Manager, Program - Customer Experience Career Pathway

Program Manager

Reporting to the Associate Director of Program, the Program Manager position is a core component of the Year Up United program. This position is responsible for leading and managing a Learning Community comprised 40-60 young adults, with the ultimate mission of providing high-quality service to the students in the community as they prepare for corporate internships and careers in Year Up United-related job fields. Successful outcomes for this role include maintaining 83% retention during the Learning and Development phase and no more than 10% attrition in the Work-Based Learning phase, student satisfaction with the Program, and 75% positive outcomes 4 months after graduation.

The Program Manager will also serve as an important member of Year Up United's Corporate Engagement function while their learning community is on internship. They will facilitate day-to-day interactions between Year Up United interns and corporate partner staff, ensuring a successful internship experience for all parties. The Manager will support performance for an assigned group of students to help interns convert to employment and yield partner retention and satisfaction.

To be successful in this role, you will bring excellent communication, administrative, and management skills as well as the ability to interface with students, functional departments, and outside stakeholders as we work to achieve our mission. This position will work with our Academic/instructional staff, Student Services, Internship Services, and Corporate Engagement departments, to help provide students with individualized support by addressing challenges and understanding when to leverage other resources.

In keeping with Year Up United's values, the Program Manager will also have the opportunity to interact with students on an individual level, as a group facilitator, and advocate, participating in building a positive educational environment.

This is a hybrid and location flexible role that will require occasional in-person activities for coaching and support of our students. You must live within a commutable distance to one of our locations where we serve students. Preference to East Coast candidates.

Key Responsibilities

• Serve as a role model by reflecting and maintaining Year Up United culture and embodying our values and operating principles while preparing students for corporate internships
• Manage, uphold, and track student contracts in a consistent manner to ensure timely and accurate student payment
• Work in collaboration with the Placement Success team to coordinate intern performance management
• Oversee student performance to ensure seamless transition from learning and development phase to the work-based learning phase
• Balance serving students and ensuring the overall success of the Learning Community by making appropriate decisions that are both student-centered and in line with our Year Up United's mission, vision, and values
• Collaborate with Student Services, Academic staff/instructors, and Corporate Engagement colleagues to identify and respond to student needs; ensure students receive high-quality services and individualized support
• Drive the development and management of individualized student performance/professional development plans in coordination with stakeholders to ensure student success
• Work with the Corporate Engagement and Market-based Employment Placement team to identify and match graduating participants to job opportunities

Learning Community Management

• Manage the day-to-day and annual operations of the Learning Community, including the calendar
• Coordinate efforts and schedules while maintaining a positive group dynamic amongst both staff and students
• Work collaboratively with other Year Up United functions to coordinate support for students and ensure alignment across departments
• Ensure all activities are planned, organized, and executed with high quality
• Plan and run new student orientation; oversee student transition into the program, coordinate orientation activities and ensure that students become acquainted with resources, staff, and program expectations
• Develop and maintain healthy and high functioning relationships with other functional areas of the organization that are critical to success in serving students
• Represent the Program Manager perspective when working with various functional areas at Year Up United, including but not limited to Enrollment, Corporate Engagement, and other partners
• Identify students and interns for events; track student involvement with onsite guests, help prepare students for donor/outreach meetings, graduation, etc.
• Understand learning community-related data and synthesize/report out on trends (ex. contract, student performance)
• Coach students on career skills such as interview preparation and applying to open positions
• Help connect participants to open job positions once they graduate from the program; do this by working closely with the Corporate Engagement team and market-based Employment Placement team to identify leads and connect alumni to the open positions

Learning Community Member

• Serve as a 1-1 coach for a group of participants
• Participate in and sometimes facilitate weekly group sessions with students
• Participate in staff meetings and trainings with Program Managers and staff from Accelerated Core sites in other markets & cities

Placement Success

• Communicate regularly with and coach assigned interns to support performance.
• Provide responsive and high-quality customer service in pursuit of KPIs related to account renewal and expansion in market, satisfaction for all involved customers/clients/intern, additional placements, intern retention, and conversion to hire.
• Oversee matching process for assigned interns. Analyze students' strengths and decide on appropriate placement based on pattern recognition, partner needs, etc.
• Refer to matching playbooks to drive toward decisions via facilitation of conversations, data collection, timeline alignment, and communications to colleagues.
• Achieve on time onboarding by managing onboarding activities for all students in portfolio
• Follow conversion processes specific to account sourced from Account Directors' playbooks.
• Drive and track account-specific conversion processes and work with partner HR or staffing agencies to ensure interns complete paperwork
• Enter employment records in Salesforce for intern conversions.
• Engage in knowledge transfer for non-converted interns and collaborate with central career services

Qualifications

• Previous work in student affairs, first-year orientation, college guidance counseling, residence life, multiculturalism/diversity or related higher education roles
• Extensive work with Year Up United's target population in high stakes environments with clear performance outcome measures
• Demonstrated ability to lead teams and to administrate multiple projects and tasks simultaneously, prioritizing and delegating as needed
• Interest in working a fast-paced, dynamic, complex start-up and/or entrepreneurial environment
• Coaching ability and high comfort level in having one-on-one coaching conversations with staff and students alike
• Relationship management in a business setting is preferred
• Demonstrated knowledge managing a CRM; Salesforce experience strongly preferred
• Sense of vision, prudence, and purpose using collaborative/servant leadership style to direct the overall vision of team
• Proven ability to make good, proactive decisions in potentially emotionally charged situations and/or in the absence of complete clarity; comfortable taking risks
• Ability to build strong professional relationships with others across the organization
• Sound judgment, maturity and the ability to handle sensitive and confidential information with discretion
• Excellent oral and written communication skills
• A passion for working with young adults, an unshakable belief in their potential and a strong commitment to the mission of Year Up United
• Commitment to diversity and inclusion
• Understanding of the Opportunity Divide and its drivers

Salary Range:

$60,000 - $75,000

Compensation & Benefits

• Year Up United has established salary ranges for each of our sites, which allows us to pay employees competitively, equitably and consistently in different geographic markets. For roles in which the location is listed as flexible, the range displayed reflects the minimum and maximum target for new hire salaries for the position across all US locations. Salary offers take into account a candidate's skills, experience, and location. Your recruiter can share more about the specific salary range for your location during the hiring process.
• Benefits: Comprehensive healthcare options and dental coverage; 401(k) match for eligible participants.
• Vacation: Earn three weeks paid vacation in first year of employment; four weeks after initial year.
• Professional Development: Funds available to support staff in achieving career objectives ($2,500 per year)