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Role Description The Deputy Executive Director provides senior executive leadership to advance Smarter Balanced's mission through coordinated decision-making, operational excellence, and strategic supervision across multiple functional areas. Reporting to the Executive Director, the position serves as a central integrator across offices, ensuring timely, transparent, and data-informed decisions that appropriately engage the Executive Committee, advisory bodies, and the Governing Board. The Deputy Executive Director serves as the initial escalation point for office- and organization-wide risks and plays a key role in safeguarding organizational integrity through effective risk management, compliance oversight, and institutional accountability. The position provides executive oversight of core operational systems, including finance, human resources, production planning, and quality assurance, ensuring alignment with University of California and UC Santa Cruz policies and best practices. Through continuous improvement, performance monitoring, and strategic resource stewardship, the Deputy Executive Director strengthens operational effectiveness, drives efficiency, and ensures that Smarter Balanced products and services meet the highest standards of quality and reliability. As a senior leader, the Deputy Executive Director supervises and develops executive officers across External Affairs, Product and Strategy, Content, Psychometrics, Research, and Project Management. The role fosters cross-office collaboration, builds high-performing leadership teams, and supports organizational change and succession planning. When the Executive Director is unavailable, the Deputy Executive Director assumes executive authority to ensure continuity of leadership and operations, providing stability and strategic guidance during both routine operations and high-stakes, time-sensitive situations. Qualifications - Advanced degree in related area and/or equivalent experience/training. - Proven experience in serving as an executive to support state and national organizations in their development and use of effective assessment systems aimed at improving teaching and learning. - Proven experience in addressing complex political landscapes in a manner that positions the organization for long-term success and prioritizes relationship-building among stakeholders. - Proven experience scaling systems while demonstrating commitment to accuracy, accessibility, fairness, and maintaining public trust. - Highly developed leadership abilities with demonstrated success in developing high-performance teams, managing organizational change, and motivating and influencing others as necessary to achieve organizational goals. - Proven experience leading and developing a team of executives to establish goals aligned with the organization's mission and maximize organizational outcomes. - Experience ensuring that organizational practices, services, and behaviors support and promote collaboration among staff. - Proven experience in establishing and implementing strategic plans to empower the organization to better fulfill its mission. - Thorough knowledge of large-scale educational assessment and experience in working directly with state staff to arrive at technical assessment solutions that meet their needs. - Thorough knowledge of the organizational environment of state departments of education to understand client priorities, issues, motivations, and constraints. - Thorough knowledge of the federal law and general knowledge of states’ laws regarding K-12 assessment and accountability, and procurement. - Highly developed decision-making skills that include consensus-based decision-making and input and guidance from several constituents (e.g., executive board, customers, advocacy groups). - Proven capacity to adapt to unexpected and high-stakes issues with a track record of providing executive oversight in supporting an expedient resolution that addresses the needs of the organization and is consistent with best practices in educational assessment. - Ability to travel 1-2 times per month. Requirements - Terminal degree in a related field (PhD, JD, MD, etc.). - Excellent communication skills. Demonstrated ability to craft messages that meet the needs of a diversity of audiences and a diversity of media for internal and external purposes. - Proven experience in leading the current market to shape current and future trends. - Proven experience in business development, marketing, communications, and aligning budgets to strategic objectives that support organizational success. - Thorough knowledge of technology necessary to support the development and administration of educational assessments. - Thorough knowledge of public sector practices in performance management. - Proven experience in validating new educational assessments. - Proven experience engaging in collaborative problem-solving with governing or executive boards. Special Conditions of Employment - Selected candidate will be required to pass a pre-employment criminal history background check. - Selected candidate must pass the employment misconduct disclosure process. - Ability to work long periods of time at a computer with or without accommodation. - Ability to work occasional evenings and weekends as directed. - Ability to travel nationally. Travel: Up to 20% of the time. - Ability to maintain appearance and conduct suitable for working in a professional setting. - This is a fully remote position, and the selected candidate must be able to work successfully from a home/remote office and be able to fulfill the requirements of the UCSC telecommuting agreement. - Selected candidate will be required to complete training within established time frames as directed including UC compliance training. - The University of California has implemented a Vaccination Policy covering all employees. Employees, including new hires, are required to comply with any applicable policies relating to the University of California vaccine program. - Exercise the utmost discretion in managing sensitive information learned in the course of performing their duties. Compensation & Benefits This position offers a competitive salary range of $211,900 - $237,760, and robust benefits. Salary commensurate with skills, qualifications and experience. The salary for this position will be reviewed after approximately three years. Any adjustment would be subject to review and approval and would occur within the established salary range, up to and including the midpoint, as appropriate. Under California law, the University of California, Santa Cruz is required to post a reasonable estimate of the compensation for this role. The salary shown above is the budgeted amount the University reasonably expects to pay and the salary extended should not exceed this posted amount. More details can be provided upon request. To Indicate Interest Please submit a resume online at this link . Note that there will be a formal process through the UC Santa Cruz applicant portal. Smarter Balanced is an equal opportunity employer and an organization that values diversity. Recruiting staff to create an inclusive organization is a priority, and we encourage applicants from all backgrounds. Candidates are evaluated solely on their qualifications to perform the work required.

