The posting
About Achievement First
Achievement First (AF) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization supporting 39 public charter schools across New York, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. For more than 25 years, AF has been recognized as one of the top tuition-free public charter school networks in the country. We are committed to creating schools of academic excellence within nurturing environments — schools that prepare students to be college-ready and to pursue and succeed in whatever paths they choose in life.
The majority of AF students are Black and Latinx children from low-income families, many of whom will be the first in their families to graduate from college. Across our network, we employ more than 2,200 staff members — 64% of whom identify as Black, Indigenous, or People of Color — who collectively educate nearly 15,000 students in Brooklyn and Queens, NY; New Haven, Bridgeport, and Hartford, CT; and Providence and Cranston, RI.
Our mission is to prepare every student to excel in college, career, and life; deepen their understanding of self and community; and lead lives of purpose. We believe in the limitless potential within our students and their power to shape a more just society. That belief drives our deep commitment to student achievement: we aim to set a high bar for learning and create warm, demanding classrooms where rigorous instruction is paired with the care, encouragement, and consistency every student deserves.
We are looking for a strategic and dynamic Managing Director of People Partners to join our Talent team.
Your Impact
The Managing Director of People Partners is a key strategic and operational leader within AF's Talent Team, serving as a trusted partner and subject-matter expert to school and network leaders across all three regions (NY, CT & RI). Reporting to the Chief People Officer, this individual brings broad, high-quality HR generalist expertise to the full talent employee life cycle (attract, recruit, onboard, retain, develop, and offboard). The Managing Director bridges the gap between the People Team's specialized functions and the day-to-day people needs of AF's schools and network support offices, ensuring that every staff member experiences a consistent, equitable, and high-quality people experience. The Managing Director also leads a team of employee relations/people partners.
As AF continues to evolve its regionalized model, this role plays a critical connective function — ensuring that people practices are responsive to local context while maintaining network-wide coherence. This position will serve as the go-to generalist resource for managers and leaders across the organization, advising on complex employee situations, driving key HR initiatives, and helping to assess what people management capability needs to be built for our leaders at all levels.
Human Resources Strategy & Business Partnership
- Serve as a strategic HR business partner to school and network leaders, providing expert counsel on workforce planning, organizational design, team structure, and people strategy.
- Advise leaders on people-related decisions, including role design, team restructuring, talent gaps, and change management and translate organizational goals into actionable people plans.
- Proactively identify trends across the organization (retention risks, engagement patterns, structural gaps) and bring data-driven recommendations to leadership.
Employee Relations & Performance Management
- Lead a team of resources that serve as the primary resource for complex employee relations issues across schools and the network support office, providing consistent, fair, and legally sound guidance to managers and leaders.
- Advise and coach managers on performance management, progressive discipline, and termination processes; ensure consistency and equity across the network.
- Investigate employee complaints, grievances, and policy violations; document findings and recommend appropriate corrective action in partnership with General Counsel and the CPO.
- Develop and maintain clear employee relations frameworks, templates, and manager tools that empower leaders to navigate people challenges with confidence.
- Promote a culture of accountability and care — helping leaders balance high expectations with genuine investment in staff success and wellbeing.
Compliance and Policy
- Ensure AF's HR practices, policies, and procedures remain fully compliant with applicable federal, state, and local employment laws across New York, Connecticut, and Rhode Island.
- Monitor legislative and regulatory changes affecting AF staff and proactively update policies, procedures, and training materials to reflect new requirements.
- Maintain and regularly update AF's employee handbook and HR policy library, ensuring accessibility and clarity for all staff.
- Partner with the General Counsel and People Team to address compliance risks, conduct internal audits, and implement mitigation strategies.
- Oversee documentation and record-keeping for employee files, leave, accommodations, and other HR compliance areas.
Manager Capability Building
- Deliver practical manager training and resources on core HR topics, including onboarding, performance conversations, employee relations, and legal compliance.
