Director, Academic Success

Braven • Atlanta, GA

4d • Hybrid

About The Position

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. The Director, Academic Success will lead a team responsible for ensuring college students enrolled in Braven's course not only stay on track but thrive. This role will oversee a team of 5-7 Associate Directors of Program Success (ADPSs) who are responsible for grader management, academic interventions, and supporting volunteers across multiple higher education partners. The Director will coach their team to analyze student data, implement targeted supports, and ensure every Fellow receives the feedback and scaffolding they need to succeed. Collaboration with peers to build systems, tools, and learning experiences for consistent, high-quality execution across campuses, and with cross-functional teams to elevate academic integrity and student achievement is also key. This role is ideal for someone who thrives at the intersection of instructional leadership, operational execution, and team management, and who is eager to shape the future of a growing national program. This role is on the Central Accelerator Team and reports directly to the Head of Central Accelerator Delivery.

Requirements

• Bachelors Degree
• 5+ years of relevant work experience, including at least 2 years of staff management experience
• Skilled in quantitative analysis (reporting, forecasting), planning, and project management
• Exceptional communication, presentation, and interpersonal skills, and the ability to establish and maintain effective and collaborative working relationships with a wide range of people and personality types
• Authorized to work in the U.S.

Nice To Haves

• Proven leadership in multi-site or remote team management, with an ability to lead a distributed team across different universities and Braven hub offices
• Previous experience coaching and/or managing professionals in an educational setting
• Experience in higher education or working with university faculty and staff, ensuring alignment with institutional policies
• Experience implementing systems and ability to proactively identify needs, think through options, and intervene when necessary
• Ability to operate within a defined system or model, yet demonstrate appropriate problem-solving skills and creativity
• Demonstrated commitment to building strong, collaborative relationships and welcoming cultures that help to develop others
• Experience that has informed your belief in Braven’s mission and has prepared you to work with Braven’s student Fellow population.
• Exemplification of Braven’s core values.

Responsibilities

• Manage, develop, coach, and empower Associate Directors of Program Success across 5-7 higher education partnership sites.
• Cultivate a culture of belonging, results orientation, curiosity, continuous improvement, and collaboration to drive program outcomes and a strong staff experience in line with Braven’s core values and core competencies.
• Ensure teammates have the right mindsets, collaboration structures, data review protocols, and student intervention strategies to drive outcomes with fidelity.
• Be accountable for student grades, mastery of content, and course outcomes.
• Develop processes to monitor student outcomes and grader management across sites, and support teammates to curate the right strategies and tactics to meet goals and sustain relationships with critical stakeholders.
• Deeply understand the idiosyncrasies, policies, norms, and preferences of the campuses and regional teams’ Professor of Record appointed to the course.
• Problem-solve issues that arise at each site, balancing student outcomes, customer service orientation, and the needs and interests of our regional teams on whose behalf we deliver the course.
• In collaboration with the Product and Tech teams, build the requisite tools, processes, and systems to ensure quality execution of student intervention at scale across campuses.
• Lead regular student performance reviews with ADPSs, analyzing trends and developing intervention plans for students at risk of disengagement or not completing the course successfully.
• Build reusable Learning and Development for ADPSs to introduce, reinforce, and develop the right mindsets, skills, competencies, and practices to drive strong student outcomes.
• Establish a knowledge-sharing system for ADPSs to document and exchange effective practices, case studies, and lessons learned.
• Collaborate with other same-role peers to ensure the Head of Central Accelerator Delivery and the Product Leadership are equipped with org-wide trends, bright spots, and red flags in the world of Accelerator outcomes.
• Advocate for and collaborate with other central teams to improve the entire program delivery apparatus and enable sustained success at scale through collaboration.
• Internalize the functions and goals of other teams and proactively communicate across teams to ensure you are equipping them to succeed.
• Work with peers and the Head of Central Accelerator Delivery to assess overall program outcomes and make decisions that optimize program quality, drive participant impact, and enable fidelity to achieve organizational outcomes.
• Other duties as assigned.

Benefits

• Unlimited vacation time in addition to org-wide holidays and week-long shutdowns in July and the end of the calendar year (this is a minimum of 19 days per year)
• $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 health insurance premium for employee and dependents
• 12 weeks of paid parental leave
• A one-month paid sabbatical after 4 years on staff

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director