At Rocketship Public Schools, we believe in the infinite possibility of human potential. We believe that every student deserves the right to dream, to discover, and to develop their unique potential and it is our responsibility and our privilege to unleash the potential inside every Rocketeer we serve. Our non-profit network of public elementary charter schools propels student achievement, develops exceptional educators, and partners with parents who enable high-quality public schools to thrive in their community. We are a collective of parents, teachers, leaders, and students working together to transform the future for underserved communities across our country. At Rocketship Public Schools, we are unleashing potential.
The Senior Vice President, Human Resources (SVP, HR) is a network-wide executive leader responsible for setting and executing Rocketship Public Schools’ human capital strategy in direct service of organizational outcomes, regional success, and long-term sustainability. Reporting to the CEO, the SVP, HR is a core member of the Network Executive Team (NET) and serves as a strategic thought partner to regional leadership, the Board, and executive peers on all talent priorities.
This role moves beyond operational HR leadership to elevate HR as a true enterprise and regional partner, ensuring that talent, performance, culture, and organizational design are deeply aligned to Rocketship’s mission, growth priorities, and regional realities. The SVP, HR will lead a high-impact team spanning Human Resources, Talent Acquisition, and Talent Performance & Analytics, while strengthening trust, coherence, and consistency across regions.
The SVP, HR plays a critical role in shaping Rocketship’s ability to attract, develop, retain, and inspire exceptional talent, with particular emphasis on building representative pipelines, strengthening talent and leadership capacity in regions, and ensuring that HR strategies are responsive, data-informed, and locally grounded. A key focus of this role is the continued and sustained elevation of Rocketship’s employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS), which is a critical five-year organizational goal. The SVP, HR will lead network wide strategies that strengthen team member experience, engagement, trust, and advocacy—ensuring Rocketship is a great place to work where people are proud and excited to recommend to others.
This role requires deep partnership with schools and regions to translate team member feedback into meaningful action, and to ensure that improvements in eNPS are driven by authentic changes in leadership practices, systems, and day-to-day employee experience. This role will regularly present workforce, engagement, retention, and leadership data to the Board and Regional Boards to inform enterprise risk, investment, and growth decisions.
This position is ideally based in one of Rocketship’s regions with regular travel to regions nationwide.
Our ideal candidate will have:
- Proven experience in leading HR and/or Talent within a large, multi-site organization is required, with a preference for experience in non-profit or educational institutions, and knowledge of charter school/educational policies.
- They bring a balance of strategic vision and practical execution, with the ability to influence across lines of authority and lead through trust, credibility, and collaboration.
- They are recognized as a thought partner to CEOs and executive teams, a coach to regional and school leaders, and a builder of strong, scalable systems that still honor local context.
- Experience leading or transforming talent acquisition functions, aligning workforce strategy to growth and retention priorities, strong knowledge of HR best practices, employment laws, leadership, communication, and analytical abilities, is essential.
- Experience with Workday and data analytics is also a valuable asset.
- The successful SVP, HR will embody Rocketship’s Vision, Mission, Values, and Core Characteristics and earn the trust of the Rocketship Public Schools Board of Directors and Regional Boards, Network Executive Team, regional leaders, Principals, and team members through clarity, partnership, and results.
Team Leadership:
- Lead and develop a high-performing HR organization, including direct oversight of Human Resources, Talent Acquisition, and Talent Performance & Analytics.
- Build leadership capacity within the HR team, ensuring strong partnership, responsiveness, and credibility with regions and schools.
- Foster a culture of continuous improvement, collaboration, and service-oriented leadership within the HR function.
Network Partnership and Leadership:
- Serve as a strategic partner to Executive Directors and their leadership teams ensuring HR strategies are co-created, regionally responsive, and consistently executed across the network.
- Partner closely with Regional Executive Directors and their leadership teams to translate employee feedback and engagement data—including eNPS—into regionally grounded action plans that improve staff experience and retention.
- Build strong feedback loops between regions and the network HR team to ensure employee voice meaningfully informs policies, practices, and leadership behaviors.
- Serve as a trusted advisor to regional and school leaders in strengthening culture, trust, and engagement at all levels of the organization.
Human Resources Leadership:
- Lead the Human Resources function to ensure excellence in employee relations, performance management, compliance, and risk mitigation across all regions while ensuring legal and regulatory compliance with policies; applicable federal, state, and local laws; and regulations within the various regions that we serve.
- Partner closely with national, regional, and school leaders on promotion, performance improvement, and separation decisions, building leadership capacity in effective people management.
- Oversee and continuously improve evaluation processes, ensuring clarity, fairness, and alignment to instructional and organizational priorities.
