Senior Strategic Partnerships Manager, Education

The Team

At CZI, we pair technology with grantmaking to equip educators, families, and students with tools that integrate high-quality research, practices, and content to unlock the full potential of every student, no matter who they are or where they live. From program conception to software feature design, we center our work on student and educator voices to help educators address the day-to-day challenges in their classrooms. 

Since 2015, our grant investments have helped catalyze new tools, practices, and measures designed to foster whole-child outcomes. We leverage technology to provide research-based practices in products that help teachers connect with students and tailor learning experiences to individual student needs.

At our core, we are builders and our unique builder philanthropy approach is what sets us apart from other education funders. Take a closer look at the highlights and significant milestones of CZI’s first eight years of education work. 

Educators are already using AI-based tools in various ways—including generating lesson plans, creating classroom materials such as tests and assignments, and helping differentiate instruction for students. At CZI, we are inspired and excited about the possibilities and promise of AI to accelerate the availability of research-backed practices at scale. We are actively and thoughtfully exploring how to incorporate AI into products in close partnership with researchers, experts, and educators.

The Opportunity

Advances in AI have made these tools increasingly present in schools, but lacking in consistent quality and integration into school and district technology systems. This role provides a unique opportunity to work at the intersection of research, practice, technology, and implementation to both raise the floor of the edtech industry and raise the ceiling of what edtech can do. 

The Strategic Partnerships role is to build deep collaboration between CZI Education and outside organizations in order to advance our Education strategy and objectives.  This role will develop and maintain relevant market maps of the education ecosystem, understand the political and policy landscape, operationalize our modes and forms of partnerships, and initiate and drive partnership agreements.  This person will work closely with internal CZI Education team members (including Product & Learning Science teams) to explore and manage potential partnerships.  They will also work across CZI’s community of external stakeholders (including edtech developers, grantees, and funders) to amplify CZI’s vision, initiatives, and projects.

Given the scope of the work planned, this person needs experience with business development, strategy, and communications, including thinking through financial, legal, operational, and other practical issues to bring plans to life. This person will need experience and interest in working with both internal and external partners in flexible, collaborative, and empathetic ways. This is a critical, cross-cutting, and interdisciplinary role to help ensure the successful development of our products (including Knowledge Graph and Evaluations) and the adoption and use of our tools towards the success of our overall AI initiative. You will play a pivotal role in shaping the future of educational technology, driving products and partnerships that are grounded in learning sciences to improve student outcomes.

What You'll Do

• Develop strategic analyses of needs, opportunities, and ecosystem players across the education landscape to drive success for the various product launches and initiatives. Regularly inform the team of the changing market landscape and dynamics, including new companies/non-profits, changes in the research and funding landscape, and changes in education systems. 
• Serve as a key advisor to internal team leads on partnerships to pursue and how to best approach them to achieve organizational & initiative goals. Embed closely with the product and learning science teams to best understand the strategy and needs to align partnership opportunities against them. Analyze and recommend “build, buy, partner” approaches across the CZI Education projects and priorities. Create a menu of templatized partnership models that accelerate both the outcomes of these partnerships but also minimize the coordination friction in starting and managing these relationships.
• Engage directly with prospective partners, influencers, and thought leaders to establish relationships and potential collaborations. Project manage the partnership process from inception to completion. Develop progress monitoring on the partnership portfolio, to identify challenges and engage in problem-solving with project leaders. Collaborate with key team members (across Product pods, Learning Science, UXR, Trust/Legal, Programs, GTM) to integrate and operationalize partnerships across their portfolios.
• Organize regular reporting on financial, learning, personnel, and other progress metrics from the many partnerships, tied with initial plans and overall strategy of CZI Education.
• Represent CZI Education team both internally and externally.
• Approach all work with humility, thoughtfulness, and an orientation toward collective impact.

What You'll Bring

• Advanced degree in education, learning sciences, product management, or related field; experience in K-12 edtech or schools is strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated success in edtech strategy, partnership management, business development, and/or mergers & acquisitions.
• Deep knowledge of the K-12 education landscape (including policy, tech trends, and district-level operations) and a personal network in education that includes edtech, school leaders, researchers, philanthropy, and venture.
• Proven ability to innovate and problem-solve at scale on complex deliverables in a fluid environment, with strong collaboration, diplomacy, and people management skills to ensure teams remain productive and engaged as they navigate complexity and matrixed teams.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills. Comfortable and effective in small group and large group presentations as well as executive leadership communications. Experience and a proven track of participating in industry forums and conferences. Compelling and adept writing and storytelling
• Highly organized, ability to coordinate activities to drive alignment and attainment of goals. Able to multitask in a fast paced environment and exercise a high degree of initiative in resolving issues and developing process enhancement recommendations.

Compensation

The Redwood City, CA base pay range for this role is $171,000.00 - $257,000.00. New hires are typically hired into the lower portion of the range, enabling employee growth in the range over time. Actual placement in range is based on job-related skills and experience, as evaluated throughout the interview process. 

Benefits for the Whole You 

We’re thankful to have an incredible team behind our work. To honor their commitment, we offer a wide range of benefits to support the people who make all we do possible. 

• CZI provides a generous employer match on employee 401(k) contributions to support planning for the future.
• Annual benefit for employees that can be used most meaningfully for them and their families, such as housing, student loan repayment, childcare, commuter costs, or other life needs.
• CZI Life of Service Gifts are awarded to employees to “live the mission” and support the causes closest to them.
• Paid time off to volunteer at an organization of your choice. 
• Funding for select family-forming benefits. 
• Relocation support for employees who need assistance moving to the Bay Area
• And more!

If you’re interested in a role but your previous experience doesn’t perfectly align with each qualification in the job description, we still encourage you to apply as you may be the perfect fit for this or another role.