ROLE TITLE: Director, Early Engagement Program Recruitment

POSITION REPORTS TO: Managing Director, Early Lead Generation

APPLICATION DEADLINE: June 9th at 11:59pm EST

LOCATION: Midwest-based (Detroit, Ohio (Cleveland/Columbus), Chicago, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, or Minneapolis)

WHAT YOU’LL DO

Teach For America seeks a Director, Early Engagement Program Recruitment (DPR) who will lead engagement strategies for undergraduates in a region, generating interest and awareness of educational inequity, influencing brand, and building the movement for educational equity amongst communities of leaders.

Each Director, Program Recruitment will work with campaigns in their region to lead undergraduate engagement strategy. They will design and execute experiences that generate awareness of the movement for educational equity and build accurate knowledge regarding Teach For America’s role in addressing this issue.

The DPR will directly recruit for Teach For America and its partner programs which hire undergraduate talent (Ex: Teach For America’s Ignite Fellowship, TFA Impact, Breakthrough Collaborative, Jumpstart, etc.). In addition to managing program recruitment campaigns, they will be responsible for building a diverse, engaged pipeline of undergraduates who are drawn to the Teach For America mission and are eager to connect with the campus’s junior and senior year recruiters.

DPRs leverage their strengths in influencing and motivating others, using levers such as events, marketing campaigns (e.g. word-of-mouth strategies, social media, etc.), and relationships with key stakeholders and organizations (e.g. Residence Life, Orientation teams, etc.) to draw undergraduates towards Teach For America. In order to achieve their goals, they should expect heavy travel at times, leveraging high impact trips to college campuses to maximize recruitment opportunities. They will also work with regions and central teams, particularly those on Recruitment Enablement and Marketing Innovation (REMI) to inform and develop content and key messaging that will improve brand recognition, accurate internalization of the TFA mission, and deepen conviction about the urgency of the issue of educational inequity over time.

WHAT YOU’LL BE RESPONSIBLE FOR

An individual in this role will utilize the following skills and execute the following responsibilities:

Setting Vision and Direction: (10%)

• Develop vision for undergraduate strategy that reflects a thorough understanding of a portfolio’s landscape, brand health, and reflections captured from multiple years of campaigns leading in to Early Admission

• Develop recruitment strategy based on regional context (backwards planning tactics across RCAs, mobilizing existing leads to take part in programs, leveraging marketing and events, etc.) for undergraduates that encompasses existing programs (e.g., Ignite), new programs (e.g., TFA Impact), and prototype programs (e.g., Future Forward).

• Collaborate with teammates to steward strong prospect journeys through generation strategies (e.g., presentations, social media, career fairs, etc.) and nurturing strategies (e.g., hosting networking events, mixers, virtual events, etc.) to create robust pipelines across RCAs

Building Relationships and Networks: (20%)

• Leverage campus knowledge to inform partnerships with internal RT and org-wide teams (such as Marketing, Regions, REMI, etc.), by identifying the most effective use for their resources, initiatives or pilots.

• Manage and audit the building of a well-sourced pipeline of diverse and competitive underclassmxn alongside recruiters and Ambassador(s)/temp staff that can be revised and segmented throughout the season to provide for targeted and informed outreach.

• Collaborate with others to understand campaign networks and build campaign power maps (e.g. freshmen orientation, residence life, CSO/First-Generation office programming, etc.), analyzing the web of relationships to identify strong candidates to meet, potential influencers, and other pockets of potential.

• Identify and build authentic relationships with key stakeholders within a market/campus, including top leaders, faculty, organizational leaders, etc. Invest and galvanize them to execute influencer strategy, building a diverse coalition of support, and creating more favorable campus landscapes.

Influencing Others to Achieve Outcomes: (30%)

• Manage laterally across multiple layers of the broader cohort, communicating trends, next steps and informed rationale in order to collaborate with and, at times, compel teammates towards a specified campaign strategy.

• Lead the programmatic recruitment, marketing, and overall operational needs for virtual and in person events that build knowledge of the issue of educational inequity, a clear understanding of the mission and vision of Teach For America, and how attendees can continue to engage with the organization

• Leverage existing information about leads to strategize around their prospect journey, including developing a plan for how/when to prioritize them in program recruitment, how that outreach can be tailored and personalized for the most compelling effect, and what learning can be gathered in that attempt.

• Leverage existing program opportunities on campus (e.g., career fairs), regional events (e.g., school visits), virtual events (e.g., equity talks), and/or develop new events in order to execute strategic outreach or leverage RT programming (e.g. Lead Nurture Journeys) to prospects

• Share context and other key pieces of information with individuals that are grounded in the perspectives and experiences of the communities we serve, reflect the prospect beliefs, and inspire and engage the prospect to think more critically on their role in addressing the systemic barriers contributing to educational inequity. Engagements incorporate centralized levers and influencers, and reflect a high degree of interpersonal awareness

Operating, Planning, and Executing: (10%)

• Plan and execute high impact days on campus by organizing communications, planning events, and maximizing the return on investment by pulling a variety of strategic levers (career fairs, flyering, presentations, faculty meetings, etc.) based on the campus context

• Routinely execute data quality involving lead nurture tactics, including consistently inviting existing leads to upcoming programming, adding leads to automated journeys, and accurately leveraging tech softwares (Yesware, Groove, TFACT, etc.)

• Lead the design, execution, and overall operations for campaign events or projects through exemplary attention to detail and by prioritizing, benchmarking and distributing the work among the team, including recruiters and part-time staff.

• Organize and maximize the use of existing resources and various internal teams (SPO, Early Engagement, REMI, Regional Staff) in planning to promote integration, maximize impact and optimize the strengths of the RT.

