Head Librarian & Capstone Chair
Davis Chicago · Chicago · $77,543–$137,099 (stated in the posting)
Full-Time Founding Leadership Position · Reports to the Principal · Master’s degree required — Library and Information Science (American Library Association accredited) preferred, or Humanities, Curriculum, Education, Educational Leadership, or a related field; doctorate preferred · Illinois School Librarian or Library Media Specialist certification preferred and National Board Certification a major plus · 3+ years of successful secondary (grades 6–12) teaching or school-library experience required; high school (grades 9–12) experience highly preferred · Some form of leadership experience is preferred; department, administration, or instructional leadership preferred · College-preparatory, independent, Jewish day or faith-based school experience is a plus · Being Jewish is not a requirement for this role · Fewer years but exceptional craft? We hire for mastery, not seat time.
Are you a librarian built for what’s next, a builder of libraries rather than a keeper of them, who believes that extraordinary schools are built by extraordinary people? Do you want the unique opportunity to help launch and shape a new Jewish college-preparatory high school and its library, research, and internship / partnership programs from the ground up? Are you passionate about cultivating intellectual curiosity, academic integrity, advanced research skills, innovation, and scholarly excellence in students? If so, Davis School Chicago wants to hear from you.
The Dream Team
Davis School Chicago is a proudly Jewish, college-preparatory high school opening in fall 2027 in downtown Chicago, in a state-of-the-art building at the heart of a great city for learning. Every adult at Davis Chicago is an educator and a culture-builder. We hold two expectations at the same time: deep human warmth and uncompromising intellectual excellence. High health and high results, never one at the cost of the other. This is a summary of the characteristics that describe our dream team. Please read the full Profile of the Ideal Davis Chicago Educator and more information about our opportunities before you apply.
To thrive here you are:
Warm and intellectually formidable. Genuinely kind and seriously bright. We hire for intellectual horsepower; only sharp minds grow students to their full potential.
You bring the room to life. Passion people feel, loud or quiet, with the range to teach, support, and lead.
A builder who owns it. Startup grit, a real growth mindset, open about mistakes, gives the gift of feedback, and the drive to create what doesn’t exist yet.
Teach how to think, not what to think. Rigor, evidence, and a love of hard questions, including the controversial ones. Students reach their own conclusions.
Rooted in tradition, built for what’s next. Ancient wisdom and modern tools, AI included, aimed at today's problems.
Unapologetically Jewish. Israel has a right to exist; that is not up for debate. Everything else is fair game, including spirited debate about Israel’s actions. You’re excited to help build a proudly Jewish, pro-Israel school.
What Davis Chicago Needs
Davis Chicago is hiring a founding Head Librarian to build the library of tomorrow and the Capstone program it powers: a true library in the classic sense, books worth loving and real research help, that is also a makerspace, a home for learning games and game design, and the school’s launch pad into downtown Chicago — and to teach in it every day. As a founding leader, the Chair is a member of the team opening a school from scratch. Therefore, the person needs to be a builder-leader: someone who can take a bold founding vision and turn it into a living school, then run a department in that school at a level of excellence every student, parent, and teacher can feel.
Who Thrives in This Role
Warm, Relational, and High-Performing – Kind, emotionally intelligent, intellectually rigorous, and committed to excellence.
An Inquiry Evangelist – Makes research feel like detective work, not homework.
A City Connector – Builds internship and mentor relationships across Chicago.
A Builder of the Library of Tomorrow – Books worth loving and a makerspace, research help and game design, in one space students actually want to be in.
An Entrepreneurial Builder – Thrives in ambiguity, solves problems, and creates programs, systems, and traditions from the ground up.
A Curious and Courageous Thinker – Embraces learning, evidence, critical thinking, and meaningful debate.
Rooted and Forward-Looking – Honors tradition while embracing innovation, technology, and AI.
Committed to Jewish Life and Community – Values Jewish identity, the diversity of Jewish thought, and meaningful engagement in Jewish life.
A Collaborative Culture-Builder – Balances accountability, care, and results while elevating everyone around them.
The Role
The Head Librarian & Capstone Chair is the academic and instructional leader of the school’s research, information literacy, library, Capstone, and internship / partnership programs and serves as a key member of the school’s academic leadership team. Reporting to the Principal, the Chair provides vision, leadership, supervision, and support for a culture of inquiry, scholarship, and academic excellence across all disciplines. The Chair carries all five roles the profession names for a school librarian — leader, instructional partner, information specialist, teacher, and program administrator — plus a sixth that is particular to Davis Chicago: the person who connects the school to the city.
