Director, Employer Partnerships

Job Title: Director, Employer Partnerships 

Team: External Affairs

Location: Hybrid in Atlanta (GA), Chicago (IL), Newark (NJ), or New York City (NYC) 

Employment Type: Full-Time

Start Date: ASAP

About Braven

Braven is a career-accelerating program that prepares promising young people—many of whom are people of color, from low income backgrounds, and the first in their families to attend college—to secure a strong first opportunity after college graduation. 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, we are helping to open up access to the American Promise, empowering a generation of leaders who mirror the diversity of our country. To learn more, take a look at Braven’s Impact Report and Jobs Report.

About the Role

In order to achieve its ambition of serving 80,000-100,000 Fellows over the next decade, Braven is hiring a Director of Employer Partnerships with a focus in social impact and public sectors to build and manage relationships with employers in the government, law, education, nonprofit, health, and arts sectors. This person will play a pivotal role in expanding Braven's reach by overseeing partnerships that provide valuable opportunities for our Fellows: sourcing internship and job opportunities, recruiting volunteers for mentoring programs, and sponsoring student workshops. This role requires someone who is highly innovative, entrepreneurial, and unafraid to make mistakes. You will build a strategy and partnership framework from the ground up, prospect in high volumes, and leverage a relational approach to foster strong connections.

As a member of Braven’s national External Affairs team, you will be responsible for both cultivating new prospective partners in the Social Impact and Public Sectors and managing a portfolio of 20+ existing partners. This role is on the Employer Partnerships team and reports directly to the VP of Employer Partnerships.

What You’ll Do

Partnership Strategy & Cultivation (45%)

• Strategy Development and Refinement: 
• Develop and implement a robust partnership strategy for the government, law, education, nonprofit, health, and arts sectors
• Employ an entrepreneurial mindset to explore new avenues and create innovative solutions, while fitting within organizational guardrails. Deliverables include but are not limited to: value propositions for Fellows, Braven, and partners; business practices and processes; pitch materials and partnership menus; criteria and rubrics for evaluating and prioritizing prospects
• High-Volume Prospecting: 
• Proactively research and engage a wide array of potential partners, leveraging a relational approach to build and sustain meaningful connections
• Relationship Cultivation: 
• Identify and cultivate relationships with organizations in the government, law, education, nonprofit, health, and arts sectors to secure internships, job opportunities, and volunteers

• Data Review and Innovation: 
• Use data and trends to refine the strategy and make improvements to the partnership framework, prospecting strategy, and approach to cultivation

Deepening Existing Relationships (30%)

• Partnership Management:
• Manage a portfolio of high-stakes, shared-value relationships; 20 you oversee directly, and another 20 you support indirectly, guiding and assisting your colleagues to ensure success
• Job & Internship Opportunity Sourcing: 
• Focus on sourcing opportunities that align with the career goals of Braven Fellows, building partnerships with 25 recruiters rooted in shared value
• Volunteer Recruitment: 
• Identify and engage volunteers for mentoring programs and events, recruiting 50 long-term mentors and coaches per year from your portfolio and collaborating on a dozen student workshops

Operations & Internal Collaboration (25%)

• Internal Project Management & Thought Partnership: 
• Guide and influence partnership strategies for relationships managed by lateral colleagues, providing strategic and operational support
• Internal Programmatic Alignment: 
• Coordinate across internal departments to understand Braven’s program needs and set the vision and direction for partnership opportunities
• Data Tracking: 
• Manage efficient and smart systems and infrastructure, including tracking our partnership pipeline, creating prospect research and leading national events
• Other duties as assigned

Minimum Requirements 

• Strategy Experience: A minimum of 3 years in one or more of the following areas: strategy and consulting, program development, or program management.
• Relationship Management: At least 3 years in account management, partnership management, or recruitment.
• Sector Knowledge: At least 3 years working in or with organizations in the government, law, education, nonprofit, health, and arts sectors, demonstrating a strong understanding of their unique needs and challenges.

