Program Director, Harris Social Impact Fellowship

University of Chicago•Chicago, IL

10d•$90,000 - $110,000•Hybrid

About The Position

The Program Director provides programmatic and operational leadership for the Harris Social Impact Fellowship (HSIF), a flagship initiative of the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy. Reporting to the Executive Director and partnering closely with the Faculty Director, the Program Director manages the full lifecycle of Fellowship operations and delivery within the programmatic direction, growth strategy, and quality standards set by the Executive Director. The role executes fellow recruitment and selection against the architecture set by the Executive Director, manages confirmed partnerships and program budget execution, supervises student workers, and represents the Fellowship at the operational level to faculty and staff partners, placement institutions, and peer programs, safeguarding academic rigor, operational quality, and the Harris brand.

Requirements

College or university degree in related field.
Knowledge and skills developed through 5-7 years of work experience in a related job discipline.

Nice To Haves

8-10 years of professional experience in program management, higher education administration, public policy, or related fields.
Track record in program development, student-facing program management, and scaling complex initiatives across institutional boundaries.
Experience coordinating with senior faculty, academic leaders, and research principals, and with external partners across think tanks, government, and non-profit organizations focused on research, evaluation, or policy.
Experience supervising staff and managing consultant relationships, with demonstrated ability to build operational capacity as programs scale.
Plans and executes complex, multi-faceted programs with limited day-to-day oversight, exercising sound judgment on operational questions and knowing when to escalate.
Navigates complex stakeholder ecosystems with competing agendas, with strong instincts for sequencing, escalation, and de-confliction.
Strong organizational discipline and relationship-building skills across hierarchies and institutional boundaries.
Excellent written and verbal communication, including the ability to brief senior leadership, represent the program externally, and produce program-substance materials of institutional quality.

Responsibilities

Supports the design and delivery of the fellowship curriculum and experience with the Faculty Director, coordinating annual design cycles, faculty engagement, and integration of research centers across UChicago to ensure academic rigor and institutional alignment.
Translates the growth strategy and program priorities set by the Executive Director into detailed program plans and execution, and supports expansion work such as placement diversification and applicant-pool engagement.
Manages the day-to-day operational relationships across Harris and the University that keep the Fellowship running, including project-level coordination with faculty and research center staff (Urban Labs, BIP Lab, Mansueto Institute, and others), career services, admissions, finance, and OLC.
Manages the ongoing operational relationship with confirmed external partners (research organizations, social impact employers, government and policy institutions, and host placement sites), running regular check-ins, tracking deliverables, and flagging renewal or escalation moments to the Executive Director, who sources new partnerships and re-engages at those points.
Executes the national recruitment plan set by the Executive Director, including operational outreach, pipeline management with priority feeder institutions, and applicant engagement, and reports pipeline performance against the yield targets set by the Executive Director.
Runs the full selection process end-to-end against the assessment framework, interview design, and evaluation rubrics set by the Executive Director, and surfaces cohort recommendations for final decision by the Executive Director and Faculty Director.
Manages the full fellow lifecycle from recruitment through alumni integration, implementing the professional standards, mentorship structures, crisis protocols, and alumni engagement platform designed by the Executive Director, and running day-to-day alumni communications.
Builds and maintains the operational network of post-fellowship career opportunities, including employer and institutional contacts, opportunity mapping across the sectors set by the Executive Director, individual career-development touchpoints with fellows and alumni, placement tracking, and connecting specific fellows and alumni to specific roles.
Runs day-to-day operations for the Fellowship, including cross-unit coordination, information flow, and operational handoffs across the Fellowship team, faculty leads, host institutions, and University units, within the governance and escalation framework set by the Executive Director.
Maintains reliable program delivery as HSIF grows to multiple cohorts, flagging operational, reputational, and partnership risks to the Executive Director and supporting mitigation.
Supervises student workers and external consultants, setting performance standards and overseeing workload distribution. Coordinates day-to-day work with the Assistant Director, who reports to the Executive Director. Participates in hiring within the program team, recommending candidates in alignment with Harris HR processes and Executive Director approval.
Manages the program budget within approved parameters, including spend tracking, cost-per-fellow analysis, proposing resource allocation across placement partnerships, recruitment, alumni programming, and operations, and escalating material changes to the Executive Director.
Executes the impact measurement framework set by the Executive Director and Faculty Director, including instrument administration, data collection, alumni career tracking, and performance dashboard maintenance, and surfaces findings to the Executive Director for synthesis.
Organizes flagship internal events, including capstone presentations, the annual alumni retreat, cohort convenings, and guest speaker sessions. External representation at academic and policy venues sits with the Executive Director.
Develops and communicates program priorities and performance standards and assesses operations using these criteria. Plans and conducts quality assurance reviews and recommends changes as appropriate.
Manages program budgets and recommends or makes budgetary recommendations.
Has a deep understanding when interacting with faculty, researchers and staff for committee work or information.
Performs other related work as needed.