Partner, Portfolio Director - Rural

S.

Who We Are

Transcend is a national nonprofit that helps communities reimagine and redesign schools so every young person can thrive in a rapidly changing world. Across the country, communities are recognizing that classrooms built for the industrial age aren’t preparing learners for what’s next. Instead, schools must be designed for continuous evolution: relevant, resilient, and ready for the future.

For more than a decade, Transcend has partnered with school and system leaders to build the capacity for bold, lasting change—change led by the people who live it every day. We’ve worked with nearly 500 schools and 200 districts serving over 225,000 students in 35 states. Together, we’ve seen what’s possible when communities lead redesign with proven methods, insight, and support.

From that work, we develop and share tools, research, and models that help schools everywhere make the leap to extraordinary learning—for every child, in every community. For more information, visit our website or follow us on LinkedIn . S.

to redesign schools in ways that reflect the local community context and advance 21st-century learning for all. We’re looking for a Partner, Portfolio Director to help drive our Rural Schools Portfolio’s impact. This role is at the heart of the Rural Portfolio’s operations, culture, and strategy—responsible for keeping our team aligned, organized, and leveraging data to drive impact, all with a thriving team culture.

In this role, you’ll build relationships and lead key cross-functional workstreams that may span state-based strategies, Career Connected Learning, and other Rural-adjacent initiatives, ensuring that cross-cutting efforts stay connected and move forward. You'll also utilize strategic thinking and project management skills to lead internal communications, coordinate team meetings and retreats, track budgets, and create strong systems for progress monitoring, knowledge-sharing, and decision-making. You’ll partner closely with Taina Torres , Managing Partner, and teammates across the portfolio to ensure seamless coordination and execution, all while staying grounded in both our portfolio strategy and broader organizational priorities.

You’ll problem-solve and learn alongside the team; while this is an individual contributor role, it is highly collaborative, requiring skills in project management, data, strategy and a deep commitment to people and culture. In your role as Partner, Portfolio Director on the Rural team, you’ll focus on the following workstreams. The time spent on each may shift over time.

Create and manage cohesive systems to organize and track internal portfolio and cross-functional work by providing guidance, structure, collaboration mechanisms, and processes. Lead cross-functional workstreams ensuring that key priorities and goals are met by bringing together teams & driving the work forward. Steward project execution by and support Project Leads through project set up, clear timelines, project plans, aligned goals, accountability and tracking systems and deliverables ensuring every project results in meaningful, goal-aligned experiences.

At times, this may include working with internal operations teammates and/or operations contractors, and external vendors. Support the development, stewarding, and shared ownership of the portfolio’s culture by ensuring the team’s norms, visions, and operations are aligned to our core values and problem-solving when any needs emerge. Synthesize portfolio-wide learnings and progress-to-goals to lead the annual collaborative planning process toward defining and advancing the portfolio’s strategic direction.