Director, Student and Family Support
About Bezos Academy
We believe all children deserve access to high-quality early education, especially in under-resourced communities. Our mission is to nurture every child's potential to become creative leaders, thinkers, and lifelong learners by scaling early childhood education.
We achieve this through:
- A network of schools offering free Montessori-inspired preschools in under-resourced areas.
- Tools, products, and technology designed to support young children and their caregivers beyond our schools.
We aim to make a profound, large-scale impact on children aged zero to five.
About The Role
The Director of Student and Family Support leads the vision, strategy, and systems ensuring children and families receive the support they need to thrive in our preschools across Arizona, Florida, Kentucky, Texas, Washington, and Seattle. You will evolve and strengthen our inclusive practices, early identification of developmental needs, and multi-tiered systems of support.
Responsibilities
You will:
- Evolveth and strengthen our organization-wide approach to inclusive practices, early identification of developmental needs, and multi-tiered systems of support.
- Work in close partnership with school leaders, educators, legal partners, and central teams to translate deep expertise into scalable frameworks, clear guidance, and practical tools.
- Set long-term strategy, develop others, and engage directly in nuanced child-level problem-solving.
Requirements
You must have:
- A bachelor’s degree.
- Ten or more years of relevant professional experience, including significant experience in special education, inclusive education, student support, or related fields with an emphasis on early childhood development.
- Experience leading student support, special education, inclusion services, or related programs at a systems-level for children ages 0 to third grade.
- Prior responsibility for setting strategy, policies, and operating frameworks for a multi-school system/network or an entire school district.
- Track record of providing multiple systems of support and applying a variety of student support frameworks (including Universal Design for Learning).
- Demonstrated success clearly and effectively articulating issues and challenges, and generating recommendations covering matters of policy and organizational implementation.
- Prior experience hiring, developing, and coaching high-performing teams, and fostering growth, accountability, and collaboration.
- Excellent oral and written communication skills, with the proven ability to build trusting relationships across a variety of constituents.
- Ability to travel to school sites up to 50% of the time and/or other national travel as needed.
Qualifications
You should have:
- An advanced degree in a related field, including but not limited to, special education, social work, or public administration.
- Experience serving as the most senior decision-maker (or a lead authority) for special education, inclusion, student support, or related functions across a multi-school organization, network, or district.
- Experience leading student support or special education functions across highly geographically distributed regions, at the state level, and/or nationally.
- Demonstrated ability to lead large-scale, strategic organizational initiatives and change efforts by engaging diverse stakeholders, departments, and senior leaders.
- Proven success at informing, advising, and influencing senior leaders on special education, inclusion, student support, compliance, and organizational strategy.
- Consulting and/or cross-sector experience that includes strengthening special education programs, policies, and outcomes.
- Experience with the Montessori pedagogy or other constructivist models such as Reggio Emilia.
Benefits
This is a full-time, benefits-eligible, exempt (salaried) position. The full salary range for this position, across all United States geographies, is $132,000-$250,000 per year. The upper portion of the salary range is typically reserved for employees who have been in the role for multiple years and have demonstrated strong performance over time. Starting salary will vary by location, qualifications, and prior experience; during the interview process, candidates will learn the starting salary range applicable for their location.
- Medical, dental, and vision insurance.
- Life insurance.
- Disability insurance.
- A 401(k) plan with a 4% employer contribution match.
- Paid parental leave.
- An employer-matched flexible spending account for dependent care.
Location(s)
Arizona, Florida, Kentucky, Texas, Washington, and/or within two hours' drive to multiple Bezos Academy preschools (please see our website for school locations); Seattle, WA preferred.
Relocation Support
Available for candidates relocating to Seattle.
Compensation
This role includes 15 paid days of vacation, 4 days of paid personal time off, 9 paid days of sick (care) time, 9 paid holidays, 5 paid days off for an organization-wide winter break, and additional time off if required by applicable law.
Job Description
Please click here for a full job description.
Equal Opportunity Employer
We participate in E-Verify and will provide the federal government with employee Form I-9 Information to confirm authorization to work in the U.S. We will work with you to ensure you have a fair opportunity to apply for our open positions. If you are a current Bezos Academy employee, please use the internal job board to apply.