Example Job Description
Director of Career Technical Education
A leader who connects CTE pathways, technical instruction, industry partnerships, work-based learning, and assigned career-education grants with trustworthy evidence, equitable opportunity, and accountable action.
Interview Planning Resource
Possible Interview Q&A: Director of Career Technical Education
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.
- A pathway reports many completers but few verified credentials. How would you investigate?
Strong response indicators: Checks definitions, credential relevance, testing access, source verification, instruction, and student goals; distinguishes course completion from industry credential attainment.
- How would you select a new pathway?
Strong response indicators: Combines student interest, labor-market limitations, employer and college input, staffing, facilities, cost, and access evidence; sets a review point before expansion.
- Work-based placements disproportionately reach one student group. What would you do?
Strong response indicators: Examines recruitment, eligibility, transportation, unpaid participation barriers, accommodations, and partner selection; improves access and tracks actual learning opportunities.
- How would you review a proposed equipment purchase?
Strong response indicators: Connects equipment to standards, student use, safety, teacher capacity, ongoing cost, grant rules, and alternative options; verifies procurement and implementation.
- An AI career tool steers students into narrow options. How would you respond?
Strong response indicators: Tests subgroup recommendations and data assumptions, includes student agency and counselor review, corrects barriers, and prevents automated tracking.
- How would you coordinate with College and Career Readiness?
Strong response indicators: Defines CTE responsibility for pathway instruction and technical programs, shares verified pathway evidence, and coordinates broader advising and transitions without duplicate ownership.
- The CTE pathway and placement dashboard disagrees with source records. How would you resolve this?
Strong response indicators: Checks populations, dates, definitions, refreshes, joins and corrections for pathway access, course sequences, verified credentials and work-based learning; reconciles with accountable owners, documents fixes and adds preventive checks.
- What evidence would you require before recommending this new career pathway?
Strong response indicators: Defines educational need, baseline, access and implementation measures, alternatives, cost and capacity; uses appropriate comparisons and uncertainty and specifies a review or exit decision.
- How would you protect sensitive records while helping teams act on pathway access, course sequences, verified credentials and work-based learning?
Strong response indicators: Defines purpose and authorized access, minimizes disclosure, protects small groups, uses approved systems and retention rules, and consults responsible privacy and legal owners.
- A vendor proposes AI to automate recommendations in this portfolio. How would you assess it?
Strong response indicators: Tests the proposed use against CTE pathways, technical instruction, industry partnerships, work-based learning, and assigned career-education grants; reviews accuracy, subgroup errors, privacy, security, accessibility and cost, and preserves authorized human decisions and challenge procedures.
- How would you build staff capability to use pathway access, course sequences, verified credentials and work-based learning well?
Strong response indicators: Uses authentic cases, verifies sources and denominators, explains missingness and uncertainty, coaches interpretation and checks whether evidence leads to useful changes in practice.
- What would your first 90 days as Director of Career Technical Education include?
Strong response indicators: Listens to affected students, families, staff and partners; maps authority and obligations, validates pathway access, course sequences, verified credentials and work-based learning, identifies urgent gaps and proposes a focused plan with owners and review dates.
Position Description
The Director of Career Technical Education leads CTE pathways, technical instruction, industry partnerships, work-based learning, and assigned career-education grants. The district or employing agency should define the final portfolio, delegated authority, and relationships with other program owners.
The position uses course, credential, placement, and participation evidence to strengthen coherent pathways; examines access and labor-market information without reducing education to short-term employment statistics.
Reports To
Illustrative reporting relationship: Assistant Superintendent of Educational Services or other designated administrator. Confirm the locally approved structure and delegated authority.
Required Education and Credentials
Required
- Illustrative district qualification for review: master's degree in career technical education, educational leadership, workforce development, or a related field; confirm the local degree requirement and permitted equivalents.
- Hold a valid California Administrative Services Credential or other authorization appropriate to the actual assignment. District HR must verify current authorization and any additional credential requirements against the final duties.
- Complete district-required employment clearances and training in student privacy, nondiscrimination, accessibility, records, safety, and responsible use of technology.
Preferred
- Graduate coursework or sustained professional learning in applied statistics, program evaluation, improvement science, education data systems, or responsible AI for educational decision-making.
- Advanced preparation in career technical education, educational leadership, workforce development, or a related field, inclusive leadership, family partnership, and coaching adults to use evidence effectively.
Required / Desired Experience
Required Experience
- Illustrative minimum for local review: five years of successful CTE instruction or program administration, pathway development, and employer or college partnership; confirm experience thresholds and permitted equivalents.
