Our client - Across the Aisle, Director of Leadership Programs

Across the Aisle

Director of Leadership Programs

Washington D.C., in-person (5X a week)

About the Organization

Since 2016, our client, Across the Aisle™ — a nonpartisan, non-profit 501(c)(3) organization — has been providing young Americans (ages 14 to 35) with opportunities to learn, lead, and find bipartisan solutions to our country’s biggest challenges. They work with experts from both sides of the aisle to empower voters with reliable facts and a framework to make their own informed decisions. Their leadership programs identify and prepare students and early-career professionals from both parties for decision-making positions on Capitol Hill, in the executive branch, and in other public service roles. Across the Aisle's core policy areas include fiscal issues like the national debt and the federal budget, as well as entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare.

Position Description

We're partnering with our client, Across the Aisle, to hire a Director of Leadership Programs for its Answer the Call™ program to help them engage, educate, and empower the next generation of public policy leaders. The Director will manage a growing team of HQ-based staff, vendors, and remote consultants - and will serve a program cohort of over 200 undergraduates and more than 600 alumni.

The ideal candidate will have a proven track record of producing engaging programs from concept through execution, scaling operations to serve a national cohort, managing a young and diverse group of program participants and alumni, juggling multiple projects at once, and solving problems on the fly.

This job is perfect for someone who cares deeply about our country's future, enjoys helping emerging leaders reach their potential, and wants to provide pathways to public service for young Americans.

Strong preference will be given to candidates who:

• Are veterans and/or have experience providing educational programming or leadership training to veterans and/or members of the armed forces.
• Have higher education and program management experience at colleges or universities, nonprofits, or similar institutions.

Core Duties

Reporting directly to the Chief Operations Officer (COO), the Director of Leadership Programs will:

• Work with the COO to develop the department’s long-term strategic plan, including budgeting, staffing, objective setting, success metrics, program development, and geographic expansion.
• Manage a growing team located in Washington, D.C., overseeing and coordinating their work in admissions, on-campus programming, leadership training, and alumni programming.
• Manage a growing leadership program that serves more than 200 college and graduate students and over 600 alumni across the country.
• Build out leadership training and continuing engagement opportunities;
• Work with the Policy Department to refine and expand our educational curriculum and leadership training offerings;
• Work with the Events and Logistics Manager in the planning, production, and execution of in-person events that serve leadership participants and alumni, including: Orientation and Ambassador Weekends; Campus events; Virtual events; Educational programming and leadership initiatives that are currently in the pilot testing phase.
• Work closely with the Director of Communications and Marketing to identify content programming opportunities and promote existing projects and programs.
• Produce, host, and manage Across the Aisle events across the country.
• Represent Across the Aisle at key meetings with program partners, hosts, and participants.

Requirements

• A bachelor of arts degree in student affairs, hospitality, political science, public policy, communications, or a related field.
• 4 years of experience in higher education, program management, or a closely related field.
• Substantial knowledge of curriculum development, student affairs management, event planning logistics, and/or on-site staff management.
• Able to balance multiple projects simultaneously, delegate work effectively, meet deadlines, and work within established budgets.
• Able to travel 30% or more of the year, both locally and nationally.
• The flexibility to work evening hours and occasional weekends.
• Familiarity with the following software platforms is a plus: Slack, Google Workspace Suite, Asana, Hubspot, Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge, Zoom, Navan.
• Able to meet the demands of an on-site event environment:

Ability to remain in a stationary position for an extended period of time

Ability to lift and/or move boxes and equipment

Ability to position self under tables or stages, and/or lower self to floor

• Collaborative with a positive, solutions-oriented mindset and an ability to effectively represent the organization by engaging with others in an approachable, fair-minded, and accessible way that encourages discussion and engagement.

Colleague is an executive placement firm with a deep bench of highly motivated executives in the marketing/communications, government/public agency and nonprofit/NGO sectors. Based in NYC with a reach that extends across the U.S., our clients range from political policy and advocacy organizations to municipal authorities to museums to PR agencies and beyond. Learn more at colleaguetalent.com