About Opportunity@Work
Opportunity@Work is a nonprofit social enterprise with a mission to expand access to career opportunities so that all Americans can work, learn and earn to their full potential in a dynamic economy. Our work aims to leverage and build the collective capacities of employers, educators, tech innovators, social entrepreneurs, and civic institutions to unlock opportunity for over one million Americans in the next decade.
There are millions of individuals who are Skilled Through Alternative Routes (STARs), who gained in-demand skills on-the-job, in the armed forces, in last-mile or workforce training programs, in community colleges, even in community service. No one knows how many, because STARs are invisible today in critical ways. STARs are invisible in the official labor statistics, which use "educational degree attainment' as a proxy for valuable skills. STARs are invisible to applicant tracking systems and other HR/talent management workflow software, and are, therefore "screened out" because they lack pedigree, when they should be "screened in" based on their skills. Finally, STARs are mostly invisible in our culture, which assumes that people working in low wage jobs must have low skills (when so many have skills but no way to demonstrate them credibly in the employment workflow for more skilled jobs).
Opportunity@Work aims to build alliances with people, communities, and organizations interested in providing access to jobs for STARs. Opportunity@Work believes that a data-driven narrative is foundational to driving solutions for STARs, enabled by companies, training programs, workforce development efforts and a multitude of other parties. We aim to reverse the wage decline experienced by STARs with a strategic movement that generates significant focus and investment across the public, social and private sectors.
About the Role
The Strategic Projects Manager plays a pivotal role in advancing the organization’s mission. This person will be responsible for conducting key research, managing special projects, and will support the CEO on day-to-day operations.
The Strategic Projects Manager (SPM) will report directly to Opportunity@Work’s Co-Founder and CEO. The individual in this role will have exposure to all aspects of Opportunity@Work’s multi-faceted strategy and partnerships, will frequently operate on a steep learning curve, and will be expected to manage a blend of facilitation, preparation, analysis, clear written, oral, and interactive communication, and direct leadership of strategic projects. It will require comfort in engaging empathetically and effectively with a range of institutional leaders from widely varied backgrounds.
This role through observation, participation, and practice will become adept at blending mission-oriented goals with a pragmatic assessment of incentives, constraints, and possibilities of Opportunity@Work’s partner institutions to design and deploy creative combinations of diverse assets and authorities to rewire the U.S. job market for equity.
Key Responsibilities
- Provide day-to-day support to Opportunity@Work’s CEO on various research, business modeling, and strategic planning projects and assignments.
- Conduct qualitative and quantitative research, analysis, and synthesis to inform insights and communications, including partnership proposals, speeches, and original articles.
- Help the CEO prepare effectively for critical meetings with senior executives and other stakeholders in business, technology, government, philanthropy, and social enterprise - often participating in these meetings and leading or supporting follow-up and execution.
- Help to set and triage weekly/monthly/quarterly priorities for the CEO; support effective internal delegation and external partner engagement to achieve timely completion of top priority goals, and re-prioritization given lessons learned.
- Support CEO in regular processes such as Opportunity@Work board meeting preparation, key stakeholder communication, Executive Team agendas.
- Periodically, scope, evaluate, launch, and lead emerging projects to advance the strategic priorities of Opportunity@Work, most typically in collaboration with partners.
- Maintain a strategic overview/map of Opportunity@Work partners as well as the entire ecosystem, institutional, authorities, resourcing, rules-of-the-game, and gaps in the field of workforce opportunity. Maintain awareness of strategic priorities across the team.
- Manage bespoke inbound requests for potential partnerships; conduct rapid 80/20 research to assess vis-a-vis goals, recommend a course of action, and (as appropriate) handoff to relevant colleagues or lead in scoping next steps.
- Ability to travel 15% of the time
Required Skills & Experience:
- At least three years of full-time work experience.
- Experience prioritizing, scoping, and managing projects in fast-paced and ambiguous environments, where data matters but is typically incomplete.
- Experience conducting analysis through qualitative and quantitative research.
- Demonstrated interest in education/learning, workforce development, augmentation and development of human capacity, and/or institutional design for shared prosperity.
- Strong organizational and project management skills.
- Strong skills in research, analysis and synthesis
- Excellent written and verbal communication
- Ability to structure own work with excellent time management and minimal supervision. judgment to notice logical flaws and/or contradictory evidence, the courage to speak up about them, creativity and collaboration to generate and evaluate alternatives.
- Ability to work with multiple external partners, c-level executives, and stakeholders; proactively support management and maintenance of relationships.
Compensation and Benefits
Opportunity@Work offers a competitive salary and a comprehensive benefits package. Some of our benefits include medical/dental/vision, life insurance, both short and long-term disability, flex savings accounts, pre- and post-tax retirement accounts with company match, commuter benefits, professional development funding, flexibility to work remotely when necessary, paid parental leave and generous paid time off.
Proof of eligibility to work in the United States is required.
Accommodations
Accommodations are available for applicants with disabilities in all phases of the application and employment process.
Equal Opportunity
Opportunity@Work is an equal opportunity employer committed to hiring a diverse workforce at all levels of the organization. We value and encourage the contributions of our employees and strive to create an environment where everyone can be fully themselves, reach their full potential and drive outstanding mission outcomes.
All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, national origin, age, sex, religion, disability, sexual orientation, marital status, veteran status, gender identity or expression, or any other basis protected by local, state, or federal law. This policy applies with regard to all aspects of one’s employment, including hiring, transfer, promotion, compensation, eligibility for benefits and termination.