Vice President, Structured Finance

The Charter School Growth Fund (CSGF) is a leading nonprofit venture philanthropy fund dedicated to identifying the nation’s best public charter schools, investing in their expansion, and helping to increase their impact. Our “portfolio” includes 200+ charter school networks that operate 1,700+ schools and serve more than 725,000 students. We are committed to expanding the impact of schools that are closing achievement and opportunity gaps. CSGF operates with the same strategies, discipline, and focus as a venture capital firm by awarding multi-year grants and loans to talented education entrepreneurs building networks of high-quality charter schools that enroll traditionally underserved students. Ultimately, we think the portfolio can grow to serve ~1,000,000 students within a decade.

This is an exciting time to join the Charter School Growth Fund. We are successfully approaching the 5th year of CSGF’s 4th fund, building on our 20 year track record of success. CSGF’s “Fund IV” is larger in size and scope than previous funds, with a goal to continue to fuel charter sector growth, accelerate innovation, and strengthen long-term outcomes for students, particularly students of color and those from low-income backgrounds. We continue to prioritize investments in leaders of color as our current portfolio is led by more than 50% leaders of color and more than 50% female leaders. We believe it is vital for the networks we support to be proximate to the lived experiences of the students and communities they serve.

OPPORTUNITY

CSGF’s Structured Finance (SFin) Team strives to alleviate finance and facilities as barriers to the growth and success of high-quality charter school networks across the country. As a part of this mission, the team oversees over $650M in loan funds including the recently launched, $500M Dell Catalyst Fund. SFin roles blend aspects of a strategy consultant—providing strategic support, serving as a trusted thought partner, solving mission‐critical problems—and those of an impact investor—sourcing and structuring deals, conducting due diligence, investing capital, and supporting investments.

CSGF is seeking a Vice President, Structure Finance to partner with charter operators and CSGF’s investment team to solve finance and facilities challenges through a combination of strategic support to school leaders, relationship management across internal and external stakeholders, and the sourcing, structuring, and execution of investments. We are seeking a candidate with a strong results orientation, expert financial and analytical skills, and the ability to own and lead complex and often ambiguous projects through strategic, executive thinking, clear communication, and relationship building with diverse groups of stakeholders. The ideal candidate is entrepreneurial, passionate about K‐12 education, and interested in leveraging public and private capital to create long‐term social impact.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

The Vice President will support a region of CSGF’s portfolio through the following key responsibilities:

OPERATOR SUPPORT & STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP

• Serve as strategic thought partner and advisor to portfolio leadership and boards on finance, facilities, and governance strategies
• Provide expertise on strategic planning processes, including financial models, growth strategies, and business plans
• Build and maintain strong, deep relationships with school operators; be actively sought out as a trusted resource internally and externally

INVESTMENTS & LENDING

• Lead, in partnership with and overseeing SFin Director role, end-to-end due diligence and investment analysis for charter school operators (grants and loans), including financial modeling, multi-year projections, risk assessment, governance evaluation, and facilities strategies
• Prepare and present investment proposals and evaluation reports to CSGF Investment Committee to support funding decisions
• Oversee ongoing loan monitoring, including covenant compliance analysis and proactive engagement to address risk and support borrower performance
• Source, negotiate, and structure facilities loan investments, evaluating deal affordability, real estate strategies, leadership teams, and market dynamics

ECOSYSTEM BUILDING & EXTERNAL LEADERSHIP

• Develop and leverage relationships with key regional partners (public policy, development, financing) to strengthen the ecosystem
• Build sector capacity by capturing and sharing best practices, disseminating benchmarking data, and creating communities of practice
• Represent CSGF externally to broader stakeholders in the charter school field

STRATEGY, LEADERSHIP & TEAM MANAGEMENT

• Set vision and strategy for your functional area and portfolio relationships that advances CSGF's mission
• Serve as functional lead for the SFin team in overseeing our loan portfolio systems, monitoring, cash management, and reporting including identifying and moving forward initiatives that improve CSGF’s work in this area
• Manage and develop SFin team Directors including one direct report: set rigorous goals, provide regular coaching and feedback, support their professional growth, and ensure quality of investment analysis and overall work

