The Pingry School, a prestigious K-12 coeducational, independent day school with a rich history dating back to its founding by Dr. John F. Pingry in 1861, stands at the forefront of academic excellence in the United States. With campuses located in Basking Ridge, Pottersville, and Short Hills, New Jersey, Pingry is celebrated for its academic programs, a student-written Honor Code that underpins our community values, and a comprehensive commitment to arts, athletics, community, and civic engagement. Our mission is to inspire in our students a lifelong passion for learning, personal development, and social responsibility, preparing them to be global citizens and luminaries of the 21st century. Rooted in relationships and guided by our foundational philosophy, Pingry is a vibrant community of more than 1,100 students hailing from over 90 towns across New Jersey and New York. At Pingry, we are united by a love of learning and a commitment to preparing students to navigate the complexities of the 21st century with confidence and integrity. For more information, we invite you to visit our website at pingry.org or connect with The Pingry School on Facebook, X, and Instagram to discover why we love school.
Position Summary
The Pingry School seeks a strategic, student-centered, and inspiring leader to serve as its next Director of Athletics. Serving as a member of the School’s Administrative Team and reporting to the Associate Head of School, the Director of Athletics will provide vision, leadership, and operational management for Pingry’s Middle and Upper School athletics program, while maintaining a close strategic partnership with the Head of School on matters related to institutional priorities, community experience, and the future direction of Pingry Athletics.
Pingry Athletics has a long and distinguished history and is a highly visible, deeply valued part of the student and family experience. With a large, coeducational program that includes more than 30 varsity teams and approximately 70 teams overall, the next Director of Athletics will lead a multi-person athletics office, supervise coaches and athletics staff, and steward the systems, relationships, culture, and standards needed for a competitive, mission-aligned, and developmentally rich program.
This is not a traditional “high school athletics only” role. The Director of Athletics must be both a visible community leader and a sophisticated institutional partner. The successful candidate will understand the daily realities of practices, games, officials, transportation, facilities, athletic training, coach management, family communication, and student support, while also bringing the strategic judgment, executive presence, and cross-functional leadership needed to partner effectively with senior administration, Enrollment Management, Advancement, Communications, Facilities and Operations, Human Resources, Health and Wellness, CAST, and divisional leadership.
The next Director joins Pingry at an important moment of evolution. The landscape of independent school athletics continues to shift through year-round club specialization, college recruiting pressures, transfer and reclassification trends, emerging NIL-related dynamics, heightened expectations, and increasing attention to student-athlete wellness, performance, and belonging. Pingry seeks a leader who can honor the program’s history while strengthening the structure, communication, role clarity, coach development, and distributed leadership needed for the future.
The ideal candidate will bring strong experience in athletic administration, excellent judgment, emotional intelligence, operational discipline, and a clear commitment to mission-aligned athletics. They will understand that coaching is not only about building competitive teams; it is also about teaching. They will value athletics as central to student formation and will know how to build a culture where students learn how to compete, lead, handle adversity, pursue excellence, and represent Pingry with integrity. This leader will appreciate the developmental differences between Middle School and Upper School athletics, ensuring that Pingry’s approach is ambitious and competitive while remaining educational, age-appropriate, and grounded in the School’s values of sportsmanship, accountability, teamwork, and honor.
Candidate Profile
This role is for you if…
- You are a strategic athletics leader who can set direction and build alignment. You understand how to develop and communicate a compelling vision for athletics that reflects school mission, student development, and competitive ambition. You can move between big-picture strategy and daily execution without losing sight of either.
- You are a student-centered educator. You see athletics as a powerful vehicle for the growth and formation of young people and a place where students learn character, leadership, resilience, belonging, wellness, joy, and healthy competition through real experiences. You understand that athletics offers meaningful opportunities to help students navigate teachable moments, learn from mistakes without being defined by them, and develop the judgment, accountability, and confidence they need beyond the field, court, pool, or track.
- You balance ambition and restraint. You believe Pingry Athletics should continue to grow, innovate, compete, and distinguish itself while remaining grounded in the School’s values. Rather than pursuing “winning at all costs,” you are committed to building a program where strong structures, clear standards, excellent coaching, and a healthy culture help students and teams thrive.
- You are organized, decisive, and systems-minded. You can bring order to a complex environment with many moving parts, including schedules, transportation, facilities, officials, rosters, budgets, compliance, communications, coach standards, and seasonal transitions. You value clear processes, shared calendars, documentation, data, and communication rhythms that reduce reactivity and increase trust.
- You are a people developer and team builder. You know how to hire, coach, evaluate, and retain. You believe strong programs are built through clear expectations, accountability, regular feedback, thoughtful professional development, necessary transitions, and a culture where people understand both their lane and their contribution to the whole.
