Education Program Officer

William and Flora Hewlett Foundation

Menlo Park, California

The Program Officer will bring deep knowledge of public education, ideally grounded in firsthand experience in schools and school systems, and an understanding of how to cohere and align instructional practice, community and systems leadership, and cross-sector partnerships to improve academic and life outcomes for students. They will bring a nuanced understanding of the realities of educational improvement, and the ability to identify high-leverage strategies to help close the gap between aspiration and implementation in public education.

The successful candidate will advance Hewlett's vision of deeper learning, a blend of strong academic knowledge with the skills, mindsets, and dispositions that young people need to thrive in a rapidly changing world. The Program Officer will work closely with districts, states, and networks that are working with key civic institutions, community-based organizations and employers to expand rich learning experiences and strengthen human relationships, especially in an increasingly AI-centric world. The candidate will work with the education program team and its partners to build non-partisan coalitions committed to improving public education at scale. Through this work, we seek to enable high quality learning opportunities for all students, especially those furthest from opportunity.

To advance the Foundation's goals, the Program Officer will work closely and build strong relationships with school and systems leaders and their local, state, and national partners on the improvement of instructional practice. The Program Officer will bring knowledge, understanding, and expertise of educational implementation at the state, district, and school levels. The Program Officer will have knowledge and experience with efforts to better connect schools and communities - and broaden students learning experiences - through such strategies as career-connected learning and civic-learning. The Program Officer will also collaborate with colleagues focused on complementary strategic priorities such as improving teacher preparation and career advancement, strengthening school and systems leadership, and leveraging enabling environments such as state, local and national policy and ascendent technologies such as artificial intelligence.

ABOUT THE EDUCATION PROGRAM

The Education Program team is refreshing its strategy in 2026. The new Program Officer will support implementation and refinement of this new strategy in the context of ongoing grants management and new grant making.

The strategy refresh will build on Hewlett's historic contributions to U.S. education while being adaptive and responsive to changing conditions, contexts, and environments. For example, Hewlett's attention to the deeper learning competencies has successfully expanded the aperture of schooling to include disciplinary knowledge and durable skills such as communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and civic reasoning. Growing support for these skills among parents, higher education institutions, and employers has increased the importance of school and community implementation contexts that enable their development. Building on a foundation of high-quality teaching and learning in schools and classrooms, broader implementation contexts often include learning opportunities with community-based organizations, civic and cultural institutions such as libraries and museums, and career-connected learning in high-demand fields. Enabling and sustaining these efforts at scale will require strategic investments that:

1. Ensure new technologies such as artificial intelligence are safe, accessible and open to all, and used to strengthen the work that teachers and students do together.
2. Identify promising efforts to expand the human capital pipeline into education by strengthening and innovating the education professions.
3. Implement research that identifies not only when strategies work, but also for whom and under what conditions with the goal of expanding and ensuring success for all students.
4. Increase our understanding of the civic purpose of schooling and how the state, local, and national interact to establish and advance high-quality public education systems that powerfully serve students, families, communities, and democracy at large.

ABOUT THE ROLE

Reporting to the Education Program Director, Ash Vasudeva, the Program Officer will play a central role in advancing the Foundation's vision that every student-regardless of background-has access to high-quality, empowering teaching and learning. As a key member of the Education team, the Program Officer will manage a portfolio of grants that help catalyze and support cross-sector collaboration between districts, schools, and their partners to support students' civic engagement, problem-solving, and leadership; enable regional economic opportunity and upward mobility; and strengthen civil society and democracy.

The role includes contributing thought leadership, strengthening school environments, supporting rich learning experiences for students, and engaging in national conversations on educational opportunities. The Program Officer will help shape strategy, steward resources responsibly, participate in evaluation and learning efforts, and represent the Foundation externally through convenings, meetings, and field engagement.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Working in close partnership with the Education Program Director and broader team, the Program Officer will play a key role in shaping and advancing an evolving education strategy at a critical inflection point for the Foundation and the broader field. Operating at the intersection of philanthropy, public education systems, and broader conversations on equity and democracy, this individual will help define priorities, investments, and approaches, requiring both strategic insight and the ability to operate effectively in a dynamic environment. This role combines strategic contribution with hands-on execution, requiring the Program Officer to effectively manage a grant portfolio while collaborating cross-functionally and contributing to broader program priorities.