This is a founding seat. Build the research program, the library, and the internship pipeline that put downtown Chicago inside every student’s education, and make Davis Chicago a destination for exceptional scholarship. The Chair will establish and steward the systems, programs, and experiences that cultivate advanced research skills, information literacy, ethical scholarship, meaningful work-based learning, and intellectual independence. The Chair will partner with faculty across disciplines to develop a vertically aligned research curriculum, oversee Capstone experiences, and ensure students are prepared for the rigorous research and analytical demands of college and beyond.
This is a teaching role as well as a program-building one, and the balance evolves by design. In the launch years, the Chair teaches research and information-literacy instruction while building the library and Capstone program from scratch. As the school grows, the role carries increasing dedicated time for curriculum development, faculty collaboration, and partnership building — the steady state Davis Chicago is building toward.
Davis Chicago Capstone is a distinction, not a requirement. Students begin as early as ninth grade, apply after a first-year course, and commit to a multi-year sequence, in tracks running from engineering and computer science to business, law, the performing arts, and the College Board’s AP Seminar and AP Research route. Every Davis Chicago student learns to find, judge, and use evidence; Capstone students carry it further into original work they present and defend before people who do that work for a living, and wear the distinction at graduation. The Chair builds the research spine underneath all of it, runs the library as the front door that pulls students toward Capstone, creates meaningful partnerships with institutions, and holds every track to one standard.
1. Academic Vision and Department Leadership
Develop and articulate a compelling vision for research, library, and Capstone education that aligns with the school’s mission, strategic priorities, and educational philosophy.
Lead the design, implementation, evaluation, and continuous improvement of a vertically aligned research curriculum, from ninth-grade information literacy through Capstone.
Exercise founding-level design authority: architect the research and Capstone sequence from first principles, making the program classroom-embedded, seminar-based, and in line with best practices for the whole spectrum of work-based learning. Ambitious models are welcome, provided the result prepares students for the research demands of the most selective colleges.
Ensure curricular coherence, rigor, and relevance across all grade levels and disciplines.
Promote interdisciplinary learning experiences that connect research and information literacy with the humanities, STEM, Jewish studies, and the arts.
Build the research and library program on the current American Association of School Librarians (AASL) National School Library Standards, with their six Shared Foundations (Inquire, Include, Collaborate, Curate, Explore, and Engage) as the research-skills scope from ninth grade through Capstone.
Analyze student achievement data and assessment outcomes to strengthen teaching and learning.
Build a culture that values intellectual curiosity, academic integrity, ethical scholarship, and independent thinking.
Create a dynamic library and research environment — the school’s academic town square — that supports student learning, faculty collaboration, and a school-wide commitment to academic integrity, curiosity, and scholarly excellence.
Open the library itself: the space, the opening-day collection, the college-level digital access behind it, and the systems that make all of it findable — working with the Principal and the design team on the zones the program needs, from quiet study to making to play to public conversation.
Design, equip, and run the makerspace: training and safety systems first, then work that goes past the trinket stage — real design, real iteration, and real failure, tied to coursework and Capstone work.
Build internship and mentorship relationships with universities, research institutions, businesses, cultural institutions, and civic organizations across Chicago, and develop signature experiences that distinguish Davis School Chicago among leading college-preparatory schools.
Serve as an ambassador for research, scholarship, and the library within the school and broader community.
Showcase student achievement through Capstone presentations, research symposia, competitions, and public events.
2. Faculty Leadership and Professional Growth
Recruit, hire, onboard, mentor, supervise, and evaluate department faculty.
Foster a collaborative professional culture focused on continuous growth, reflective practice, and instructional excellence.
Serve as an instructional coach, providing regular feedback and support to teachers.
Lead department meetings, professional learning initiatives, curriculum reviews, and collaborative planning sessions.
Support teachers in implementing innovative instructional strategies and meaningful assessments.
Encourage faculty leadership and cultivate opportunities for professional growth and advancement.
Promote a culture of accountability, collegiality, and shared responsibility for student success.
Facilitate weekly common planning time centered on student work, so the department's collaboration is about what students actually produce.
Run a peer observation and coaching cycle focused on one targeted instructional area at a time.
Co-lead the school’s instructional leadership team.
Lead a department that is both high-health and high-results, never one at the cost of the other.
3. Teaching and Learning Excellence
Model exemplary teaching and instructional leadership.
Support faculty in creating engaging, student-centered classrooms that challenge students academically while nurturing student voice and agency.
Ensure curriculum and instruction prepare students for success in selective colleges and universities.
Ensure the research sequence meets or exceeds the demands of AP-level and college research: every student learns to find, judge, and use sources and to defend a claim with evidence, and every Capstone student completes a substantial, source-driven product they can present and defend.
Promote inquiry-based learning, source evaluation, evidence-based writing, and project-based experiences, including immersive and experiential approaches where they deepen mastery.
