Senior Director, Technical Assistance
Senior Director, Technical Assistance
Remote
All candidates must live in California.
Posted: 10/27/22
The California College Guidance Initiative is looking for a dynamic and effective technical and people leader committed to removing systematic barriers for students working towards their postsecondary goals. The Senior Director, Technical Assistance will play a critical role in advising the organization as we continue to develop relationships and closely collaborate with systems partners (e.g. CCCCO, CDE, CSAC, CSUCO, and UCOP) on our Technical Assistance services. They will hold an important leadership role within CCGI through their content knowledge, skills, and experience and their ability to both represent and make decisions in the best interest of the Technical Assistance team in a fast-paced and constantly evolving environment.
As a strategic, creative, and sophisticated leader, the Senior Director, Technical Assistance will design, grow, and oversee the implementation of CCGI’s strategy for data alignment work with K-12 school districts across the state of California. The Senior Director, Technical Assistance will hone in on the needs of our K-12 and higher education segment partners who can benefit from the transcript data on CaliforniaColleges.edu to ensure CCGI’s technical assistance infrastructure and support is conducive to scaling the use of CaliforniaColleges.edu statewide.
The ideal candidate is motivated to be at the forefront of systematic change. They are collaborative, have a strong aptitude for due diligence and problem solving, and are not only willing, but excited to dig in to support growth and learning for their team. Importantly, the Senior Director, Technical Assistance is an approachable and compassionate person who demonstrates an obvious commitment to feedback and building authentic relationships.
We work to solve large scale, system-level problems. You must be comfortable working with unknowns and ambiguous solutions, as well as passionate about promoting public education and advancing educational equity.
What Will You Be Doing?
- Oversee the full portfolio of work for the Technical Assistance team and provide consistent and strong coaching so that the team has the resources and support they need to drive the work with partner districts. This includes purview over:
- Practices to effectively and efficiently analyze and replicate transcript informed issues.
- Maintain and iterate processes and access to tools and training to ensure the data services team has strong content expertise of CCGI’s file specifications, Maia Learning transcript loader functionality, and CaliforniaColleges.edu functionality relevant to their day-to-day work, as well as regular opportunities to strengthen their Excel skills and relevant programming skills to more efficiently and confidently fulfill the responsibilities of their roles.
- Maintain and iterate processes and access to tools and training to ensure Technical Assistance Manager and Seniors Managers, as well as Deputy Directors have strong content expertise of “a-g” requirements, namely changes to institutional requirements, and the ability to clearly communicate how these changes impact CaliforniaColleges.edu, as well as the expertise and confidence to coach districts to move through the initial data alignment process in a timely manner and to help districts establish routines to make ongoing data alignment manageable.
- Advocate for the needs of the Technical Assistance in organization-wide decision making that impacts their work and also prioritize the development of Technical Assistance routines that support the needs of other teams.
- Elevate data inaccuracies and system failures, as needed, so the organization can prioritize solutions.
- Establish, maintain, and model strong documentation of Technical Assistance processes and use of available data to drive strategic decisions.
- Regularly assess the effectiveness of the division’s programmatic offerings, as well as team’s task management and outcomes and identify and implement solutions to gaps and areas of growth.
- Develop and maintain knowledge of primary student information systems vendors operating in California in order to leverage them to yield efficiencies for school districts and CCGI’s own technical assistance processes.
- Serve as one of CCGI’s primary strategic leads in our partnership with CDE.
- Lead change management for the Technical Assistance team as we work to integrate CALPADS data to support account management on CaliforniaColleges.edu.
- Develop, iterate, and drive technical, as well as capacity building processes to support districts in successfully uploading transcript data to CaliforniaColleges.edu and monitoring and improving the cleanliness of their transcript data.
- In consultation with the Chief Programs Officer, develop and implement professional development so that the Technical Assistance team fully understand bodies of work in education for which the CaliforniaColleges.edu infrastructure could be made useful (i.e. CTE, master scheduling, etc.).
- In collaboration with the Chief People and Systems Office, develop and implement an effective and sustainable staff recruitment, development and retention strategy for the Technical Assistance team.
Maintain expert knowledge CaliforniaColleges.edu. - Participate in CCGI’s people-manager workgroup, eagerly and prepared to actively grow management skills.
- Active member of CCGI’s Expanded Leadership Team.
- Model exceptional character and judgment in alignment with CCGI’s values and core characteristics.
- Directly manage a Director and Deputy Director and provide leadership to the broader Technical Assistance team of
- Deputy Directors, Senior Managers, Managers and Partner District Support Analysts. This team will continue to grow over the next few years. The Senior Director, Technical Assistance reports to the Chief Programs Officer.
- Oversee the full portfolio of work for the Technical Assistance team and provide consistent and strong coaching so that the team has the resources and support they need to drive the work with partner districts. This includes purview over:
What Technical Skills Do You Need?
- Expert knowledge of the “a-g” requirements, including relevant validations, and similarities and differences between requirements for the CSU and UC systems.
