Managing Director, Coaching

The Organization: Merit America

The American economy is broken. Today 53 million working adults–nearly half of the U.S. workforce–do not earn a living wage. And these talented workers have few options to advance: college is too long and expensive, full-time bootcamp programs don't offer enough flexibility, and online courses don't have the structure or support to translate learning into a new career. The result? Talented workers, disproportionately people of color and women, get stuck in low-wage roles with no way to build a better life for themselves and their families.

Merit America is a national nonprofit that creates pathways to family-sustaining careers for Americans stuck in low-wage work. Our fast, flexible solutions are built for working adults: we start by analyzing tens of millions of job postings to identify in-demand, high-paying tech careers and then work with industry-recognized partners to train for these roles with part-time programs that combine flexible online learning with best-in-class coaching. Finally, we work with a broad constellation of local and national employers like JPMorgan Chase and Infosys to place learners into higher-earning, family-sustaining jobs, driving an average wage gain of $24k three months or more after completing the program. Merit America is on a mission to build a scalable pathway for workers to join the middle class through merit, not money. We're on track to generate $1B in wage gains by 2025.

About the Role:

As a Managing Director on the Program team, you will play a pivotal role in ensuring Merit America's learning tracks' success, scalability, and impact. As part of the Program leadership team, you will maximize job outcomes for our learners, drive innovation and continuous improvement, collaborate across functions, ensure operational and model scalability with ambitious growth targets, analyze data to prioritize focus areas and equip the largest team at Merit America with everything they need to thrive.

The Managing Director, Coaching position is an exempt role and will report directly to Ryan Ouellette, Chief Program Officer. You will primarily work with the Program and Experience Design teams but will frequently partner with multiple functional areas at Merit America. The role requires collaboration across functions during ongoing change, data-driven decision-making with a proven track record of success, a commitment to our mission and values, and the ability to develop high-level strategy while also understanding day-to-day operations.

What You'll be Doing:

As the Managing Director, Coaching, you'll be responsible for leading the entire coaching delivery team at Merit America, supervising 3-5 Program Directors. The coaching experience includes foundational skills development to career placement. You'll lead large teams to deliver programs, ensuring all learners, regardless of background, are well-equipped for success through coaching and support. Partnering with cross-functional teams, you'll continuously improve the program and maintain high standards for virtual coaching across all tracks. As the organization grows, you'll also oversee and adjust the programmatic staffing model. The responsibilities of the MD, Coaching will include but are not limited to:

Program Strategy and Leadership: 40%

• Serve as a key member of the Program leadership team, developing and implementing a strategic plan to serve 10k learners annually with over $1 billion in wage gains
• Manage and improve assigned functional areas, designing and implementing processes that ensure programmatic impact and operational excellence
• Develop and manage staffing and operational budget for assigned programmatic area, ensuring efficient allocation of resources to achieve desired outcomes
• Utilize data analytics to assess program performance, identify areas for improvement, and make informed decisions to optimize program outcomes
• Establish and implement mechanisms for ongoing program evaluation, providing regular reports to the Chief Program Officer and other Merit America leaders
• Continue to refine and develop a project management and innovation framework that encourages experimentation, piloting, broad-based staff engagement, and continuous improvement in service of improving curriculum, coaching, or operations at scale
  
  

Cross-Functional Collaboration and Guidance: 30%

• Collaborate with leaders from other departments regularly to make joint decisions that impact our program, staff, and learners, ensuring alignment with program strategies and priorities
• Cooperate with cross-functional teams to identify areas for improvement in processes, systems, and workflows, spearheading projects or OKR teams
• Act as a liaison between programmatic teams, establishing shared communication channels and meeting cadences that provide Program employees with a sustainable and accessible source of information
• Implement cross-training programs as appropriate to enhance the skills and knowledge of team members in service of reaching interdependent objectives
  
  

People Leadership: 30%

• Oversee a team of 3-5 direct reports with 20-100 indirect reports
• Foster a culture of innovation within the team, encouraging creative problem-solving and the exploration of new ideas, methodologies, or technologies to enhance performance
• Ensure that all Program team staff have the knowledge, skills, and abilities to thrive in their role, partnering to develop training programs and mentorship opportunities to cultivate the growth and leadership of team members
• Create and implement a succession planning strategy to identify and prepare high-potential employees for advanced roles
• Manage the assigned teams' performance review, career pathway, and OKR development process, establishing a culture that values 2-way feedback, recognizes achievements, and fosters a positive and growth-oriented work environment
• Promote diversity and inclusion within the team by implementing initiatives that support a diverse and equitable workplace
• Design scalable staffing structures that adapt as the organization experiences rapid growth
  