Build a serious learning-games program, digital and tabletop, that pulls students into the library and then teaches them something. Games earn their place the way any method does: run across multiple sessions, scaffolded by a teacher, and paired with instruction rather than replacing it. If a game makes hard knowledge stick better and faster, it stays; if it does not, it goes.
Teach research and STEM through game design: students who build a game must model a system, find and judge the evidence behind it, test it with players, and defend their choices — research wearing different clothes.
Cultivate a reading culture and a living collection built on books worth loving: whole works, wide browsing, and a library that doubles as the school’s intellectual living room.
Partner with faculty to develop authentic assessments that measure student growth and mastery.
Advance the effective integration of educational technology and emerging instructional tools.
4. Student Experience and Community Engagement
Collaborate with faculty and school leaders to create enriching student experiences inside and outside the classroom.
Design and run the internship program on the National Society for Experiential Education’s (NSEE) eight principles of good practice — intention, preparedness and planning, authenticity, reflection, orientation and training, monitoring and continuous improvement, assessment and evaluation, and acknowledgment. In the launch years the Chair runs this directly; as Davis Chicago grows, administrative support takes on the day-to-day logistics so the Chair leads the design, the partnerships, and the quality. Placements grow from student interest into real work with real mentors across the city.
Make the library the launch pad for the city: teach students what a professional setting expects before they walk into one, brief them going out and debrief them coming back, and carry what they learned into classrooms so the whole school benefits from what a few students did downtown.
Champion portfolio-worthy student work — Capstone projects, original research, and internship products — that gives students distinctive evidence of their abilities for college admissions.
Partner with families to support student growth and academic success.
Serve as a visible and engaged presence in the life of the school community.
Help cultivate a culture of belonging, respect, dialogue, and intellectual engagement.
5. Strategic Planning and School Leadership
Serve as a key thought partner to the Principal and academic leadership team.
Participate in school-wide strategic planning and institutional initiatives.
Contribute to accreditation, assessment, and school improvement efforts.
Assist in developing and managing departmental budgets and resources.
Coordinate department scheduling, course offerings, and staffing needs.
Ensure compliance with applicable reporting, accreditation, and regulatory requirements.
Own the safety and risk framework for this work: partner vetting and agreements, supervision expectations, student and family consent, and makerspace training.
Help establish traditions, signature programs, and distinguishing features of the Davis Chicago research, library, and internship programs.
Qualifications
Education: Master’s degree required. Library and Information Science from an American Library Association accredited program preferred; Humanities, Curriculum, Education, Educational Leadership, or a related field also considered; doctorate preferred.
Certification: Illinois School Librarian or Library Media Specialist certification preferred with National Board Certification a major plus.
Experience: 3+ years of successful secondary (grades 6–12) teaching or school-library experience required; high school (grades 9–12) experience highly preferred. College-preparatory, independent, Jewish day or faith-based school experience is a plus.
Leadership: Some form of leadership experience with adults is preferred; instructional leadership preferred.
Core Competencies
Instructional Leadership: coaching, observation, and research instruction centered on student work.
Curriculum and Assessment: an AASL-grounded research scope, ninth grade through Capstone.
Talent and Team: a high-health, high-results department culture.
Teaching: daily excellence in research instruction and the life of the library.
Library Program: collection, systems, space, and budget — founded from nothing and then run well.
Partnerships: relationships across Chicago that put students in real work with real mentors, and the systems that keep those placements good.
Compensation and Benefits
The anticipated annual salary range for this position is $77,543–$137,099, based on the school’s established Faculty Salary Schedule. In addition, this leadership role carries a leadership differential of $4,000–$8,000, determined by years of leadership experience. Placement within the salary range is determined by a combination of relevant leadership experience and educational attainment, including Bachelor's, Master's, Master's + additional graduate credits, Education Specialist (Ed.S.), and Doctoral (Ed.D./Ph.D.) degrees, in accordance with the school’s step-and-lane compensation structure. Final compensation will be determined consistent with the school’s compensation philosophy, internal equity, and established salary schedule. In addition to base salary, the position is eligible for a comprehensive benefits package that includes paid time off, holiday pay, medical insurance, and a 401(k) plan with employer match.
How We Hire
Our process is thorough and we believe that hiring is a dual decision-making process; you are vetting us as much as we are vetting you. Our process includes focused conversations with the people you would work with, a battery of assessments we use for your development as much as for selection, and interview rounds both in-person and virtually. We use artificial intelligence tools in our recruitment and hiring process to help review and organize applications and interviews; every hiring decision is made by a person. Davis School Chicago is an equal employment opportunity employer.
Is this you?
This isn’t for everyone. If it’s you, it may be the best work of your life. Read the full Profile of the Ideal Davis Chicago Educator, then apply.
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