Manager, Programs, Education

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About The Michael & Susan Dell Foundation

The Michael & Susan Dell Foundation builds pathways that change lives for families around the world. With offices in Austin, New Delhi, Cape Town, Nairobi, and Tel Aviv, the foundation supports programs that advance quality public education, promote children’s health, and strengthen family economic stability. Since its inception, the foundation has committed over $2.8 billion to initiatives that expand opportunities and improve outcomes for families globally.​

Duties

The Michael & Susan Dell Foundation is seeking a dynamic Manager, Programs, Education, US to join our team in Austin, Texas. This role is designed for a strategic, analytical, and purpose-driven leader who thrives on solving complex challenges and enabling change at scale. This person will be instrumental in driving measurable results and applying innovative solutions to improve educational and economic outcomes for all students, particularly those from under-resourced communities. We’re especially interested in candidates who have driven measurable results in complex environments and now want to apply those skills critical social challenges.

About the Role

You will act as a strategic operator and cross-functional partner, identifying and scaling innovative models in K-12 education while contributing to broader U.S. portfolios such as economic stability. This is not a back-office role—you’ll be on the front lines working with mission-aligned partners to co-create and implement solutions that have the potential to shift student trajectories at scale and influence policy and systems priorities Our team values rigorous thinking, data-driven decision-making, and a deep commitment to equity. We’re looking for someone with a builder’s mindset, who brings strong strategic intuition and thrives in ambiguous, high-stakes environments.

What You’ll Do Drive Strategic Program Development

• Identify, assess, and shape opportunities for grants and investments aligned to the foundation’s strategy.
• Co-create scalable solutions with partners to deliver measurable outcomes and reallocate public and private capital more effectively.
• Serve as a strategic partner to grantees and stakeholders, drawing insights from other sectors (e.g., finance, tech, health) to unlock innovation in education.
• Stay informed about market trends and industry developments, anticipating opportunities and identifying them early. By staying ahead of the curve, you can proactively identify potential opportunities for innovation and collaboration, ensuring the foundation remains at the forefront of addressing education challenges.

Lead Project and Portfolio Execution

• Manage end-to-end project implementation with a relentless focus on outcomes and sustainability.
• Actively support grantees and investees in scaling their operational capabilities.
• Translate strategy into execution with precision—ensuring goals, milestones, and KPIs are met across complex engagements.

Own Strategic Partnerships

• Build and maintain high-trust, results-oriented relationships with diverse stakeholders —from district leaders and social entrepreneurs to data scientists and funders.
• Surface opportunities for course correction and adaptive management through consistent feedback loops, rigorous analysis, and transparent communication.

Evaluate and Optimize the Portfolio

• Use data, evidence, and evaluation to assess impact, make investment decisions, and sunset underperforming initiatives.
• Synthesize lessons learned across the portfolio and share insights internally and externally to influence broader change.

Represent and Influence

• Partner with the Communications team to elevate high-impact work and amplify learning.
• Represent the foundation at conferences, working groups, and partner engagements as a credible, mission-aligned thought leader.

Qualifications

Who You Are

• Experienced Strategist: 10+ years of experience leading high-stakes, integrated projects—ideally in management consulting, investment banking, or start-ups—with a demonstrated ability to drive results amid complexity.
• Analytical Problem Solver: You think in frameworks, see connections others miss, use data to make decisions, and communicate insights and recommendations clearly and succinctly.
• Mission-Driven Builder: You’re motivated by impact, undeterred by ambiguity, and energized by the opportunity to tackle hard problems with curiosity, creativity, and humility.
• Cross-Sector Operator: You understand how to navigate different systems—public, private, nonprofit—and can translate insight into action across them.
• Collaborative Leader: You influence without authority, manage up and across, and bring people together to move work forward.
• Bridge Builder: You have experience building or working with organizations that bridge both frontline execution and systems-level change, accelerating proven solutions across multiple communities.

Key Skills and Traits

• Strategic thinking and conceptual rigor
• Detail-oriented project execution
• Strong communication and synthesis skills
• High comfort with data, Excel, and technology tools (including AI)
• Strong relationship-building instincts and abilities
• Bias toward action with humility and empathy

Application instructions

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