Mandarin-English Bilingual Business Development & Education Partnerships Consultant – HOUSTON

Special A is a premium education consulting firm focused on helping students gain admission to top U.S. universities through personalized planning, academic enrichment, and long-term educational strategy. We work closely with students and families across undergraduate and graduate admissions, research opportunities, competitions, summer programs, internship planning, and other academic-development services.

This is a Houston-based role. Applicants must be based in the Greater Houston area or able to reliably participate in local Houston meetings, partnership development, client engagement, and events. Professional fluency in both Mandarin Chinese and English is required.

Special A is seeking a full-time Mandarin-English Bilingual Business Development & Education Partnerships Consultant to help grow our Houston market as we expand local channel partnerships beginning this fall.

This is a highly client-facing, relationship-driven position focused on introducing Special A’s services to prospective families, developing local referral and channel relationships, supporting client acquisition, and strengthening Special A’s presence in the Houston education community.

The ideal candidate can build trust with Chinese and international families and translate their educational needs into appropriate Special A services.

Direct sales experience is strongly preferred, but candidates with relevant education, partnership development, client-facing, or marketing experience may also be considered when that experience clearly demonstrates transferable business-development skills.

Key Responsibilities

• Conduct direct outreach and client-acquisition activities throughout the Greater Houston area.
• Identify, engage, qualify, and convert prospective families and referral leads.
• Develop relationships with schools, education organizations, community groups, professional networks, and other potential channel partners.
• Understand prospective families’ educational goals and communicate relevant Special A services clearly and accurately.
• Manage follow-up communication, relationship development, client onboarding, and sales-pipeline activity.
• Support the development of Special A’s Houston channel partnerships.
• Assist with local seminars, parent workshops, education fairs, presentations, and other community-facing events.
• Gather local market intelligence and identify new opportunities for client acquisition and partnership growth.
• Represent Special A professionally in meetings with families, partners, and community organizations.
• Collaborate with internal leadership on lead generation, client conversion, market development, and Houston growth strategy.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or higher.
• Professional fluency in Mandarin Chinese and English.
• Based in the Greater Houston area or able to reliably participate in Houston-based client and partnership activities.
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills, particularly in family-facing or relationship-driven environments.
• Ability to build trust quickly with prospective clients and partners.
• Strong follow-through, responsiveness, organization, and client-management skills.
• Ability to understand client needs and communicate educational services and recommendations clearly.
• Comfortable working in a results-oriented environment with measurable business-development and outreach goals.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in business development, consultative sales, partnership development, education consulting, admissions-related services, or high-touch client services.
• Experience working with Chinese families, international students, or cross-cultural client populations.
• Familiarity with U.S. and Chinese education systems.
• Existing relationships within the Greater Houston education, Chinese-American, international-family, or professional community.
• Experience with local outreach, presentations, parent-facing events, education fairs, or community partnerships.
• Previous experience converting prospective clients or managing a business-development pipeline.
• Graduation from a highly selective U.S. university is a plus, but not required.

Transferable Marketing Experience

Candidates with marketing backgrounds may be considered when their experience includes direct business-development functions such as:

• Lead generation and client acquisition
• Partnership development
• Community outreach
• Relationship management
• CRM or pipeline management
• Sales enablement
• Conversion-focused campaigns
• Client-facing presentations or events
• Referral-network development

Experience focused solely on content creation, social media management, branding, or general digital marketing without client-acquisition or relationship-development responsibilities is less aligned with this position.

Core Strengths for Success in This Role

• Relationship builder
• Confident and polished communicator
• Culturally fluent across U.S. and Chinese family contexts
• Goal-oriented and entrepreneurial
• Organized and responsive
• Comfortable initiating new relationships
• Able to balance outreach, client follow-up, sales, and long-term relationship development

Work Structure

• Full-time
• Houston, Texas-based
• Significant local outreach, client-facing activity, and partnership development
• May include a combination of remote administrative work and in-person Houston-area meetings/events
• Responsibilities may evolve as Special A’s Houston partnerships and client base expand

Compensation

• Competitive base salary
• Commission structure
• Performance bonuses
• Final compensation to be determined based on experience, fit, and organizational priorities

This role supports Special A’s Houston business development, sales, partnership, and family-facing growth efforts and works closely with internal leadership on lead generation, client conversion, relationship development, and local market expansion.