IDEA Public Schools Careers

Chief Talent Officer

Mission: IDEA Public Schools seeks a Chief Talent Officer (CTO) to design and lead our national human capital strategy—building the systems, culture, and leadership pipelines that enable every scholar to achieve excellence.

Reporting to the President and serving as a key member of the Executive Team, the CTO will oversee IDEA’s comprehensive Talent Engine for 10,000+ employees. This includes the divisions of Talent Acquisition, Talent Development, Staff Experience, Human Resources, and Compensation & Benefits.

As a forward-thinking and people-centered leader, the CTO will ensure IDEA remains a destination for the best educators and staff in the nation, cultivating a workplace where belonging, growth, and excellence thrive. The ideal candidate combines strategic vision with operational discipline, balancing compliance and risk management with innovation and a belief that—with the right systems, coaching, and support—anyone can become an exceptional teacher or leader.

Supervisory Responsibilities: The CTO is directly responsible for the supervision and oversight of all aspects of talent and human resources work and will lead a six-person leadership team:

• Vice President Talent Acquisition
• Vice President of Human Resources
• Vice President of Compensation & Benefits
• Vice President of Staff Experience
• Chief of Staff
• Director of Human Resources Quality Assurance

Location:  This is a fully remote position allowing for residency anywhere in the state of Texas, with preference for candidates already living in or willing to relocate to one of our seven Texas regions: Austin, Dallas-Ft. Worth, El Paso, Houston, Permian Basin (Midland/Odessa), Rio Grande Valley, and San Antonio

Travel Expectations:     Up to 30% of the time in the busiest months of year with many weeks requiring no travel at all

What You’ll Do – Accountabilities

Essential Duties:

Vision and Strategy

• Develop and execute a bold, organization-wide Talent Strategy aligned to IDEA’s mission, core values, and long-term goals.
• Champion IDEA’s philosophy that talent is the most powerful driver of student success, linking every people system to scholar outcomes.
• Serve as a thought partner to the President, CEO/Superintendent, and Executive Team, shaping long-range strategy through a human-capital lens.
• Lead with an innovation mindset—continuously modernizing processes, policies, and tools that empower leaders to focus on development, not bureaucracy.
• Ensure IDEA scales its diverse leadership pipeline to meet future growth while protecting organizational culture and mission fidelity.

Talent Development

• Oversee IDEA’s professional learning and leadership pipelines, including teacher career pathways, principal residencies, and executive leadership development programs.
• Build systems that guarantee every team member—teacher, leader, or HQ professional—has access to world-class coaching and growth opportunities.
• Align development programs with measurable performance outcomes, ensuring professional growth translates directly to student achievement.
• Champion a culture of learning and feedback that reinforces IDEA’s belief that great educators are developed, not found.
• Partner with regional and national teams to identify, prepare, and retain top talent for future leadership roles.

Talent Acquisition and Staffing

• Lead design and execution of large-scale recruitment and hiring strategies to attract diverse, high-quality educators, leaders, and support staff across multiple states with annual attainment of 100% staffing levels by the state of each academic year
• Build proactive, data-driven pipelines for critical and emerging roles to meet growth targets and reduce vacancy rates.
• Ensure IDEA’s brand as an employer of choice reflects its mission and values through authentic storytelling, digital presence, and strategic partnerships.
• Integrate technology, predictive analytics, and talent forecasting into recruitment planning to improve precision and speed.
• Partner with senior leaders to align staffing strategy with budget, academic priorities, and regional expansion.

Staff Experience and Culture

• Foster an organization-wide culture of belonging, engagement, and purpose.
• Oversee IDEA’s staff culture surveys, recognition programs, and engagement initiatives, ensuring every employee feels valued and connected to the mission.
• Create systems that identify early warning signs of disengagement and build proactive interventions to strengthen retention.
• Ensure IDEA continues to earn recognition as a “Best Place to Work” by prioritizing trust, transparency, and consistent feedback loops.
• Partner with leaders across all departments to embed experience design principles that make IDEA a joyful, equitable, and high-performance workplace.

Human Resources

• Direct HR operations across multiple states and authorizers, ensuring compliance with all federal, state, and local employment laws.
• Oversee employee relations, investigations, risk management, and policy development grounded in fairness, accountability, and IDEA’s values.
• Champion the implementation of modern HR systems and processes that enhance service delivery, reduce manual burden, and improve employee experience.
• Develop data-governance protocols and ensure high-quality HR analytics drive continuous improvement.
• Maintain the balance between compliance and empowerment—ensuring HR policies protect both people and mission.

