Guild wants to increase economic mobility for working adults in America, providing education and support to help every student survive and thrive in the economy of tomorrow. We believe this is an important opportunity and a difficult one. In order to achieve our mission to serve more students and accelerate our growth, we recently raised a $21M Series B round with top tier investors including Bessemer Venture Partners, Redpoint Ventures, Social Capital, Harrison Metal, and Cowboy Ventures.

The Director of University Partnerships will manage a portfolio of university and academic partners and will take the lead on cross-functional management of these partnerships. We are looking for a committed relationship manager with excellent project management skills and enthusiasm for increasing student enrollment.

It’s the opportunity to create, innovate and test new ideas so that we have strong partnerships with our university partners and can move at the speed of business together. This leader needs to be the navigator that facilitates both business and university partners on the Guild platform.

A day in our open, collaborative workspace will look a little like this:

• Engaging directly with admissions directors, provosts, deans, and staff across our network of partners to manage the day-to-day partnership operations while planning and building for growth
• Connecting with Student Services, Finance, and Enterprise Sales/Client Success teams to collaboratively solve problems and identify areas of opportunity with academic partners
• Advocating for student enrollment, retention, and success with university partners and internal stakeholders
• Analyzing data to constantly improve admissions and retention policies and processes
• Overseeing relevant billing and financial operations in partnership with Guild’s Finance team
• Supporting the addition of new partners into the Guild consortium through project and launch coordination including tech and data integrations
• Coordinating marketing, enrollment, and coaching for new programs with existing partners
• Asking the questions that will help you help the team continuously improve our outcomes

In this role, you’ll bring skills and expand your expertise by:

• Taking on a cross-functional role that will expose you to the ins and outs of Guild
• Bringing university program management expertise into the mix while prototyping new strategies, iterating, and testing
• Showing leadership by solving unique, complex problems across our UP team and our corporate partnerships

You’ll know if you’re successful by:

• Achieving established enrollment and retention metrics
• Developing productive relationships with Guild’s university and academic partners by meeting deadlines, rapidly solving issues, and collaborating on opportunities for enrollment growth and improvement. We want to be our university favorite 3rd party partner
• Launching new programs to meet our corporate partners’ training needs
• Improving student acceptance, retention, and completion rates
• Launching new university and non-traditional partners and programs to meet growing client and student demands
• High NPS scores from our university and academic partners
• Receiving feedback through our learning-focused twice annual Structured Growth Conversations

You’ll join a team:

• Of experts with experience in government, higher education, and private sector partnerships
• Of learners & problem-solvers dedicated to our dual mission of changing education in America while building a successful, high-growth company
• Committed to building a diverse, equitable and inclusive environment that you’d support every day

What you’ll add to Guild - as an individual and part of the broader team:

• Passion for higher education and our mission
• An understanding of diverse project management principles, processes, methodologies, and tools paired with an ability to critically evaluate and implement the right options for each project
• Ability to successfully manage multiple complex, cross-functional projects at the same time
• Experience using analytical approaches to develop, measure and evolve processes
• Ability to develop strong relationships and communicate effectively while under pressure - balancing confidence, humility, and diplomacy internally and externally
• An understanding of the higher education and benefits landscape
• Evidence of your intellectual curiosity in the space - do you blog, tweet, speak or read everything that’s out there - tell us more!
• Leadership experience managing complex problems, processes, projects, and people
• A drive to work hard and a plan for how you can refresh and recharge while working in a startup
• Something else? Wonderful, we’re curious to learn more about you!