Director, Applied Analytics

THE ORGANIZATION

The Charter School Growth Fund (CSGF) is a leading nonprofit venture philanthropy fund dedicated to identifying the nation’s best public charter schools, investing in their expansion, and helping to increase their impact. Our “portfolio” includes 200+ charter school networks that operate 17,000+ schools and serve more than 725,000 students. We are committed to expanding the impact of schools that are closing achievement and opportunity gaps. CSGF operates with the same strategies, discipline, and focus as a venture capital firm by awarding multi-year grants and loans to talented education entrepreneurs building networks of high-quality charter schools that enroll traditionally underserved students. Ultimately, we think the portfolio can grow to serve ~1,000,000 students within a decade.

This is an exciting time to join the Charter School Growth Fund. We are successfully completing CSGF’s 4th fund, building on our 20 year track record of success. CSGF’s “Fund IV” is larger in size and scope than previous funds, with a goal to continue to fuel charter sector growth, accelerate innovation, and strengthen long-term outcomes for students, particularly students of color and those from low-income backgrounds. We continue to prioritize investments in leaders of color as our current portfolio is led by more than 50% leaders of color and more than 50% female leaders. We believe it is vital for the networks we support to be proximate to the lived experiences of the students and communities they serve.

THE OPPORTUNITY

CSGF’s Analytics team is building a world-class data ecosystem and analytics capability to equip organizational leaders with the insights they need to make high-quality decisions on behalf of students and school networks. As part of a restructured analytics team for Fund V, CSGF has created dedicated “translator” roles—a function that sits at the intersection of data and business, bridging the analytics team and the business teams they serve.

The Director, Applied Analytics will own key analytical workstreams for a dedicated portfolio of internal CSGF teams while also driving the strategy for how the Applied Analytics function delivers value across all of CSGF’s business teams. This is a senior individual contributor role that combines deep, relationship-driven analytics partnership with strategic leadership: the Director both does the work and helps shape how all of CSGF uses data to drive our most important decisions. In partnership with the VP, Analytics, the Director drives and informs the vision for the Applied Analytics function—identifying patterns across teams, designing scalable approaches to common analytical challenges, and partnering with the VP to build and refine the function’s norms, scope, and workflows as the team matures.

The ideal candidate is a technically strong, strategically minded analytics professional who builds deep trust with stakeholders, navigates ambiguity with confidence, leads through influence rather than authority, and brings the judgment and initiative needed to shape a new function from the ground up. The Director works as a peer alongside the Manager, Applied Analytics—serving as an informal mentor and thought partner while owning a more senior and complex portfolio. This role has no direct reports and reports to the Vice President, Analytics.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

CROSS-FUNCTIONAL STRATEGY & FUNCTION LEADERSHIP

• Inform the strategy for CSGF’s Applied Analytics function in close partnership with the VP, Analytics—including defining department norms, refining scopes and workflows, and making iterative adjustments to roles and responsibilities as the team matures and organizational needs evolve

• Support the establishment of clear working rhythms between the Applied Analytics function and peer Analytics departments, surfacing friction points, and collaborating with the VP to resolve gaps in scope or ownership across departments

• Proactively identify complex issues and challenges before they arise across the function and CSGF-wide; own the development of process-level solutions and drive their implementation

• Own AI strategy for leveraging AI as an analytical capability—including ad hoc analysis and rapid prototyping—in coordination with the Data Products & Engineering team

• Serve as an informal mentor and thought partner to the Manager, Applied Analytics—sharing analytical judgment, offering feedback on approach and communication, and modeling the standard for the function without formal management authority

EMBEDDED TEAM SUPPORT & TRANSLATION

• Own the analytics relationship for a dedicated portfolio of internal CSGF teams, developing deep knowledge of each team’s goals, workflows, and data needs in order to serve as a trusted, actively sought-out resource

• Manage and execute ad hoc analysis and rapid prototyping using SQL, BI tools, and AI-assisted analytics to answer routine business questions and support timely, data-informed decision-making

