Employer Partnerships Director

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

FLSA Classification: Exempt 

Start Date: ASAP

About Braven

Braven is a national nonprofit that prepares promising college students to secure a strong first opportunity after college graduation through a career-accelerating program.

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, our ambition is to help rebuild the middle class and revitalize the American Dream.

To learn more, take a look at Braven’s 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 to build and manage relationships with employers in the government, law, education, nonprofit, health, media, and arts sectors. This person will play a pivotal role in expanding Braven's reach by overseeing partnerships that provide volunteers, revenue, and valuable opportunities for our Fellows, including competitive fellowship opportunities. This role requires someone who is highly innovative, entrepreneurial, and resourceful. You will continue to develop and refine the strategy and partnership framework for this set of partners, 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 these sectors and managing a portfolio of 20+ existing partners. This role is on the Employer Partnerships team and reports directly to the Head of Employer Partnerships.

What You’ll Do

Partnership Strategy & Cultivation (40%)

• Develop and implement a robust shared value partnership strategy for the government, law, education, nonprofit, health/pharma, media, fashion, and arts sectors 
• Proactively research a wide array of potential partners, develop cultivation plans, then leverage a relational approach to building and sustaining meaningful connections
• Use your strong communication skills to cultivate new partnerships, craft compelling pitches, negotiate strategic agreements, and renew existing partnerships
• Engage Braven’s CEO, Head of Employer Partnerships, and Executive Directors across 8 regions, setting behind-the-scenes vision and direction, then providing operational support to move partnerships forward toward successful outcomes
• Use data and trends to refine the strategy and make improvements to the partnership framework, prospecting strategy, and approach to cultivation

Deepening Existing Relationships (35%)

• Manage a portfolio of 45 high-stakes, shared-value partnerships and prospects, driving meaningful outcomes and growth in Braven's impact, including annual goal of $1M in revenue
• Focus on sourcing opportunities, including selective Fellowships, that align with the career goals of Braven Fellows, building partnerships with 30 recruiters rooted in shared value
• Identify and engage volunteers for mentoring programs and events, recruiting 100 mentors and coaches per year from your portfolio and collaborating on 15+ student workshops
• Develop and share internal memos that communicate the organization’s game plan for how we want to engage with each of the partners in your portfolio, then refine and iterate
• Ensure excellent customer service for key stakeholders ranging from internal executive sponsors to frontline points-of-contact at partner employers
• Use data and strategic storytelling to build and deepen relationships

Strategy & Operations (25%)

• Collaborate across internal departments, including with executive directors from Braven’s regions and multiple subject-matter experts, to align on a coordinated approach to shared-value relationships with your partners
• Manage efficient and smart systems and infrastructure (tracking our partnership pipeline, creating prospect research, leading national events)
• Other duties as assigned

Requirements

Minimum Requirements

• Work Experience: 5-7 years of experience managing partnerships with a track record of achieving ambitious outcomes.

Preferred Qualifications

• You have 2+ years of experience as an account manager or 2+ years of experience leading corporate partnerships for a nonprofit, and you're passionate about using your skills to make a lasting impact.
• You derive energy from relationship building with a variety of stakeholders, and have strong communication skills. 
• 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 excited to apply your strategic thinking, stellar storytelling, and organizational skills to support underrepresented college students through college and into strong jobs.
• You plan 2-3 months out and set others up for success. You love timelines and meeting agendas, and ensuring everyone is up to speed.
• You’re detail-oriented and have processes in place for checking and double-checking your work, and it’s rare for you to make detail-related errors, either with words (e.g., spelling) or numbers (e.g., data analysis). 
• You’re proactive, curious, resourceful, and enjoy solving problems; you 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 your impact.
• You appreciate constructive feedback and are eager to identify and discuss areas for growth, so that you can quickly learn and grow in them.
• Demonstrated commitment to building strong and welcoming cultures that help to develop others.
• Exemplification of Braven’s core values.
• Experience that has informed your belief in Braven’s mission and has prepared you to work with, or for, Braven’s student Fellow population.

Please know that no one ever meets 100% of the 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: 6-12 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

Benefits

Compensation and Benefits

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.

Starting salary within the range is determined by role scope and qualifications, with new hires starting at the lower end to allow for growth with performance. Braven does not base compensation on individual candidate salary expectations and is committed to maintaining internal equity. The salary ranges, by geographic market, for this role are set forth $87,200-$108,900 in Atlanta, $92,000-$114,900 in Chicago, $101,200-$126,400 in New Jersey/New York City.This is based on a 50-hour work week. This is a full-time, regular, exempt, and benefits eligible position where you will be working at 100% capacity.  

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)
• Braven supports your path to parenthood and beyond with $25,000 in lifetime Carrot benefits for fertility, family-building, and hormonal health
• 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

Please note that Braven is firm in its compensation philosophy; therefore, only candidates who believe our total rewards package aligns with what they are looking for in their next opportunity are encouraged to apply. 

Location

We gather in the office 3 days a week (Tuesday through Thursday) and work remotely 2 days a week (Monday and Friday). Therefore, this role requires teammates to live within commuting distance of one of our hubs: Atlanta, Chicago, New York City, or Newark. 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.

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.