To apply, please submit your application and all required documents through the website application form by November 20. Address your cover letter to Dr. Sonia Stewart.
Job Title: Senior Director of Learning & Innovation
Hours: Full Time
Compensation: Competitive Salary + Benefits
Reports To: Executive Director
About Chattanooga 2.0
Chattanooga 2.0 is a nonprofit backbone organization dedicated to improving outcomes and expanding opportunity for children and young people across Chattanooga and Hamilton County. We work across education, business, government, philanthropy, and the nonprofit sector to align partners, strengthen systems, and improve outcomes from cradle to career.
Our work spans early childhood, literacy and learning, thriving adolescence, postsecondary and workforce pathways, and economic independence. We identify challenges, test evidence-informed solutions, use data to assess impact, and help strengthen and scale approaches that work.
About the Senior Director of Learning & Innovation
The Senior Director of Learning & Innovation is a senior organizational leader responsible for advancing Chattanooga 2.0’s learning agenda and identifying opportunities to develop, test, strengthen, and scale strategies that improve educational outcomes for children and young people.
The Senior Director will initially provide strategic leadership for Chattanooga 2.0’s early literacy work, including the organization’s community-wide literacy strategy and related initiatives, partnerships, and investments. Building from this foundation, the Senior Director will work with the CEO, Chattanooga 2.0 leadership team, Hamilton County Schools, and community partners to identify additional opportunities where Chattanooga 2.0 can help address significant learning challenges, including potential strategies to strengthen middle-school mathematics outcomes.
The Senior Director also contributes to organizational sustainability by assessing philanthropic and public funding opportunities, developing selected proposals, and supporting grant management and stewardship. As a member of the leadership team and thought partner to the Executive Director, this person will help shape and lead additional strategic initiatives as Chattanooga 2.0 grows.
Key Responsibilities
Learning Strategy & Innovation
- Lead the development and execution of learning strategies aligned with Chattanooga 2.0’s cradle-to-career mission and community priorities.
- Convene and facilitate cross-sector partners, including education leaders, community organizations, and other stakeholders, to identify shared learning priorities, align strategies and resources, and advance coordinated action to improve student outcomes.
- Identify learning challenges and promising evidence-informed approaches through research, data, and local, state, and national trends, including potential middle-school mathematics strategies.
- Partner with Hamilton County Schools and community organizations to identify gaps and opportunities where Chattanooga 2.0 can add value without duplicating existing work.
- Develop and support proof points that test promising approaches, measure results, and inform decisions to improve, scale, sustain, transfer, or discontinue initiatives.
- Work with the Senior Director of Data Strategy & Impact to establish success measures, assess outcomes, and support continuous improvement.
Early Literacy Leadership
- Provide strategic leadership for the Literacy Big Bet and Chattanooga 2.0’s community-wide goal of improving grade-level reading and writing outcomes.
- Demonstrate subject matter expertise in early literacy and continue to educate and elevate the community importance in early literacy achievement.
- Oversee the early literacy strategy across home, school, and community settings, including Literacy First, Family Reads, the OST K–2 Literacy Toolkit, faith-based literacy engagement, and emerging efforts.
- Maintain effective partnerships with Hamilton County Schools, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, out-of-school-time providers, funders, and community organizations.
- Supervise and develop assigned literacy staff and provide senior oversight of literacy-related federal grants, coordinating with program, finance, and operations staff on performance, compliance, reporting, and sustainability.
- Use student outcomes, implementation data, and partner feedback to refine strategies and identify sustainable approaches for successful initiatives.
Resource Development & Grant Strategy Support
- Assess local, state, and national philanthropic and public funding opportunities for alignment with organizational priorities, competitiveness, and potential impact.
- Lead or support selected grant proposals, including research, concept development, writing, partner coordination, and budget development with relevant staff.
- Support management and stewardship of selected grants, including deliverables, reporting, renewals, and coordination with program, data, finance, and operations teams.
Organizational Leadership & Strategic Growth
- Serve on the senior leadership team, contributing to strategic planning, problem-solving, and organizational decisions.
- Advise the Executive Director on emerging opportunities and lead or support new strategic initiatives related to learning and innovation as organizational priorities and capacity evolve.
- Build trusted relationships with education leaders, funders, researchers, public agencies, and community partners; represent Chattanooga 2.0 in relevant settings.
- Promote a culture of collaboration, curiosity, high expectations, evidence-informed decision-making, and continuous learning.
Qualifications
Required
- Bachelor’s degree in education, public policy, nonprofit leadership, public administration, organizational leadership, or a related field.
- At least seven years of progressively responsible experience in education, nonprofit, philanthropic, public-sector leadership, or a related field.
- Experience leading people and teams.
- Demonstrated expertise in learning, literacy, education innovation, and/or instructional practice, with significant experience translating research and best practices into strategy, programming, and systems-level improvement.
- Strong knowledge of K–12 education and demonstrated ability to apply research and data to learning challenges.
- Experience leading complex strategies or initiatives, managing multiple priorities, and collaborating across organizations and sectors.
- Provide people-centered leadership and supervision that promotes staff development, collaboration, accountability, and well-being.
- Detail orientation with experience in budget and grants management.
- Excellent writing, communication, project-management, and relationship-building skills, including experience developing grant proposals or significant funding requests.
- Sound judgment, initiative, adaptability, and the ability to assume broader responsibilities as the organization grows.
Preferred
- Advanced degree in a related field; experience with literacy, mathematics, tutoring, or instructional improvement.
- Experience with federal, state, or philanthropic grant implementation, compliance, reporting, or stewardship.
- Experience supervising staff and working with school districts, collective-impact partnerships, or place-based systems-change initiatives.
Core Competencies
Strategic & Systems Thinking • Educational Leadership • Evidence-Informed Innovation • Grant Development • Relationship Building • Cross-Sector Collaboration • Project & Portfolio Management • Communication • Adaptability • Opportunity, Access & Excellence
Compensation & Benefits
This is a full-time, exempt position with an annual salary of $95k – $105k. In addition, you will be eligible for:
- Comprehensive health benefits (medical, dental, and vision)
- Participation in a retirement benefits program
- Paid holidays and time off.
To apply, complete the online application form and submit your resume and cover letter addressed to Dr. Sonia Stewart by November 20th.
