Senior Manager, College Partnerships

Senior Manager, College Partnerships

Senior Manager, College Partnerships

KIPP Through College, KIPP Foundation

About KIPP

KIPP is a non-profit network of 200 college-preparatory, public charter schools educating 80,000 elementary, middle, and high school students. We believe that all students will learn and achieve at high levels if given the opportunity. Our mission is to help students develop the knowledge, skills, and character strengths they need to seize those opportunities.

Our Team

KIPP Through College (KTC) focuses on: supporting KIPPsters through the college application, financial aid, and enrollment processes; providing families with essential knowledge to prepare KIPPsters to succeed in college; and staying in touch with alumni and helping them navigate the academic, social, and financial challenges they might encounter while in college or pursuing a career.The National KTC team provides critical training, support, and tools to our regional KTC teams in support of these objectives.

The Opportunity

The KTC Senior Manager, College Partnerships will work closely with the Director of College Completion to manage and lead the vision of KIPP’s College Partnerships, cultivating strategic relationships, driving impact of College Partnerships towards broader systems and institutional change on behalf of first generation, low-income students of color, and ultimately ensuring KIPP remains a leader and champion in this space. This is also an opportunity to think strategically about and execute on a vision for how P-12 systems and higher education institutions can work together to support students through the entire pipeline.

The KIPP network has over 90 formal partnerships with colleges and universities across competitive bands. KIPP seeks to develop partnerships with colleges and universities with strong minority graduation rates (relative to their competitive band) and a commitment to support first-generation, low-income students of color. Competitive institutions who partner with KIPP typically agree to set an annual enrollment target, strive to meet full financial need, share student data, provide an appointed on-campus liaison, and offer special programs to recruit and/or orient KIPPsters on campus. As the number of KIPP alumni grow, the Foundation is increasingly interested in partnering deeply with colleges and universities to help more institutions adopt practices shown to improve college success outcomes for first-generation, low-income students of color.

Key Responsibilities

The Senior Manager, College Partnerships is responsible for developing and managing national-level college partnerships, building the capacity of KTC regions to manage local-level partnerships, and leading our broader higher education systems-change efforts, as detailed below:

  • Developing and managing college partnerships:Approximately one-thirdof KIPP’s college partnerships are managed by the Foundation, and two-thirds by our local KTC regions. The Senior Manager, College Partnerships will be responsible for developing and managing our national-level partnerships, ensuring that our terms of agreement are honored and that seats committed to KIPPsters are fully utilized. The Senior Manager will also play a key role in convening KIPP’s college partners and facilitating the sharing of best practices shown to better support first-generation, low-income students of color.
  • Building regional capacity:The Senior Manager, College Partnerships will provide professional development, support, and coaching to our regional KTC Managing Directors in developing and effectively managing local-level college partnerships. The Senior Manager will also build the capacity of KTC teams to fully leverage college partnerships in both admissions and persistence. The Senior Manager will work with the National KTC College & Career Pathways team to help drive an increase in Early Decision and Early Action applications to partner schools, helping ensure committed seats at competitive partners are utilized. The Senior Managerwill also work closely with our College Success Manager to help ensure alumni advisors are fully leveraging shared data and on-campus resources to support students.
  • Leading institutional and systems change efforts:KIPP is interested in leveraging its strong relationships with colleges and universities to help drive broader higher education institutional and systems change to ensure more low-income, first-generation students make it to and through college. The Senior Manager will play a key role designing and planning for these efforts. Pending appropriate resourcing, the Senior Manager will work closely with our External Influence team, our KIPP regions, and leaders in the field to identify specific opportunities to support colleges in adopting effective practices to admit and support more low-income, first-generation students of color.

Qualifications:

Strong emphasis will be placed on this individual’s demonstrated track record in leading and managing major, complex efforts requiring strong process and project management as well as significant stakeholder engagement and management in fast-paced, dynamic, results-oriented team environments. The Foundation is seeking an individual with:

  • Excellent relationship management, communication, and listening skills. Able to work effectively with senior-most leadership of the KIPP organization, college and university leaders and funders.
  • An achievement orientation: self-directed and results-oriented, demonstrating initiative and follow-through and ability to adapt to changing circumstances.
  • Strong project and process management skills: the ability to drive projects from inception to completion while managing multiple high-priority projects simultaneously.
  • Strategic thinking and problem-solving skills: comfort with ambiguity and an ability to break down complex problems.
  • Solutions-orientation: excellent analytical and critical thinking skills.
  • Strong presentation skills: comfortable leading presentations and trainings to a diverse array of audiences.
  • Effective coaching skills: ability to listen deeply to key stakeholders, understand and reflect back challenges, and guide individuals through a solutions-finding process.
  • Experience or expertise in higher education, college access or success, and/or non-profit strategy.
  • Deep-seated belief that the opportunity to earn a college degree is a necessity for all, rather than a luxury for the privileged few.
  • Bachelor’s degree required.
  • Minimum of 7-10 years of experience, preferably in a geographically dispersed nonprofit or educational organization.
  • Willingness to travel approximately 35% of time.
  • Ability to model KIPP’s values at all times.

COMPETENCIES:

  • Impact and Influence
  • Relationship Building
  • Achievement Orientation
  • Project Management Skills
  • Critical Thinking and Problem Solving

Location

The preferred location of this role is our New York City office.However exceptional candidates will be considered to work from our Chicago, San Francisco, or Washington, D.C. offices or remotely. This is a full-time, exempt position.

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