Program Manager

Organization: Citizen University • citizenuniversity.us
Salary: $57,000 – $66,000 + benefits
Start Date: Summer/Early Fall 2021

Location: Our team is based in Seattle; we are open to candidates who are not based in Seattle who would operate remotely. Estimated travel 15-20%.

Application Priority Deadline: June 14, 2021 (position open until filled)

About Us

Citizen University (CU) is working to build a culture of powerful, responsible citizenship across the country. We believe that a strong democracy relies on strong citizens—that we all have the power to make change happen in civic life and the responsibility to try.

Citizen University works to support this culture shift by designing programs, gatherings, rituals, and workshops that focus on civic power and civic character as the building blocks of powerful citizenship. We train and activate civic catalysts nationwide to spread the ideas and practices of powerful, responsible citizenship within their own communities.

Our Vision

We envision a great civic revival across our nation. Our dream is a country in which Americans are steeped in a sense of civic character, educated in the tools of civic power, and are problem-solving contributors in a self-governing community.

We are working to realize the country we know is possible: a mass, multiracial democratic republic that works. A society with healthy, responsive institutions where every person feels represented and knows how to contribute. A society where we share responsibility for strengthening community and country by reckoning with our past and recommitting to each other.

We believe that the American creed promises everyone freedom, equality, and justice, whether one’s family has lived on this land since time immemorial or has just arrived. We envision an America in which that promise is truly realized for everyone, because America is not America until “we the people” means all the people.

Our Team

Our team approaches this work with spirit, joy, and a deep responsibility to each other, our work, and the civic health of our nation. As an organization striving to strengthen our democracy and civic health across America, we recognize that living up to the values of liberty and justice for all starts with each of us.

Our team has made a series of commitments toward ensuring equity, justice, and belonging are baked into our work, and we know we have much to do to fully live out these commitments. We also know that deepening trust, relationships, and affection are the backbone to a healthy team culture. And that takes time, dedication, and willingness to have hard conversations. So we’re digging in, and we hope you’ll join us. You’ll be a crucial part of the CU fabric, joining together through happiness and hardship, challenge and success. Plus, we genuinely enjoy spending time with each other—joy is a crucial ingredient to our work! Together, we’re creating an environment of care, respect, and responsibility.

About This Role

We are seeking a spirited and creative program teammate who is passionate about strengthening civic health and building civic power across the nation. As Program Manager, you will be responsible for the management and implementation of several unique programs and experiences—in particular our National and Local Civic Collaboratories—which are focused on building a spirit of collaboration and commitment with a variety of organizations and individuals around the country.

In addition to being a skilled and detail-oriented program manager, we are looking to welcome to our team a person who believes deeply in our mission of building a culture of powerful, responsible citizenship, is excited to be an advocate for these ideas, and feels energized to work with a diverse group of people spanning locations, backgrounds, and ideologies.

Our programs have been steadily growing on a national level for several years—we’re ready to welcome the right individual with program management experience and a passion for democracy to join our team and help us take our work and impact to the next level.

Core Responsibilities

In this role, you will be responsible for the development, management, and execution of a slate of creative programs, with initial responsibility for expansion of our Civic Collaboratory programs:

National Civic Collaboratory: The Program Manager will work with our Program Associate to manage this long-running CU convening. The National Civic Collaboratory is a mutual aid society and project incubator for civic practitioners and catalysts from around the country and across the political spectrum. This group meets three times a year to test new ideas, share emerging projects, and form habits of collaboration as they support one another in their work.

Local Civic Collaboratories: Building on our National Civic Collaboratory model, our Local Civic Collaboratory program serves to train and support organizations from around the nation. We help them develop their own local Civic Collaboratory initiatives, adapted to meet the needs of their communities. These groups include Community Foundations, civic networks, and other organizations looking for new ways to inspire collaboration and build bonds of trust and affection. The Program Manager will take the lead on developing and managing this growing line of work for Citizen University.

The Program Manager will…

• Develop a comprehensive training and support plan for Local Civic Collaboratories based on our long-established model
• Manage contracts and deliverables for all Local Civic Collaboratory partners
• Be the primary point of contact for Local Civic Collaboratory partners and oversee training, support, and execution for each project
• Support the development of of meaningful, mission-aligned, community-centered Collaboratory agendas and programming
• Serve as our team’s Local Civic Collaboratory project manager, facilitating and tracking work and deliverables needed from other CU staff members for each project
• Coordinate with communications staff on ensuring program messaging and information is polished and up-to-date on all channels, and coordinating program communications and marketing
• Serve as program manager for our National Civic Collaboratory, working in tandem with our Program Associate to steward three annual gatherings, with a focus on agenda/content development and capturing impact
• Manage additional special projects, such as a CU Homecoming (a gathering and conference of program participants from around the country)

A successful candidate will…

• Feel committed to our ideas and resonate with our core principles and frameworks about powerful, responsible citizenship. It is the basis of all of our programs, of everything we do—our mission and ideas should get you amped up.
• Be delighted by our vibe and spirit—our work is joyful and earnest. We’re talking about “fostering bonds of trust and affection” after all!
• Be a committed learner—you’re a person who appreciates going deep on ideas and enjoys reflecting on how to bring them to life through innovative programming.
• Be a people-person through and through. You genuinely love helping others and being a supporter and cheerleader.
• Embody the values of equity, justice, and belonging both personally and professionally.
• Be an initiative taker—you see things that need to be fixed, and you fix them. You have new ideas to try out and create a plan to make them happen. You come up with ways to make your projects better without needing to be told, and you anticipate the needs of your teammates.

  Qualifications

• Minimum of 3-4 years of program management or program development experience
• Experience designing new programs or upgrading existing programs—and enjoy thinking about how to improve processes and add creative and meaningful flair
• Experience in training, facilitating, or teaching within a program environment
• Experience developing and creating a wide array of program materials, both internal plans and procedures—as well as external-facing documents
• Strong writer and copy editor with an eye for detail, voice, and tone
• Ability to cultivate relationships and work effectively and respectfully with politically, ideologically, culturally, and geographically diverse people and communities

  Compensation

  $57,000 – $66,000 + benefits
  In addition to annual salary, our benefits package includes:

• Health insurance coverage, including dental and vision
• A work computer
• ORCA pass (if based in Seattle region)
• 15 days personal vacation annually, plus the week between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Day, plus 10 additional paid holidays

• A cell phone stipend to compensate for usage
• Professional development stipend