Chief Innovation Officer

Overview

Noble is Chicago’s highest-performing and largest network of public charter schools. Our 17 campuses and 1,600 employees currently serve 12,000 students, 98% of whom identify as persons of color, 90% as low-income, and 81% as first-generation college attendees. Noble’s mission is to ensure that all students have equitable and positive school experiences that equip them to complete college and lead choice-filled lives.

Noble supports more than 31,000 alumni, with 98% of students accepted into college and nearly 94% choosing to enroll.

The Role

The Chief Innovation Officer reports directly to the CEO and will serve a four-year term, at the end of which the role and its continuation will be reassessed. This leader is responsible for driving transformative, research-backed, and scalable innovations across all 17 campuses. True innovation in this context is not incremental improvement; it is the disciplined work of seeing where existing approaches are no longer sufficient and designing what comes next.

This role exists to provide sustained, protected focus on that work - bringing outside insight, challenging assumptions, testing new models with rigor, and ensuring innovation moves student outcomes and experiences forward in profoundly new and exciting ways. They will collaborate with Noble’s President, chiefs, school principals and staff, the Noble Support Team, Board members, and external partners to identify, design, implement, and evaluate strategies that accelerate student outcomes, strengthen school culture, and expand opportunities for equitable learning.

The Chief Innovation Officer will oversee key initiatives, partnering with stakeholders listed above to ensure successful implementation:

• Innovation Initiatives, leading efforts across academics, culture, and operations, and coordinating with the right staff from other teams to execute work effectively.
• Program Design Projects, piloting and scaling new programs, tools, and systems in collaboration with campuses and school leaders.
• Data and Evaluation Efforts, guiding measurement of impact, providing insights, and driving continuous improvement through cross-team partnerships.

Innovation Strategy & Design

• Develop and execute a bold, system-wide innovation strategy aligned to Noble’s mission and goals.
• Ground the work in insights from innovation listening sessions and needs assessments.
• Identify, design, and pilot new programs, instructional models, and operational systems that improve student outcomes and staff effectiveness.
• Partner with school leaders to co-create solutions that address pressing challenges in academics, culture, and operations.
• Ensure initiatives are equity-centered, scalable, and data-informed.

Program Execution, Implementation & Scaling

• Own the execution of innovation initiatives from pilot through scale, ensuring alignment, pacing, and results across campuses.
• Lead cross-functional project teams to implement new practices, tools, and programs with fidelity and adaptability.
• Support schools and staff in adopting and adapting new practices, tools, and programs.
• Develop and monitor clear success metrics for pilots and scale initiatives based on results.
• Collaborate with Chiefs, Principals, and other leaders to integrate innovations into existing school structures.

Data & Evaluation

• Oversee rigorous data collection, analysis, and evaluation to assess the impact of innovation initiatives.
• Use findings to continuously refine programs and scale what works.
• Ensure transparency and clarity around innovation outcomes for internal and external stakeholders.

Stakeholder Engagement

• Build strong partnerships with internal teams, campus leaders, staff, board members, and external partners to support innovation efforts.
• Communicate vision, progress, and outcomes to the CEO, Board, and key stakeholders.
• Represent Noble externally in the field of education innovation, including conferences, networks, and partnerships.

• Deep understanding of innovation in education, including design thinking, research-based practices, and scalable models.
• Demonstrated success leading initiatives that improved student…