- Coach and develop people managers across schools and the network support office to build HR acumen and confidence in handling people situations.
- Create scalable tools, playbooks, and guides that enable managers to act with greater autonomy while remaining aligned to People Team standards.
- Partner with the Learning & Development function to embed people management development into broader leadership programming.
Human Resources Project Management
- Lead end to end planning and execution of performance review cycles
- Develop and maintain project plans, timelines, milestones and communication schedules; proactively identify and resolve risks or bottlenecks.
- Work with HRIS team to analyze HR metrics and dashboards to identify trends, measure outcomes, and inform decision-making by the CPO and senior leaders.
- Monitor key indicators including turnover, engagement, time-to-fill, and employee relations caseload; surface insights and recommend action.
Skills You’ll Have
All candidates for this position will support AF core values, lead innovation, and manage projects to ensure our team, like our schools, are setting a high bar in all areas and pursuing it relentlessly.
An ideal candidate will have the following experience and qualifications:
- Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources, Business, Education or related field, required. Master’s Degree, preferred.
- Human Resources certification(s) (PHR, SPHR) a bonus
- Minimum 7 years of HR generalist experience (including recruitment, employee relations, compensation, benefits, learning and development, employee engagement and culture, organizational development, human resource information systems, compliance and reporting),
- Minimum 2 years in a human resources leadership role.
- Critical thinker with the ability to develop both short and long-range HR strategy, innovative solutions, and engaging business partners/stakeholders to ensure strong implementation, adoption and desired results.
- Knowledge of federal, state and local employment laws and regulations, specifically CT, NY & RI)
- Previous experience with Microsoft Office (MS Word, Excel, Powerpoint)
- Experience with enterprise HRIS systems, previous experience in ADP, highly preferred
- Comfort in managing data analysis and reporting
- Demonstrated project management skills
- Previous experience in successfully meeting defined goals/metrics.
- Previous experience in complex, large-scale project management.
- Previous experience managing others to success and resolving conflict.
- Previous experience in process optimization/process improvement.
- Previous experience collaboratively developing organization-level goals and managing successful outcomes.
- Previous experience within K-12 education is highly preferred.
In addition, the following characteristics are required to be successful on this team:
- Results-oriented individual – a determined leader willing to do “whatever it takes.”
- Detail-oriented individual – one who sweats the small stuff in planning and execution
- Excellent oral and written communication skills - brings structured thinking and concise communication to explain concepts.
- Strong interpersonal skills with the ability to build relationships
- Leads through influence - knows how to earn trust, build coalitions, and create momentum with different members of the organization
- Develops team members — making the next leader stronger as by executing well themselves
- Ability to work independently and as a member of a broader team in a fast- paced environment
- Highly organized, detail-oriented, and able to prioritize effectively
- Belief in the Achievement First mission and educational model
- Maturity, humility, strong work ethic, sense of humor, and “roll-up-my-sleeves” attitude
- Strong ethics and ability to maintain a high level of confidentiality
- Confident in interacting with and influencing individuals at all levels within the organization
Travel Expectations
This is a hybrid role. The expectation is that the person in the role would be able to come into the Network Support office (NYC or CT) at least 3 days a week. There may be additional travel to regions outside of your own on a monthly or as needed basis.
Compensation
Achievement First sets salaries are set through a lens of equity, and based on the requisite skills, education, and experience relevant to the role. The salary for this position is $150,331. In order to uphold our commitment to equity, Achievement First does not negotiate pay. Additionally, Achievement First offers to all regular, full-time employees a comprehensive benefits package that includes paid time off, medical, dental, vision, and life insurance, a 403(b) retirement benefit package with match, and paid Family Leave.
Achievement First is an equal opportunity employer and an organization that values diversity. People from all diverse backgrounds are strongly encouraged to apply. Spanish language proficiency is a plus. You can learn more about diversity at Achievement First here: http://achievementfirst.org/about-us/diversity/
