Dean of Mathematics

Who We Are

AoPS Institute is a new nonprofit creating a first-of-its-kind pathway for the most mathematically advanced students in the country. We give students who are ready for college-level math years before college somewhere serious to go: a multi-year sequence of rigorous math and computer science courses, delivered by Art of Problem Solving, together with access to research, competition, and applied programs, run by world-class partners, and a community of exceptional peers.

The AoPS Institute is a partial enrollment program that commits to working with students' schools to replace standard coursework and with top universities to ensure that the coursework is recognized.

The AoPS Institute is designed for the most exceptional students in the country and seeks to ensure that these students have access to the program regardless of what zip code they reside in by being virtual-first, administering need-blind admissions, and offering significant financial support.

We are targeting a 2027 public launch with the first cohort beginning in the 2027-28 school year. The program is backed by AoPS and by committed philanthropic partners.

The founding team for the organization is a Dean of Mathematics and a Dean of Students & COO who together report to the Board, chaired by Richard Rusczyk (Founder and CEO of AoPS) and Josh Taylor (President at Carina Initiatives).

The Role

The Dean of Mathematics owns the mathematical identity, design, and credibility of the academic programs. This is the person who knows the world of advanced mathematics education deeply (the researchers, the university departments, the competition ecosystem) and can build relationships and design experiences that make this program genuinely exceptional for the students in it.

We are looking for someone who lived this gap themselves: a mathematically extraordinary student whose local school could not serve them, who knows firsthand what it costs a family to assemble a real math education from fragments (camps, circles, online courses, a mentor who took a chance). That lived experience, more than any single credential, is what lets this Dean build the program they needed and never had.

The role has two equally important sides. One is designing and assembling the academic programs that surround the core AoPS courses and safeguarding their quality. The other is building the external relationships the program depends on: the Dean of Mathematics is a primary external face in academic and research contexts and personally carries the relationships with elite math and CS faculty, which means regular travel and sustained relationship-building.

The Dean of Mathematics reports to the Board and works in close partnership with the Dean of Students & COO.

Responsibilities

• Work in partnership with AoPS on the core course catalog, providing feedback on curriculum evolution requests, instructor qualifications and selection, and assessment modification for university validation
• Design and own the academic experiences that surround the AoPS core courses, partnering first with the strongest existing programs in the ecosystem and building original courses only where partnership cannot meet our quality bar or no partner exists
• Design the admissions process, defining what "ready for this program" means and building a fair, rigorous assessment to find those students. The Dean of Mathematics owns admissions standards and assessment design; the Dean of Students & COO owns admissions operations and the applicant funnel
• Own the key relationships with math and CS departments at elite universities such as MIT, Stanford, and Caltech, both as academic partners and as the audiences who ultimately validate the rigor of the coursework and, in turn, its standing for admissions and credit at those institutions
• Build partnerships with organizations running research experiences for high school students (along the lines of MIT PRIMES) and expand the range of such opportunities available to Institute students
• Develop corporate and professional partnerships with trading firms, technology companies, and others that provide students with substantive experiences beyond the classroom
• Hold every catalog partner to a contractual data-and-quality schedule (enrollment, engagement, and assessment data on a defined cadence, plus syllabus and instructor visibility)

Skills and Experiences You'll Need to Bring

• Exceptional math or computer science achievement, including a PhD in mathematics or computer science
• At or near the research frontier, and fluent in how AI is changing it
• Deep knowledge of the advanced math enrichment ecosystem: the programs, the people, the institutions
• Existing relationships in university math departments and research programs, plus the credibility to build new ones with senior faculty at the most selective institutions
• Ability to design rigorous, fair academic processes; you've built or run admissions or assessments before
• Exceptional relationship-builder with researchers, faculty, and institutional partners
• Strong communicator who can represent the program credibly to mathematicians, admissions officers, and corporate partners alike
• Lived this gap yourself: a mathematically extraordinary student whose local school could not serve you, with firsthand knowledge, not just empathy, for what it costs a family to assemble a real math education from fragments
• Senior leadership in an academic, research, or enrichment organization
• Experience teaching math and/or computer science to high school students
• Comfortable holding prestigious external partners to contractual data and quality standards, and making the program-by-program calls about which courses the Institute credits and which it merely helps students reach.
• Startup or 0-to-1 experience preferred: you have built, or been part of building, an organization or program from nothing, and are comfortable operating without infrastructure that does not yet exist.

Location: Remote, with regular travel for partner and board meetings

Salary: $200K–$250K

We value and encourage diversity and solicit applications from all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, gender, sex, age, religion, creed, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, marital status, sexual orientation, physical or mental disability, medical condition, veteran status, gender identity, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law.