Leveraging the Foundation's strong credibility and trust-based approach, the Program Officer will build and sustain authentic partnerships with grantees, partners, and leaders across the education field. This role requires a highly relational and nuanced approach to earning trust and aligning diverse stakeholders to drive meaningful, scalable impact that expands deeper learning opportunities and strengthens outcomes for students, particularly those furthest from opportunity.

Serving as an ambassador for the Foundation, the Program Officer will convene partners, represent the organization at conferences and site visits, and engage in national conversations to share best practices and advance system-level change. Through these efforts, the Program Officer will help translate strategy into field-level influence, contributing to broader shifts across the education landscape.

Key responsibilities for the Program Officer include:

• Advance grantmaking aligned with program strategy and the Foundation's goal of expanding high-quality learning for all students.
• Manage a portfolio of grants, including design, implementation, monitoring, evaluation, and stewardship of financial and programmatic resources.
• Build and maintain strong relationships with grantees, partners, and leaders across the education field.
• Contribute content expertise, professional networks, intellectual curiosity, and cultural awareness to inform program strategy.
• Engage in national conversations on improving educational opportunities and share best practices related to impact, sustainability, and scalability.
• Work collaboratively within a highly collegial team, sharing plans and insights to strengthen alignment and learning.
• Develop and refine evaluation approaches; commission and manage third-party evaluations to test strategic assumptions and inform decision-making.
• Represent the Foundation externally at conferences, meetings, site visits, and foundation-hosted convenings.
• Collaborate with grantees to refine approaches, maximize resources, and advance program objectives.
• Prepare briefing materials, reports, presentations, blog posts, and other written materials to inform internal and external audiences.
• Support the implementation of an aspirational, outcomes-driven strategy focused on improving teaching, learning, and student experiences.

QUALIFICATIONS

While no candidate will possess all the ideal qualifications, the successful candidate will bring many of the following experiences, knowledge, and abilities important to the role:

• Deep commitment to equitable, high-quality public education, supported by experience in education practice, policy, or system improvement;
• Significant experience working with education organizations and leaders, with a strong understanding of how to drive systemic change across classrooms, schools, and systems;
• Knowledge of leading-edge instructional practices, pedagogical trends, and contemporary research on teaching and learning;
• Experience supporting educators to improve practice, gained in settings such as philanthropy, school or system leadership, nonprofits, government, or community/state organizing;
• Prior classroom, building, or system-level (district, state, federal) leadership experience;
• Understanding of factors contributing to disparate educational outcomes and experience addressing equity issues in practice;
• Ability to lead and manage research or analytical projects related to grantmaking, including executing work with limited staff support;
• Demonstrated ability to set clear objectives, evaluate progress, and independently manage complex projects;
• Strong written and verbal communication skills;
• Commitment to collaboration and authentic partnership with colleagues, grantees, and field leaders;
• Alignment with Hewlett's Guiding Principles;
• Comfort working in a highly collaborative, relatively flat organizational structure, balancing autonomy with teamwork;
• Growth-oriented leadership style, including experience or interest in mentoring and supervising staff and working closely with embedded team members (grants, legal, communications);
• Adaptable, flexible, highly relational, and grounded in humility, integrity, and a positive, collegial spirit;
• Independent initiative, openness to diverse perspectives, and receptiveness to feedback;
• A graduate degree in a relevant field;
• Foundation grantmaking experience;
• Willingness to take smart risks and pursue outcomes-driven work; and
• Ability to work from the Hewlett Foundation's Menlo Park office.

PHYSICAL DEMANDS/WORK ENVIRONMENT

The physical demands described are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this position. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

While performing the duties of this position, the employee is regularly required to sit for extended periods of time and to travel via various modes of transportation for extended periods of time.