• Design and implement interim analytical solutions to meet immediate team needs while long-term engineering builds are underway, maintaining data integrity and stakeholder trust throughout

• Gather and manage requirements from business team stakeholders, validate use cases, and prototype self-service tools before handing off to the engineering team for fully integrated builds

• Exercise independent judgment in prioritizing competing analytical requests across assigned teams, with support from the VP, Analytics; proactively communicate tradeoffs and timelines to stakeholders

• Successfully manage the full project management cycle from end-to-end

INSIGHTS & DATA STORYTELLING

• Thought-partner with teammates to advise on analytical approach, helping them identify the best framing and methodology for the questions they want to answer

• Own the delivery of analyses—from data pull through final communication—presenting findings in clear, user-friendly formats that non-technical audiences can act on

• Collaborate with the Data Science team on more complex analyses; contribute to problem framing and own the storytelling of results back to business team users

• Produce insights that directly support CSGF’s work with portfolio members, recognizing that many analytical outputs inform school network decisions and student outcomes

• Set clear expectations for high-quality analytical communication across the function, modeling what excellent data storytelling looks like and helping elevate the Manager’s analytical outputs

DATA QUALITY & PRODUCT STEWARDSHIP

• Direct QA standards for data products from the stakeholder lens across assigned teams, ensuring systematic review processes catch issues that automated back-end processing may miss

• Spot and report data anomalies in data products from the stakeholder lens, identifying quality issues that automated back-end processing may not catch; Investigate root cause for errors, report errors to relevant Analytics teammates, and manage stakeholder communications to proactively provide flag issues and/or provide explanation and interpretability where a resolution is not possible

• Drive implementation and adoption of self-serve analytics tools across assigned business teams — including onboarding, coaching, and ongoing support

• Identify where business questions cannot be answered with existing data or tools; develop well-reasoned recommendations for data warehouse additions, public data infrastructure, self-service tool improvements, and research agenda priorities, and influence their prioritization with the VP and Data Products & Engineering teams.

• Maintain active working knowledge of CSGF’s full data stack—data warehouse, BI tools, self-service tools, and public data infrastructure—to credibly advise business teams and inform infrastructure decisions

CAPABILITY BUILDING & SELF-SERVICE

• Coach business team members on data literacy, self-service tool usage, and AI-assisted analytics approaches that increase their independence and confidence with data

• Design and implement process-level solutions that help assigned teams use data more effectively over time; proactively identify recurring friction points and bring solutions before they escalate

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

Skills and Characteristics

• Ability to motivate and influence peers, senior leadership, and external partners through excellent communication skills, compelling data narratives and well-structured recommendations

• Strong strategic thinking and problem-solving: independently identifies complex issues before they arise, owns the development of process-level and cross-functional solutions, and demonstrates comfort making difficult decisions in ambiguous situations

• Comfortable navigating ambiguity: able to structure unclear requests into workable next steps and move forward without waiting for full clarity before proceeding

• Demonstrated ability to build and maintain strong, deep relationships across a portfolio of internal stakeholders; actively sought out for insights and trusted to exercise sound judgment on behalf of the teams they serve

• Viewed as a leader by others: facilitates broader team discussions, raises difficult questions constructively, and models the analytical and collaborative behaviors expected across the function

• Exceptional quantitative and qualitative analysis skills with demonstrated ability to analyze data to derive actionable insights.

• Advanced proficiency across a core data stack, including SQL, business intelligence tools (e.g., Tableau, Looker, or equivalent), data analysis, and data storytelling

• A proven track record of staying at the cutting edge of AI-assisted analytics — actively experimenting with new tools and techniques, and a demonstrated ability to translate emerging capabilities into scalable, adoptable workflows.

