Chief Executive Officer - Opportunity Scholars : Job Details

Role Summary:

Opportunity Scholars (OS) seeks to become the national leader in social workforce development and to demonstrate at scale the transformational impact of its proprietary program model. Its innovative approach to technical and professional career development for young adults produces highly successful new skilled workers, high retention and success rates for hiring employers and enables sustainable local business growth and success. Achieving these goals requires a leader who can work with a strong, committed board, public and private investors/supporters. The leader will build and maintain a talented, dedicated team with a strong sense of mission and urgency that earns increasing support each year while achieving rapid growth and key metrics of success.

Primary Duties:

1. Developing the strategic direction for achieving the vision and objectives of the organization in collaboration with the Board.

2. Create and maintain strong partnership relationships with the education partners including schools, community colleges and Shenandoah University.

3. Create and maintain strong working relationships with business partners who provide employment, training and financial support to scholars and to OS.

4. Create and implement budgets and fiscal plans for the operation of the organization. Raise funds from private and public sources, obtain grants from relevant sources and administer budgets with strong financial systems and strong functioning data systems.

5. Hire and supervise OS staff members with ongoing career development and engagement to maintain high levels of work satisfaction, sense of purpose, engagement and teamwork.

6. Build a favorable identity and brand of OS with donors, businesses, community partners, education partners and the general public.

7. Oversee and direct the scholar loan program and maintain the Education Fund on a financially sound basis with high repayment levels while serving as many scholars as is reasonably possible.

8. Oversee and Direct the work of the Program Leader in designing and delivering the OS career success program for scholars. Recruit students in large numbers who are then matched with career plans and education fund repayment plans which they successfully complete.

9. Support the function of the board of directors in governing the organization and collaboratively establish the mission statement, vision and outcome goals for the organization. Maintain high levels of compliance with IRS and all other regulatory requirements for 501c3 organizations. Maintain high levels of audit compliance annually.

Education and Work Experience Desired:

A bachelor's degree is required. Some exposure to public schools, community colleges and/or a university is desired. Experience in some aspect of workforce development is also desired. Experience in leading teams and managing budgets is required..

Personal Attributes Desired:

Seeking a hard driving, charismatic leader who doesn't mind undertaking a wide range of duties and tasks requiring a “startup” mindset. The successful leader will have humility, good interpersonal skills, emotional intelligence, strong character and strong communications skills. Some speaking and understanding Spanish would be very useful in this role. Must enjoy working with a diverse collection of people from various economic backgrounds, races, ethnicities, faith traditions, etc. The ideal candidate will have a passion for helping young people and a strong desire to serve others in society.

Compensation:

$125,000-$145,000 Base salary depending upon experience and background. An annual incentive payment opportunity of up to 20% of base salary. Traditional holidays and PTO are provided. A modest retirement program is also provided. A Flex Benefit allowance is paid in lieu of other benefits and non-reimbursable work expenses. The base salary may be adjusted in the future based upon annual reviews of performance, organizational growth and changes in the market..

Location of Work:

The majority of work requires in-person presence at the home office in Winchester, Virginia. Work with various partners, scholars, donors and staff may take place throughout Northern Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley. Some travel will be required as future plans may call for growth in other parts of Virginia and there will be some required work on nights and weekends.

Critical Factors Driving Success–Opportunity Scholars creates economic value by connecting hiring employers with new workers; where employers get the labor they need and the new workers get higher pay and career opportunities.

This exchange of value requires three things to drive success for Opportunity Scholars:

1. Building a network of businesses that will employ scholars in the career field they have chosen, often provide them with skills training leading to higher wage roles within the company, and paying OS for the connection process. This requires focusing on a few career categories and developing an employer network that offers jobs CLOSE TO the scholar's home and place of training/education at attractive pay levels.

2. Recruiting young people from low and middle income families that can be supported through the choice of a career, employment in that chosen area, and training/education that prepares them for well paying jobs. This requires recruitment of appropriately qualified young people in SIGNIFICANT VOLUMES to make OS a reliable, regular source of employees for partner businesses.

3. Accomplishing #1 and #2 above rapidly so that growth toward the minimum scale (estimated at 1,000 currently enrolled scholars) can be accomplished within the next 2-3 years. Achieving adequate scale is ESSENTIAL for two reasons: provide a credible track record needed to document the differentiating OS advantages (e.g. high level of retention after employment); and second, achieve a lower unit cost by spreading fixed cost and yielding adequate flow of referral fees to cover the OS operating costs.

These critical success factors lead OS to seek a leader whose skills and experience include the following:

Experience:

1. Work in a startup, rapidly growing organizations or entities.

2. Sales and development activities.

3. Transitioning a small organization into a medium sized organization

4. Selling into medium and large size businesses

5. Working with coaching/counseling activities and/or services delivery entity

6. Working with education entities (K-12, Comm College, skills training entities).

Capabilities;

1. Sales techniques and sales management tools and customer service systems

2. Basic IT tools familiarity

3. Team leadership

4. Culture management skills

5. Creative strategic thinking and continuous systems improvement

How to Apply:

Submit a resume to [email protected]