Example Job Description
Strategic Planning and Analytics Manager
A district professional who brings disciplined strategy, inclusive service, clear stewardship, and continuous improvement to a complex public-school environment.
Interview Planning Resource
Possible Interview Q&A: Strategic Planning and Analytics Manager
How to use this resource: Select questions that measure competencies established through the district’s current job analysis. Ask candidates the same predetermined questions under comparable conditions and evaluate responses against the same job-related criteria.
The indicators below describe evidence a strong response may contain; they are not required scripts or the only acceptable answers.
- How would you establish priorities and a practical annual work plan for strategic plans, performance frameworks, environmental scans, forecasts, scenarios, dashboards, surveys, initiative portfolios, meeting records, and public reporting tools?
Strong response indicators: Connects district goals and user needs to risk, dependencies, capacity, owners, milestones, service measures, communication, and review rather than producing an unranked project list.
- Describe a time you found that a familiar process or report was producing unreliable results. How did you investigate and correct it?
Strong response indicators: Defines the expected result, traces evidence to authoritative sources, distinguishes symptoms from root causes, involves accountable owners, tests the correction, reconciles downstream effects, documents decisions, and monitors recurrence.
- You encounter leaders are asked to commit resources to a high-profile initiative before assumptions, alternatives, equity implications, implementation capacity, or success measures are clear. What would you do first, and how would you manage the issue through resolution?
Strong response indicators: Protects people and continuity, establishes scope and authority, preserves evidence, engages the right owners, communicates proportionately, documents decisions, verifies recovery or correction, and completes a lessons-learned review.
- How would you work with cabinet, governing boards, school leaders, program owners, finance, human resources, researchers, analysts, students, families, employee groups, and community partners when they disagree about priorities or the acceptable level of risk?
Strong response indicators: Clarifies decision rights and shared purpose, surfaces evidence and constraints, distinguishes requirements from preferences, documents options and residual risk, facilitates a timely decision, and escalates through established authority when needed.
- What controls would you put in place before making a significant change to strategic plans, performance frameworks, environmental scans, forecasts, scenarios, dashboards, surveys, initiative portfolios, meeting records, and public reporting tools?
Strong response indicators: Includes requirements, ownership, risk and privacy review, representative testing, accessibility where relevant, approvals, change communication, rollback or contingency, validation, monitoring, documentation, and support readiness.
- How would you decide what to automate and what should retain meaningful human review?
Strong response indicators: Selects stable, repeatable, testable work for automation; preserves human authority for exceptions and consequential judgments; addresses access, logging, bias or error, monitoring, failure recovery, documentation, and periodic reassessment.
- How would you explain a serious technical, instructional, operational, or data concern to a leader who does not work in your specialty?
Strong response indicators: States the affected people and services, evidence, uncertainty, consequence, deadline, accountable owners, options, recommendation, residual risk, and next update in plain language.
- What would you do when a request exceeds governing-board and executive decisions, budget authority, program ownership, research approval, labor relations, legal advice, and public commitments?
Strong response indicators: Recognizes the limit, avoids unauthorized action, clarifies the legitimate need, preserves service where possible, routes the decision to the authorized owner, documents the handoff, and follows through without abandoning the requester.
- How would you protect confidential information while still providing useful service and appropriate access?
Strong response indicators: Applies purpose limitation, minimum necessary access, role-based permissions, secure transmission and storage, approved retention, understandable communication, auditability, timely removal, and incident escalation.
- How would you build staff capability so your office does not become the permanent fixer of every problem?
Strong response indicators: Uses clear ownership, role-based training, usable procedures, coaching, feedback loops, office hours, communities of practice, quality reports, cross-training, and measures whether source practices improve.
- What evidence would you use to determine whether your work is improving decision timeliness, measure quality, strategic alignment, initiative progress, implementation capacity, equity, learning, public clarity, and adaptation?
Strong response indicators: Uses a balanced set of outcome, implementation, service, risk, equity, and user-experience measures; disaggregates appropriately; explains limitations; establishes baselines and review cadence; and changes course when evidence warrants.
- What would you prioritize during your first 90 days?
Strong response indicators: Would inventory critical services and owners, meet representative users and affected communities, review access and open risks, validate procedures and continuity, identify immediate service gaps, and publish a prioritized improvement plan; listens before redesigning, identifies urgent risks, delivers credible early improvements, and creates an achievable longer-term roadmap with owners and measures.
Position Description
Under the direction of the appropriate district administrator, the Strategic Planning and Analytics Manager connects district priorities with governed measures, scenario analysis, implementation evidence, and decision routines that support transparent long-range planning.
The position connects policy, people, process, information, and technology; establishes repeatable practices; makes unresolved risk visible; and supports continuous improvement without displacing the authority of designated program, legal, privacy, security, fiscal, instructional, or executive decision-makers.
Reports To
Illustrative reporting relationship: Appropriate district administrator responsible for the assigned program or service. Insert the school district’s approved reporting relationship here.
Required Education and Credentials
Required
- Bachelor's degree in information systems, data management, public administration, business administration, education, research, social science, communications, or a field related to the assignment; additional relevant experience may substitute where district policy permits.
- No specific credential is universally required; relevant professional certifications or current training are preferred.
- Successful completion of all district-required employment clearances and assigned privacy, security, accessibility, records, and safety training.
Preferred
- Graduate study, advanced coursework, or current professional learning directly related to the position’s assigned scope.