Reasoning and Strategic Thinking/Learning and Continuously Improving: (30%)

• Use quantitative and qualitative data to correctly identify the opportunity or challenge for a given strategy.

• Consistently leverage learning results from successes and failures that are conclusive, specific, and evidence-based to make pivots for campaigns and to inform sub-team/cohort innovation and/or strategy.

• Test recruitment tactics for new and evolving programs and Teach For America partnered programs (e.g. Breakthrough), collect learnings, and utilize the learnings to inform future recruitment strategy

A WEEK IN THE LIFE

Weeks vary based on context and needs of the campaign. Every week, a Director of Program Recruitment will spend time executing lead generation and lead nurture strategies either in person on a college campus or virtually. If they are executing virtual tactics, then they are sending outreach to faculty, staff, and students to coordinate events or drive attendance to upcoming events. If they are executing tactics on a college campus, then they are engaging with students at various types of events. They will meet with their direct managers and teammates to review and analyze data and laterally manage recruiters on the next steps across campaigns. They will also strategically seek out and use various levers to improve Teach For America’s overall brand on each campus.

YOUR EXPERIENCE

Prior Experience

• At least 2 to 4 years of professional work experience.

• Teach For America recruitment experience is strongly preferred.

• Demonstrated ability to work effectively and with cultural competence across diverse groups.

• Experience working with database programs and software preferred (e.g. Microsoft Excel, Outlook, Salesforce)

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Demonstrates strengths in operating, planning, and execution, and gets energy from the design and execution of key recruitment strategies (e.g. events, meetings, career fairs, etc.) to draw prospects towards Teach For America.

• Approaches new programs and event types geared towards undergraduate audiences with enthusiasm and an eagerness to test strategies and record learnings

• Verbally communicates thoughts and ideas clearly and succinctly, often in a way that captures the attention of the intended audience. They can modify their approach to fit 1:1 interactions, small group discussions, or larger, full-scale events.

• Demonstrates strong interpersonal awareness and deep listening skills to build an informed hypothesis of a potential partner’s motivations and barriers.

• Always seeks to grow and improve. They reflect on successes/failures, seek feedback, incorporate feedback immediately to improve, ask for the help or resources they need to be successful, and assume personal responsibility.

• Proactively engages in individual and collective Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) developments, building context, knowledge and skills to inform a personal vision for DEI growth, individual development goals, and aligned action steps.

• Enjoys building strong working relationships and maintaining open, two-way communication with colleagues (within this role, key stakeholders include corps recruiters and regional staff).

• Skilled at identifying opportunities and barriers within a given strategy; can work with agility to adjust strategy from week to week in order to achieve overarching team goals.

Requirements

• Regular travel is required; Ability to travel to various locations across their region 25-35% of the time (approximately 2-3 times per month / 1-2 overnight trips per month during the peak recruitment season)

• Some evening and weekend work is expected

YOUR FUTURE TEAM

Teach For America’s Recruitment Team (RT) is charged with recruiting a high-quality, diverse, and large corps that fuels the broader movement towards educational equity across our placement regions. In this pursuit, the Recruitment Team engages with leaders across college campuses and professional career sectors to discuss the challenges of educational inequity in the nation and inspire them to choose the corps as a means of expanding opportunities for kids and building a long-term commitment to social equity. Teach For America’s Commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusiveness is reflected in all aspects of our work and culture, as we actively seek to de-center aspects of white dominant culture and traditional archetypes of “strong” recruiters. The RT seeks to ensure all team-wide actions and initiatives reflect this lens of equity, and ultimately support team members to lean into their own strengths and passions as they seek to build a truly diverse corps.

YOUR COMPENSATION:

The applicable salary range for each U.S.-based role is based on where the employee works and is aligned to one of 3 tiers according to a cost of labor index in that geographic area. Starting pay for the successful applicant will depend on a variety of job-related factors, which may include education, training, experience, location, business needs, or market demands. New hires are typically brought into the organization at a salary between the range minimum and the salary range midpoint depending on qualifications, internal equity, and the budgeted amount for the role. The expected salary ranges for this role are set forth below. These ranges may be modified in the future.

Tier A: $77,100 - $99,300

Tier B: $84,000 - $108,300

Tier C: $90,900 - $117,200

You can see which Tier you belong to here. If you do not see your location listed, click here for additional total rewards information.

NEXT STEPS

In lieu of a Cover Letter, please respond to this prompt in 1-2 typed pages and share with RTStaffing@teachforamerica.org:

Our most successful Directors of Early Engagement Program Recruitment (DPRs) have demonstrated strong achievement in their professional experience prior to taking on the DPR position. Please describe the most ambitious goal you have ever set and achieved, and what actions you took to attain it. How did you engage others, if at all, to reach this goal? What challenges, if any, did you encounter while working towards your goal?

Your response should include all of the following:

• A professional experience supporting/leading a small group, large group, or complex project

• Explicitly state the goal you were working towards

• The action steps you took to achieve this goal

• How you involved diverse perspectives and/or invested partners (e.g. colleagues, administration, parents, etc.) to help you to achieve this goal

• Quantitative results that demonstrate your impact AND

• Qualitative results that demonstrate your impact

We have provided some “sentence starters” below to help guide your thinking. You can choose to leverage these sentences as you write your reflections, or you can write something entirely different! Both methods are encouraged: we want to get the most accurate information about your record of results as possible.

• At the beginning of the year, I set a classroom goal of X

• I set this/these goal(s) because of <X, Y, Z reasons>

• We achieved <Y results>. I know this because of <X, Y, and Z>.

• In addition to quantitative targets, I set a qualitative goal(s) of X