Executive Director of STE(A)M Truck

Position: Executive Director of STE(A)M Truck

About Community Guilds:

Since 2014, Community Guilds has focused on delivering an innovative, gap-closing approach to education through mobile innovation labs.  We have grown from serving 100 students annually to over 11,000 and have expanded our fleet of mobile STEAM laboratories from 1 to 6. With the need to ensure more youth have access to this program, especially with the learning loss due to COVID, and keeping in alignment with our strategic plan, we are hiring a dedicated Executive Director to lead the STE(A)M Truck experience and increase the number of elementary and middle school students- and teachers-that benefit from our approach.  Our work is to eliminate inequities and catalyze opportunity by focusing on Science, Technology, Engineering, (Arts), and Math, harnessing the maker movement and creating a community of adult STE(A)M role models – Residents, STE(A)M designers, and local artists, along “traditional” educators – and connect them closely with youth.  Together, they tackle real problems, design solutions, and build things using tools and technologies not often found in schools. We take youth who may struggle in the traditional four walls of a classroom, and over the course of several weeks, we showcase their genius. Students learn our design thinking process and develop a sense of self-efficacy as they create their own solutions. 

Community Guilds provides three programs; Engagement, Impact and Sustaining.  This position will focus on delivering our Engagement and Impact programs, which utilizes our growing fleet of STE(A)M Trucks and serves as a catalyst to Sustaining programming.   Our Sustaining programming provides ongoing support, professional development and capacity building for educators but does not utilize our STE(A)M Truck vehicles.  Sustaining program will be under the guidance and direction of the founder.

Position Description:

Reporting to the Board of Directors alongside the Founder, the Executive Director of STE(A)M Truck will provide strategic direction and operational oversight for STE(A)M Truck staff, programs and mission execution. Together they will maintain and cultivate deep knowledge of field, core programs, operations, and business plans.

Desired Skills, Experience, and Mindset

The Executive Director is primarily responsible for implementing STE(A)M Truck elements of our strategic plan-specifically meeting or exceeding our milestones for Engagement and Impact programming while developing a positive, collaborative and entrepreneurial culture within the organization.  The Executive Director of STE(A)M Truck will be thoroughly committed to Community Guilds' mission. They will have proven leadership, coaching, and relationship management experience and work in collaboration with the Founder to meet our mission and vision.

Specific requirements include:

• Deep experience with school reform and a clear track record for seeking and attaining educational equity, with at least 7 years of senior management experience and, ideally, experience teaching in a public school setting, with a track record of effectively leading and meeting high expectations for an outcomes-based organization, ability to point to specific examples of having developed and operationalized strategies that have taken an organization and/or program to the next stage of growth.
• Deep experience with STEM based and/or maker focused educational programs with a firm belief that public education needs to better prepare youth for the 21st century and can articulate how STE(A)M Truck can align to Transcend's Leaps for equitable learning.
• Unwavering commitment to quality programs and data-driven program evaluation with a DEI lens.
• Excellence in organizational management with the ability to coach staff, manage, and develop high-performance teams, set and achieve strategic objectives, and manage a budget.
• Action-oriented, entrepreneurial, adaptable, with an innovative approach to business planning and the willingness to roll up their sleeves and get their hands dirty.
• Ability to work effectively in collaboration with diverse groups of people
• Passionate, ethical, positive, values and mission-driven, and self-directed

   

Responsibilities

Leadership & Management:

• Ensure ongoing local programmatic excellence, rigorous program evaluation, recommend timelines and resources needed to achieve the strategic goals.
• Lead, coach, develop, and retain a high-performance senior management team, including Engagement Managers who lead Residents out in the field.   
• Ensure effective systems to track scaling progress, and regularly evaluate program components, so as to measure successes that can be effectively communicated to the board, funders, and other constituents.

A successful employee at our organization should exemplify all our core values and serve as a role model on how to: 

• Lead as a Team 
• Innovatively Creative 
• Persevere Courageously 

Position Type: Full time

Compensation: Comparable to similarly-sized non-profits

Submission Requirements: Please submit cover letter and resume to: support@steamtruck.org.

Community Guilds is an equal opportunity employer. EOE/M/F/D/V