Senior Director, Education Programs & Partnerships

The Senior Director, Education Programs and Partnerships is a strategic relationship-builder that is passionate about expanding the reach and impact of Encourage - our free college and career planning program that supports educators and students. This role is focused on maintaining and growing the partnerships that exist between Encoura and our Education Partners, including Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA), Distributive Education Clubs of America (DECA), Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC) and several others. This person will manage all aspects of the relationships and engagement activities with our national partner organizations, develop outreach strategies that grow current partner organizations, and establish new partnership opportunities with prospective organizations. Reporting to the VP of Marketing for Encourage, this person will manage and develop the team responsible for delivering exceptional service to our Partner Programs.

A Day in the Life

• Serve as senior leader on the Marketing team, representing the Partnerships team in cross-team collaborations with marketing, product, and engineering teams.  
• Lead the growth and development of our partnership programs to extend the reach of the Encourage program and drive increased participation to meet organizational objectives. 
• Drive the engagement with national partner organizations and their networks of students and educators through webinars, conference sessions, resources, and other forms of engagement. 
• Build brand recognition and build trust of Encourage by planning and executing sponsorships and events with key strategic partners, such as the American School Counselor Association.  
• Lead outreach campaigns and relationships with educators, schools, community-based organizations, and district leaders to drive program adoption and impact by districts, schools, educators, and students. 
• Seek opportunities to build awareness of the Encourage program with our Partners through their promotional channels, such as newsletters, advertising, social, and events.  
• Identify potential resource needs for marketing and content teams to support adoption and implementation of the Encourage product. 
• Champion the Encourage program to educators, district administrators, and other education leaders in the postsecondary planning space via webinars, virtual conferences, live meetings. 
• Provide continuous feedback to the marketing and product teams to enhance market intelligence, competitive intelligence and product enhancements. 

Role Progression

• Within 1 month, you’ll:  Engage with your new colleagues on the team to learn about the Encourage program, the scope of the Partnerships team responsibilities, understand the main KPIs for the team, and build relationships around the organization. Meet with the leaders of each of our Partner organizations to make initial introductions and learn the basics about their use of the Encourage program and the students they engage. 
• Within 3 months, you’ll: Understand the scope and scale of the Partnerships team’s current reach and how programs are tracking against KPIs. Begin taking lead on conference/event planning and coordination for Partnership events for the team. 
• Within 6 months, you’ll: Confidently navigate the day-to-day business planning and coordination of the Partnerships team and will begin to develop a vision for longer term growth of the programs. Surface needs, based on data and trends, that would help strengthen participation from current Partner programs and actively drive towards solutions. 
• Within 1 year, you’ll: Lead the overall Partnership strategy and execution in alignment with the Marketing leadership. Implement strategies with the team that drive results and show impact through achievement of KPIs. Identify and engage potential prospect partner organizations to expand the portfolio and drive program growth. 

About you

• Direct management and leadership experience in either Marketing, Business Development, or Relationship Management roles. Education background or experience is preferred. 
• Familiarity with college access organizations, districts, educators, and Community Based Organizations desired, not required. 
• A strategic planner, who uses data to drive decisions and recommendations. 
• A proactive problem-solver with natural critical thinking skills. 
• Be a confident public speaker and demonstrate outstanding presentation skills during live events, webinars, and produced videos. 
• Excellent writing, presentation, and communication skills.  

What Sets Us Apart

• Mission driven culture 
• Comprehensive health and benefits package 
• 401k company match that is vested immediately upon participation 
• Paid holidays and a generous PTO policy 
• Paid parental leave

Encoura’s mission is to empower students and institutions to create meaningful connections so everyone can make the most informed decisions to achieve their goals. Since 1972, the company has evolved its products and services to better represent the link between students and higher education institutions and to create the highest probability of student success. 

With the launch of the Encoura platform in 2017, the company provides custom technology solutions that combine Eduventures research, data science, strategic enrollment, and multichannel marketing services to over 2,000 higher ed institutions. The company also offers myOptions® Encourage™—the nation’s largest free college and career planning program used by millions of high school students and educators nationwide. 

Encoura is an Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) employer. It is the policy of the Company to provide equal employment opportunities to all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, protected veteran or disabled status, or genetic information. All applicants must be eligible to work in the U.S. 

Encoura endeavors to make reasonable accommodations for applicants with disabilities and disabled veterans pursuant to applicable federal and state law. If you are an individual with a disability and require reasonable accommodation to complete any part of the application process or are limited in the ability and need an alternative method for applying, please contact the Talent Team. 

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