Associate Director, Accelerator Operations
Braven · Chicago · $59,500–$63,900 (stated in the posting)
Job Title: Associate Director, Accelerator Operations
Team: Product - Accelerator Operations
Location: Hybrid in Atlanta (GA), Chicago (IL), New York (NYC), or Newark (NJ).
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.
About the Role
In order to achieve its ambition of serving 80,000-100,000 Fellows over the next decade, Braven is hiring an Associate Director, Accelerator Operations to own core tools and processes end-to-end and ensure operational readiness before launch of the Accelerator, Braven’s career-readiness credit-bearing course. You will set strategy for your domain by designing systems a semester or two in advance, managing rollout plans, training regional teammates, and holding readiness gate authority.
We build the maps, we teach people to read them, and we own the call on when something is ready to go. You'll own a piece of that.
In this role, you will oversee one to three operational domains that support the delivery of our Accelerator course. Domains are assigned based on the strengths you bring and where the team most needs depth, and fall into four general areas:
- Academic operations — grading systems and the tracking that flags students who need support before they fall behind
- Program delivery operations — logistics, staffing workflows, and execution standards behind live student sessions
- Student experience and compliance — onboarding communications, accessibility, accommodations, and data privacy
- Operational systems and knowledge management — workflow tooling, execution boards, and the documentation the team runs on
This role is on the Accelerator Operations team and reports directly to the Senior Director, Accelerator Enablement.
What You’ll Do
Product Ownership & Build (25%)
- Serve as product owner for the tools, processes, and protocols in your domain, designing them one to two semesters ahead of when they are needed
- Consistently consider where AI can be used to drive efficiency and effectiveness in our workflows
- Partner with multiple cross-functional teams to translate roadmap decisions into operational builds
Adoption & Enablement (30%)
- Roll out every tool and process you own with a documented adoption plan, a named support contact for every site, and a post-launch check-in
- Train and enable site execution teams through documentation, training, and wrap around supports
- Track adoption against an 80% fidelity standard, diagnose what is blocking it, and iterate, whether it’s a different tool, better training, or a simpler process
Readiness & Gate Authority (20%)
- Hold readiness gate authority for launches in your domain by defining what "ready" means, assess against it, and make the rollout recommendation
- Surface operational risk early, drive high-stakes issues to resolution, and document risk classification and mitigation when a launch proceeds without clearing the gate
Domain Oversight, Insight & Continuous Improvement (25%)
- Oversee one to three operational domains end-to-end, accountable for how well each one serves the site teams and Fellows
- Continuously gather qualitative and quantitative data on what is working and what is not: audits, QA checks, user feedback, and adoption and fidelity data across sites, and act on what it tells you
- Look around corners: pressure-test whether today's systems will hold as we scale, and surface opportunities for improvement before the problems surface on their own
- Maintain current Standard Operating Procedures in Confluence for every process you own
Other duties as assigned
Requirements
Minimum Requirements
- Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience
- 4-6 years of relevant professional experience in operations, program management, systems or data administration, or a closely related field
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience owning a tool, system, or process end-to-end as a product owner designing it, launching it, and remaining accountable for outcomes
- Demonstrated success driving adoption of a new tool or process across a distributed group of users, including the training and change management that leads to fidelity of use
- Proven ability to manage multiple concurrent work streams with excellent personal organization and follow-through in a fast-paced, ever-changing environment
- Track record of using qualitative and quantitative data to evaluate how well a process is working and to identify improvements before problems escalate
- Comfort making and holding a defensible "not ready" call, with evidence, in front of stakeholders at different levels of altitude
- Strong functional expertise in process and QA design, data integrity, and documentation, with fluency in workflow systems such as Jira, Salesforce, Asana, Claude, Gemini, Slack, etc.
- Fluency using AI tools to reduce manual work in operational workflows, or clear appetite to build that capability
- Ability to solve moderately complex and ambiguous problems with a systems lens, and sound judgment about when to escalate
- Highly skilled at leading laterally, influencing peers and senior stakeholders across functions without direct authority
- 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 preferred qualifications. If much of this describes you, we encourage you to apply.
Work Demands
- Ability to work in-person in Atlanta (GA), Chicago (IL), New York City (NYC), or Newark (NJ) 3 days per week
- Access to internet
- Occasional evening and weekend support, concentrated around launch and program delivery windows (approximately 10 times per year)
- Occasional travel, approximately 2-3 weeks per year
Additional Requirements
- Authorized to work in the U.S.
- Braven doesn’t offer employment visa sponsorship
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
Total Rewards
Braven provides competitive, comprehensive benefits, recognition, and career development. While Braven reserves the right to change benefits at any time, current benefits include:
- Discretionary time off in addition to org-wide holidays and 2 week-long shutdowns in July and December (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
- Monthly $75 reimbursement for cell phone or internet
- Access to funding for continued career development
Compensation
Braven offers opportunities for salary growth over time. We believe in compensating staff members fairly relative to one another, their qualifications, and their impact on the organization, and we take internal and external equity seriously. Given our commitment to equity, Braven does not negotiate salary offers; instead, each offer is carefully determined using external and internal benchmarks.
The hiring range is determined by role scope, qualifications, and internal equity, with annual growth based on performance. Braven does not base compensation on individual candidate salary expectations and is committed to maintaining internal equity. The hiring ranges for this role by geographic market are set forth as $59,500-$63,900 in Atlanta, $62,700-$67,300 in Chicago, and $69,000-$74,100 in Newark and 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.
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.