• Familiarity with AI-assisted analytics approaches; demonstrated curiosity to develop new technical skills and expand knowledge in the job area

• Natural mentor and informal coach: able to elevate peers’ work through thought partnership and feedback without relying on formal authority

• Demonstrated working knowledge outside of core technical expertise; actively seeks to understand adjacent areas at CSGF and contribute to cross-functional strategy discussions

• Deep commitment to CSGF’s mission and passion for K–12 education

Educational Background and Work Experience

• Bachelor’s degree required; advanced degree in data science, statistics, public policy, or a related field a plus

• 10+ years of relevant experience in analytics, data strategy, business intelligence, or a related field

• Demonstrated experience driving strategy for an analytics function, major workstream, or cross-functional initiative

• Track record of translating complex data into strategic insights and recommendations for senior, non-technical audiences

• Experience designing and scaling data literacy or self-service analytics programs preferred

• Experience working in or closely with education, nonprofit, or social-impact organizations strongly preferred

COMPENSATION

Compensation is commensurate with experience and education. The target salary range for this role is $110,000-$130,000 annually. CSGF offers a very competitive package of benefits, including: health, life, disability, and dental insurance coverage; vacation/holidays and parental leave; and participation in CSGF’s 403(b) plan. Candidates must have permanent authorization to work in the US.

START DATE

CSGF is seeking candidates who can start as soon as possible; flexible for the ideal candidate.

WORKING AT CSGF

We are focused on hiring and developing great people and believe that building diverse perspectives across our team makes us more effective in expanding our impact. (This is reflected in Our Commitment Statement.) Our core values are:

Why you'll love working here:

• Join a team driven by purpose, collaboration, and a commitment to identifying and responding to the needs of the public charter schools that we support

• Access to professional development and learning opportunities

Our core values are:

Results

• We believe that student success is the ultimate measure of our performance.

• We work with urgency and intentionality for the portfolio and their schools.

• We hold ourselves accountable to strong outcomes.

• We relentlessly prioritize our resources to drive positive, measurable, attributable impact for the charter leaders, their schools, and ultimately students.

• We believe strong results come from good decisions, and the best decisions are made when we use data - both quantitative and qualitative - and gather input from diverse perspectives, especially those most impacted by the work.

• We celebrate our wins and learn from our losses.

Teamwork

• We value organization over team, and we value team over individual.

• We actively break down silos and collaborate across teams.

• We believe building strong, healthy relationships is critical to move our work forward.

• We seek to proactively communicate across teams to strengthen our outcomes and add value for the portfolio.

Integrity

• We believe that trust is our most important asset, and we must earn and maintain the trust of the portfolio member leaders, investors, and our team to achieve our goals.

• We are often entrusted with sensitive and confidential information about the portfolio - we do not ever violate these confidences.

• We show ownership for our successes and our failures.

• We speak directly to the person, even when it's messy and hard, and get ahead of potential problems.

• We do the right thing, even when no one is watching.

Respect

• We understand and acknowledge our place in the value chain – the students, teachers, principals, and other leaders at portfolio networks are doing the hardest, direct, and most impactful work in their schools each day.

• We prioritize humility and embrace getting better every day.

• We are curious and open-minded.

• We are aware of our own biases and how they might affect our judgment, and we take ownership to mitigate their impact.

Entrepreneurship

• We take calculated risks, looking for new ways to add value and improve how we work.

• We are problem solvers in all aspects of our work.

• We actively connect people and ideas in strategic ways to foster new ideas and learning.

• We acknowledge not all investments will succeed and embrace failure as it facilitates deeper learning for our organization and the portfolio.

E-VERIFY STATEMENT

This employer participates in E-Verify and will provide the federal government with your form I-9 information to confirm that you are authorized to work in the U.S. If E-Verify cannot confirm that you are authorized to work, this employer is required to give you written instructions and an opportunity to contact the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) or Social Security Administration (SSA) so you can begin to resolve the issue before the employer can take any action against you. Including terminating employment. Employers can only use E-Verify once you have accepted a job offer and completed the I-9 form.

Charter School Growth Fund provides equal employment opportunity for all applicants and employees.

Originally posted on Himalayas