Compensation and Benefits

• Lead design, governance, and continuous improvement of competitive, sustainable compensation and benefits structures.
• Implement performance-based pay and recognition systems that reward excellence while ensuring fiscal responsibility.
• Partner with Finance and Executive leadership to model long-term affordability and equity in compensation strategy.
• Ensure benefits offerings reflect the diverse needs of IDEA’s workforce—supporting health, family, and financial well-being.
• Regularly assess IDEA’s compensation positioning against market benchmarks to remain an employer of choice.

Organizational Leadership and People Management

• Serve as a core member of the Executive Team, providing strategic counsel to the President, CEO/Superintendent, and multiple Boards of Directors.
• Oversee a high-performing leadership team of Vice Presidents or Managing Directors across all Talent divisions.
• Employ disciplined prioritization and clear performance management systems to ensure alignment and accountability across teams.
• Monitor and report key Talent metrics and KPIs, identifying gaps and driving data-informed action.
• Foster a culture of collaboration, inclusion, and excellence—developing leaders who embody IDEA’s mission and values.
• Model transparency, self-reflection, and continuous improvement, inviting feedback and learning to strengthen organizational outcomes.

Additional Duties and Responsibilities: as assigned

What You Bring – Competencies

• Make Strategic Decisions This team member embodies IDEA's mission and values in decision-making, balancing bold vision with ethical and operational rigor. They establish governance frameworks that ensure consistency and accountability organization-wide, while applying systems thinking to break down silos and drive data-informed continuous improvement.
• Manage Work and Teams This team member designs scalable systems that anticipate future organizational needs, driving sustainable impact through cross-functional collaboration and strategic problem-solving. They foster a culture of ownership and accountability, lead change with clarity and purpose, and balance hands-on leadership with empowering others to build capacity and achieve long-term success.
• Grow Self and Others This team member embeds development priorities into strategic planning, ensuring organization-wide systems and resources support continuous learning. They build and empower senior leadership teams to drive performance, innovation, and inclusivity, while executing a comprehensive talent strategy that spans the full employee lifecycle and cultivates a culture of lifelong growth.
• Build a Culture of Trust This team member exemplifies IDEA's values and ethical standards through integrity, transparency, and responsible stewardship. By openly sharing decision rationale and fostering curiosity and inclusion, they build trust across the organization and create a culture where diverse perspectives are valued.
• Communicate Deliberately This team member sets and upholds communication standards across the organization, ensuring clarity and trust, especially during times of change or crisis. They lead major initiatives with strategic, context-rich messaging, proactively shaping narratives that address challenges, foster resilience, and align stakeholder perception with organizational impact.

Additional Skills:

• Deep knowledge and expertise with regard to all talent and human resource labor laws, statutory obligations, and regulatory requirements
• Ability to design, evaluate, and improve existing policies, procedures, and systems at scale to ensure maximum effectiveness and efficiency
• Able to lead complex organizational change management that invests key stakeholders across diverse regions and perspectives to ensure strong commitment and consistent outcomes,
• Able to supervise a broad portfolio of duties to ensure effective execution and consistent fidelity of implementation that leads to achieving ambitious goals and delivering results
• Demonstrated experience strategically integrating AI-powered solutions into talent management processes across a large-scale organization (5,000+ employees).

Required education and experience:

• Education:  Bachelor’s degree required
• Experience:  Minimum 10 years in talent and/or human resources, with significant managerial or supervisory experience

Preferred education and experience:

• Education: Master’s degree in education or business administration preferred.
• License or Certification: SPHR, SHRM, or equivalent certifications preferred 

Physical Requirements:

• This is a sedentary position.
• The ability to sit at a computer terminal for an extended period.
• The employee may be regularly required to stand, sit, talk, hear, reach, stoop, kneel, and use hands and fingers to operate a computer, telephone, and keyboard.

Additional Context

Salary for this role is commensurate with relevant experience and qualifications, in alignment with internal equity. The role is also eligible for performance pay tied to organizational outcomes.

Additionally, we offer medical, dental, and vision plans, disability, life insurance, parenting benefits, flexible spending account options, generous vacation time, referral bonuses, professional development, and a 403(b) plan. You can find more information about our benefits at https://ideapublicschools.org/careers/benefits/.

Application process:

Submit your application online through Jobvite. Please note that applications will be reviewed on an ongoing basis until the position is filled. Applicants are encouraged to apply as early as possible.

Learn more about IDEA 

At IDEA the Staff Experience Team uses our Core Values to promote human connection and a culture of integrity, respect, and belonging for all Team and Family members.  Learn more about our Commitment to Core Values here: https://ideapublicschools.org/our-story/#core-values