Associate Programs Manager

Watson Institute • Boca Raton, FL

3d • $62,500 - $65,000 • Onsite

About The Position

The Associate Programs Manager plays a central role in shaping and implementing the student experience at Watson Institute at Lynn University. This individual helps design, lead, and execute high-impact student experiences focused on leadership development, community building, professional growth, mentorship, and experiential learning, ensuring students feel supported, challenged, connected, and equipped to pursue impactful, successful careers.

Requirements

• Eager to join a team with extremely high standards for quality and excellence, recognizing that demonstrating excellence in partnership building is a direct path to scaling impact and achieving outsized results.
• An exceptional eye for detail. You enjoy spending time with words, style, and formatting in order to make the most compelling product possible.
• Detail Oriented: You are meticulous and have excellent organizational skills. You are especially attuned to spotting mistakes or inconsistencies in writing and external communications. You take pride in completing your work accurately and on schedule. You have a knack for project management and a love for work plans and checklists. You cringe at missed steps and you are the first to identify a typo or formatting error.
• Intentional: Your working style is about creating order and planning ahead. You think systematically and excel at establishing elegant processes.
• Results-Driven: You bring an eagerness to grow and to roll up your sleeves and contribute. You have a go-getter attitude and a drive to solve all sorts of problems, no matter the size or shape. When something is your responsibility, you find a way to see it through to the end.
• High Integrity: You will be asked to make sensitive and critical judgment calls, and as such, you are known for your integrity and you take that reputation seriously. You always choose to make the right decision versus the easy decision. You know what information is sensitive, and you will protect it accordingly. You are comfortable escalating issues and holding your ground when you think it’s the right thing to do for the organization and mission.
• Systems-minded: Demonstrated experience in building and implementing systems. You are comfortable designing, testing, improving, and smoothly running systems and processes. This could be any system that involves inputs from or serves multiple people and requires consistent and accurate functioning.
• Communication Style: Based on a story from Watson Institute’s early days, ‘Come to the Window’ represents the principles of our communication including: Obligation to Dissent: If you disagree with a decision or direction as an organization, you are expected to bring attention to this challenge because true leaders believe dissent is an obligation. Disagree and Commit: To complement Obligation to Dissent, there are times when we need to Disagree and Commit. Once all concerns and criticisms are shared, the course of action must be committed to by all involved. No Drama: We prioritize purpose and don’t involve ourselves in the drama created by backroom chatter, hearsay, and unnecessary focus on issues that do not place impact first. Go to the Source: Our culture is defined by direct, honest, and frequent communication. We expect team members to ‘go to the source’ of concerns by speaking up, communicating frequently, and taking issues directly to the individuals involved.

Responsibilities

• Lead and facilitate weekly All Hands on Deck programming, student engagement experiences, and community-building initiatives.
• Build meaningful relationships with students across all cohorts to foster trust, accountability, and connection.
• Help cultivate a positive, inclusive, and high-accountability student culture throughout the program experience.
• Support onboarding, orientation, and transition experiences for new students.
• Design and facilitate interactive sessions focused on leadership, collaboration, communication, and professional development.
• Partner closely with the Student Leadership Committee to strengthen community culture and support student-led initiatives and programming.
• Coordinate volunteering and community engagement opportunities that deepen student connection and impact.
• Maintain consistent communication with students to support participation, accountability, and overall engagement.
• Collaborate closely with the Executive Director to continuously enhance the student experience.
• Lead logistics and operational coordination for core WILU experiences, including Orientation, Summit, Impact Series, workshops, excursions, volunteering activities, and community events.
• Manage calendars, timelines, forms, checklists, and operational systems that support program delivery and execution.
• Coordinate speakers, mentors, photographers, external guests, and event logistics across student-facing experiences.
• Manage student-facing operational platforms, including Google Workspace, Slack, scheduling systems, and program communications.
• Ensure strong execution, responsiveness, and follow-through across all programmatic experiences and operational workflows.
• Support the continuous improvement of systems, processes, and organizational workflows to strengthen program operations and efficiency.
• Support students with internship readiness, career exploration, professional development, and goal-setting conversations.
• Host 1-on-1 coaching conversations focused on student growth, opportunities, and professional readiness.
• Coordinate internship tracking and opportunity-sharing systems across the program.
• Build and maintain strong relationships with mentors, employers, and external community partners.
• Support mentor onboarding, communication, matching, and ongoing engagement processes.
• Coordinate mentorship events, networking opportunities, and mentor-related programming.
• Help connect students to meaningful opportunities, experiences, and professional networks aligned with their goals.
• Gather and analyze student feedback, participation trends, and program evaluation data.
• Identify opportunities to improve student experience, communication, engagement, and operational systems.

Benefits

• Competitive base salary according to experience: $62,500.00-$65,000.00.
• An Annual Happiness Fund that increases with time and seniority.
• Unlimited vacations (3 weeks required vacation time per year).
• Healthcare benefit via Thatch (ICHRA provider), where employees have the option to apply this amount towards their choice of medical plans, with the option to add vision and dental plans.
• Retirement account through Guideline, with an automatic 3% contribution.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Education Level: No Education Listed