Director of Operations

Location: On-campus, Austin, TX

Schedule: Full-time, Monday-Friday

Compensation: Starting at $100,000+, commensurate with experience

Benefits: Medical, dental, vision, and 401(k)

Start Date: As soon as available

Build the School Behind the School

Hadar Academy is looking for a Director of Operations who wants to build.

We are the first Jewish classical elementary school in the US, and that means this is not a traditional school operations role. Some systems are established, while others need to be strengthened. And some of the systems we will need three years from now have not been worked out yet.

The right person for this role is a builder, problem solver, and trusted partner to the Head of School. You notice what needs to happen before someone assigns it to you. You ask good questions, learn quickly, make sound decisions, and enjoy the process of turning ambiguity into something concrete. You are equally comfortable thinking strategically and rolling up your sleeves with the smaller details of a growing school. A typical day may see you improving a compliance system, troubleshooting a transportation issue, working with a technology vendor, chasing down missing teaching supplies, reviewing an enrollment process, or solving a new problem that appeared that morning.

If you need a detailed playbook before you can begin, this probably isn't the right role. If you like creating the playbook and finessing its details, we'd like to hear from you.

About Hadar Academy

"To defend a country, you need an army. But to defend an identity, you need a school."

Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, z"l

Hadar Academy is building a new model of Jewish classical education in Austin, Texas. As the flagship pilot school for Tikvah's Lobel Center for Classical Jewish Education, Hadar integrates the great works of Jewish and Western civilization with rigorous academics, Hebrew language education, Torah Judaism, character formation, and a deep appreciation for America and Israel.

Our mission is ambitious: to develop thoughtful, articulate, morally grounded young people prepared to take responsibility for their own potential, live as covenantal Jews, and become patriotic and dutiful American citizens.

We believe children are capable of intellectual seriousness, personal discipline, joyful learning, moral courage, and meaningful responsibility.

We bring that same expectation to the adults building their school.

The Director of Operations will join a small, highly committed team during a formative period in Hadar's growth. This is an opportunity not simply to operate a school, but to help build an institution that aspires to become a national model.

The Role

Reporting directly to the Head of School, the Director of Operations owns the operational infrastructure that allows Hadar's faculty and leadership to focus on students, families, and academic excellence.

This person will bring order without bureaucracy, build systems without losing flexibility, and continuously look for better ways to run the school.

The Director of Operations will be expected to understand the details, anticipate risks, exercise sound judgment, and independently move work forward while knowing when a decision should be elevated to the Head of School.

Operational Leadership & Systems

• Own the school's day-to-day operational infrastructure and identify opportunities to make systems more efficient, reliable, and scalable.
• Build, document, and continuously improve processes as the school grows.
• Maintain clear operational calendars, trackers, deadlines, and accountability systems so important requirements do not fall through the cracks.
• Identify emerging operational needs and proactively recommend solutions rather than waiting for direction.
• Serve as the primary operational partner to the Head of School, helping translate priorities into executable plans.
• Prepare operational information, reporting, and documentation for school leadership and the Board as needed.
• Manage relationships with outside vendors and service providers, ensuring Hadar receives strong service and appropriate value.
• Step into unexpected challenges with calm, resourcefulness, discretion, and a bias toward solving the problem.

Compliance, Risk & School Administration

• Maintain a comprehensive system for tracking school compliance requirements throughout the year.
• Monitor applicable state, local, federal, accreditation, and school-specific requirements and ensure deadlines and documentation are addressed.
• Manage required background checks, employee documentation, training records, student records, waivers, and other compliance materials.
• Coordinate required student health screenings and other recurring school requirements.
• Ensure staff understand and follow school policies and procedures.
• Support accreditation applications, reporting, and ongoing requirements.
• Work with appropriate legal, HR, insurance, and compliance partners when specialized expertise is needed.
• Maintain organized, secure, and accessible school records with appropriate safeguards for confidential information.
• Support emergency preparedness, safety procedures, drills, and documentation.

Technology & Data Systems

• Serve as the internal owner of Hadar's core administrative systems, including FACTS School Management Software and Google Workspace.
• Continuously improve workflows for enrollment, student records, forms, family communications, and other administrative processes.
• Coordinate with IT vendors to resolve issues involving devices, printers, Wi-Fi, testing platforms, staff laptops, and other school technology.
• Ensure teachers and staff have the training and tools necessary to use school systems effectively.
• Coordinate the technology required for standardized testing.
• Manage software subscriptions and evaluate whether technology is actually solving the problem it was purchased to solve.
• Help establish responsible practices for the use of emerging technologies, including AI, consistent with school policies and expectations.
• Maintain the Hadar Academy website in coordination with outside partners as needed.