- Minimum of ten (10) + years of experience working in K-12 data sets.
- Strong familiarity with a variety of K-12 student information systems (SIS) like PowerSchool, Aeries, Infinite Campus, etc. and expert knowledge in at least one SIS.
- Minimum of ten (10) + years of experience working with and analyzing complex data files and file formats.
- Advanced SQL knowledge (SQL Server, PostgreSQL, MySQL, etc.) and experience working with relational databases, query authoring and optimization, as well as working familiarity with a variety of databases.
- Strong experience with and direct knowledge of K-12 data sets, including familiarity with K-12 CALPADS files, and student information systems required.
- Experience with object-oriented/object function and statistical scripting languages (Python, R, Stata, etc.).
- Experience with open-source technical documentation tools (i.e., Sphinx).
- Experience with AWS and SnowFlake cloud services.
- Mastery of Excel and Microsoft Office.
- Experience with Salesforce preferred, or similar CRM experience.
- Ability to model, provide, and receive feedback using the Nonviolent Communication model.
What Intangibles Do You Need?
- Strong decision-making skills and collaborative spirit, with the ability to take abstract brainstorming and generate concrete proposals for action.
- Self-directed and proactive problem-solver.
- Clear, confident, and attentive verbal communicator.
- Excellent professional judgment.
- Ability to write with attention to accuracy, audience, and concision.
- Ability to communicate complex information simply.
- Ability to collect and analyze information, problem-solve, and make decisions.
- Capacity to think in an organized and rational manner in order to understand connections between ideas and/or facts.
- Commitment to developing and maintaining trusting professional relationships.
- Demonstrated ability to organize, prioritize, and manage multiple projects and tasks simultaneously.
- Stellar organizational skills and attention to detail.
- Ability to retain and apply new knowledge.
- Comfort with and ability to easily transition between independent and collaborative tasks.
- A desire to work in a team culture with the following characteristics:
- Collaboration and learning
- Data-driven practices
- Direct feedback
- Documentation
- Due diligence and preparation
- Professionalism and kindness
- Self-reflection
- Strategic thinking
- Vulnerability
- Leads with an intentional focus on building teams that value/promote/engage/demand different perspectives, experiences, and strengths.
- Demonstrated ability and continued desire to coach, mentor, lead, and manage in a virtual environment.
- Dedication to continuing to grow management and leadership skills.
- Advance projects without detailed supervision, balancing multiple responsibilities and providing colleagues with actionable proposals for advancing collective efforts.
- Thrive in a fast-paced environment with changing priorities and deadlines.
- Juggle multiple projects of various scopes with ease and grace.
- Meticulous attention to detail.
More about CCGI
The California College Guidance Initiative (CCGI) works to ensure that all 6th-12th grade students in California have access to a systematic baseline of guidance and support as they plan, prepare, and pay for postsecondary education and training.
This baseline is provided by CaliforniaColleges.edu, which provides California students and educators with a wide range of college and career planning information and tools. The site also houses, audits, and transmits student data to help ensure more accurate and efficient decisions regarding admissions, financial aid, and course placement. CCGI provides technical assistance, support, and training to K-12 school districts in order to support students, counselors, and parents with the systematic use of CaliforniaColleges.edu, including its transcript-informed tools.
CCGI forms the core of the college planning and application tools in California’s newly-launched Cradle-to-Career System. Over the next few years, the Cradle-to-Career System will scale CCGI so that all California 6th-12th grade students can have free access to our transcript-informed tools.
CCGI is a positive, diverse, and supportive culture. At our core, we prioritize the needs of students above all else.
Everyone at CCGI works remotely. We are all located in various parts of California. We rarely meet in person. Instead, we make use of tools, such as ZOOM, Slack, and Salesforce, to communicate and document our work.
CCGI is housed at the Foundation for California Community Colleges but is an autonomous initiative with its own mission, goals, and leadership team.
The application process will be open until the position is filled.
CCGI is housed at the Foundation for California Community Colleges but is an autonomous initiative with its own mission, goals, and leadership team.
The Foundation for California Community Colleges is committed to providing an environment of mutual respect where equal employment opportunities (EEO) are available to all employees and applicants without regard to race, color, ancestry, national origin, genetic characteristics, sex, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, marital/parental status, political affiliation, religion, age, disability, pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding or veteran status. In addition to federal law requirements, the Foundation for California Community Colleges complies with applicable state and local laws governing non-discrimination in employment.
As the official nonprofit auxiliary to the Chancellor’s Office, we aim to ensure our team reflects the diversity of the California Community Colleges and the 1.8 million students, campuses, and communities it serves. Individuals are hired for their deep understanding of each population’s unique needs and will join a collaborative environment where each team member plays an important role in helping Californians across all communities improve their social and economic mobility and build a better future for themselves and their families.
Application Instructions
- Click the apply button below to be taken to the Foundation for California Community Colleges website, where the application is housed.
- Include both a cover letter and resume with your application.