The mission of the Carnegie Foundation is to catalyze transformational change in education so that every student has the opportunity to live a healthy, dignified, and fulfilling life. In pursuit of this mission, the Foundation engages in partnerships with organizations looking to build their improvement science capacity and form their own Networked Improvement Communities (“NICs”) to solve long standing inequities in educational opportunities and outcomes, both in K-12 and in higher education.

Position Purpose
The Foundation’s Center for Postsecondary Innovation seeks an Associate to work with external teams of researchers and practitioners on the design and execution of improvement efforts while simultaneously building the team’s improvement capacity. The Associate will guide networks through a process of identifying unwanted variability in performance in promoting the social and economic mobility of students, understanding the root causes of these gaps, and organizing groups in collaborative change efforts. This includes facilitating, consulting, coaching, and teaching all aspects of improvement science to organizations working on making progress on undesirable and inequitable outcomes.

This Associate will also be a leading member of a team that will help reimagine the Carnegie Classifications of Institutions of Higher Education (CCIHE) in association with the American Council on Education. This reinvention will include the development of a new classification on social and economic mobility as well as the addition of new elective classifications to the existing set. The Associate will contribute to the substantive, conceptual, and operational leadership of this work by conducting field scans and policy analyses that inform relevant direction setting and decision making.

Essential Responsibilities

• Conceptualize, plan, and execute secondary source research, including field scans and policy analyses to gather, organize, present, and support the utilization of knowledge from the field related to improvement work in a variety of contexts (10%)
• Serve as a bridge between nontechnical partners and analytics team members in defining information needs, determining appropriate analytic responses, as well as designing and facilitating social processes that fulfill needs and promote use (10%)
• Clearly communicate and facilitate use of the results of analyses with varied audiences through presentations, written documents, and data visualizations. (10%)
• Collaboratively facilitate the process of initiating and developing NICs: coach network teams to articulate a vision, to enroll and onboard membership in pursuit of that mission, to build improvement science capacity, to shape network culture, and to mobilize coherent collective action deploying improvement science methods to reach an ambitious collective aim. (40%)
• Design and develop knowledge products for the broader field: contribute to the field’s knowledge about improvement science carried out in networks. (20%)
• Continually pursue the development of the incumbent’s own improvement and education skills. Participate in cross-unit learning within the Foundation to enhance its operation, performance, and culture as a psychologically safe, learning organization. (10%)
• Other projects or tasks as they develop.

Required Education & Experience

• An advanced degree (any formal credential beyond the baccalaureate), preferably in Education/Higher Education, the social sciences, or a relevant field.
• 3+ years experience with increasing responsibility in coaching and teaching in educational and professional settings.
• Experience in adult learning in practical settings and the ability to apply adult learning theory to build the capacity of professionals to lead, innovate, and collaborate.
• Experience working effectively in a dynamic and collaborative organization

Required Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Knowledge and practice of improvement science
• Knowledge of educational systems in higher education and their norms, structures, and operational routines.
• Ability to approach challenges with an improvement mindset and commitment to equity.
• Ability to design, develop, initiate, and support networks of professionals engaged in the pursuit of a common aim using continuous improvement methods.
• Ability to determine the knowledge needs inherent in decision making contexts and to translate those needs into efforts to gather, organize, present, and facilitate the use of relevant analyses and derivative knowledge products.
• Ability to design and facilitate productive presentations, convenings, and meetings with colleagues.
• Strong analytic skills
• Superb communication skills, both verbal and written.
• Ability to foster productive team dynamics and work in highly collaborative and interdependent teams.
• Ability to navigate complex organizational contexts.
• Ability to work effectively with a wide range of constituents engaged in improvement efforts.
• Ability to manage relationships with a variety of constituents, including university leaders, faculty, administrators, researchers, technologists, designers, etc.
• Proven organizational skills
• Strong team leadership skills and experience in mentoring, motivating, and/or managing others
• Able to work in a highly collaborative environment where processes and timelines are fast paced, evolving and changeable.

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