- You are a visible and relational community leader. You are energized by supporting coaches, being present at games, walking the sidelines and stands, greeting families and visiting teams, celebrating students, and representing Pingry Athletics with warmth, professionalism, and pride. You understand that the Athletic Director’s presence should add to the experience rather than become the only way the experience works.
- You bring strong judgment with families and external partners. You understand that parents are champions, advocates, supporters, and important partners in the athletic experience. You can listen carefully, communicate directly, hold boundaries, and respond with consistency and fairness.
- You are a collaborative operator and trusted senior leader. You exercise authority without over-functioning. You delegate effectively, empower colleagues, and build a leadership model that does not depend on one person carrying every decision, every escalation, and every operational detail.
- You understand independent schools. You know that athletics sits inside a larger educational ecosystem. You can collaborate with Division Directors, faculty, Admissions, Advancement, Communications, Facilities and Operations, HR, Health and Wellness, and student support colleagues. You understand that the family experience, student-athlete experience, competitive culture, and institutional brand are deeply connected.
Key Responsibilities
Strategic Leadership, Vision, and Institutional Alignment
- Set and communicate a clear, inspiring vision for Pingry Athletics that reflects the School’s mission, Honor Code, commitment to student growth, and aspiration to provide an excellent student-athlete experience across all levels of play.
- Serve as the senior leader for Middle and Upper School Athletics, partnering with the Head of School, Associate Head of School, senior administrators, and institutional leaders to align athletics with Pingry’s broader priorities, including strategic planning, student experience, community life, family engagement, enrollment, advancement, communications, facilities planning, and risk management.
- Lead Athletics through its next stage of growth by strengthening the systems, role clarity, coach standards, communication norms, sport administration, and long-term planning needed to support a competitive and mission-aligned program.
- Monitor emerging trends in independent school and youth athletics, including club specialization, transfer and reclassification dynamics, NIL-related developments, college recruiting pressures, student wellness, performance, and family expectations.
Athletics Program Leadership and Sport Administration
- Lead and supervise the full Middle and Upper School interscholastic athletics program, setting direction for seasonal planning, sport administration, team structures, practices, competitions, league and tournament participation, and program evaluation while ensuring appropriate Athletics team members have clear ownership, expectations, and accountability for execution.
- Establish clear expectations for sport administration and management, including primary and secondary sport administrator assignments, escalation paths, coach communication, family communication, and game-day coverage.
- Ensure Middle School Athletics receives intentional leadership, communication, scheduling, and operational support while remaining integrated into Pingry’s broader 6–12 athletics philosophy.
- Maintain a visible presence across athletic events, creating a culture in which students, families, coaches, and visiting teams experience Pingry as welcoming, organized, competitive, and values-driven.
- Use data, feedback, and institutional insight to assess program quality, including team schedules, facility use, student participation, coach performance, student-athlete experience, and future program needs.
Student-Athlete Experience, Culture, Wellness, and Belonging
- Champion a student-athlete experience that extends beyond games, schedules, and wins, creating an athletics culture where students at all levels — novice, developing, competitive, and college-bound — feel seen, challenged, supported, and proud to represent Pingry.
- Partner across Health and Wellness, CAST, College Counseling, DEIB, Sports Medicine, Strength and Conditioning, and Student-Athlete Success to support students from Middle School through graduation, with attention to leadership, belonging, wellness, performance, mental preparation, recovery, nutrition, and healthy decision-making.
- Help the broader school community understand and celebrate athletics as an essential part of the Pingry experience, recognizing the contributions of student-athletes, coaches, and teams to school spirit, character, community life, and institutional pride.
Operations, Facilities, Scheduling, and Game-Day Readiness
- Lead the operational system that supports Pingry Athletics, setting direction and accountability for the Athletics operations team so that scheduling, transportation, officials, facility usage, equipment, rosters, athletic training coverage, event staffing, and game-day logistics are executed through clear ownership, strong communication, and consistent standards.
- Set expectations for a strong Athletics–Facilities partnership, ensuring Athletics operations leaders manage day-to-day coordination for practices, contests, tournaments, rentals, major athletic events, and seasonal transitions with proactive planning, clear communication, and reliable follow-through.
- Strengthen Athletics policies, procedures, calendars, coach expectations, handbooks, and operational workflows so the department has clear rhythms for seasonal readiness, weekly operational review, and timely communication of decisions, risks, and needs.
- Build structures that allow the Director of Athletics to remain visible, strategic, and community-facing, while ensuring site management, daily logistics, and operational details are reliably handled by the appropriate members of the Athletics team.