ORGANIZATION  TEACH was founded by the US Department of Education in 2015. Its mission is to end the national teacher shortage and help talented people from all backgrounds enter the teaching profession. TEACH serves as the recruiting arm of the teaching profession, partnering directly with State Departments of Education, school districts and teacher preparation programs. TEACH accomplishes its mission with an innovative program model, which includes: - Rebranding the teaching profession through an ongoing PSA ad campaign; - Deploying a comprehensive recruiting system, based on best practice research; - Supporting prospects to get over hurdles and barriers that would stop them from becoming teachers; and  - Meeting young people where they are - i.e. online, on their phones and on social media. TEACH currently partners with State Departments of Education, universities and schools in ten states/ metropolitan areas. Partnering regions include New York, Connecticut, South Carolina, North Carolina, Minnesota, New Mexico, Colorado, Houston, San Antonio and Dallas-Fort Worth.  To learn more about TEACH, please see these slides. Because our website is our “product” (i.e., the toolset we provide to prospective future teachers), it does not have much information about the organization for potential future teammates. In lieu of a public-facing website, this document is designed for that purpose. OPPORTUNITY  TEACH is seeking its inaugural Vice President, External Relations. As an organization that is 80% supported through earned revenue contracts with State Departments of Education (also known as State Education Agencies or SEAs), TEACH’s funding strategy is largely led through these ongoing partnerships. This individual will be responsible for building and maintaining these external relationships and partnerships that ensure the organization meets its annual revenue goals. TEACH offers a fully remote working environment, with a culture of care and support for every staff member. The organization is deeply committed to diversity, equity and inclusion and works to ensure its programs, operations and decision making are aligned to these core values.  This is an exciting opportunity for a savvy partnership manager and skilled relationship builder to help propel TEACH into its next chapter, by growing its reach to new communities, and strengthening its depth in the communities it currently serves.  RESPONSIBILITIES Key Responsibilities of the Vice President, External Relations are: Business development for new states (50%) - Developing TEACH’s “new state business development pipeline,” including: - Building connections to get initial meetings and pitching TEACH to new partners. - Developing the strategy and actions to build new relationships and secure ongoing contracts. - Overseeing the processes and systems to enable TEACH’s new business development work. - Setting up and overseeing a system to track legislation and state budgets to identify opportunities for partnership. Raising TEACH’s profile and reputation among decision-makers (of any potential contract with TEACH) and people/organizations who could influence said decision-makers (10%) - Overseeing a process to track and get TEACH to speak at industry conferences. - Meeting with advocacy groups and getting TEACH on the radar of advocacy groups, so that the organization’s model is included in their public and private recommendations about how to address teacher recruitment. Maintain and renew existing funding (25%) - Track all contract renewals and ensure that there is an effective strategy for securing ongoing funding. - In states where TEACH does not yet have legislated funding, oversee the strategy and process to secure legislated funding (including potentially managing a lobbyist). - In states TEACH has legislated funding, oversee the process to protect, maintain, or increase that funding (including potentially managing a lobbyist). Fundraising from foundations (15%) - Secure grants to support general operating funds, funds for special projects, or funds to subsidize SEA contracts.

ABOUT CHALLENGEU  ChallengeU is a Canadian B-Corp operating virtual schools that serve dropout recovery students. Our mission is to ensure every student has a bright future, regardless of their circumstances. We combine personalized coaching with innovative technology to re-engage students who have disconnected from traditional education. In Quebec, we serve 10,000+ students annually through partnerships with school districts, establishing ourselves as the market leader in dropout recovery education. Our Ohio Community School launched in 2023 and has grown from 250 students to 1,200+ students, consistently meeting or exceeding state graduation standards. Ohio represents our blueprint for U.S. expansion. Unlike Quebec where we partner with districts, in Ohio we operate our own school with full control over educational services. This creates an unprecedented opportunity to innovate, iterate rapidly, and build scalable systems that will transform dropout recovery education nationally. To learn more about ChallengeU, please visit www.challengeu.com.  THE OPPORTUNITY  We are seeking a Chief Schools Officer to lead ChallengeU Ohio through its next phase of growth: scaling from 1,200 to 7,500+ students while maintaining quality outcomes and building systems that can be replicated across multiple states. This is not a traditional superintendent role. You will be building the operational infrastructure, leadership team, and processes required to serve vulnerable students at unprecedented scale. You will pioneer AI-enhanced coaching tools, establish proof points for national expansion, and potentially impact over 100,000 students in the next decade. The right candidate will inherit a proven model, a committed team, and the backing of an organization that has successfully scaled similar operations in Canada. What we need is a leader who can systematize what works, build organizational capacity, and maintain relentless focus on student outcomes as we grow. KEY RESPONSIBILITIES Strategic Leadership - Own the execution of Ohio's growth strategy: 2,000 students (Year 1), 4,000+ students (Year 2), 7,500+ students (Year 3); - Develop and manage annual operating budgets with accountability for financial performance; - Build the organizational blueprint for multi-state expansion and lead efforts to secure licensure in additional states. - Partner with Quebec leadership on shared services (HR, Finance, Technology, Marketing). Operational Excellence - Ensure full compliance with Ohio Department of Education requirements; - Oversee all school operations: enrollment, student services, academics, testing, records; - Implement data-driven decision making across all departments; - Manage vendor relationships and service provider contracts; - Build scalable processes that maintain quality as enrollment grows. Team Leadership - Scale the Ohio team from 60 to 100+ employees in Year 1; - Evaluate, develop, and optimize leadership structure as needed; - Build a culture of accountability, continuous improvement, and student-centered service; - Implement rigorous performance management and professional development; Innovation & Technology - Partner with Product team to define requirements for coaching tools and student engagement platforms; - Support deployment of AI-enhanced coaching tools (Pilot project in Year 1); - Drive adoption of technology solutions across the organization and identify opportunities for automation and efficiency gains.