Job Description

Deploy your strong management skills, exemplary insight generation, and deep relationship building tool kit to strengthen the impact of education organizations that are working with communities to eliminate gaps for students furthest from opportunity. 

Bellwether is looking for an Associate Partner to join our team. The ideal candidate for this position will bring a sophisticated understanding of relevant issues in education and proven success as a people manager, and will possess an entrepreneurial spirit — all of which will help shape project work to build compelling, actionable strategic plans that accelerate equity and excellence in the U.S. education system. Our work is national in scope, so our flexible working style allows our professionals to work where they have built their lives, which means Bellwether is able to hire the best person for each role, regardless of geography. Post-COVID-19 restrictions, approximately 25% travel may be required.

About Bellwether Education Partners 

We are a national nonprofit focused on dramatically changing education and life outcomes. We are committed to improving education and advancing equity for Black, Hispanic, low-income, and other students who have been historically denied opportunity. We do this by helping education and youth-serving organizations accelerate their impact and by working to improve policy and practice.

Our Strategic Advising team is deeply experienced in supporting education organizations — districts, states, charters, nonprofits, and foundations — to develop ambitious and achievable plans to increase their impact on underserved students. We develop highly actionable plans, engaging relevant stakeholders and communities, that leadership teams own and run with.

Responsibilities 

Associate Partners (APs) work as members of small project teams and take strong leadership roles in both external and internal capacities. Externally, APs play an important project manager role with clients and on client engagements by identifying issues, forming hypotheses, designing and conducting analyses, synthesizing conclusions into recommendations, developing work plans, and ultimately helping to implement change with our clients. Throughout an engagement, an AP is directly involved in discussions and presentations with senior client leadership. Typically, APs manage two projects at a time.

Internally, APs serve as project managers and in that capacity manage the work of and coach and develop consultants, fellows, and subcontractors. APs collaborate with and are accountable to Partners and Senior Associate Partners within Bellwether who, in turn, guide their work and invest in their professional development. This particular opportunity is in the Strategic Advising practice within Bellwether. While the AP will have the opportunity to work across the Bellwether practice areas to broaden their skills and perspectives, the majority of time will be allocated to supporting Strategic Advising. This role will report to a senior leader on the Strategic Advising team.

In this position, you should expect to:

• Take on team and client leadership responsibilities, as described above.
• Partner with clients to develop high-impact strategies, and implementation plans in response to real-world, time-sensitive challenges brought forward by the client.
• Develop team work-plans and guide teams to implement with a high degree of independence, adapting work-plans as appropriate when new information arises.
• Oversee, manage, and support development of consultants and other team members who perform research and analytical functions.
• Identify key data sources, gather data, and perform quantitative and qualitative analysis (i.e., interviews, desk research, data analysis, and/or financial modeling) on core strategic issues for clients; synthesize insights and communicate those insights as appropriate for the purpose and audience.
• Facilitate and promote honest dialogue, in one-on-one and larger group settings, that includes multiple perspectives.
• Ensure diverse perspectives from constituent groups, internally and externally, are sought and reflected in decision making and planning.
• Write and deliver high-impact reports, presentations, and plans tailored to the purpose and audience.
• Contribute to Bellwether’s knowledge capture and dissemination.
• Take on internal roles to build out Bellwether’s key capabilities.
• Generate creative, action-oriented insights and recommendations for both internal and external improvements.

Qualifications 

Excited? We are too. You should apply if you have:

• A passion for and commitment to improving schools serving high-need students and familiarity with the challenges and disparities facing underserved students and education reform efforts in the United States.
• An understanding of and commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
• A commitment to our work to address policies and practices that lead to inequitable outcomes for marginalized young people.
• A track record as a people manager and developer.
• At least seven years’ professional experience in a role requiring project management, research, and analytical problem solving.
• A well-rounded interpersonal skill set with the capacity to build strong senior client relationships, work effectively in a team environment, coach consultants, and facilitate joint problem solving with clients and team.
• A high degree of reflection and self-awareness, and an ability to build trusted relationships across lines of difference and positional power, and to seek out and respond to perspectives different from your own.
• Excellent quantitative analytical skills (including a high degree of comfort with managing financial modeling and data analysis), and creativity in problem solving.
• Strong communication skills, both verbal and written, and facility in navigating challenging conversations.
• A highly self-motivated work style and willingness to proactively take on leadership roles within project teams and the organization.
• A learning mindset and the ability to seek out and synthesize new information.
• The ability to balance two or more client-facing projects.
• The ability to travel approximately 25% (post-COVID-19 restrictions).

How to Apply

Job Types: Full-Time.

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