Senior Director, Alabama

Job Title: Senior Director, Alabama 

Team: Regional, Alabama

Location: Hybrid in either Montgomery or Birmingham, AL

Employment Type: Full-time

FLSA Classification: Exempt

Start Date: March 2027 

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 Impact Report.

About the Role

To achieve its ambition of serving 80,000-100,000 Fellows over the next decade, Braven is hiring a Senior Director, Alabama, who will be responsible for the programmatic success of Braven at our Higher Education Partner (HEP) in Alabama. They are responsible for ensuring that the students who complete Braven’s course, the Accelerator at the HEP, are empowered with the skills, confidence, networks, and experiences to secure a strong first job or enroll in graduate school within 6 months of graduation. They maintain a positive and strong presence at the HEP and in the community. 

The Senior Director will lead a team of 2-3 full-time employees and a team of part-time interns. The Senior Director will also be responsible for collaborating with our volunteer recruitment team and selecting volunteers. Together, you and the Executive Director (ED) will build and maintain a positive and strong presence with our HEP in the community.

This role is on the Regional Alabama team and reports directly to the Executive Director (ED) of the Alabama Region.

What You’ll Do 

Deliver Program Outcomes (40%) 

• Shape a shared vision for the site in partnership with the ED in Alabama 
• Own overall program implementation and performance at Higher Education Partner across recruitment, the course experience, and post-course supports, ensuring the program meets established goals and outcomes. 
• Lead the program elements, including local programming and jobs campaign data collection, and partner with Braven’s Product and Central Accelerator teams on centrally owned elements, supports, and interventions needed to achieve program outcomes.
• For program elements delivered by other central teams, represent the HEP and student perspective by monitoring fit and satisfaction, surfacing needs and gaps, and providing actionable feedback to strengthen delivery and outcomes.

Effectively Manage Stakeholders (40%)

• Develop and steward strong and formalized partnerships with the HEP’s leadership and faculty, employers, and community-based organizations that result in additional resources for our students and improvements to our program model.

• Cultivate and manage relationships with key HEP stakeholders that foster collaboration and result in a healthy partnership.
• Act as the “mayor” and “campaign manager” of Braven’s relationships with the HEP, deeply understanding the ecosystem, owning local relationships (faculty, professor of record, etc.), and running local campaigns on campus.

Team Leadership and Management (20%)

• Manage and develop a high-performing team of full-time employees, fostering an inclusive and supportive culture and modeling Braven’s core values and competencies
• Invest in team members’ growth through regular coaching and feedback, clear development plans, performance reviews, and structures that support ongoing learning and development
• Recruit, hire, and onboard strong talent as needed to meet team priorities
• Contribute to organization-wide strategy and decision-making, bringing insights from HEP and Fellows and recommending changes that strengthen program impact and sustainability
• Lead effective team planning, including the design and facilitation of team stepbacks and retreats.

Other duties as assigned

Minimum Requirements 

• BS/BA
• At least 7 years of leadership experience with a verifiable track record of successful outcomes.

Preferred Qualifications 

• Prior work experience in higher education, 7-10 years in the non-profit field
• Technical Skills and Knowledge: Proficiency in Google Suite, Slack, and Jira 
• Experience in an early-stage environment launching an initiative, program, or team
• Success in managing and developing people and teams while creating and fostering a strong sense of culture
• Exceptional communication and relationship-building skills, and the ability to facilitate strong partnerships across a range of stakeholders
• High degree of flexibility and adaptability, ability to excel in a fast-paced, team-oriented environment, and comfort with ambiguity
• Proven ability to create, operationalize, and manage project plans, meeting milestones and deadlines
• Data-driven mindset with a focus on using data and metrics to drive decisions and measure performance
• Demonstrated commitment to building strong and welcoming cultures that help to develop others.
• Exemplification of Braven’s core values
• Experience that has informed your belief in Braven’s mission and has prepared you to work with, or for, Braven’s 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

• Access to internet
• Ability to work in person in the Montgomery or Birmingham area 3 days per week 
• Travel between hub office and HEP and reliable transportation or valid transportation; ability to travel to HEP campus (1-2x/per week at minimum)
• Role is remote until we secure office space in the area and will be in person 3 days a week after
• Ability to travel (3-4 times per year) to other Braven regions for team meetings and/or stepbacks
• Ability to work non-traditional evening hours (1-2x/per week) and to attend cultivation events in the region
• Travel once/year to Braven’s All Team Retreat 

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

Total Rewards

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

• Discretionary time off in addition to org-wide holidays and 2 week-long shutdowns in July and December. There is an additional week-long shutdown for Regional Staff in the Spring. (This is a minimum of 24 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
• Monthly $75 reimbursement for cell phone or internet
• Access to funding for continued career development 

Compensation

Braven offers opportunities for salary growth over time. We believe in compensating staff members fairly relative to one another, their qualifications, and their impact on the organization, and we take internal and external equity seriously. Given our commitment to equity, Braven does not negotiate salary offers; instead, each offer is carefully determined using external and internal benchmarks.

The hiring range is determined by role scope, qualifications, and internal equity, with annual growth based on performance. Braven does not base compensation on individual candidate salary expectations and is committed to maintaining internal equity. The hiring ranges for this role by geographic market are set forth as $116,000-$124,700 in Alabama. 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.  

Please note that Braven is firm in its compensation philosophy; therefore, only candidates who believe our total rewards package aligns with what they are looking for in their next opportunity are encouraged to apply.

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 Montgomery or Birmingham, AL.  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.