Associate Director, Program Success

Job Title: Associate Director, Program Success

Team: Innovation Team

Location: Hybrid in Chicago (IL)

Employment Type: Full-time

FLSA Classification: Exempt

Start Date: ASAP

About Braven

Braven is a national nonprofit that prepares promising college students to secure a strong first opportunity after college graduation through a career-accelerating program.

We work with higher education and employer partners to offer a life-changing experience that begins with a semester-long course for college students, followed by support that lasts through graduation.

Together, our ambition is to help rebuild the middle class and revitalize the American Dream.

About the Role

As Braven scales its centralized-course model to serve more BravenFellows across an expanding portfolio of higher education partners, the Manager, Program Success plays a critical role in ensuring a high-quality course experience. This individual is responsible for managing a pool of part-time Graders. You will reinforce Braven's ever-evolving grading strategy and systems to ensure strong alignment with academic policies and campus-specific norms. Additionally, this manager serves as the primary point of contact for our volunteer career coaches, whom we call Leadership Coaches (LCs) during the term, responding to questions, escalating challenges, and ensuring they feel connected and supported. This highly collaborative role blends execution, coaching, and quality assurance to help deliver an exceptional experience for both Fellows and those who support them.

This role will be on the Innovation Team’s Central Delivery Team and report to the Director of Accelerator Success.

What You’ll Do

Stakeholder Management (40%)

• Supervise and support a pool of part-time Graders for the Braven Leadership and Career Accelerator course, including onboarding, quality assurance, and feedback cycles.
• Collaborate with Program Facilitators and Manager, Academic Success, to implement volunteer support and accountability structures, including coaching for underperforming LCs.
• Co-design and lead grader training cycles and communities of practice (regular peer learning groups) to ensure grading consistency and alignment with Higher Education Partnerships standards.
• Provide escalation support and intervention for Graders struggling to meet expectations and coordinate closely with others to ensure high-support LCs get what they need to influence student outcomes in the course.

Course Data Management & Analysis (40%)

• Ensure rubric adherence and grading turnaround times are met across all sites and sections.
• Implement periodic audits of feedback quality and ensure clarity and alignment to learning objectives.
• Manage grading performance dashboards and share trends and insights with the Central Delivery Accelerator (CDA) leadership team.
• Support struggling students through a tiered academic intervention framework, including direct student engagement, communications, and supports, tracking, working with higher education partner intervention systems, and contacts

Leadership Coach Experience and Retention Support (15%)

• Partner with the Manager, Academic Success, and Centralized Delivery of the Accelerator teammates to maintain a high-quality, joyful volunteer experience through consistent communication, resources, and recognition.
• Track volunteer engagement, issues, and performance in systems like Salesforce, escalating to appropriate teammates when interventions are needed.
• Lead targeted coaching sessions for struggling LCs and contribute to onboarding and training.
  

Team Collaboration & Knowledge Sharing (5%)

• Partner with cross-functional CDA teammates to build and refine scalable systems that support grader and volunteer success.
• Share insights from grading and LC data to inform product, training, and course design improvements.
• Document and socialize best practices by actively participating in Braven’s knowledge-sharing ecosystem.

Requirements

Minimum Requirements

• Bachelor's Degree
• Proven ability to analyze academic data to identify trends and proactively address student learning needs through direct intervention or by delegating tasks.
  

Preferred Qualifications

• At least 3 years of work experience in a related field
• Experience managing and supporting part-time staff or volunteers, including the ability to delegate effectively and provide clear, constructive feedback.
• Strong interpersonal and coaching skills, with the ability to support and mentor volunteers and facilitators, including those with significantly more experience or seniority.
• Exceptional customer service skills, with the ability to communicate clearly, patiently, and professionally with students, staff, and volunteers.
• Excellent organizational and analytical skills with the ability to create, operationalize, and manage project plans, meeting milestones and deadlines, and a focus on using data and metrics to drive decisions and measure performance

• Excellent relationship builder with the ability to find common ground, build consensus, and strengthen collaboration among diverse stakeholders. You exemplify a customer service mindset.
• Comfort with a high level of ambiguity and the ability and desire to work in an ambiguous environment
• Comfort using collaboration and data tools like Google Suite, Salesforce, Slack, and Jira (or similar systems)
• Demonstrated commitment to building strong and welcoming cultures that help to develop others.
• Exemplification of Braven’s core values

• Experience that has informed your belief in Braven’s mission and has prepared you to work with, or for, Braven’s student Fellow population

Please know that no one ever meets 100% of the preferred qualifications. If much of this describes you, we encourage you to apply.

Work Demands

• Ability to work in-person in Chicago (IL) at least 3 days per week
• Travel up to 1-2 times per quarter across Braven’s higher education partners and for Braven team gatherings
• Ability to work an adjusted schedule to support the facilitation of weekly programming up to 3 evenings per week and 1-2 weekends per semester

Additional Requirements

• Authorized to work in the U.S.

• Braven doesn’t offer employment visa sponsorship.

Application & Interview Process

While the interview process may vary slightly, the general process will be:

• Phone screen with Talent Team member
• Performance Task
• Interview with Hiring Manager
• Panel Interview with Key Partners
• Reference Checks

Benefits

Compensation and Benefits

Braven offers competitive base salaries based on the midpoint of the market among not-for-profit organizations of similar size, with opportunities for salary growth over time. We believe in compensating staff members fairly in relation to each other, their qualifications, and their impact on behalf of the organization, and take internal and external equity seriously. Given our commitment to equity, Braven does not negotiate salary offers; instead, each salary offer is determined carefully using external and internal benchmarking.

New hires can expect a starting salary at the lower end of the range, as Braven compensates based on the requirements and scope of the role rather than years of experience or prior salary, allowing for growth with performance and maintaining internal equity. The salary range in Chicago, for this role is set forth $62,700-$78,300. This is a full-time, regular, exempt, and benefits-eligible position where you will be working at 100% capacity.

Braven also provides competitive, comprehensive benefits, recognition, and career development. While Braven reserves the right to change benefits at any time, current benefits include:

Braven also provides competitive, comprehensive benefits, recognition, and career development. While Braven reserves the right to change benefits at any time, current benefits include:

• Unlimited vacation time in addition to org-wide holidays and three team-wide, week-long shutdowns in Spring, Summer, and Winter (this is a minimum of 24 days per year)
• Braven supports your path to parenthood and beyond with $25,000 in lifetime Carrot benefits for fertility, family-building, and hormonal health.
• Match of your 401K contribution up to 5% of your base annual salary, starting your first full month
• Coverage of 85% of the health insurance premium for employee and dependents
• A one-month paid sabbatical after 4 years on staff

Please note that Braven is firm in its compensation philosophy; therefore, only candidates who believe that our total rewards package matches what they are looking for in their next opportunity are encouraged to apply.

Location

We gather in the office 3 days a week (Tuesday through Thursday) and work remotely 2 days a week (Monday and Friday). Therefore, we require teammates to live within commuting distance of one of our hubs: Chicago. Each teammate can use at least two flex days per week to work remotely. We believe in the magic, connection, and collaboration that happens when people work together face-to-face, and we believe in giving people flexibility to focus, balance personal priorities, and save themselves two to three commutes per week.

Braven is an equal opportunity employer and considers qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, creed, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, age, disability, veteran status, or any other protected factor. We encourage talented individuals of all backgrounds to apply.