Facilities, Safety, and Transportation

• Manage the school's relationship with its campus landlord and coordinate facility needs, repairs, access, and safety matters.
• Ensure operational compliance with applicable building and safety requirements.
• Coordinate emergency procedures and drills with the landlord and security partners.
• Maintain an inventory of school assets and anticipate furnishing, equipment, and supply needs.
• Oversee school transportation operations, including driver coordination, scheduling, maintenance, parent communication, contingency planning, and backup transportation arrangements.
• Identify vulnerabilities before they become emergencies and develop realistic contingency plans.

Finance and Vendor Administration

• Support accurate operational and financial tracking for school leadership and Board reporting.
• Manage invoices, recurring payments, purchasing, subscriptions, and vendor documentation.
• Develop and maintain clear systems for procurement, approvals, reimbursements, and school expenditures.
• Monitor operational costs and identify opportunities for greater efficiency or better vendor arrangements.
• Coordinate with the school's accounting, payroll, HR, insurance, and other professional partners as appropriate.

Admissions, Enrollment, and Family Operations

• Partner with the Head of School to ensure an excellent admissions and enrollment experience for prospective and current families.
• Manage the operational workflow behind applications, enrollment documentation, records, scheduling, and follow‑up.
• Coordinate prospective-family interviews and visits with appropriate school leaders.
• Identify friction points in the family experience and recommend improvements.
• Ensure important family‑facing processes are clear, timely, organized, and consistent with Hadar's standards.

People & Administrative Operations

• Support employee onboarding and offboarding and ensure required documentation and systems access are completed accurately.
• Coordinate operational aspects of staff policies, training, leave, and other HR processes in collaboration with school leadership and outside HR support.
• Support teachers with curriculum materials, classroom supplies, and purchasing
• Help develop reliable coverage plans when teachers or school leaders are absent.
• Provide operational leadership when the Head of School is unavailable.
• Protect the Head of School's time by independently resolving issues that appropriately belong within the Director of Operations' authority.

Who Will Thrive Here

We care about experience, but we care just as much about how you operate. You may have worked in a school, a startup, a small business, a nonprofit, an entrepreneurial organization, or another environment where people wear multiple hats and problems rarely arrive with instructions.

The strongest candidates will demonstrate:

• Mission alignment. You are excited by Hadar's educational vision and want your work to help build an institution with lasting significance.
• An entrepreneurial mindset. You are energized by building, improving, experimenting, and figuring things out.
• High ownership. When you see a problem, your instinct is to take responsibility for getting it solved.
• Curiosity. You ask questions, investigate, learn quickly, and do not assume "the way we've always done it" is the best answer.
• Resourcefulness. You know how to find the answer when you do not already know it.
• Independent judgment. You can make good decisions without constant supervision while recognizing when something needs to be escalated.
• Systems thinking. You don't just fix today's problem; you ask what process, tool, or expectation could prevent tomorrow's.
• Exceptional follow-through. Details matter to you, deadlines matter to you, and people do not need to remind you repeatedly.
• Comfort with ambiguity. A growing organization feels like an opportunity to you, not a source of frustration.
• Pragmatism. You know the difference between a system that needs to be perfect and one that simply needs to work well.
• Strong communication. You communicate clearly and professionally with parents, teachers, vendors, Board members, and school leadership.
• Discretion and judgment. You understand that working in a school means handling sensitive student, employee, family, financial, and institutional information.

Qualifications

• Demonstrated success managing operations, projects, systems, or organizational infrastructure.
• Evidence of successfully building or improving processes rather than simply administering established ones.
• Excellent organizational, written, and verbal communication skills.
• Strong project-management skills and the ability to manage multiple priorities simultaneously.
• High comfort with technology and the ability to learn new systems quickly.
• Strong proficiency with Google Workspace and/or comparable productivity platforms.
• Experience working with vendors, budgets, contracts, or administrative systems.
• Experience in a school, startup, small organization, nonprofit, or similarly entrepreneurial environment strongly preferred.
• HR, compliance, finance, facilities, technology, or school operations experience is valuable, but we do not expect one candidate to be an expert in every area.

What Success Looks Like

Within the first year, the Director of Operations will have:

• Created reliable systems for Hadar's recurring operational and compliance requirements.
• Reduced the number of issues that require the Head of School's direct intervention.
• Improved visibility into deadlines, responsibilities, finances, vendors, and operational risk.
• Strengthened the school's technology, transportation, facilities, enrollment, HR, and administrative processes.
• Documented essential procedures so that the organization becomes stronger and less dependent on any one person.
• Anticipated needs associated with Hadar's continued growth and begun building the operational infrastructure to support them.
• Earned the trust of faculty, families, leadership, and the Board as someone who gets things done thoughtfully and reliably.

Most importantly, Hadar will operate better because this person is here - not simply because tasks are being completed, but because stronger systems are being built.