Budget, Resource Stewardship, and Program Sustainability
- Develop and manage the Athletics budget in partnership with the CFOO and Athletics leadership team, ensuring staffing, equipment, uniforms, facilities, travel, officials, rentals, technology, sports medicine, strength and conditioning, and program enhancements are planned, prioritized, and resourced responsibly.
- Evaluate requests for growth with sound judgment, distinguishing between program desires and institutional needs by considering workflow, student impact, budget clarity, operational capacity, and alignment with school priorities.
- Support long-term resource planning for Athletics, including facilities, performance resources, staffing, and operational capacity, while maintaining the high standards expected of a leading independent school athletics program.
Compliance, Risk Management, and Student Safety
- Create systems of accountability for safety, compliance, and risk-management standards, setting expectations and supervising the staff and systems responsible for school policies, conference expectations, league and NJSIAA requirements, health and safety protocols, and required documentation.
- Partner with Athletics Operations, Sports Medicine, Strength and Conditioning, Student-Athlete Success, and school leadership to ensure eligibility, coach certifications, emergency preparedness, concussion and injury-response practices, transportation expectations, and student-safety protocols are current, clearly communicated, and consistently followed.
Advancement, Admissions, Communications, and External Relations
- Serve as a public-facing ambassador for Pingry Athletics, building strong relationships with students, families, alums, faculty, staff, trustees, peer schools, leagues, and community partners.
- Partner with Enrollment Management to support prospective student-athletes and families, ensuring coaches understand the admissions process, recruitment boundaries, communication expectations, and the role athletics can appropriately play in representing the Pingry experience.
- Collaborate with Advancement and Communications to strengthen Athletics storytelling by identifying appropriate athletics-related stories, alum engagement opportunities, Hall of Fame and homecoming traditions, milestone celebrations, and campaign-aligned priorities, while maintaining clear donor strategy and gift conversation boundaries.
- Ensure public-facing Athletics communications are timely, accurate, and brand-aligned, celebrating student-athletes, coaches, teams, and program milestones in ways that reflect Pingry’s values and strengthen community pride.
Qualifications
- Advanced degree required in education, athletic administration, sport management, leadership, business, or a related field.
- Significant experience in athletic administration, athletics leadership, coaching, sport operations, or student-athlete development, preferably in an independent school, highly selective K–12 school, college preparatory environment, or high-academic collegiate athletics setting.
- Demonstrated experience supervising and developing people, including coaches, administrators, staff, or high-performing teams.
- Strong understanding of student-athlete development, coach management, parent communication, sportsmanship, wellness, safety, and the role of athletics in an educational institution.
- Experience managing complex operations, including scheduling, facilities coordination, transportation, budget planning, compliance, event support, and multi-season program logistics.
- Ability to lead in a visible, high-expectation community with professionalism, warmth, discretion, sound judgment, and emotional intelligence.
- Strong communication skills, including the ability to speak publicly, write clearly, manage sensitive conversations, and communicate across students, families, coaches, faculty, administrators, trustees, alums, and external partners.
- Demonstrated ability to build relationships and work collaboratively across departments, including Admissions, Advancement, Communications, Facilities and Operations, HR, Health and Wellness, student support, and academic divisions.
- Familiarity with NJSIAA rules and New Jersey independent school athletics preferred; candidates from outside New Jersey must demonstrate the ability to learn quickly and respect the complexity of local league, conference, tournament, and school-specific expectations.
- Experience with athletics management systems, scheduling tools, data, reporting, and technology-enabled communication preferred.
- Commitment to Pingry’s mission, Honor Code, and values, including integrity, respect, inclusion, accountability, and excellence.
- Availability to work evenings and weekends and maintain a visible presence during athletic seasons, major events, and key school moments.
Qualified candidates are invited to apply online at https://www.pingry.org/careers.
The salary range for this position is $170,000–$220,000. Final compensation will be determined based on experience and education. The anticipated start date is July 1, 2027, or sooner. `
Pingry offers a comprehensive benefits package to full-time employees, including, but not limited to, medical, dental, and vision coverage; retirement plans with employer matching; life and disability insurance; tuition remission for employees' children; and access to wellness and professional development resources.
A full list of benefits is available at www.pingry.org/careers.
The Pingry School aspires to be an anti-racist community and is committed to the principles of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Pingry is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. The Pingry School's employment policy is that individuals will receive equal opportunity in all matters pertaining to recruitment, employment, salary, promotion, and assignment, regardless of race, religion, color, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, pregnancy status, genetic information, marital status, amnesty or status as a covered veteran, or other basis proscribed by federal, state, and local law. All employment is decided based on qualifications, merit, and business need.