- Relevant training in project management, facilitation, change management, data-informed improvement, and public-sector service.
Required / Desired Experience
Required Experience
- Progressively responsible experience leading strategy, complex workflows, cross-functional initiatives, and deadline-driven public service.
- Experience coordinating deadline-driven work with multiple departments, users, or school sites.
- Experience handling confidential information and documenting decisions, exceptions, and completed work.
Desired Experience
- K-12 or public-sector experience with the role's core systems, accessibility, privacy, security, records, implementation, documentation, training, analysis, user support, and vendor coordination.
- Experience developing procedures, training users, improving processes, and supporting continuity during staff or system changes.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities
Planning, Governance, and Stewardship
- Develop and maintain standards, calendars, ownership, lifecycle practices, decision records, and priorities for strategic plans, performance frameworks, environmental scans, forecasts, scenarios, dashboards, surveys, initiative portfolios, meeting records, and public reporting tools.
- Translate district goals, user needs, legal obligations, equity, risk, dependencies, capacity, and total cost into an achievable work plan.
- Document definitions, decisions, approvals, exceptions, service expectations, success measures, and unresolved risks.
Operations, Quality, and Delivery
- Administer, coordinate, analyze, support, test, and improve strategic plans, performance frameworks, environmental scans, forecasts, scenarios, dashboards, surveys, initiative portfolios, meeting records, and public reporting tools according to approved procedures and change controls.
- Coordinate requirements, access, data, integrations, schedules, vendors, communications, training, support readiness, and operational handoff.
- Establish validation, reconciliation, acceptance, monitoring, accessibility review, and issue-management practices appropriate to the service.
Access, Risk, and Continuity
- Administer or coordinate role-based access from approved requests; periodically review privileges and remove access promptly.
- Integrate privacy, security, accessibility, records, procurement, instructional, fiscal, ethical, and continuity requirements into routine work.
- Maintain incident, escalation, rollback, recovery, alternate-work, retention, disposition, and continuity procedures; test critical practices periodically.
Service, Learning, and Improvement
- Provide responsive guidance and support to cabinet, governing boards, school leaders, program owners, finance, human resources, researchers, analysts, students, families, employee groups, and community partners; identify recurring needs and strengthen owner and user capability.
- Analyze decision timeliness, measure quality, strategic alignment, initiative progress, implementation capacity, equity, learning, public clarity, and adaptation; recommend improvement, consolidation, additional safeguards, or retirement when evidence warrants.
- Maintain inventories, procedures, definitions, training, contacts, decision logs, cross-training, and continuity materials; perform other related duties consistent with classification.
Required Skills and Abilities
Knowledge of
- Principles, methods, standards, and current practices for strategy
- K-12 instructional and operational contexts affecting strategic plans, performance frameworks, environmental scans, forecasts, scenarios, dashboards, surveys, initiative portfolios, meeting records, and public reporting tools
- Accessibility, privacy, cybersecurity, records lifecycle, internal controls, ethical practice, equitable access, and responsible use of data and automation
- Data quality, identity and access, integration, testing, change management, monitoring, incident response, support, and continuity as applicable to the assignment
- Project coordination, analysis, documentation, facilitation, adult learning, plain-language communication, procurement, vendor management, and continuous improvement
Ability to
- Translate user, community, and program needs into clear requirements, priorities, controls, supports, and sustainable services
- Investigate complex questions systematically, distinguish root cause from symptom, and verify correction or interpretation against authoritative evidence
- Plan controlled changes with representative testing, approval, communication, contingency, validation, monitoring, and documentation
- Protect confidential information and apply approved access without assuming the authority of the data, program, legal, privacy, or security owner
- Explain technical, analytical, instructional, or operational choices and limitations to varied audiences in accessible plain language
- Coordinate across departments, schools, communities, vendors, deadlines, and competing priorities while maintaining accurate, reviewable records
Work Environment
- Work is performed primarily in district offices, schools, meeting rooms, training environments, and other computer-based professional settings, with remote participation as authorized.
- The position requires extended computer use and detailed review of records, systems, reports, procedures, communications, or technical documentation.
- Work involves frequent coordination with cabinet, governing boards, school leaders, program owners, finance, human resources, researchers, analysts, students, families, employee groups, and community partners.
- The employee may encounter competing priorities, interruptions, confidential matters, fixed deadlines, and time-sensitive problems requiring calm, documented judgment.
- Workload may increase during school opening and closing, reporting cycles, audits, major changes, incidents, and other critical district operations.
Other Requirements
- Successfully complete required criminal-record, fingerprint, and employment clearances.
- Complete a tuberculosis risk assessment and any examination required by applicable law or district policy.
- Complete district-required cybersecurity, privacy, accessibility, nondiscrimination, workplace-safety, and records-management training.
- Maintain professional confidentiality and comply with district policies governing records, information security, acceptable technology use, conflicts of interest, and data access.
- Travel between district offices, schools, meetings, training locations, and professional-development activities as assigned.
- Possess a valid California driver’s license and maintain insurability when driving is an essential function of the position.
- Occasionally work evening, weekend, or extended hours during critical operations, incidents, deadlines, public meetings, or system transitions.
- Regularly sit, stand, walk, speak, hear, read, and operate computers and standard office equipment; occasionally lift, carry, or move records, equipment, or supplies weighing up to 25 pounds.
- Perform the essential functions of the position with or without reasonable accommodation.