacred Spaces.

This is an exciting opportunity for the right candidate interested in joining a small group of innovative professionals as they work to create large-scale change in the Jewish community. The ideal candidate will be an experienced builder who thrives in an entrepreneurial culture and is able to organize teams and departments while prioritizing and completing multiple initiatives with efficiency and excellence. The candidate will be able to work collaboratively; is organized and attentive to details; and has strong managerial, communication, and interpersonal skills.

Responsibilities
The VP of Education will oversee the development and operation of a newly created Education Department which today includes the online resources and training institute and is critical in supporting the organization in achieving its three-year strategic plan. Key responsibilities include:

Resource Hub

• Support the President in finalizing the materials and content for Sacred Spaces foundational resources, Aleinu and Keilim. Currently 60% of the minimum viable product for combined sites is complete.
• In partnership with the President, map a product vision for the resource hub and create an implementation plan to achieve this vision.
• Create journey maps or other user-experience tools for Sacred Spaces work across the lifespan, denominations, and various types of institutions to help Jewish organizations customize their utilization and implementation of resources.
• In collaboration with the consulting team, incorporate new tools into existing resources and web platforms and share best practices to enhance custom consulting engagements.
• Monitoring the field and emerging research for effective practices, new challenges, and insights to incorporate into Sacred Spaces resources.
• Develop an approach to marketing and promoting resources to ensure broad accessibility and generate momentum and energy.
• Explore innovative opportunities to reach new audiences.
• Oversee the redesign of Sacred Spaces’ main website in collaboration with web designers, to ensure alignment with Keilim and Aleinu websites.

Standardized Trainings

• Organizing and developing a training bank, with standardized PowerPoints, talking points, facilitator guides and interactive exercises.
• Determining key audience for trainings at set times of year (e.g., parent training before holidays or camp).
• Grow and professionalize training institutes by:
  • Building a highly qualified team of trainers through hiring and professional development;
  • Creating consistent, engaging, professional and interactive training materials that are updated regularly based on new information and emerging research and best practices;
  • Serving as quality control, providing performance feedback and reviewing evaluations;
  • Setting an annual calendar that captures needs of broad spectrum of professionals across the field;
  • Recruiting participants to achieve scale.

Management

• Initially, the VP of Education will work in close partnership with the President and VP of Consulting to understand and evaluate Sacred Spaces’ existing materials and support the development of remaining Aleinu and Keilim resources; over time the VP of Education will be central to building, overseeing, and directing an Education team.
• Work with the VP of Operations to build a hiring process that identifies aptitude and interest in facilitating training and curriculum development; support recruitment and rigorous onboarding of Ed staff
• Develop metrics for evaluation to ensure quality consistent with expectations across all Sacred Spaces’ educational programs, including trainings, assessments, surveys, and other programmatic activities.

Fellowship and Other Educational Opportunities 

• Build and execute a long-term plan to mentor and train new employees to the field through a Fellowship program.
• In later years, identifying opportunities for education in the broader field, such as semester long course partnerships with rabbinical seminaries.

Qualifications and Skills

• Minimum 10 years experience in a senior management role.
• Passion for the Sacred Spaces mission.
• Exceptional written, oral, interpersonal, and presentation skills and the ability to interface with senior management, staff, and the public with attention to detail and ability to convey nuanced ideas.
• Experience as Senior Educator—thorough understanding of curriculum design, user accessibility, creative learning approaches, online learning platforms, engaging and interactive in-person and virtual learning, development of supplemental learning materials, attention to detail and organization of learning modules, ability to develop facilitator guides with clear learning objectives, activities, and talking points for diverse audiences with diverse learning styles.
• Proven track record of success building or facilitating significant expansion of department or program.
• Superior management skills; ability to engage direct and indirect reports and peers with strong mentoring and coaching experience for a team with diverse levels of expertise.
• Excellent judgment and creative problem solving skills.
• Self-reliant; a creative and innovative problem-solver with a positive can-do attitude.
• Engaged, flexible, collaborative, and proactive; a team leader who can positively and productively impact both strategic and educational initiatives.
• Willingness to travel 7-10 times per year.
• Deep knowledge of North American Jewish communities and demonstrated ability to work with people from other backgrounds and experiences.

Sacred Spaces believes strongly that all applicants, including Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews, Black, Indigenous, or Other People of Color, people of all abilities, people of all religions, and LGBTQI people should be considered fairly for employment opportunities regardless of identity. We are most interested in finding the best candidate for the job, and we recognize that the best candidate may have different qualifications from those listed above. This position could also be an opportunity for someone with experience in one of these areas to build skills in another area.  If you believe you are poised to excel at this important work, we encourage you to apply!

Compensation and Benefits
A competitive compensation and benefits package includes: Salary range of $120,000-$140,000 FTE, commensurate with experience, 100% employer-paid health, dental, and vision, 401K retirement plan with employer match, paid parental leave, sabbatical available to employees at all levels of the organization, generous paid time off, including all Jewish and major national holidays (when these holidays fall on weekdays), and a professional development and home office stipend. Sacred Spaces operates on a Core Hours system with flexibility outside of these core hours for a total of 40 hours per work week.

If your salary expectations are different and/or you have more experience than required, let’s talk.

Application Process
Please send an email with the subject “VP of Education,” including resume, cover letter, and a writing sample created in the past five years to Jobs@JewishSacredSpaces.org. We use the term writing sample broadly to refer to something you have already written and are not creating special for this application. We are most interested in examples of curricula, online learning platforms, or facilitator’s guides in which you were the sole or lead drafter; if you have something different that you want us to see, feel free to submit. If you’re uncertain about what to submit, you may reach out and ask. The cover letter should include descriptions of positions with relevant experience, and demonstration of successful expertise in the core demands of the position.

Hiring includes a 3 interview process, with Sacred Spaces staff, hiring consultant and board member:

• Round 1: Brief Zoom screening meeting.
• Round 2: Select candidates will be invited to a Zoom interview with Sacred Spaces’ team member(s).
• Round 3: Finalists receive a short written assignment 5 business days before their third-round interview, which will be due 24 hours prior to the interview; all finalists who complete this assignment will receive a $250 honorarium in recognition of their work. Finalists provide names and contact information for reference checks and resume verification. After a candidate receives a conditional offer, they are invited to interview any Sacred Spaces staff or a board member before accepting the position, and background checks are conducted as a final step.

As part of Sacred Spaces’ commitment to equity, writing samples and assignments are deidentified and interview questions standardized, with some custom questions for candidates who progress through the application process. Applicants are scored using a common rubric based on the job description. Sacred Spaces endeavors to communicate clearly with candidates at each stage of the process. If at any point you have a question about the application process or the status of your application, please feel welcome to email Jobs@JewishSacredSpaces.org.

Accommodations
Sacred Spaces aims to create an accessible application process. Please let us know of any accommodations you require in order to fully participate in the application process. Accommodations requests can be made to Jobs@JewishSacredSpaces.org or by calling (412) 219-3155.

This job description is intended to convey information essential to understand the scope of the position. It is not intended to be an exhaustive list of skills, efforts, duties, or responsibilities associated with the position.

Thank you for considering employment at Sacred Spaces.

We look forward to receiving your application!