Partnership Manager

PERTS is looking for a Partnership Manager: a motivated leader and educational equity champion eager to improve the way students experience learning in college courses. The higher education partnership manager will support PERTS’ college and university partners as those institutions adopt and evaluate the Ascend professional learning model. For example, the partnership manager will cultivate deep relationships with college leaders and project manage the learning agenda described in the Ascend 3-year plan (see slides 8-9). The role is a full-time, exempt, remote position reporting to the Director of Programs with a salary range of $95k-115k, based on experience and local cost of living.

About PERTS

The Project for Education Research That Scales (PERTS) helps educators apply research-based approaches to create engaging, equitable learning environments so that every student has the support they need to fully engage, learn, and succeed. For example, PERTS partners closely with colleges to help them adopt student-centered, continuous improvement programs, like Ascend, that enable educators to continuously measure the impact of educational practices on students’ experiences. As a Student Experience Project learning partner, PERTS is also a leader in the national effort to center student experiences and advance educational equity.

PERTS has a remote working culture that welcomes candidates from across the U.S. Our team is committed to contributing to something bigger than ourselves while caring for each other as a team. As such, we are a small, family-friendly, human-centered organization. We come to work as whole people and push each other to grow and do our best while maintaining a warm and inclusive spirit. We focus on improvement instead of blame, and we believe that practicality beats purity.

Because inequitable educational systems disproportionately harm people of color and people from working-class backgrounds, we believe that these communities must be centered in the work we do. Hence, we strongly encourage applications from people with these identities or who are members of other marginalized communities. We are especially interested in working with candidates who have experience within inequitable education systems and are driven to dismantle those inequities.

Core Responsibilities

The partnership manager is charged with ensuring the successful adoption and implementation of our programs, including (but not limited to):

• Deep Collaboration with Partners involves developing and maintaining trusting relationships with partners while helping them lead their institutions through data-driven, continuous improvement cycles that center students’ experiences. This can look like:
• engaging partners to understand their goals, 
• adapting and facilitating program onboarding, 
• coaching partners to lead communities of practice that support educators to improve students’ experiences and outcomes over time,
• identifying opportunities with partners to scale implementation and institutionalize our programs, 
• providing thought partnership to guide partners through various complex implementation decisions and shifts within their institutions.
• Content Creation includes designing and refining materials to support partner relationships, e.g. meeting agendas, activities, decks, and communications that can be leveraged across several partnerships. This may also include contributing to and amplifying our robust user knowledge base while ensuring coherence across resources, e.g., synthesizing partner best practices, writing implementation guides, producing short videos, documenting and disseminating partner success stories, and/or new activities we haven’t thought of yet.

• Instructional Design & Facilitation refers to facilitating our national Communities of Practice that connect partners from across the country, build their capacity to lead program implementation, and help them solve problems of practice. It also includes evolving our Communities of Practice to adapt to participant needs over time.
• Partner Recruitment & Retainment may include designing and hosting learning events for a broad audience, presenting at national conferences, and engaging in contract renewal processes with existing partners.
• Program Design that includes gathering and processing user feedback to make recommendations to our developers to improve our programs.
• Cross-team Collaboration can look like facilitating team meetings, weighing in on proposals to secure additional funding, providing feedback on research products, and tracking partner touch points to enable goal progress updates.

The role is a full-time, exempt position reporting to the Director of Programs with a salary range of $95k-115k, based on experience and local cost of living. While the role is remote, there is a possibility of traveling 2-8 times per year to attend PERTS team retreats, meet with partners, and attend events and conferences.

Requirements

Desired Skills, Experiences & Dispositions

Outstanding candidates will have—or be ready and eager to quickly develop—the following skills, experiences, and dispositions. All of these attributes are necessary to be successful in the role long-term, but we welcome your application even if you do not already meet all of the criteria below. 

• Mission Driven: Commitment to PERTS’ mission and the ability to articulate your passion for supporting educators and working towards a more equitable and human-centered education system.
• Conscientiousness: Exceptional attention to detail, a record of following through on challenging commitments with minimal supervision (including in remote work settings), the ability to anticipate needs, and comfort with ambiguity.
• Proactive Communication & High Emotional Intelligence: Superior written and verbal communication skills, as well as the instinct to communicate proactively and appropriately with various audiences and team members. Experience with or strong interest in storytelling through video and written formats.
• Tech Savvy: Ease mastering new technology tools, teaching others to use new tools, and familiarity with productivity tools including Asana, Microsoft Office, Google Suite, Dropbox, and Box.
• Growth Mindset: Life-long learner willing to seek knowledge and new experiences in order to get the job done, e.g. by learning new software, skills, and concepts; continuously seeking and responding to feedback; and taking initiative to enhance our work.
• Continuous Improvement Coaching: Experience coaching education leaders through continuous improvement cycles informed by adult pedagogical best practices, e.g., facilitating educator professional development, leading communities of practice, and/or instructional coaching.
• Student Success Initiatives: Experience leading or supporting student success initiatives in higher education settings, especially as they intersect with faculty development, support, and/or incentives. 
• Institutional Research: Familiarity with institutional research offices and experience with the process of evaluating student success efforts in higher education settings, e.g., experience with data sharing permissions, IRBs. Note: a good candidate will not need to conduct data analyses or write research reports, but they will project manage and support others doing such work.
• Institutional Policy Savvy: Experience with higher education institutional politics and policy, especially as it relates to faculty training, incentives, and related policies. For example, an ideal candidate understands when and how policies change within a faculty development office or academic senate. 
• Relationship Building: Ability to build authentic relationships with partners; comfort navigating complex situations and organizations.
• Practicality and Simplicity: Proven track record translating complex issues and experiences into compelling and accessible content, ideally in narrative styles and audiovisual formats.
• Foundational Academic Motivation Knowledge: Familiarity with social-emotional learning (SEL) concepts and applications, particularly with regards to academic motivation, engagement, and success.

Application Process and Timeline

1. Applications for this role will be accepted through February 5, 2023. 
2. Applicants that do not include cover letters will not be considered. A strong cover letter should include the applicant’s personal reasons for wanting to support educators and work towards a more equitable and human-centered education system as well as examples of how they’ve demonstrated the required skills and dispositions listed in the role description. 

Applications will be reviewed after our deadline. The application process will include 3-4 interviews with various team members, submitting a performance task and/or work samples, and reference checks.

Equal Employment Opportunity

PERTS is a fiscally sponsored project of Tides Center. Tides Center is an equal opportunity employer. We strongly encourage applications from people of color, women, and bilingual and bicultural individuals, as well as members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities and welcome your application even if you do not meet every one of the above requirements. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion, color, national origin, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, marital status, age, political affiliation, disability, or medical condition. We encourage and consider qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

Reasonable accommodation will be made so that qualified applicants with a disability may participate in the application process. Please advise in writing of special needs at the time of application.

Benefits

• The salary range is $95k-115k, based on experience and local cost of living.
• Comprehensive healthcare benefits include medical, dental, and vision insurance; annual professional development funding; as well as confidential counseling, designed to support the passion and energy we look for in our staff.
• There is a 403b match up to 6% of salary. 

• Generous paid time off beginning at 8 weeks of holiday/vacation time per year including: 12 organization-wide holidays, two team holiday recess weeks, and 15 days of vacation in the 1st year (moving up to 25 days by the 8th year). Additionally, there is paid time off for wellness, family leave, jury duty, military, bereavement, and other circumstances.

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