Program Manager, Faculty Planning

About the Role

The Program Manager owns the annual faculty planning cycle and ongoing staffing analysis across K–12. The role requires strong analytical judgment and disciplined program management: reconciling complex data, turning findings into clear recommendations, and ensuring that decisions, system changes, and school-level follow-up are completed.

As Success Academy opens new schools and expands beyond New York, the Program Manager will ensure every school is staffed to deliver our school design. This means anticipating staffing and leadership needs several years ahead so that hiring and development decisions are made early, grounded in accurate data, and carried through to execution.

The Program Manager serves as the business owner for our faculty planning tool, ensuring it gives school leaders and Network teams a reliable, shared view of staffing needs. The role also provides analysis that supports promotion cycles, performance tracking, incentive planning, and long-term talent development.

Working across school and Network teams, including Finance, Data & Analytics, Talent Acquisition, and People Operations and Technology, the Program Manager will coordinate decisions, clarify ownership and handoffs, and ensure work spanning teams has clear follow-through. The Program Manager will provide senior leadership with accurate data, analysis, options, and recommendations when staffing decisions require their approval.

The Program Manager will help reimagine how faculty planning operates, questioning established approaches, designing solutions around the needs of schools, and using automation and AI to focus team capacity on analysis, sound judgment, and solving complex problems.

This role is well suited to someone who has thrived as a program manager, internal or management consultant, or strategy, operations, or analytics professional. We seek a problem solver who brings analytical rigor and curiosity, navigates ambiguity, and takes ownership from design through execution.

Key Responsibilities

Faculty Planning and Staffing Strategy

• Own the annual faculty planning calendar and year-round planning process, establishing milestones, dependencies, stakeholder responsibilities, and escalation points so staffing decisions are made in time to guide execution.
• Partner with Schooling and Finance to refine our staffing model and obtain leadership alignment on proposed changes, ensuring approved staffing standards are accurately reflected in planning tools.
• Model staffing and leadership needs over a 3–5 year horizon, assessing how changes in enrollment, course offerings, scheduling, and school design affect staffing needs.
• Monitor teacher utilization and classroom coverage, including co-teaching classrooms, coordinate follow-up with school leaders, and track issues to resolution.
• Identify capability gaps and talent shortages, and partner with Schooling and Talent Acquisition on strategies to attract, develop, and retain educators, support succession planning, and strengthen long-term talent pipelines.

Planning Tool Management

• Serve as the business owner for our faculty planning tool in partnership with technology and implementation partners, translating planning needs into requirements, prioritizing enhancements, and escalating scope decisions for leadership alignment.
• Test enhancements against realistic school scenarios and translate user feedback into improvements.
• Develop training and guidance so school leaders understand staffing expectations and use the tool effectively, building lasting adoption.
• Provide ongoing planning support to school leaders, and partner with technical teams to resolve tool issues.

Cross-Functional Partnerships

• Represent faculty planning in school and Network planning, champion Success Academy’s staffing standards, and ensure decisions reflect school experience and implementation needs.
• Partner with school leaders and Network teams to obtain timely enrollment and course projections and review staffing implications before schedules are finalized, including content-area needs in high school.
• Coordinate handoffs with People Operations and Technology so staffing changes are reflected accurately and on time in all relevant systems.
• Resolve competing priorities across Schooling, Finance, and talent teams, and hold partners accountable for agreed deliverables.

Design Thinking AI and Automation

• Apply design thinking to identify and redesign repetitive or error-prone faculty planning processes, using automation and AI to reduce manual work, strengthen data quality, and improve scalability.
• Translate operational needs into requirements for AI-enabled workflows and agents, including expected outcomes, data inputs, human checkpoints, and quality controls, partnering with internal technology and data teams through testing and adoption.
• Maintain standard work and lead retrospectives to improve each planning cycle, embedding redesigned workflows in playbooks and documentation so critical work is not dependent on any one individual.

Data Performance and Executive Reporting

• Establish KPIs and dashboards to inform staffing forecasts, utilization, and broader talent decisions.
• Own the accuracy and completeness of faculty planning data, reconciling sources across planning, HR, and finance systems, and partnering with Data & Analytics on data standards.
• Produce clear executive reports and presentations that communicate findings, staffing risks, decisions required, and recommended actions.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree required; advanced degree preferred.
• 4–6 years of experience in roles such as program management, management or internal consulting, strategy and operations, analytics, or human capital in fast-paced or high-growth environments. Experience with faculty or workforce planning, staffing strategy, succession planning, or organizational growth strategy strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated success managing large-scale, cross-functional programs from planning through execution, using data insights, operational analyses, and reporting to inform strategic decision-making.
• Multidisciplinary and entrepreneurial, with the ability to connect strategy, design, and execution, navigate ambiguity, and own measurable outcomes across a broad scope of work.
• Track record of working effectively in a matrixed organization, building alignment and influencing cross-functional partners without relying on formal authority.
• Design-thinking orientation and demonstrated experience using AI and automation to redesign workflows, drive adoption, and improve efficiency or accuracy. Familiarity with AI-enabled workflows, agents, or enterprise planning platforms strongly preferred.
• Strong analytical and systems-thinking skills, with experience building forecasts and models, conducting root-cause analyses, and presenting dashboards and organizational diagnostics to senior leaders.
• Ability to partner with technical and functional teams to extract and interpret data from HR and planning systems such as Workday, ensuring alignment between business needs and system capabilities.
• Exceptional organizational and program-management skills, with the attention to detail needed to manage concurrent priorities, dependencies, and deadlines across an annual cycle while maintaining quality.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to distill complex data into clear, actionable insights and influence executives, Network partners, and school-based teams.
• Ownership, sound judgment, and initiative to anticipate risks and drive work at pace, paired with curiosity and humility to question assumptions and master a new domain.
• Deep commitment to improving the quality, consistency, and effectiveness of support provided to schools, educators, and scholars.

Competencies

• Analytical Rigor: Brings analytical rigor and curiosity, reconciling complex data and turning findings into clear recommendations for senior leaders.
• Ownership and Execution: Takes ownership from design through execution, anticipating risks and driving work at pace across an annual cycle.
• Influence and Collaboration: Builds alignment and influences cross-functional partners without relying on formal authority, clarifying ownership and handoffs along the way.
• Innovation and Adaptability: Questions established approaches, navigates ambiguity, and uses design thinking, automation, and AI to improve how faculty planning operates.

Compensation, Benefits & Perks

At Success Academy, we invest boldly in our Network team with a comprehensive package designed to support your health, financial future, and work-life balance:

• Day-One Health & Wellness: Medical, dental, and vision coverage starting your first day (SA covers 82% of our core medical plan), plus a free One Medical membership and confidential mental health support via EAP/Talkspace.
• Financial Security: 403(b) retirement plan with a 3% employer match, up to $2,400/year in employer HSA contributions, employer-paid life/disability insurance, and Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) eligibility.
• Time to Recharge: Generous paid time off, paid holidays, and paid parental leave.
• Perks & Stipends: A 50/monthcellphonestipend(600/year), pre-tax commuter benefits, backup family care, and performance-based earning incentives.

 

This is a hybrid position based out of our NYC Financial District office, requiring on-site work Tuesday through Thursday, with remote work on Monday and Friday.