Preferred Qualifications 

• You’re excited to apply your strategic thinking, stellar storytelling, and organizational skills to support underrepresented college students through college and into strong jobs.
• You’re a systems thinker at heart. You understand the power of networks and have strong intuition about how and when to involve key stakeholders in an opportunity or decision
• You’re proactive, like to solve problems, and love the intersection of creativity and strategy. When you don’t know the answer to something you do the research to figure it out, and you’re always on the lookout for opportunities to expand Braven’s impact.
• You’re a team player, with a proven ability to influence and guide others as you deliver strategic recommendations that drive organizational goals. 

• You have strong interpersonal skills with the ability to build and maintain relationships with diverse stakeholders. Strong at external, but also derives joy from quarterbacking a strategy from behind-the-scenes.
• You’re an exceptional planner and communicator. You bring excellent verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to articulate complex ideas clearly and effectively, equally strong in prose as in a project planning tracker.
• You’ve demonstrated a commitment to equity and inclusion and exemplify Braven’s core values.
• You bring experience that has informed your belief in Braven’s mission and have prepared you to work with, or for, Braven’s student Fellow population.

Please know that no one ever meets 100% of the preferred qualifications. If much of this describes you, we encourage you to apply.

Work Demands

• Ability to work in-person in Atlanta (GA), Chicago (IL), Newark (NJ), or New York City (NYC)
• Travel: 4-12 times annually out of state for team retreats, events, and meetings.
• Will be expected to work approximately 10-15 nights and/or weekends per year, coinciding with Braven events.

Additional Requirements

• Authorized to work in the U.S.

Application & Interview Process

While the interview process may vary slightly, the general process will be:

• Phone screen with Talent Team member
• Performance Task
• Interview with Hiring Manager
• Panel Interview with Key Partners
• Reference Checks

Compensation and Benefits

The salary for this position, which depends on prior work experience and our assessment of your demonstrated fit for the role, will likely be between $78,900-$98,600 in Atlanta, $83,000-103,700 in Chicago, and $91,300-$114,100 in New York, NY or Newark, NJ.. This is a full-time regular, exempt, and benefits eligible position where you will be working at 100% capacity. Braven offers competitive base salaries based on the midpoint of the market among not-for-profit organizations of similar size, with opportunities for salary growth over time. We believe in compensating staff members fairly in relation to each other, their qualifications, and their impact on behalf of the organization, and take internal and external equity seriously. Given our commitment to equity, Braven does not negotiate salary offers; instead each salary offer is determined carefully using external and internal benchmarking. You will have an opportunity to discuss salary in more detail after you begin the application process.

Braven also provides competitive, comprehensive benefits, recognition, and career development. While Braven reserves the right to change benefits at any time, current benefits include: 

• 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)
• 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

Location

We gather in the office at least 3 days per week (on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday) and often work remotely 2 days per week (although certain commitments might adjust that from time to time). Therefore, this role requires teammates to live within commuting distance of one of our hubs: Atlanta, Chicago, Newark, or New York City. We believe in the magic, connection, and collaboration that happens when people work together face-to-face and we believe in giving people flexibility to focus, balance personal priorities, and save themselves two commutes per week.

Why Join Us?

• Impact: Make a tangible difference in the lives of underrepresented students by creating pathways to meaningful careers.
• Growth: Be part of a rapidly growing organization with opportunities for professional development and advancement.
• Innovation: Work in an environment that encourages creativity, experimentation, and taking bold steps to achieve our mission.

Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion 

At Braven, we are committed to attracting, engaging, developing, and retaining a diverse team. Braven operates in the context of our American culture, against the backdrop of systemic racism and oppression of marginalized people since our country’s founding. We are committed to assembling leaders at our organization who have emerged from everywhere, with a particular emphasis on those who share the racial and income backgrounds of our Fellows, and creating an inclusive culture that allows all teammates, of all experiences and identities, to thrive.  

Braven is an equal opportunity employer and considers qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, creed, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, age, disability, veteran status, or any other protected factor.  We encourage talented individuals of all backgrounds to apply.