  

What Makes a Successful Candidate:

We recognize that individuals from marginalized backgrounds, including women, people of color, and those with disabilities, are often less likely to apply when they don't meet 100% of the job qualifications. Don't let that be the reason you miss out on this opportunity! We want to emphasize that your unique skills, experiences, and perspectives are valuable, and we encourage you to apply if you can demonstrate many of the skills and competencies. Below are the skills that are relevant for thriving in this role:

Must Haves:

• Management experience with more than one layer of direct reports
• Ability to navigate and lead cross-functional teams through multi-step change management initiatives
• Strong track record of data-driven decision-making that has led to positive outcomes in improving program performance and learner outcomes
• Comfortable utilizing a wide variety of platforms and tools (Gmail, Slack, Sheets, Slides, etc.)
• Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal, with the ability to clearly and concisely explain complex operational processes to multiple teams and across lines of difference
• Operational excellence with the creation of efficient and replicable processes
• Organizational skills; process thinker with a constant lens of continuous improvement and development
• Demonstrated growth mindset with a track record of personal development and two-way feedback with direct reports
• Committed to Merit America's mission to pave pathways to family-sustaining careers, break the poverty cycle, and create upward mobility for low-wage workers
• Demonstrated history of embodying our values, which inform our work and drive our organization's culture
• Shared sense of responsibility and ownership for our collective work in making a positive impact on the community we support, true to our value of Win & Lose Together
• Committed to continuous learning and growth in understanding and addressing issues of diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice
• Passionate about fostering a workplace culture that embraces and values individual differences, aligned with our core value of inclusivity
  
  

Nice to Have:

• Proven interest and previous experience with education, counseling, youth development, non-profits, or other mission-driven work
• Familiarly working in an all-virtual environment
• Commitment to lifelong learning and ongoing personal and professional development
  
  

Other Logistics

• This position is full-time: 4-day work week (Fridays are an operating day if there is a holiday closure during the week)
• Location: Remote
• Salary: $160,612
  
  

Our goal is to have competitive and equitable compensation. We have a market-based compensation approach which means that we benchmark each role from reputable data sources. We compare our benchmarks against similarly sized non-profit organizations with comparable annual budgets and geographical areas. We pay the same rate for the same roles and adjust to comply with statutory mandates.

We take care of our employees by providing the following perks and benefits:

• 4-day work week (Fridays are an operating day if there is a holiday closure during the week)
• Medical, Dental and Vision insurance (100% Paid Employee Only Coverage)
• Flexible Spending Account and Health Savings Account
• Dependent care Flexible Spending Account
• Health Reimbursement Account fully funded by Merit
• Education reimbursement & personal development stipend
• Short and long-term disability
• Unlimited vacation (after a 90-day introductory period)
• Paid Parental Leave and Adoption benefits (after 1 year of employment)
• 11 federally recognized holidays
• 1 week office closure in July (week of July 4th)
• 2 week holiday office closure in December/January
• 401(k) retirement plan with automatic Merit contribution
• Wellness Benefits/Wellness Resources
• Discount perks at work program
• Phone/technology stipend
• Home office setup stipend
  
  

Remote Work & Sponsorship

Candidates must reside within the 50 states or District of Columbia and have full authorization to work in the 50 U.S. states & the District of Columbia (international work abroad, including the U.S. territories (Puerto Rico, Guam, U.S. Virgin Islands, and other islands are excluded). In addition, Merit America doesn't offer employment visa sponsorship.

Equal Opportunity Statement

Building an inclusive, high-performing team that is diverse across lines of personal identity is integral to our success and we are proud to be an equal opportunity employer.

This means we do not discriminate against any job applicant or employee because of their race, ethnicity, color, religion, national origin, sex, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws. This applies to all terms and conditions of employment.

We actively strive and evolve to develop and maintain workspaces that are fully inclusive. We encourage candidates from underrepresented groups to apply.

Still excited about our work? You can learn more about our work in this video we made with our founding partner, Google.

E-Verify Statement

This employer participates in E-Verify and will provide the federal government with your Form I-9 information to confirm that you are authorized to work in the U.S. If E-Verify cannot confirm that you are authorized to work, this employer is required to give you written instructions and an opportunity to contact Department of Homeland Security (DHS) or Social Security Administration (SSA) so you can begin to resolve the issue before the employer can take any action against you, including terminating your employment. Employers can only use E-Verify once you have accepted a job offer and completed the I-9 Form.