Youth Development Specialist, Alpha - $100,000/year USD

• $100,000 annual W2 compensation paid weekly; comprehensive health, dental, and vision coverage from day one
• On-site placement at an Alpha K-8 campus located in Denver, CO; Atlanta, GA; Oklahoma City, OK; Tulsa, OK; Nashville, TN; Austin, TX; Brownsville, TX; Fort Worth, TX; Houston, TX (Central, South, or The Woodlands); Park City, UT (Salt Lake City metro); or Toronto, Canada (relocation assistance available)
  
  

Your role is not instruction. Your role is motivation.

The most meaningful support you can offer a student who reaches 99% of their target is to refuse to accept anything less than completion. If that expectation feels unreasonable, this role is not for you. If it resonates because maintaining high standards is how you demonstrate belief in a student's capability, read on.

At Alpha, academic learning occurs through AI-driven applications. No traditional lessons. No printed materials. You will spend half your day facilitating one-hour life-skills sessions covering topics like public speaking, concentration, and constructive feedback. The other half is dedicated to individual and small-group coaching, analyzing student progress via Coachbot data, and ensuring each learner reaches 100% of their weekly application targets. You will not follow a rigid script—workshop frameworks provide a foundation, but top performers customize them and create new content when needed.

Success in any given quarter means every student in your group completes their weekly app objectives, demonstrates mastery on the Test2Pass for all life-skills modules, and 90% or more report a positive relationship with you. Falling short on any of these three metrics means the role's expectations have not been met. Your first year is about mastering the system; as you demonstrate the ability to uphold standards, you become eligible for Lead Guide, where you mentor new team members while continuing direct student work.

If you prefer conventional classroom teaching, require fully developed curricula, or view warmth and rigor as incompatible, this position will not suit you. If your background includes athletic coaching, camp leadership, tutoring where you refused to let students give up, or performing for young audiences, the final interview stage is a full day on campus working with actual Alpha students. If that prospect excites you most, submit your application now.

What You Will Be Doing

• Facilitating one-hour life-skills sessions for K-8 groups on subjects including public speaking, focus, feedback, and other foundational competencies, customizing the framework and creating new modules when you identify missing elements
• Conducting daily individual and small-group coaching sessions that drive every student toward 100% completion of their weekly app targets, leveraging Coachbot data, Alpha's motivational structures (campus currency, performance rankings), and your personal connection with each child to overcome resistance
• Delivering the Test2Pass (Alpha's mastery assessment) for each life skill, then coaching any student who does not pass until mastery is achieved
• Adjusting your approach across a broad developmental range, from kindergarteners requiring high energy and physical activity to eighth graders needing direct conversation and personal accountability
• Serving as the adult who maintains standards and the adult students trust; earning trust through warmth gives you the authority to challenge, and challenging demonstrates your confidence in their potential
  
  

What You Won’t Be Doing

• Delivering content at a board; academic instruction is embedded in the applications, not delivered by you
• Building curriculum from the ground up; your job is to animate an established framework with presence and narrative skill
• Passively monitoring students on devices; motivation in this role is hands-on, personalized, and continuous
• Reducing a weekly target to make it easier for a student to reach; when a student falls behind, the solution involves supporting the student, not adjusting the goal
• Assigning grades, preparing for standardized assessments, or handling parent outreach; Campus Leads manage family communication, and the other tasks are not part of this model
  
  

Youth Development Specialist Key Responsibilities

Drive every student in your K-8 group to complete their weekly learning targets, achieve mastery in each life skill, and finish the year reporting a strong, positive relationship with you.

Basic Requirements

• Available to work on-site at an Alpha campus in Denver, CO; Atlanta, GA; Oklahoma City, OK; Tulsa, OK; Nashville, TN; Austin, TX; Brownsville, TX; Fort Worth, TX; Houston, TX (Central, South, or The Woodlands); Park City, UT; or Toronto, Canada (relocation assistance available)
• Bachelor's degree in any discipline
• Minimum 3 years of direct experience working with K-8 students (including classroom instruction, coaching, tutoring, camp leadership, or youth program management)
• A concrete example you can articulate of motivating a K-8 student toward a challenging objective: the objective itself, your actions, and the result
• Comfort allowing AI to manage instructional delivery while you concentrate on motivation and life-skills development
• Regular use of generative AI platforms (such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude)
• Authorization to work in the United States without requiring visa sponsorship (or in Canada for the Toronto location)
  
  

Nice-to-have Requirements

• Background in youth sports coaching, debate programs, camp direction, theater, or after-school initiatives where you held direct responsibility for motivating children toward defined outcomes
• Demonstrated personal achievement (academic, athletic, or career-related) that reflects a consistent pattern of holding yourself and others to high standards
• Communication and performance skills sufficient to engage a room of 12-year-olds for an hour without needing to escalate your voice
• History of converting unmotivated or reluctant students into engaged, active learners
  
  

About Alpha

Want to join a learning rebellion that’s transforming the traditional classroom?

Alpha School is on a mission to reshape education with a bold approach that harnesses AI to accelerate learning and unleash student potential.

They don’t play by the old rules.

Alpha is creating a new paradigm where students master core academics in just two hours a day, freeing up time for hands-on, passion-driven learning that truly prepares them for the real world.

Alpha School is rewriting the rules of education.

Sounds too good to be true? It’s not.

There is so much to cover for this exciting role, and space here is limited. Hit the Apply button if you found this interesting and want to learn more. We look forward to meeting you!

Working with us

This is a full-time (40 hours per week), long-term position. The position is immediately available and requires entering into an independent contractor agreement with Crossover as a Contractor of Record. The compensation level for this role is $50 USD/hour, which equates to $100,000 USD/year assuming 40 hours per week and 50 weeks per year. The payment period is weekly. Consult www.crossover.com/help-and-faqs for more details on this topic.

Crossover Job Code: LJ-4415-US-Atlanta-YouthDevelopme.014