- Experience supervising assigned staff, coordinating partners, managing resources, and implementing improvement across the assigned portfolio.
- Demonstrated use of pathway access, course sequences, verified credentials and work-based learning to investigate needs, verify records, evaluate action, and explain findings and limitations.
Desired Experience
- Experience with California district or regional program requirements, implementation monitoring, and improvement with diverse communities.
- Experience with a CTE pathway and placement dashboard, approved spreadsheets and tools such as Excel, Google Sheets, Power BI, Tableau, or equivalents; applied data-science literacy sufficient to collaborate with analysts.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities
Pathways and Instruction
- Lead coherent CTE course sequences, instructional quality, and articulation with colleges; coordinate with college and career readiness leaders.
- Support appropriately authorized teachers, industry advisory input, safe learning environments, and equitable recruitment into pathways.
- Coordinate work-based learning with clear supervision, access supports, learning expectations, and documented partner responsibilities.
Access and Pathway Evidence
- Validate course codes, pathway sequences, concentrator and completion definitions, credentials, and work-based learning records with reporting owners.
- Analyze recruitment, entry, persistence, completion, and transitions by student group; examine scheduling, transportation, prerequisites, and hidden costs.
- Evaluate learning quality and postsecondary opportunity using student work, employer feedback, verified credentials, and appropriately contextualized labor-market data.
Safety and Accountability
- Maintain assigned grant plans, inventories, spending evidence, reporting, and monitoring with fiscal staff; confirm current funding conditions.
- Coordinate required workplace safety, accessibility, agreements, and applicable student employment protections with authorized specialists.
- Review pathway and placement platforms for accurate records, privacy, accessibility, and human oversight of AI career recommendations.
Leadership and Resources
- Plan staffing, equipment replacement, professional learning, and partner capacity using verified enrollment demand and instructional needs.
- Compare pathway investments on quality, access, sustainability, and opportunity; avoid ranking programs solely by raw completion or wage figures.
- Report implementation, access barriers, results and limitations and perform related duties within the classification.
Required Skills and Abilities
Knowledge of
- CTE instructional design, pathway sequences, articulation, industry partnerships, and work-based learning.
- Applicable CTE authorizations, grant conditions, workplace safety, accessibility, and student employment protections.
- Pathway and credential definitions, labor-market uncertainty, participation selection, subgroup opportunity, and longitudinal evaluation.
- SIS course records, CTE reporting and placement systems, secure dashboards, and responsible AI career tools.
Ability to
- Translate priorities in CTE pathways, technical instruction, industry partnerships, work-based learning, and assigned career-education grants into feasible plans, clear responsibilities and measurable follow-through.
- Validate pathway access, course sequences, verified credentials and work-based learning using accurate sources, definitions, populations and denominators before making decisions.
- Evaluate implementation and outcomes, examine subgroup opportunity, and distinguish association from causation with qualified analytical support.
- Use approved modern systems and accessible visualizations; partner with data specialists on complex linkage, statistical methods or reproducible analysis.
- Protect confidential information, document consequential decisions, maintain professional judgment and escalate unresolved legal or policy questions.
- Lead staff and partnerships, communicate evidence and uncertainty clearly, and revise ineffective practices with affected communities.
Work Environment
- Work is performed in district offices, classrooms, school grounds, meeting rooms, and other professional settings, with remote participation as authorized.
- The position involves computer use, school visits, observation, facilitation, and detailed review of records, dashboards, assessments, reports, and communications.
- Work requires frequent coordination with school and district leaders, program specialists, students and families as appropriate, data and technology teams, fiscal and legal owners, and external partners.
- The employee encounters interruptions, competing priorities, sensitive student and personnel matters, and urgent concerns requiring calm, documented judgment.
- Workload may increase during planning and budget cycles, program transitions, monitoring and reporting reviews, public meetings, and urgent service concerns.
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.
- Maintain required credentials and complete district-assigned training in privacy, cybersecurity, accessibility, nondiscrimination, mandated reporting, and workplace safety.
- Protect confidential student and employee records; follow approved access, sharing, retention, incident-reporting, and records-request procedures.
- Travel between district offices, schools, professional-learning locations, and community meetings as assigned.
- Possess a valid California driver's license and maintain insurability when driving is an essential function; confirm the district's actual travel requirements.
- Occasionally work evenings, weekends, or extended hours for school events, public meetings, reporting deadlines, or urgent student and operational matters.
- Perform office and school-based activities involving sitting, standing, walking, communication, and computer use; confirm any role-specific lifting or other physical requirements through local job analysis.
- Perform the essential functions of the position with or without reasonable accommodation.