Strategic Partnerships Manager (Contractor)

Do you believe that where someone starts in life shouldn't determine how far they can go? Do you believe AI can be a force for good, and that the social sector has a real opportunity to shift who holds power over it, so these tools can effectively serve people on the margins? Do you think the people whose jobs AI is already reshaping deserve a real say in how it's governed? Are you a systems thinker who would rather change the conditions than patch the symptoms? Are you energized by bringing a cross-sector community together to make that real? If this is checking off boxes for you, please keep reading.

About CareerVillage:

CareerVillage is a global tech nonprofit with a mission to democratize access to career information and advice for underrepresented youth. We do this through Coach, our AI-powered career coaching platform, and through our open-access Q&A platform where anyone can ask any question about any career. Our work has reached more than 11 million learners since 2011. We also founded and convened the AI for Career Development Coalition (AICD), a growing cross-sector coalition of practitioners, institutions, employers, funders, and technology builders working toward responsible AI in career navigation.

About the role:

CareerVillage is looking for a Strategic Partnerships Manager to help build, grow, and sustain AICD, the coalition setting the standard for responsible AI in career navigation. AI could transform how people find and navigate work, opening economic mobility to people who have never had access to good career guidance. It could also do the opposite, hardening the gaps that already exist and leaving the biggest decisions in the hands of a powerful few. What the field is missing is a shared sense of what good looks like, and a way to govern these tools that includes the practitioners closest to learners and the people meant to benefit from them.

Luckily, that work has already begun. >200 diverse institutions have joined AICD, dedicated to setting shared standards and coordinating the field. Growing it well now means becoming more sophisticated in how we operate: stronger systems, deeper partnerships, and a dedicated owner for the coalition's day-to-day.

You'll be the person who keeps AICD organized and its members engaged while building the relationships that help the coalition grow. This is an independent contributor role with real leadership opportunities and a strategic-partnerships mandate. The AICD lead remains the coalition's lead and public face; you build their capacity, make the coalition run, and help it grow. You'll report to the Director of Development, who is the lead AICD facilitator, and work in a highly cross-functional capacity, collaborating regularly with our marketing and partnerships teams.

This is a full-time contractor role (~40 hours/week) with a strong possibility of conversion to a full-time employee position within the first 6-12 months and path to a more senior position in the organization, depending on organizational capacity and fit.

What you'll do:

• Handle AICD's day-to-day operations and administration: manage member onboarding , own calendaring and convening coordination, and serve as the first line of response for member questions
• Build and maintain the systems that keep members connected and collaborative over time, such as a shared knowledge hub, and vet other tools worth adopting
• Nurture the community by planning and executing events, developing member resources, engaging our online member community and the other spaces where members show up
• Interface with members directly to stay close to what they actually need, and be an extra ear to the ground
• Project-manage AICD's grant-funded deliverables and help execute against committed timelines, coordinate members and research partners to keep the coalition's benchmarking work on track, and help push in-progress field resources and artifacts to completion
• Support the AICD lead: build slide decks, take notes, act as a thought partner, handle convening and meeting logistics so they can focus on facilitation, and draft member communications for them to send
• Identify and cultivate relationships with prospective strategic members, and support our broader field-building strategy
• Collaborate with our marketing team on member communications, including a newsletter and website, and stay current on developments in the ecosystem relevant to AICD's work

Who we're looking for:

Required:

• 3+ years of experience in partnerships and/or community building, ideally in workforce or career development
• Experience operating in small or scrappy organizations. You know how to make things happen without specialized teams around you, and you're energized by building processes as the work grows rather than operating within ones already established
• A systems thinker, comfortable moving between granular admin and higher-altitude strategy, and okay with the admin work even when it's the less exciting part of the week
• A track record of running complex, multi-stakeholder coordination to completion, and of managing relationships with senior or powerful stakeholders while holding clear boundaries
• A temperament for substance over hype. You believe in being additive, not noisy, and you listen closely before making assumptions
• Open to learning on the job and forming your point of view through the work, rather than arriving with fixed answers about what the field needs
• Interested in our mission and excited to help democratize career access for the learners who need it most

Preferred:

• Edtech and/or AI experience
• Experience building, growing, or sustaining a community, coalition, or membership program
• Project management experience coordinating cross-organizational initiatives
• Familiarity with cross-sector or coalition environments where members span practitioners, institutions, employers, funders, and technology builders
• Interest in learning and using new tools and technologies to keep a community organized and connected

Compensation: $62–$75 per hour, with full-time employee conversion as a possibility, dependent on organizational capacity and demonstrated fit.

Location: CareerVillage has team members around the world, with an HQ in Palo Alto, CA. We are flexible on location within the United States, but must be able to work 9A-5P in Eastern (ET), Central (CT), or Pacific (PT) time zones 

Job Type: Full-time contractor (~40 hours/week)

Work authorization: Applicants must be currently authorized to work in the United States. CareerVillage is not sponsoring visas or work authorization at this time.

To apply: Please apply through our Greenhouse job posting. Applications require a resume, LinkedIn profile URL, cover letter, and responses to two short prompts (see below). Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. If you have any questions, please email us at hiring@careervillage.org with "Strategic Partnerships Manager" in the subject line.

A note on AI: While we welcome AI as a tool, nothing beats a response that is personal and authentic.

CareerVillage is an equal opportunity organization that celebrates diversity (for more information about our approach, check out our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Guidelines). Diversity includes race, gender identity, age, national origin, disability status, size, religion, sexual orientation, parental status, socioeconomic background, and many other parts of an individual’s identity. We are a fair choice employer: qualified applicants with a history of arrest or conviction are welcome to apply and will be considered for this role. Each team member’s perspective is integral to our success, and fostering an inclusive environment is everyone’s responsibility. At this time, we can only consider applicants with authorization to work in the United States on a permanent, full-time basis; unfortunately, we cannot provide visa sponsorship.