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

Skills and Characteristics

• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, particularly the ability to build strong relationships with diverse groups of stakeholders
• Demonstrated financial leadership and expertise needed to evaluate financial and real estate strategies and investment
• Deep commitment to CSGF’s mission and passion for K-12 education and excitement around creating excellent education options for low-income students
• Strong strategic thinking, analytical, and creative problem-solving skills
• Passion for creating social change through the impactful investment of public and private capital
• Ability to work seamlessly between high-level strategy and detail-oriented work

Educational Background and Work Experience

• Finance leadership at a charter school management organization or related education organization strongly preferred
• 12-20+ years of relevant work experience, preferably including, financial leadership, private equity, impact investing, venture capital, investment banking, management consulting, philanthropy, or similar experience
• Bachelor’s degree required

COMPENSATION

Compensation is commensurate with experience and education. The target salary range for this role is $150,000-$180,000 annually. CSGF offers a very competitive package of benefits, including: health, life, disability and dental insurance coverage; vacation/holidays and parental leave; and participation in CSGF’s 403(b) plan. Candidates must have permanent authorization to work in the US.

START DATE

CSGF is seeking candidates who can start as soon as possible; flexible for the ideal candidate.

WORKING AT CSGF

We are focused on hiring and developing great people and believe that building diverse perspectives across our team makes us more effective in expanding our impact. (This is reflected in Our Commitment Statement.) Our core values are:

Why you'll love working here:

• Join a team driven by purpose, collaboration, and a commitment to identifying and responding to the needs of the public charter schools that we support
• Access to professional development and learning opportunities

Our core values are:

Results

• We believe that student success is the ultimate measure of our performance.
• We work with urgency and intentionality for the portfolio and their schools.
• We hold ourselves accountable to strong outcomes.
• We relentlessly prioritize our resources to drive positive, measurable, attributable impact for the charter leaders, their schools, and ultimately students.
• We believe strong results come from good decisions, and the best decisions are made when we use data - both quantitative and qualitative - and gather input from diverse perspectives, especially those most impacted by the work.
• We celebrate our wins and learn from our losses.

Teamwork

• We value organization over team, and we value team over individual.
• We actively break down silos and collaborate across teams.
• We believe building strong, healthy relationships is critical to move our work forward.
• We seek to proactively communicate across teams to strengthen our outcomes and add value for the portfolio.

Integrity

• We believe that trust is our most important asset, and we must earn and maintain the trust of the portfolio member leaders, investors, and our team to achieve our goals.
• We are often entrusted with sensitive and confidential information about the portfolio - we do not ever violate these confidences.
• We show ownership for our successes and our failures.
• We speak directly to the person, even when it's messy and hard, and get ahead of potential problems.
• We do the right thing, even when no one is watching.

Respect

• We understand and acknowledge our place in the value chain – the students, teachers, principals, and other leaders at portfolio networks are doing the hardest, direct, and most impactful work in their schools each day.
• We prioritize humility and embrace getting better every day.
• We are curious and open-minded.
• We are aware of our own biases and how they might affect our judgment, and we take ownership to mitigate their impact.

Entrepreneurship

• We take calculated risks, looking for new ways to add value and improve how we work.
• We are problem solvers in all aspects of our work.
• We actively connect people and ideas in strategic ways to foster new ideas and learning.
• We acknowledge not all investments will succeed and embrace failure as it facilitates deeper learning for our organization and the portfolio.

E-VERIFY STATEMENT

This employer participates in E-Verify and will provide the federal government with your form I-9 information to confirm that you are authorized to work in the U.S. If E-Verify cannot confirm that you are authorized to work, this employer is required to give you written instructions and an opportunity to contact the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) or Social Security Administration (SSA) so you can begin to resolve the issue before the employer can take any action against you. Including terminating employment. Employers can only use E-Verify once you have accepted a job offer and completed the I-9 form.

Charter School Growth Fund provides equal employment opportunity for all applicants and employees.

Originally posted on Himalayas