Director, Learning & Culture

Job Title: Director, Learning & Culture

Team: People & Operations

Location: In-Person in Chicago (IL)

Employment Type: Full-time

FLSA Classification: Exempt

Start Date: ASAP

About Braven

Braven is a national nonprofit that prepares promising college students to secure a strong first opportunity after college graduation through a career-accelerating program.

We work with higher education and employer partners to offer a life-changing experience that begins with a semester-long course for college students, followed by support that lasts through graduation.  

Together, our ambition is to help rebuild the middle class and revitalize the American Dream.

To learn more, take a look at Braven’s Jobs Report.

About The Role

As Braven scales toward serving 80,000–100,000 Fellows, we must intentionally strengthen how staff experience the organization and ensure our values are consistently enacted. The Director of Learning & Culture sets Braven’s culture and engagement strategy and ensures that our values, systems, and collective experiences reinforce trust, clarity, and accountability.

Where the Director, Learning & Development focuses on what staff needs to know and be able to do, the Director, Learning & Culture focuses on how staff experiences the workplace — including communication, recognition, values alignment, collective learning, and organizational change.

This role partners closely with the Head of People, the Director, Learning & Development, and People & Operations (P&O) leaders to steward Braven’s Culture Action Plan and translate engagement, retention, and culture data into measurable progress.

This role is on the People & Operations team and reports directly to the Head of People. 

What You’ll Do

Culture & Engagement Strategy (40%)

• Own Braven’s Culture Amp survey strategy, administration, analysis, and reporting.
• Lead execution of Braven’s annual Culture Action Plan in partnership with the Head of People and P&O leaders, aligning the organization around clear priorities and measurable outcomes.
• Establish sequencing, ownership, and success metrics for culture initiatives.
• Codify and strengthen a values-based culture by embedding Braven’s core values in systems, policies, rituals, and leadership norms.
• Partner with the Director of Learning & Development to design and reinforce Values-Based Leadership initiatives that move values from espoused to enacted.
• Define and codify expectations for managers as “culture carriers.”
• Partner with the Director of Learning & Development to integrate culture carrier expectations into manager capability-building and performance management systems.
• Partner with People leads and the Head of People to build programming and analytics around Braven’s core value–aligned competencies, ensuring performance management reflects the culture and staff experience we aim to create.
• Analyze engagement and culture data across teams and experiences to identify trends and drive measurable improvement.
• Increase transparency and clarity around organization-wide priorities in alignment with cultural goals.

Staff Engagement & Collective Experience (35%)

• Own vision, strategy, and execution for Braven’s annual Staff Retreat, ensuring alignment to culture priorities and organizational goals.
• Partner with the Head of People to design and execute People & Culture team retreats and stepbacks, broader P&O retreat and stepback planning, and organization-wide collective learning and stepback experiences.
• Partner on onboarding strategy to ensure strong cultural integration and early engagement for new staff.
• Steward offboarding insights by analyzing exit data and identifying trends that inform culture improvements.
• Develop and lead a retention and attrition strategy, including ongoing data collection, root cause analysis, and organization-wide or team-specific action planning.
• Design engagement and recognition systems that reinforce desired behaviors and values.
• Set strategy and provide guidance for cultural celebrations and heritage moments across offices and regional teams, ensuring alignment with Braven’s core values and creating a cohesive, inclusive staff experience 
• Establish structured mechanisms for ongoing staff listening and feedback.
• Measure the effectiveness of collective experiences, cultural programming, and retention efforts against defined culture objectives and refine accordingly.

Change Management & Organizational Effectiveness (25%)

• Serve as a strategic thought partner on Braven’s Change Management Framework, ensuring major decisions and initiatives are implemented with strong attention to staff experience and cultural impact.
• Partner with the Associate Director, Knowledge Management, Director, Learning & Development, and a cross-functional subcommittee to steward change efforts.
• Use Culture Amp results, engagement metrics, Glassdoor trends, and qualitative feedback to pressure-test the effectiveness of change.
• Advise executive and senior leaders on how change efforts may impact trust, clarity, and manager capacity.
• Elevate sequencing, prioritization, and capacity considerations to support sustainable execution.
• Partner with Communications to ensure transparency and alignment during periods of change.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree 
• 5 years of relevant experience.  
• Experience leading and developing a team, including setting priorities and driving measurable outcomes around staff experience and engagement. 
• Demonstrated experience partnering with senior leaders and executive teams to steward organizational effectiveness and staff engagement efforts.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience leading organization-wide engagement survey strategy and translating findings into measurable culture improvements.
• Demonstrated success in influencing across functions and managing complex, cross-functional initiatives.
• Experience in nonprofit, education, or mission-driven environments.
• Experience contributing to change management framework implementation.
• Strong data analysis skills related to engagement, retention, and culture metrics.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills.
• Proficiency in Google Suite, Slack, Jira, and engagement platforms.
• Deep commitment to fostering a strong, values-aligned organizational culture.
• You exemplify Braven’s core values.
• Your experiences have informed your belief in Braven’s mission and prepared you to contribute meaningfully to our student Fellow population.

Please know that no one ever meets 100% of the preferred qualifications. If much of this describes you, we encourage you to apply.

Work Demands

• Ability to work in-person in Chicago (IL) at least 3 days per week
• Ability to travel 2–3 times per year for retreats or team gatherings.

Additional Requirements

• Authorized to work in the U.S.
• Braven doesn’t offer employment visa sponsorship

Application & Interview Process

While the interview process may vary slightly, the general process will be:

• Phone screen with Talent Team member
• Performance Task
• Interview with Hiring Manager
• Panel Interview with Key Partners
• Reference Checks

Compensation and Benefits

Braven offers competitive base salaries based on the midpoint of the market among not-for-profit organizations of similar size, with opportunities for salary growth over time. We believe in compensating staff members fairly in relation to each other, their qualifications, and their impact on behalf of the organization, and take internal and external equity seriously. Given our commitment to equity, Braven does not negotiate salary offers; instead, each salary offer is determined carefully using external and internal benchmarking.

Starting salary within the range is determined by role scope and qualifications, with new hires starting at the lower end to allow for growth with performance. Braven does not base compensation on individual candidate salary expectations and is committed to maintaining internal equity. The salary ranges, by geographic market, for this role are set forth $92,000-$114,900. This is based on a 50-hour work week. This is a full-time, regular, exempt, and benefits eligible position where you will be working at 100% capacity.  

Braven also provides competitive, comprehensive benefits, recognition, and career development. While Braven reserves the right to change benefits at any time, current benefits include: 

• Unlimited vacation time in addition to org-wide holidays and week-long shutdowns in July and the end of the calendar year (this is a minimum of 19 days per year)
• Braven supports your path to parenthood and beyond with $25,000 in lifetime Carrot benefits for fertility, family-building, and hormonal health

• Match of your 401K contribution up to 5% of your base annual salary, starting your first full month
• Coverage of 85% of health insurance premium for employee and dependents
• 12 weeks of paid parental leave
• A one-month paid sabbatical after 4 years on staff

Location

We gather in the office 3 days a week (Tuesday through Thursday) and work remotely 2 days a week (Monday and Friday). Therefore, this role requires teammates to live within commuting distance of the Chicago office. We believe in the magic, connection, and collaboration that happens when people work together face-to-face, and we believe in giving people flexibility to focus, balance personal priorities, and save themselves two commutes per week.

Braven is an equal opportunity employer and considers qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, creed, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, age, disability, veteran status, or any other protected factor.  We encourage talented individuals of all backgrounds to apply.