Principal Associate Consultant

Overview

ERS is a national non-profit consulting firm that empowers school system leaders to make transformative shifts in resources, structures, and practices so that all students – especially those with the greatest learning needs and those furthest from opportunity – attend a school where they can learn and thrive. At ERS, we embrace teamwork and innovation to influence sustainable, equitable change in some of the country’s largest school districts.

If you want to join a team of talented and committed professionals within a mission-driven, fast-paced organization, this is the place for you! We will invest in your professional learning, including rapidly developing the K-12 education knowledge needed to succeed.

The salary range for this role is $105,000 to $145,000 annually. In modeling our commitment to openness and transparency, it’s important to note that starting salaries aren’t typically at/near the top of this range. This is to create opportunities for team members to earn raises throughout their tenure in the role.

Consulting projects at ERS Our Focus Is On High-impact Work Within Public K-12 School Districts That Support a Significant Population Of Students From Low-income Families. Our Projects

• Strengthen financial sustainability by analyzing resources, forecasting budgets, and aligning spending with strategic priorities
• Distribute resources to the highest-need areas by implementing equitable, strategic funding and budgeting models that build capacity for effective financial decision-making
• Improve student and teacher experiences by analyzing staffing structures and school design models to optimize learning and enhance teacher retention
• Facilitate learning opportunities for cohorts of state and district leaders to explore solutions to shared challenges

Role overview We seek to hire Principal Associates (PAs) with experience in strategy/management consulting who are excited about the opportunity to positively impact K-12 education. PAs lead from the middle in a fast-paced, highly collaborative environment, taking full ownership of defining and managing the work across multiple, intersecting work streams.

PAs are expected to demonstrate strong quantitative analysis skills and strategic insight to drive meaning-making. They pair sophisticated data analysis with critical thinking to synthesize disparate data, tell a clear and compelling story, and translate insights into high-impact, strategic recommendations for state and district partners. Excel and R are the primary tools used for our quantitative analysis work.

• Strategic and quantitative analysis:
  Independently design and execute methodologically sound analytic plans and translate complex analyses into clear insights and actionable recommendations that enable informed decision-making for external partners
• Project management:
  Drive progress toward milestones by proactively organizing and delegating team responsibilities, monitoring progress, and adapting plans as needed, maintaining focus on what matters most
• People management:
  Facilitate structured, priority-based meetings with team members at all levels to ensure alignment, support development, and maintain accountability for high-quality deliverables
• High-quality deliverables:
  Design structured, concise, audience-ready materials tailored to meet the needs of different external partners (e.g., central office leaders, state agency executive boards, principals, etc.)
• External partner engagement:
  Manage mid-level partner relationships end-to-end, fostering collaboration and trust through strategic thought partnership and service
• Knowledge management:
  Contribute to our organizational knowledge base via research, development of externally-facing tools, and documentation of best practices in public K-12 education resource allocation
• Organizational stewardship:
  Actively engage and contribute to culture-building initiatives, rooted in learning and relationship-building, including coaching, position groups, and quarterly ERS weeks

Required

• Bachelor’s degree
• At least 5 years of relevant professional experience in strategy/management consulting,…