Director of Talent

Job description

**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. **Position Summary** The Director of Talent serves as the regional Talent leader, owns regional people strategy, directly leads the Regional Recruiting function, drives organizational effectiveness, cultivates an inclusive and high-performing culture, and proactively anticipates workforce needs to ensure Rocketship remains an exceptional place to work and grow. The Director of Talent, with input and support from their Executive Director, Chief Talent Officer and other national groups makes values-aligned decisions that strengthen leadership capacity, mitigate risk, and drive long-term talent outcomes across schools and regions. This role also holds direct people-leadership responsibility, managing and developing regional recruiting to ensure hiring strategy is fully integrated with regional talent and workforce planning. **Location**: Within one hour of Milwaukee, WI This position reports directly to the Regional Executive Director and maintains a dotted-line reporting relationship to the Chief Talent Officer. This dual-reporting structure ensures this role is deeply embedded in regional priorities while staying aligned with Rocketship’s One Network philosophy as well as national HR strategy, compliance, and culture. The role serves as a critical liaison between school/regional leadership and the broader People Team, helping to drive strategic initiatives, talent alignment, and operational excellence. This role has direct reporting oversight of Regional Recruiting, ensuring hiring plans, pipeline strategy, and staffing outcomes are tightly aligned with regional performance and culture goals. ### Core Competencies - **Strategic Judgment**: Applies sound judgment in complex, high-impact decisions. - **Influence without Authority**: Gains buy-in and alignment across diverse stakeholders. - **Relationship Building**: Develops trust and credibility at every level of the organization. - **Innovation**: Challenges assumptions, designs creative solutions, and drives improvement. - **Coaching & Development**: Elevates leaders and teams through tailored guidance and feedback. - **Team Leadership & People Management**: Directly manages, coaches, and develops a direct report (Regional Recruiting), setting clear goals and holding the function accountable to regional hiring outcomes. ### Essential Functions The following are essential functions related to the role: ### Strategic Partnership & Leadership - Serve as a thought partner to regional and school leaders, translating organizational strategy into actionable people plans that drive engagement, retention, and performance in order to successfully realize and/or exceed the 5 Year eNPS goal for the region. - Make sound HR decisions; balance compliance with business judgment and empathy with input from the CTO and Legal teams as needed. - Anticipate workforce trends and recommend proactive strategies to address turnover, leadership readiness, and culture health. - Lead and coach leaders through organizational change, conflict, and performance management aligned with Rocketship principles of excellence and accountability. - Directly leads and manages Regional Recruiting, holding weekly 1:1s to review hiring progress, set priorities, and ensure regional leadership receives timely recruitment insights and data. - Set annual goals, performance expectations, and development plans for the Regional Recruiting direct report(s), and own their performance management. - As needed and based on scope and scale of region, may also manage other Talent professionals such as an AD of Talent ### Relationship Building & Influence - Build deep, trust-based partnerships across executive, school, and support teams to influence without authority. - Foster strong collaboration with Talent, Program, and other cross-functional partners to align systems, tools, processes and practices, in service to the organizations strategic outcomes. - Act as a cultural leader who models open communication, inclusivity, and professional accountability. - Maintains key partnerships with the Recruitment team and external talent pipelines, including but not limited to Teach For America and Relay Graduate School of Education. ### Leadership Development - Design and deliver targeted development sessions for school and regional leaders to strengthen performance management, coaching, and compliance acumen, especially in an at-will environment that enables a culture of excellence and belonging. - Partner with the Talent and Program teams to identify developmental gaps and co-create scalable solutions that enhance the employee experience. - Use data and feedback (surveys, exit trends, engagement) to shape culture and inform action planning. ### Employee Relations & Risk Management - Lead and resolve complex employee relations matters with fairness, urgency, and discretion. - Conduct objective investigations and provide clear, consistent recommendations. - Coach managers on performance management and disciplinary actions, ensuring equitable application of policies and values alignment. - Synthesize both anecdotal input (skip-levels, employee relations patterns, manager 1:1s) and organizational trend data (engagement scores, turnover, performance ratings) to diagnose root-cause manager capability gaps and design targeted interventions that build stronger people leaders. ### Operational Excellence - Drive HR project execution and process improvements across regions. - Partner with Talent Operations and Legal to ensure compliance with all applicable federal, state, and local employment laws. - Use data analytics to identify trends and measure the effectiveness of human resource initiatives. - Own regional hiring plan execution in partnership with Regional Recruiting, including headcount forecasting, requisition prioritization, and pipeline health reporting to the Regional Executive Director and SVP of People (or CTO). ### Qualifications - Bachelor’s degree required; advanced degree or HR certification (PHR/SPHR/SHRM-CP/SCP) preferred. - 10 years of progressive HR experience, including direct HRBP or HR leadership experience in a multi-site organization. - Demonstrated experience directly managing and developing a direct report or small team, ideally including recruiting or talent acquisition functions. - Proven ability to make autonomous, strategic HR decisions in complex or ambiguous environments. - Advanced critical thinking, problem-solving, and influencing skills. - Expertise in employee relations, organizational development, and change management. - Working knowledge of talent acquisition strategy and recruiting metrics sufficient to manage and hold a recruiting function accountable. - Exceptional interpersonal and communication skills, with the ability to tailor messages to varied audiences. - Deep commitment to Rocketship’s mission and values. ### Additional Details - This role requires consistent travel to schools based on needs. - Travel up to 30% may be required across regions.Requires independent transportation to schools within the region supported.