Talent Acquisition:
- Own and elevate Rocketship’s enterprise talent acquisition strategy, ensuring alignment to regional and school staffing needs, growth plans, and long-term workforce sustainability.
- Elevate Rocketship’s current strategy to market to and recruit staff locally and nationally, leveraging Rocketship’s unique mission, focus on staff development and growth, and deep partnership with families and communities.
- Strengthen partnership between Talent Acquisition and regional leaders to anticipate hiring needs, respond quickly to local labor market dynamics, and deliver high-quality candidate experiences.
- Ensure recruitment strategies build representative and high-performing talent pipelines for teachers, school leaders, and critical network roles.
- Position Rocketship as an employer of choice by leveraging its mission, development pathways, and community partnerships in both local and national recruitment efforts.
- Establish clear metrics, service-level expectations, and continuous improvement cycles for Talent Acquisition performance.
Talent Rewards and Systems:
- Lead the effective implementation and ongoing evolution of Rocketship’s performance management systems, ensuring they drive development, accountability, performance, and retention.
- Lead identification of enterprise leadership pipelines and succession planning for all critical roles, including Principals, Regional leaders, and Network Executives.
- Partner with regional leaders to use talent data and insights to inform staffing decisions, leadership development, and resource allocation.
- Oversee HRIS, analytics and reporting to assess the effectiveness of human capital initiatives, including engagement, retention, leadership pipelines, and compensation competitiveness.
- Partner with Total Rewards, Finance and Network Executives to align compensation and rewards to financial sustainability, growth priorities, competitiveness and regional performance
- Ensure the quality implementation of Rocketship’s unique performance management system as well as the ongoing evolution and improvement of the system, especially to innovate around elevating retention beyond tenure based systems as well as ensuring compensation strategies remain competitive (top quartile for critical roles) and aligned to organizational priorities and financial sustainability.
Team Member Experience, Engagement, & eNPS:
- Own and lead Rocketship’s strategy to continue to elevate employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS) over the next five years, in alignment with organizational strategic priorities.
- Hold leaders and managers accountable for employee experience, staff belonging, engagement, and retention outcomes
- Partner with ADs of HR, regional leaders, principals, and managers to: Diagnose root causes of eNPS trends, Strengthen manager capability and leadership behaviors, Strengthen talent systems and practices, Inform professional development and collaboration with Program, Regional, and School teams, and Improve clarity, growth opportunities, recognition, and trust.
- Establish clear accountability, dashboards, and progress monitoring tied to engagement, retention, and advocacy outcomes.
- Lead continuous improvement cycles that respond to employee feedback with visible action and transparent communication.
- Bachelor’s Degree is required.
- 10+ years of relevant work experience including demonstrated strategic HR leadership in a complex organization (multi-site, multi-regional).
- Significant experience partnering with senior leaders and regional teams in a matrixed environment.
- Demonstrated success leading enterprise talent acquisition and workforce strategy.
- Ability to travel to provide effective strategic guidance to organizational leadership and remain deeply connected to our regions, teams, and impact.
- Outstanding ability to lead and inspire change, including influencing, aligning, and motivating others through relationship building with the ability to mobilize diverse stakeholders.
- Ability to move comfortably between high-level strategic thinking and intricate details.
- Solid understanding of education and charter organizations.
- Experience using data, analytics, and systems (e.g., Workday) to inform decision-making.
Physical Demands:
The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this position. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the functions. While performing the duties of this position, the employee is regularly required to talk, hear, and communicate with both adults and children. The employee frequently is required to use hands or fingers, handle or feel objects, tools, or controls. The employee is frequently required to stand; walk; sit; and reach with hands and arms. The employee must occasionally lift and/or move up to 50 pounds and occasionally climb ladders. Specific vision abilities required by this position include close vision, distance vision, and the ability to adjust focus. The noise level in the work environment is moderate to high.
Compensation:
Commensurate with qualifications and experience, plus excellent health and wellness benefits, 403b retirement plan, flexible spending account (FSA), and generous paid time off.
Rocketship Public Schools provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, marital status, amnesty, or status as a covered veteran in accordance with applicable federal, state and local laws. Rocketship Public Schools complies with applicable state and local laws governing non-discrimination in employment in every location in which the company has facilities. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including, but not limited to, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation, and training.
Rocketship Public Schools expressly prohibits any form of unlawful employee harassment based on race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, age, genetic information, disability, or veteran status. Improper interference with the ability of Rocketship Public Schools’ employees to perform their expected job duties is absolutely not tolerated. Click here for our Sexual Harassment Policy. For questions, concerns, or complaints, please contact Human Resources.
