Senior Associate Partner

Summary

Join Bellwether as a Senior Associate Partner and leverage your policy expertise, project leadership, and people management skills to help young people achieve fulfilling lives. You will bring a nuanced understanding of education issues, strong analytical and writing skills, and a robust network in the education field. This role requires expertise in postsecondary finance and pathways policy, particularly at the state level, and involves managing projects, advising clients, representing Bellwether externally, and supporting business development. You will supervise and mentor team members, advance organizational priorities, and cultivate strong relationships with leaders in the field. The position offers a competitive salary, benefits package, and the opportunity to work remotely with approximately 20%-30% travel.

Requirements

• An understanding of the educational challenges and disparities facing underserved students in the United States, and a demonstrated interest in postsecondary finance and pathways issues
• Required expertise across at least one of the postsecondary finance and pathways topics as described above and ideally demonstrated across multiple roles of increasing seniority. At least one of these roles must have required providing strategic direction and facilitating the execution of activities and deliverables focused on moving a policy issue through the policy process in a state, federal, or national context
• Demonstrated strong leadership skills; ability to attract, build, mentor, coach, and direct a high-performing, cohesive team
• Significant experience leading complex projects and teams to successful outcomes, including managing client engagements and relationships
• Experience supporting business development and revenue generation, which could include contracting, proposal writing, scoping, and budgeting
• A commitment to transforming education to ensure students furthest from opportunity achieve outcomes that lead to fulfilling lives and flourishing communities
• Ability to model a high degree of reflection and self-awareness, build trusted relationships across lines of difference, and seek out and respond to perspectives different from one’s own
• Comfort with representing an organization externally at convenings and in public-facing writing
• Experience fostering client relationships, including: Asking probing questions of clients to identify their underlying needs beyond their stated requirements
• Proactively developing a deep understanding of the client’s context and opportunities to provide appropriate analysis and recommendations
• Bringing a solutions mindset and a bias for action to the work
• Aligning processes with those of the client to make it easier to work together
• Uncovering and addressing the root causes that may be impacting client success
• An excellent track record of leading people, including: Leveraging strong project management skills to ensure a common understanding of goals, objectives, and processes; communicating clearly and delegating authority and accountability to the team as appropriate
• Setting up forums or practices to reinforce independent and open communication among team members at various levels, and effectively managing up, down, and laterally
• Giving a team broad visibility inside an organization and publicly recognizing the accomplishments of individuals and of the group
• Coaching team members in various roles to support their growth and development

Responsibilities

• Serve as project lead and/or project manager for a portfolio of Bellwether’s education policy work, sustaining and growing its best-in-class advising work and field-facing presence. In particular, this role will have a significant focus on postsecondary finance and pathways issues
• Relevant topics include: State Postsecondary Finance — State funding policies supporting two- and four-year public institutions, including perspectives on opportunities for improvement to current state approaches in service of goals around student and institutional equity, adequacy, and value
• State Financial Aid — Policies and programs providing assistance to help students address the costs of postsecondary attendance, including perspectives on opportunities to address the diverse and changing needs of postsecondary students
• Postsecondary Value and Improvement — State approaches to increasing value for students across higher education institutions and programs, including perspectives on opportunities to facilitate improvement
• Postsecondary Student Success — Approaches to identifying and supporting student success in meeting goals for academic progress, completing degrees and credentials, and entering into a career
• Transitions From High School to Postsecondary Pathways — Policies related to early postsecondary opportunities, such as dual enrollment or transfer between higher education institutions
• Advise senior client executives and build strong ownership across client teams
• Represent Bellwether externally (as appropriate to expertise), including, but not limited to, speaking at conferences, participating on panels, and field-facing commentary beyond project-based work (e.g., op-eds, Bellwether’s website, etc.)
• Support business and client development efforts, initially serving as a co-seller with other members of the leadership team, with the expectation of growing more self-directed business development over time. This may include projects cross-staffed with Bellwether’s Evaluation and Strategic Advising practices
• Supervise and manage members of the Policy team and provide coaching, professional development, and mentorship of staff members at various levels
• Advance Bellwether’s organizational priorities and contribute to the execution of its strategic plan, including facilitating ongoing cross-organization efforts to continue growing our depth and breadth of knowledge and expertise in postsecondary education-related topics, a priority defined in our current strategic plan
• Develop, sustain, and enhance relationships with senior executives, funders, and other leaders in the field
• Cultivate a culture in which Bellwether’s team and work benefit from the open exchange of questions and ideas in the service of thoughtful, relevant analyses that advance excellent and equitable outcomes

Benefits

• The base salary range for this role for incoming team members is $165,250 to $190,000 annually, with eligibility for an annual performance bonus targeted at $23,750 based on individual and organizational success
• Bellwether provides competitive compensation and an attractive benefits package that includes a performance bonus based on individual and firm success, health care coverage, and a 401(k) plan with matching employer contributions